The Meaning of Job 18:8 Explained

Job 18:8

KJV: For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.

YLT: For he is sent into a net by his own feet, And on a snare he doth walk habitually.

Darby: For he is sent into the net by his own feet, and he walketh on the meshes;

ASV: For he is cast into a net by his own feet, And he walketh upon the toils.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

For he is cast  into a net  by his own feet,  and he walketh  upon a snare. 

What does Job 18:8 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 18:8 mean?

For he is cast into a net by his own feet and into a snare he walks
כִּֽי־ שֻׁלַּ֣ח בְּרֶ֣שֶׁת בְּרַגְלָ֑יו וְעַל־ שְׂ֝בָכָ֗ה יִתְהַלָּֽךְ

שֻׁלַּ֣ח  he  is  cast 
Parse: Verb, Pual, Perfect, third person masculine singular
Root: שָׁלַח  
Sense: to send, send away, let go, stretch out.
בְּרֶ֣שֶׁת  into  a  net 
Parse: Preposition-b, Noun, feminine singular
Root: רֶשֶׁת  
Sense: net.
בְּרַגְלָ֑יו  by  his  own  feet 
Parse: Preposition-b, Noun, fdc, third person masculine singular
Root: רֶגֶל  
Sense: foot.
וְעַל־  and  into 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Preposition
Root: עַל 
Sense: upon, on the ground of, according to, on account of, on behalf of, concerning, beside, in addition to, together with, beyond, above, over, by, on to, towards, to, against.
שְׂ֝בָכָ֗ה  a  snare 
Parse: Noun, feminine singular
Root: שְׂבָכָה  
Sense: network, lattice-work, net, netting.
יִתְהַלָּֽךְ  he  walks 
Parse: Verb, Hitpael, Imperfect, third person masculine singular
Root: הָלַךְ  
Sense: to go, walk, come.