The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.
Parallel translations
- WEB The steps of his strength shall be shortened. His own counsel shall cast him down.
- BSB His vigorous stride is shortened, and his own schemes trip him up.
- NKJV The steps of his strength are shortened, And his own counsel casts him down.
- NASB “His vigorous stride is shortened, And his own plan brings him down.
- NLT The confident stride of the wicked will be shortened. Their own schemes will be their downfall.
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
The wicked man's confident strides are cut short, and his own schemes bring him down. His self-reliance leads to his fall.
Overview
Bildad pictures the godless man's vigorous steps suddenly shortened and his own counsel casting him headlong. The point is that the wicked is undone by his own devices. This reflects the biblical truth that those who plot evil fall into their own pit (Psalm 7:15), for sin carries within it the seeds of its own ruin.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Prov 4:12When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.
- Ps 18:36Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip.
- Ps 33:10The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.
- Job 5:12–13He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.
- Job 20:22In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.
- 1 Cor 3:19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
- Job 36:16Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness.
- 2 Sam 17:14And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For the LORD had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the LORD might bring evil upon Absalom.
- Job 15:6Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee.
- 2 Sam 15:31And one told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, O LORD, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.
- Prov 1:30–32They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
- Hos 10:6It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.
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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 18:7 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
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