Proverbs 20:20

20:20 The one who curses ¹  his father and his mother,

his lamp ²  will be extinguished in the blackest ³  darkness.

Proverbs 24:20

24:20 for the evil person has no future, ⁴ 

and the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished. ⁵ 

Job 18:5-6

18:5 “Yes, ⁶  the lamp ⁷  of the wicked is extinguished;

his flame of fire ⁸  does not shine.

18:6 The light in his tent grows dark;

his lamp above him is extinguished. ⁹ 

Job 21:17

How Often Do the Wicked Suffer?

21:17 “How often ¹⁰  is the lamp of the wicked extinguished?

How often does their ¹¹  misfortune come upon them?

How often does God apportion pain ¹²  to them ¹³  in his anger?

Isaiah 50:10-11

50:10 Who among you fears the Lord?

Who obeys ¹⁴  his servant?

Whoever walks in deep darkness, ¹⁵ 

without light,

should trust in the name of the Lord

and rely on his God.

50:11 Look, all of you who start a fire

and who equip yourselves with ¹⁶  flaming arrows, ¹⁷ 

walk ¹⁸  in the light ¹⁹  of the fire you started

and among the flaming arrows you ignited! ²⁰ 

This is what you will receive from me: ²¹ 

you will lie down in a place of pain. ²² 

Matthew 22:13

22:13 Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!’

Matthew 25:8

25:8 The ²³  foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.’

[20:20]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ 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.

[24:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “there is no end [i.e., future] for the evil.”

[24:20]  ⁵ 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.

[18:5]  ⁶ tn Hebrew גַּם (gam, “also; moreover”), in view of what has just been said.

[18:5]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn The LXX interprets a little more precisely: “his lamp shall be put out with him.”

[21:17]  ¹⁰ tn The interrogative “How often” occurs only with the first colon; it is supplied for smoother reading in the next two.

[21:17]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn The phrase “to them” is understood and thus is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[50:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “[who] listens to the voice of his servant?” The interrogative is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[50:10]  ¹⁵ tn The plural indicates degree. Darkness may refer to exile and/or moral evil.

[50:11]  ¹⁶ tc Several more recent commentators have proposed an emendation of מְאַזְּרֵי (mÿ’azzÿre, “who put on”) to מְאִירִי (mÿ’iri, “who light”). However, both Qumran scrolls of Isaiah and the Vulgate support the MT reading (cf. NIV, ESV).

[50:11]  ¹⁷ tn On the meaning of זִיקוֹת (ziqot, “flaming arrows”), see HALOT 268 s.v. זִיקוֹת.

[50:11]  ¹⁸ tn The imperative is probably rhetorical and has a predictive force.

[50:11]  ¹⁹ tn Or perhaps, “flame” (so ASV).

[50:11]  ²⁰ sn Perhaps the servant here speaks to his enemies and warns them that they will self-destruct.

[50:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “from my hand” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[50:11]  ²² sn The imagery may be that of a person who becomes ill and is forced to lie down in pain on a sickbed. Some see this as an allusion to a fiery place of damnation because of the imagery employed earlier in the verse.

[25:8]  ²³ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.