It devours patches of his skin; the firstborn of death devours his limbs.
Parallel translations
- WEB The members of his body shall be devoured. The firstborn of death shall devour his members.
- KJV It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.
- NKJV It devours patches of his skin; The firstborn of death devours his limbs.
- NASB “It devours parts of his skin, The firstborn of death devours his limbs.
- NLT Disease eats their skin; death devours their limbs.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Disease devours the wicked man's body, the firstborn of death consuming his limbs. A deadly affliction destroys him from within.
Overview
Bildad describes the godless wasted by a fatal sickness, vividly called the firstborn of death, as it eats away his flesh. The phrase personifies a most deadly disease that brings him to the grave. The graphic picture of bodily decay underscores the friends' insistence on the wicked's doom, while pointing, by sad contrast, to Job's own diseased body though he was upright before God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Gen 49:3Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power.
- Isa 14:30Then the firstborn of the poor will find pasture, and the needy will lie down in safety, but I will kill your root by famine, and your remnant will be slain.
- Job 17:16Will it go down to the gates of Sheol? Will we go down together into the dust?”
- Jonah 2:6To the roots of the mountains I descended; the earth beneath me barred me in forever! But You raised my life from the pit, O LORD my God!
- Zech 14:12And this will be the plague with which the LORD strikes all the peoples who have warred against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.
- Rev 6:8Then I looked and saw a pale green horse. Its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed close behind. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill by sword, by famine, by plague, and by the beasts of the earth.
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 18:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.