Job 18:16

His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
roots	שָֽׁרָשָׁ֣יו sha.ra.Shav	H8328	a root (literally or figuratively) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
up	יִבָ֑שׁוּ yi.Va.shu	H3001	to be ashamed · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
above	וּ֝מִמַּ֗עַל u.mi.Ma.'al	H4605	properly · conjunction + preposition + cardinal number, both genders singular absolute
branch	קְצִירֽוֹ ke.tzi.Ro	H7105	severed · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
off	יִמַּ֥ל yi.Mal	H5243	to become clipped or (specifically) circumcised · verb, qal imperfect, 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

Hosea 9:16 Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit o…
Isaiah 5:24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shal…
Job 15:30 He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.
Amos 2:9 Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his…
Malachi 4:1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day tha…
Job 5:3-4 I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation.
Job 29:19 My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.

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…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 18:16

Roots--himself. branch--his children (Job 8:12; Job 15:30; Mal 4:1).

John Gill on Job 18:16

His roots shall be dried up beneath,.... Wicked men are sometimes compared to trees; to trees of the wood, barren, and unfruitful; to trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; and sometimes to green bay trees, very flourishing for a while, and which on a sudden perish, and come to nothing, see Sol 2:3, Jde 1:12; and such a simile is here used; and by his roots may be meant his family, from whence he sprung, which now should be extinct with him, see Isaiah 11:1; or his substance, which being greatly increased, he seemed to take root in the earth, and not only to be in a prosperous, but in a stable settled condition; but now, like Ephraim, he should be smitten, and his root dri…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Job 18:16-19

16 His roots wither beneath, And above his branch is lopped off. 17 His remembrance is vanished from the land, And he hath no name far and wide on the plain; 18 They drive him from light into darkness, And chase him out of the world. 19 He hath neither offspring nor descendant among his people, Nor is there an escaped one in his dwellings. The evil-doer is represented under the figure of a plant, Job 18:16, as we have had similar figures already, Job 8:16., Job 15:30, Job 15:32.; (Note: To such biblical figures taken from plants, according to which root and branch are become familiar in the sense of ancestors and descendants (comp. Sir. 23:25, 40:15; Wisd. 4:3-5; Rom 11:16), the arbor consa…

The Church Fathers

Let his roots be dried up beneath, and above let his crop be spoiled. For what do we understand by the title of 'roots,' which are set out of sight, and bring forth a shoot into open view, but the thoughts, which, while they are not seen in the heart, produce visible works? And hence by the title of a 'crop' there is denoted the same visible practice, which is thus produced from a hidden root. And whereas every bad man first dries up in the imaginings of temptation and afterwards dies off from good deeds, it is rightly said by Bildad, Let his roots be dried up beneath, and above let his crop be spoiled, in that, whereas the wicked man sets his thoughts in things below, and neglects to seek the delights of everlasting greenness, what is this but that he lets his 'roots be dried beneath?' Whose 'crop too is spoiled above,' in that all his practice is counted as nothing in the view of the judgment above, even if it seem good in the eyes of man. Thus the 'roots' are at the bottom, and the 'crop' above, in that we first send out good thoughts here, that we may one day deserve to receive the fruit of our good works in eternal recompensing; but every wicked person when he abandons good thoughts, and pours himself forth upon the things that are without, has 'his roots dried up below:' but 'above his crop is spoiled,' in that he, who persists barren here, after this life is bidden to no rewards.
— Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XIV

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Job 18:16

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 18:11–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 18:16

John Gill on Job 18:16

Keil & Delitzsch on Job 18:16-19

The Church Fathers

Job 18:16

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 18:11–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 18:16

John Gill on Job 18:16

Keil & Delitzsch on Job 18:16-19

The Church Fathers

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Job 18:15

Rashi on Job 18:15