The Meaning of Job 18:7 Explained

Job 18:7

KJV: The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.

YLT: Straitened are the steps of his strength, And cast him down doth his own counsel.

Darby: The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.

ASV: The steps of his strength shall be straitened, And his own counsel shall cast him down.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

The steps  of his strength  shall be straitened,  and his own counsel  shall cast him down. 

What does Job 18:7 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 18:1-21 - "cast Into A Net"
Bildad's second speech reveals how utterly he failed to understand Job's appeal for a divine witness and surety. Such words were snares to him, Job 18:2, r.v. The deep things that pass in a heart which is enduring sorrow are incomprehensible to shallow and narrow souls.
His description of the calamities which befall the wicked is terrible: their extinguished light, Job 18:5-6; their awful distress, Job 18:7-11; their destruction, Job 18:12-17; the horror with which men shall regard their fate, Job 18:18-21. All this was, of course, intended for Job. It was very severe. Even if the worst had been true, his extreme sufferings should have elicited more tenderness from his friends. Only the strong, wise hand of love can assuage the wounds that sin has made. We are indebted to Bildad for the phrase, king of terrors, as applied to death, Job 18:14. Apart from Christ, it is a significant and appropriate term. Sin has made his monarchy terrible. Yet even he has met his conqueror, John 11:25-26; Hebrews 2:14; 1 Corinthians 15:26.
The ancients had a deep presentiment of the punishments which must overtake sin. Probably we make too little of them. The note of fear has almost died out of modern preaching. In this there is a marked divergence from Baxter's Call to the Unconverted and from Jonathan Edwards' Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. But the doom of sin can only be terrible, especially for those to whom Calvary has pleaded in vain. A great atonement implies great sin, and this, a great penalty. [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 18

1  Bildad reproves Job for presumption and impatience
5  The calamities of the wicked

What do the individual words in Job 18:7 mean?

Are shortened the steps of his strength and casts him down his own counsel
יֵֽ֭צְרוּ צַעֲדֵ֣י אוֹנ֑וֹ וְֽתַשְׁלִיכֵ֥הוּ עֲצָתֽוֹ

יֵֽ֭צְרוּ  Are  shortened 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Imperfect, third person masculine plural
Root: צָרַר  
Sense: to bind, be distressed, be in distress, be cramped, be narrow, be scant, be in straits, make narrow, cause distress, beseige.
צַעֲדֵ֣י  the  steps  of 
Parse: Noun, masculine plural construct
Root: צַעַד  
Sense: step, pace, stride.
אוֹנ֑וֹ  his  strength 
Parse: Noun, masculine singular construct, third person masculine singular
Root: אֹון  
Sense: vigour, generative power.
וְֽתַשְׁלִיכֵ֥הוּ  and  casts  him  down 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Hifil, Conjunctive imperfect, third person feminine singular, third person masculine singular
Root: שָׁלַךְ  
Sense: to throw, cast, hurl, fling.
עֲצָתֽוֹ  his  own  counsel 
Parse: Noun, feminine singular construct, third person masculine singular
Root: עֵצָה 
Sense: counsel, advice, purpose.