God’s Word Translation
Job 27:18
18He builds his house like a moth, like a shack that a watchman makes.
Job 27:18 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper maketh.
- New International Version (NIV)The house he builds is like a moth’s cocoon, like a hut made by a watchman.
- English Standard Version (ESV)He builds his house like a moth's, like a booth that a watchman makes.
- New King James Version (NKJV)He builds his house like a moth, Like a booth which a watchman makes.
Context of Job 27:18
16Though he collects silver like dust and piles up clothing like dirt, 17righteous people will wear what he piles up, and the innocent will divide the silver ⌞among themselves⌟. He builds his house like a moth, like a shack that a watchman makes. 19He may go to bed rich, but he’ll never be rich again. When he opens his eyes, nothing will be left. 20Terrors overtake him like a flood. A windstorm snatches him away at night.
Read all of Job 27Job 27:18 word by word
בָּנָ֣ה כָעָ֣שׁ בֵּית֑וֹ וּ֝כְסֻכָּ֗ה עָשָׂ֥ה נֹצֵֽר׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 27:18
- Job 8:14His confidence is easily shattered. His trust is a spider’s web.
- Isaiah 51:8Moths will eat them like clothing. Worms will devour them like wool. But my righteousness will last forever, and my salvation will last throughout every generation.
- Isaiah 1:8My people Zion are left like a hut in a vineyard, like a shack in a cucumber field, like a city under attack.”
- Isaiah 38:12My life was over. You rolled it up like a shepherd’s tent. You rolled up my life like a weaver. You cut me off from the loom. You ended my life in one day.
- Lamentations 2:6He stripped his own booth as if it were a garden and destroyed his own festivals. The Lord wiped out the memory of festivals and days of rest—holy days—in Zion. He expelled kings and priests because of his fierce anger.
Commentaries on Job 27:18
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 18He buildeth his house as a moth - With great skill, great pains, and great industry; but the structure, however skillful, shall be dissolved; and the materials, however costly, shall be brought to corruption. To its owner it shall be only a temporary habitation, like that which the moth makes in its larve or caterpillar state, during its change from a chrysalis to a winged insect. As a booth that the keeper maketh - A shed which the watchman or keeper of…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 18He buildeth his house as a moth - The house which the moth builds is the slight fabric which it makes for its own dwelling in the garment which it consumes. On this verse compare Job 8:14. The dwelling of the moth is composed of the materials of the garment on which it feeds, and there may be an allusion here not only to the fact that the house which the wicked reared for themselves would be temporary, and that it would soon pass away like the dwelling of…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 11-23Verses 11-23 Job's friends, on the same subject, spoke of the misery of wicked men before death as proportioned to their crimes; Job considered that if it were not so, still the consequences of their death would be dreadful. Job undertook to set this matter in a true light. Death to a godly man, is like a fair gale of wind to convey him to the heavenly country; but, to a wicked man, it is like a storm, that hurries him away to destruction. While he lived…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 9-23Some interpreters think this is a new speech by Zophar. Without it, Zophar has no speech in this cycle.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 11-2311-23. These words are contrary to Job's previous sentiments (see on Job 21:22-33; Job 24:22-25). Job 21:22-33; 24:22-25). They therefore seem to be Job's statement, not so much of his own sentiments, as of what Zophar would have said had he spoken when his turn came (end of the twenty-sixth chapter). So Job stated the friends' opinion (Job 21:17-21; 24:18-21). The objection is, why, if so, does not Job answer Zophar's opinion, as stated by himself? The…Read the comment
Topics related to Job 27:18
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Job 27
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
God’s Word Translation — © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society
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