Job 18:6

The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:5-10 Bildad describes the miserable condition of a wicked man; in which there is much certain truth, if we consider that a sinful condition is a sad condition, and that sin will be men's ruin, if they do not repent. Though Bildad thought the application of it to Job was easy, yet it was not safe nor just. It is common for angry disputants to rank their opponents among God's enemies, and to draw wrong conclusions from important truths. The destruction of the wicked is foretold. That destruction is represented under the similitude of a beast or bird caught in a snare, or a malefactor taken into custody. Satan, as he was a murderer, so he was a robber, from the beginning. He, the tempter, lays snares for sinners wherever they go. If he makes them sinful like himself, he will make them miserable like himself. Satan hunts for the precious life. In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare for himself, and God is preparing for his destruction. See here how the sinner runs himself into the snare.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And his candle - Margin, lamp. The reference is to a lamp that was suspended from the ceiling. The Arabians are fond of this image. Thus, they say, "Bad fortune has extinguished my lamp." Of a man whose hopes are remarkably blasted, they say, "He is like a lamp which is immediately extinguished if you let it sink in the oil." See Schultens. The putting out of a lamp is to the Orientals an image of utter desolation. It is the universal custom to have a light burning in their houses at night. "The houses of Egypt, in modern times, are never without lights; they burn lamps all the night long, and in every occupied apartment. So requisite to the comfort of a family is this custom reckoned, and so imperious is the power which it exercises, that the poorest people. would rather retrench part of their food than neglect it." Paxton. It is not improbable that this custom prevailed in former times in Arabia, as it does now in Egypt; and this consideration will give increased beauty and force to this passage.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. candle—the lamp which in the East is usually fastened to the ceiling. Oil abounds in those regions, and the lamp was kept burning all night, as now in Egypt, where the poorest would rather dispense with food than the night lamp (Ps 18:28). To put out the lamp was an image of utter desolation.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In his tabernacle. i.e. in his family. Instead of his former splendour, both he and his shall fall into extremity of misery.

His candle shall be put out with him, i.e. his glory shall die with him, and not descend to his posterity, as he hoped and designed. Or,

his candle, which was with him, or shone upon him, shall be put out.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The light shall the dark in his tabernacle,.... Not the light of the eye, in the tabernacle of his body, rather the light of nature and reason in him; and when that "light that is in a man becomes darkness", as our Lord says, "how great is that darkness!" Matthew 6:23; but best of all it designs the light of prosperity in his house and family, which should be quite obscured:

and his candle shall be put out with him; which sometimes signifies the spirit of man, his rational soul, called "the candle of the Lord", Proverbs 20:27; which, though it dies not when man dies, yet its light is extinct with respect to the things of this life, and all its thoughts and reasonings are no more about civil matters, and the affairs of this world; in that sense this light is put out, and those thoughts perish with him, Psalm 146:4; but more frequently it is used for outward prosperity, which if it continues with a man as long as he lives, as it often does, yet, when he dies, it ceases and is no more; it does not descend with him into the grave, and he cannot carry it into another world, but it is put out in "obscure darkness"; see Job 21:17.

Geneva Study Bible

The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. his candle shall be put out with him] The meaning is either: his lamp shall be put out over him, the idea being that it was hung in his dwelling above him or shone upon him, cf. ch. Job 29:3, “when God’s lamp shined upon my head”; or, his lamp shall be put out to him, the prep. being the same reflexive, untranslateable word referred to on ch. Job 14:22.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - The light shall be dark in his tabernacle. This is not, as Rosenmuller asserts, a mere repetition of the thought contained in the preceding verse with a change of terms, and a variation of metaphor. It is a denunciation of woe to the whole house of the ungodly man, not to himself only. As Schultens says, "Lumen ob-tenebratum in tentorio est fortuna domus extincta." And his candle shall be put out with him; rather, as in the Revised Version, his!amp above him shall be put out; i.e. the lamp which swings above him in his tent, or in his chamber, shall be extinguished. Darkness shall fall upon the whole house of the wicked man. Job 18:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

גּם is here equivalent to nevertheless, or prop. even, ὅμως, as e.g., Psalm 129:2 (Ew. 354, a). The light of the evil-doer goes out, and the comfortable brightness and warmth which the blaze (שׁביב, only here as a Hebr. word; according to Raschi and others, tincelle, a spark; but according to lxx, Theod., Syr., Jer., a flame; Targ. the brightness of light) of his fire in his dwelling throws out, comes to an end. In one word, as the praet. חשׁך implies, the light in his tent is changed into darkness; and his lamp above him, i.e., the lamp hanging from the covering of his tent (Job 29:3, comp. Job 21:17), goes out. When misfortune breaks in upon him, the Arab says: ed-dahru attfaa es-sirâgi, fate has put out my lamp; this figure of the decline of prosperity receives here a fourfold application. The figure of straitening one's steps is just as Arabic as it is biblical; צעדי אונו, the steps of his strength (און synon. of כּח, Job 40:16) become narrow (comp. Proverbs 4:12, Arab. takâssarat), by the wide space which he could pass over with a self-confident feeling of power becoming more and more contracted; and the purpose formed selfishly and without any recognition of God, the success of which he considered infallible, becomes his overthrow.