New King James Version
Job 27:18
18He builds his house like a moth, Like a booth which 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 Living Translation (NLT)The wicked build houses as fragile as a spider’s web, as flimsy as a shelter made of branches.
Context of Job 27:18
16Though he heaps up silver like dust, And piles up clothing like clay— 17He may pile it up, but the just will wear it, And the innocent will divide the silver. He builds his house like a moth, Like a booth which a watchman makes. 19The rich man will lie down, But not be gathered up; He opens his eyes, And he is no more. 20Terrors overtake him like a flood; A tempest steals him away in the 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 8:14Whose confidence shall be cut off, And whose trust is a spider’s web.
- Isaiah 51:8For the moth will eat them up like a garment, And the worm will eat them like wool; But My righteousness will be forever, And My salvation from generation to generation.”
- Isaiah 1:8So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, As a hut in a garden of cucumbers, As a besieged city.
- Isaiah 38:12My life span is gone, Taken from me like a shepherd’s tent; I have cut off my life like a weaver. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night You make an end of me.
- Lamentations 2:6He has done violence to His tabernacle, As if it were a garden; He has destroyed His place of assembly; The Lord has caused The appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion. In His burning indignation He has spurned the king and the priest.
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
New King James Version — © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc
Commentaries