13:9 The light 1 of the righteous shines brightly, 2
but the lamp 3 of the wicked goes out. 4
24:20 for the evil person has no future, 5
and the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished. 6
18:5 “Yes, 7 the lamp 8 of the wicked is extinguished;
his flame of fire 9 does not shine.
18:6 The light in his tent grows dark;
his lamp above him is extinguished. 10
18:18 He is driven 11 from light into darkness
and is banished from the world.
1 sn The images of “light” and “darkness” are used frequently in scripture. Here “light” is an implied comparison: “light” represents life, joy, and prosperity; “darkness” signifies adversity and death. So the “light of the righteous” represents the prosperous life of the righteous.
2 tn The verb יִשְׂמָח (yismah) is normally translated “to make glad; to rejoice.” But with “light” as the subject, it has the connotation “to shine brightly” (see G. R. Driver, “Problems in the Hebrew Text of Proverbs,” Bib 32 [1951]: 180).
3 sn The lamp is an implied comparison as well, comparing the life of the wicked to a lamp that is going to be extinguished.
4 tc The LXX adds, “Deceitful souls go astray in sins, but the righteous are pitiful and merciful.”
5 tn Heb “there is no end [i.e., future] for the evil.”
6 sn The saying warns against envying the wicked; v. 19 provides the instruction, and v. 20 the motivation. The motivation is that there is no future hope for them – nothing to envy, or as C. H. Toy explains, there will be no good outcome for their lives (Proverbs [ICC], 449). They will die suddenly, as the implied comparison with the lamp being snuffed out signifies.
7 tn Hebrew גַּם (gam, “also; moreover”), in view of what has just been said.
8 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.
9 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.
10 tn The LXX interprets a little more precisely: “his lamp shall be put out with him.”
11 tn The verbs in this verse are plural; without the expressed subject they should be taken in the passive sense.
12 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
13 tn Grk “wild waves of the sea.”
14 tn Grk “foaming, causing to foam.” The verb form is intensive and causative. BDAG 360 s.v. ἐπαφρίζω suggests the meaning “to cause to splash up like froth, cause to foam,” or, in this context, “waves casting up their own shameless deeds like (dirty) foam.”
15 tn Grk “shames, shameful things.” It is uncertain whether shameful deeds or shameful words are in view. Either way, the picture has taken a decided turn: Though waterless clouds and fruitless trees may promise good things, but deliver nothing, wild sea-waves are portents of filth spewed forth from the belly of the sea.
16 sn The imagery of a star seems to fit the nautical theme that Jude is developing. Stars were of course the guides to sailors at night, just as teachers are responsible to lead the flock through a benighted world. But false teachers, as wayward stars, are not fixed and hence offer unreliable, even disastrous guidance. They are thus both the dangerous reefs on which the ships could be destroyed and the false guides, leading them into these rocks. There is a special irony that these lights will be snuffed out, reserved for the darkest depths of eternal darkness.
17 tn Grk “utter darkness of darkness for eternity.” See note on the word “utter” in v. 6.