to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
strength
בַּדֵּ֣יba.Dei
H905
properly · noun, common masculine plural construct
skin
עוֹר֑וֹo.Ro
H5785
skin (as naked) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
firstborn
בְּכ֣וֹרbe.Khor
H1060
firstborn · noun, common masculine singular construct
death
מָֽוֶתMa.vet
H4194
death (natural or violent) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
devour
יֹאכַ֥לyo.Khal
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
strength
בַּ֝דָּ֗יוba.Dav
H905
properly · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 49:3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
Job 17:16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.
Isaiah 14:30 And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay th…
Jonah 2:6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption…
Zechariah 14:12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away…
Revelation 6:8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them ove…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 18:11–end
Bildad here describes the destruction itself which wicked people are reserved for in the other world, and which, in some degree, often seizes them in this world. Come, and see what a miserable condition the sinner is in when his day comes to fall.
I. See him disheartened and weakened by continual terrors arising from the sense of his own guilt and the dread of God's wrath (Job 18:11, Job 18:12): Terror shall make him afraid on every side. The terrors of his own conscience shall haunt him, so that he shall never be easy. Wherever he goes, these shall follow him; which way soever he looks, these shall stare him in the face. It will make him tremble to see himself fought against by the whole cr…
UMBREIT has "he" for "it," that is, "in the rage of hunger he shall devour his own body"; or, "his own children" (Lam 4:10). Rather, "destruction" from Job 18:12 is nominative to "devour."
strength--rather, "members" (literally, the "branches" of a tree).
the first-born of death--a personification full of poetical horror. The first-born son held the chief place (Gen 49:3); so here the chiefest (most deadly) disease that death has ever engendered (Isa 14:30; "first-born of the poor"--the poorest). The Arabs call fever, "daughter of death."
John Gill on Job 18:13
It shall devour the strength of his skin,.... Or "the bars of his skin" (x), the strength and support of his body, for which his skin may be put, as the bones; or "the branches of his skin" (y), the veins, which like so many branches run under, and may be seen through the skin: now these, it, famine, or want of food, devours, and destroys the strength and beauty of the skin, cause it to be black like an oven, Lamentations 4:8; bring a man to a mere skeleton, to skin and bones, waste and consume the members of his body, his flesh, and blood, and bones; the Targum, Jarchi, and Aben Ezra, by "his bars" or "branches" understand his children, which are his bars, the strength of him, and are to hi…
"Let the marks of his feet be devoured," those of his teachings, wherever he goes.
He calls the "soles of their feet" the products of their journeys, in order to say that the impious are not prosperous in their travels when they fall into "a violent ruin." But also their fruits of season, that is, their children, are insatiately consumed by death; and from this entire condition, in which they find themselves, all healing withdraws. That is, their results will always be incorrigible and incurable. It is also possible to interpret the "soles of their feet" as their offspring or descendants.
Let it devour the beauty of his skin; and let the firstborn death consume his arms. 'The beauty of his skin' is temporal glory, which whereas it is coveted as an object without us, is retained as a beauty on the skin. But by the title of 'arms' works are not unfitly set forth, in that the work of the body is done by the arms. And what is death but sin, which kills the soul to the interior life? Whence it is written; Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, in that he shall hereafter rise again joyfully in the flesh, who whilst set in this life has risen again from the death of his soul. If then sin is death, 'the firstborn death' may not unsuitably be taken for pride; in that it is written, Pride is the beginning of all sin. And so 'the beauty of his skin and his arms the firstborn death devoureth,' in that the glory or the practice of the bad man is overthrown by Pride. For he might have been glorious even in this life without sin, if be had not been proud. He might in the judgment of His Creator have been commended for some works, if before His eyes pride had not overturned those very works. Thus we often see rich people, which might have had wealth and glory without guilt, if they would have had them with humility. But they are uplifted by possessions, they are flushed with honours, they disdain the rest of the world, and place their life's whole hope and trust in the mere abundance of good things alone. Hence a certain rich man said, Soul, thou hast much good laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. Which thoughts of their hearts when the Judge above beholds, He plucks them away for this very confidence of theirs by itself.
Dictionary and topics
Death Of The Wicked, The · Frequently marked by terror — Frequently marked by terror
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Keil & Delitzsch on Job 18:12-15
12 His calamity looketh hunger-bitten,
And misfortune is ready for his fall.
13 It devoureth the members of his skin;
The first-born of death devoureth his members.
14 That in which he trusted is torn away out of his tent,
And he must march on to the king of terrors.
15 Beings strange to him dwell in his tent;
Brimstone is strewn over his habitation.
The description of the actual and total destruction of the evil-doer now begins with יהי (as Job 24:14, after the manner of the voluntative forms already used in Job 24:9). Step by step it traces his course to the total destruction, which leaves no trace of him, but still bears evident marks of being the fulfilment of the curse pronounced upon h…
death devours: Isaiah later reversed the figure and saw the Lord as swallowing up death (Isa 25:8; see 1 Cor 15:54).
Rashi on Job 18:13
He shall eat the branches of his body And he shall devour all the rest of his branches, viz. his sons and daughters.
the prince of death Heb. בכור מות, as in (Ps. 89:28), “Also I will make him a prince (בכור).”