Job 18:5

18:5 “Yes, ¹  the lamp ²  of the wicked is extinguished;

his flame of fire ³  does not shine.

Proverbs 13:9

13:9 The light ⁴  of the righteous shines brightly, ⁵ 

but the lamp ⁶  of the wicked goes out. ⁷ 

Proverbs 20:20

20:20 The one who curses ⁸  his father and his mother,

his lamp ⁹  will be extinguished in the blackest ¹⁰  darkness.

Matthew 25:8

25:8 The ¹¹  foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.’

[18:5]  ¹ tn Hebrew גַּם (gam, “also; moreover”), in view of what has just been said.

[18:5]  ² 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.

[18:5]  ³ 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.

[13:9]  ⁴ 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.

[13:9]  ⁵ 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).

[13:9]  ⁶ sn The lamp is an implied comparison as well, comparing the life of the wicked to a lamp that is going to be extinguished.

[13:9]  ⁷ tc The LXX adds, “Deceitful souls go astray in sins, but the righteous are pitiful and merciful.”

[20:20]  ⁸ tn The form is the Piel participle of קָלַל (qalal), which means “to be light”; in the Piel stem it means “to take lightly; to treat as worthless; to treat contemptuously; to curse.” Under the Mosaic law such treatment of parents brought a death penalty (Exod 21:17; Lev 20:9; Deut 27:16).

[20:20]  ⁹ tn “His lamp” is a figure known as hypocatastasis (an implied comparison) meaning “his life.” Cf. NLT “the lamp of your life”; TEV “your life will end like a lamp.”

[20:20]  ¹⁰ tc The Kethib, followed by the LXX, Syriac, and Latin, has בְּאִישׁוֹן (bÿ’ishon), “in the pupil of the eye darkness,” the dark spot of the eye. But the Qere has בֶּאֱשׁוּן (be’eshun), probably to be rendered “pitch” or “blackest,” although the form occurs nowhere else. The meaning with either reading is approximately the same – deep darkness, which adds vividly to the figure of the lamp being snuffed out. This individual’s destruction will be total and final.

[25:8]  ¹¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.