18:6 The light in his tent grows dark;
his lamp above him is extinguished. 1
18:5 “Yes, 2 the lamp 3 of the wicked is extinguished;
his flame of fire 4 does not shine.
21:17 “How often 5 is the lamp of the wicked extinguished?
How often does their 6 misfortune come upon them?
How often does God apportion pain 7 to them 8 in his anger?
1 tn The LXX interprets a little more precisely: “his lamp shall be put out with him.”
2 tn Hebrew גַּם (gam, “also; moreover”), in view of what has just been said.
3 sn The lamp or the light can have a number of uses in the Bible. Here it is probably an implied metaphor for prosperity and happiness, for the good life itself.
4 tn The expression is literally “the flame of his fire,” but the pronominal suffix qualifies the entire bound construction. The two words together intensify the idea of the flame.
3 tn The interrogative “How often” occurs only with the first colon; it is supplied for smoother reading in the next two.
4 tn The pronominal suffix is objective; it re-enforces the object of the preposition, “upon them.” The verb in the clause is בּוֹא (bo’) followed by עַל (’al), “come upon [or against],” may be interpreted as meaning attack or strike.
5 tn חֲבָלִים (khavalim) can mean “ropes” or “cords,” but that would not go with the verb “apportion” in this line. The meaning of “pangs (as in “birth-pangs”) seems to fit best here. The wider meaning would be “physical agony.”
6 tn The phrase “to them” is understood and thus is supplied in the translation for clarification.