illumination or (concrete) luminary (in every sense · noun, common feminine singular absolute
dark
חָשַׁ֣ךְcha.Shakh
H2821
to be dark (as withholding light) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
tabernacle
בְּאָהֳל֑וֹbe.'o.ho.Lo
H168
a tent (as clearly conspicuous from a distance) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
candle
וְ֝נֵר֗וֹve.ne.Ro
H5216
a lamp (i.e. the burner) or light (literally or figurat… · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
out
יִדְעָֽךְyid.'Akh
H1846
to be extinguished · 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
Job 21:17 How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in his anger.
Psalms 18:28 For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
Revelation 18:23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 18:5-10
The rest of Bildad's discourse is entirely taken up in an elegant description of the miserable condition of a wicked man, in which there is a great deal of certain truth, and which will be of excellent use if duly considered - that a sinful condition is a sad condition, and that iniquity will be men's ruin if they do not repent of it. But it is not true that all wicked people are visibly and openly made thus miserable in this world; nor is it true that all who are brought into great distress and trouble in this world are therefore to be deemed and adjudged wicked men, when no other proof appears against them; and therefore, though Bildad thought the application of it to Job was easy, yet it…
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 (Psa 18:28). To put out the lamp was an image of utter desolation.
John Gill on Job 18:6
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…
4 Thou art he who teareth himself in his anger:
Shall the earth become desolate for thy sake,
And a rock remove from its place?
5 Notwithstanding, the light of the wicked shall be put out,
And the glow of his fire shineth not;
6 The light becometh dark in his tent,
And his lamp above him is extinguished;
7 His vigorous steps are straitened,
And his own counsel casteth him down.
The meaning of the strophe is this: Dost thou imagine that, by thy vehement conduct, by which thou art become enraged against thyself, thou canst effect any change in the established divine order of the world? It is a divine law, that sufferings are the punishment of sin; thou canst no more alter this, than that at th…
The Church Fathers
"The darkness has lighted his house. She was enlightened by the devil or the antichrist. "And his torch was extinguished on him; It was the faint glare of a terrestrial light.
The light shall be dark in his tabernacle. If we very frequently take darkness for sorrow, we ought without unfairness to take light for joy. And so 'the light is dark in his tabernacle,' in that in his conscience, which he inhabits in wickedness, the joy which he had from things temporal is brought to an end. Whence too it is fitly added; And the candle that is over him shall be put out. For to speak in language grounded on the usage of many, a 'candle' is a light in an earthen vessel, but a light in an earthen vessel, is delight in the flesh. And so 'the candle that is over him is put out,' in that when the recompensing of his wickednesses comes upon the ungodly man, carnal delight is brought to nought in his heart. Now it is well that it is not said of this candle, 'which is by him,' but 'which is over him,' in that earthly enjoyments possess the mind of the bad, and so swallow it up in delight, that they are 'over' it, and not 'by' it. But the righteous even when they have the good fortune of the present life, are taught to force it to bow beneath them, that this, viz. that they are made glad in themselves with good things, they may get above by the counsel of a steadied mind, and surmount by the control of virtue. And so 'the candle' of the wicked man, 'which is over him, is put out,' in that his joy is quickly brought to an end, which possessed him wholly in this life, and the man, who now wickedly lets himself out at large in pleasures, punishment hereafter closely encompasses round about in woe.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Candle — Heb. ner, Job 18:6; 29:3; Ps. 18:28; Prov. 24:20, in all which places the Revised Version and margin of Authorized Version have “lamp,” by which the word is elsewhere frequently rendered. The Hebrew…
Darkness — The plague (the ninth) of darkness in Egypt (Ex. 10:21) is described as darkness “which may be felt.” It covered “all the land of Egypt,” so that “they saw not one another.” It did not extend to the…
Tabernacle — (1.) A house or dwelling-place (Job 5:24; 18:6, etc.). (2.) A portable shrine (comp. Acts 19:24) containing the image of Moloch (Amos 5:26; marg. and R.V., “Siccuth”). (3.) The human body (2 Cor.…
Lamp · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Lamps · Illustrative: (Put out,) of destruction of the wicked — Illustrative: (Put out,) of destruction of the wicked
Light · Illustrative of: The soul of man — Illustrative of: The soul of man
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).
The light of the wicked will be snuffed out could be a metaphor for a life of confused darkness (Prov 4:19); more likely, it indicates an early death (Prov 13:9; 24:20).
Rashi on Job 18:5
Yea Even now, according to your cry, this will be in force for generations.
the light of the wicked shall be put out it shall spring from its place. spark Etinceler in French.
