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Contemporary English Version
Job 27:18
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
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- InternationalParallel Translations
The house he built is like a moth’s cocoonor a shelter set up by a watchman.
He builds his house as the moth, As a booth which the watchman makes.
He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper maketh.
He builds his house like a moth's, like a booth that a watchman makes.
The houses the wicked build are like a spider's web, like a hut that a guard builds.
The house he builds is as fragile as a moth's cocoon, like a hut that a watchman has made.
"He builds his house like a spider's web, Like a (temporary) hut which a watchman makes.
"He has built his house like the spider's web, Or a hut which the watchman has made.
He builds his house as the moth, As a booth which the watchman makes.
He buildeth his house as the moth, and as a lodge that the watchman maketh.
He has built his house like the moth,Or as a hut which the watchman has made.
The house he built is like a moth's cocoon, like a hut set up by a watchman.
He builds his house weak as a spider's web, as flimsy as a watchman's shack.
He buildeth his house as the moth, and as a booth that a keeper maketh.
Evil people might build houses, but they will not last long. They will be like a spider's web or a guard's tent.
For the wicked has built his house upon a spiders web, and like a booth he had made his shelter.
The wicked build houses like a spider's web or like the hut of a slave guarding the fields.
"He builds his house like the moth, and like a booth that a watchman has made.
He builds his house like a moth, and like a booth that a watchman makes.
His house shal endure as the moth, & as a bothe that the watch man maketh.
He buildeth his house as the moth, And as a booth which the keeper maketh.
His house has no more strength than a spider's thread, or a watchman's tent.
He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth which the keeper maketh.
He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper maketh.
He buyldeth his house as the moth, & as a booth that the watchman maketh.
And his house is gone like moths, and like a spider’s web.
He buildeth his house as the moth, and as a booth which the keeper maketh.
As a mouyte he hath bildid his hous, and as a kepere he made a schadewyng place.
He builds his house as the moth, And as a booth which the keeper makes.
He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth [that] the keeper maketh.
He builds his house like a moth, Job 8:14); Targum reads decay. ">[fn] Like a booth which a watchman makes.
The wicked build houses as fragile as a spider's web, as flimsy as a shelter made of branches.
He builds his house like the home of a spider, or like a tent which a watchman has made.
They build their houses like nests, like booths made by sentinels of the vineyard.
He hath built, like a moth, his house, - like a hut, which a watcher hath made.
He hath built his house as a moth, and as a keeper he hath made a booth.
The house which he builds is like a spider's web, like a booth which a watchman makes.
He hath built as a moth his house, And as a booth a watchman hath made.
"He has built his house like the spider's web, Or as a hut which the watchman has made.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
as a moth: Job 8:14, Job 8:15, Isaiah 51:8
as a booth: Isaiah 1:8, Isaiah 38:12, Lamentations 2:6
Reciprocal: Proverbs 12:7 - wicked
Gill's Notes on the Bible
He buildeth his house as a moth,.... Which builds its house in a garment by eating into it, and so destroying it, and in time eats itself out of house and home, and however does not continue long in it, but is soon and easily shook out, or brushed off; so a wicked man builds himself an house, a stately palace, like Arcturus l; so some render the words from Job 9:9, a palace among the stars, an heavenly palace and paradise, and expects it will continue for ever; but as he builds it with the mammon of unrighteousness, and to the prejudice and injury of others, and with their money, or what was due to them, so by his sins and iniquities he brings ruin and destruction upon himself and his family, so that his house soon falls to decay, and at least he and his posterity have but a short lived enjoyment of it. This may be applied in a figurative sense to the hypocrite's hope and confidence, which is like a spider's web, a moth eaten garment, and a house built upon the sand; the Septuagint version here adds, "as a spider", Job 8:13;
and as a booth [that] the keeper maketh; either a keeper of sheep, who sets up his tent in a certain place for a while, for the sake of pasturage, and then removes it, to which the allusion is, Isaiah 38:12; or a keeper of fruit, as the Targum, of gardens and orchards, that the fruit is not stolen; or of fig trees and vineyards, as Jarchi and Bar Tzemach, which is only a lodge or hut pitched for a season, until the fruit is gathered in, and then is taken down, see Isaiah 1:8; and it signifies here the short continuance of the house of the wicked man, which he imagined would continue for ever, Psalms 49:11.
l ×עש "quasi Arcturi", Junius Tremellius so Aben Ezra.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
He 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 the moth, but that it was obtained - like the dwelling of the moth - at the expense of others. The idea of frailty, however, and of its being only a very temporary habitation, is probably the main thought in the passage. The allusion here is to the moth-worm as it proceeds from the egg, before it is changed into the chrysalis, aurelia, or nymph. âThe young moth, upon leaving the egg which a papilio has lodged upon a piece of stuff, or a skin well dressed, and commodious for her purpose, immediately finds a habitation and food in the nap of the stuff, or hair of the skin. It gnaws and lives upon the nap, and likewise builds with it its apartment, accommodated both with a front door and a back one: the whole is well fastened to the ground of the stuff, with several cords and a little glue. The moth sometimes thrusts her head out of one opening, and sometimes out of the other, and perpetually demolishes all about her; and when she has cleared the place about her, she draws out all the stakes of the tent, after which she carries it to some little distance, and then fixes it with her slender cords in a new situation.â
Burder. It is to the insect in its larvae or caterpillar state that Job refers here, and the slightness of the habitation will be easily understood by anyone who has watched the operations of the silkworm, or of the moths that appear in this country. The idea is, that the habitation which the wicked constructed was temporary and frail, and would soon be left. The Chaldee and Syriac render this âthe spider;â and so does Luther - Spinne. The slight gossamer dwelling of the spider would well correspond with the idea here expressed by Job.
And as a booth - A tent, or cottage.
That the keeper maketh - That one who watches vineyards or gardens makes as a temporary shelter from the storm or the cold at night. Such edifices were very frail in their structure, and were designed to be only temporary habitations; see the subject explained in the notes at Isaiah 1:8. Niebuhr, in his description of Arabia, p. 158, says, âIn the mountains of Yemen they have a sort of nest on the trees, where the Arabs sit to watch the fields after they have been planted. But in the Kehama, where they have but few trees, they build a light kind of scaffolding for this purpose.â Mr. Southey opens the fifth part of his Curse of Kehama with a similar allusion:
âEvening comes on: - arising from the stream
Homeward the tall flamingo wings his flight;
And when hc sails athwart the setting beam,
His scarlet plumage glows with deeper light.
The watchman, at the wishâd approach of night
Gladly forsakes the field, where he all day,
To scare the winged plunderers from their prey,
With shout and sling, on yonder clay-built height,
Hath borne the sultry ray.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Job 27:18. He buildeth his house as a moth — With great skill, great pains, and great industry; but the structure, however skilful, 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 a vineyard erects to cover him from the scorching sun, while watching the ripening grapes, that they may be preserved from depredation. Travellers in the East have observed that such booths or sheds are made of the lightest and most worthless materials; and after the harvest or vintage is in, they are quite neglected, and by the winter rains, &c., are soon dissolved and destroyed.
