Proverbs 13:9

13:9 The light ¹  of the righteous shines brightly, ² 

but the lamp ³  of the wicked goes out. ⁴ 

Proverbs 20:20

20:20 The one who curses ⁵  his father and his mother,

his lamp ⁶  will be extinguished in the blackest ⁷  darkness.

Job 18:5-6

18:5 “Yes, ⁸  the lamp ⁹  of the wicked is extinguished;

his flame of fire ¹⁰  does not shine.

18:6 The light in his tent grows dark;

his lamp above him is extinguished. ¹¹ 

Job 21:17

How Often Do the Wicked Suffer?

21:17 “How often ¹²  is the lamp of the wicked extinguished?

How often does their ¹³  misfortune come upon them?

How often does God apportion pain ¹⁴  to them ¹⁵  in his anger?

Matthew 8:12

8:12 but the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” ¹⁶ 

Matthew 25:8

25:8 The ¹⁷  foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.’

Jude 1:13

1:13 wild sea waves, ¹⁸  spewing out the foam of ¹⁹  their shame; ²⁰  wayward stars ²¹  for whom the utter depths of eternal darkness ²²  have been reserved.

[13:9]  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.

[13:9]  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).

[13:9]  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.

[13:9]  ⁴ tc The LXX adds, “Deceitful souls go astray in sins, but the righteous are pitiful and merciful.”

[20:20]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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.

[18:5]  ⁸ tn Hebrew גַּם (gam, “also; moreover”), in view of what has just been said.

[18:5]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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.

[18:6]  ¹¹ tn The LXX interprets a little more precisely: “his lamp shall be put out with him.”

[21:17]  ¹² tn The interrogative “How often” occurs only with the first colon; it is supplied for smoother reading in the next two.

[21:17]  ¹³ 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.

[21:17]  ¹⁴ 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.”

[21:17]  ¹⁵ tn The phrase “to them” is understood and thus is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[8:12]  ¹⁶ sn Weeping and gnashing of teeth is a figure for remorse and trauma, which occurs here because of exclusion from God’s promise.

[25:8]  ¹⁷ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[1:13]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “wild waves of the sea.”

[1:13]  ¹⁹ 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.”

[1:13]  ²⁰ 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.

[1:13]  ²¹ 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.

[1:13]  ²² tn Grk “utter darkness of darkness for eternity.” See note on the word “utter” in v. 6.