Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Job 18:10 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 10. 10The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Job 18:10 closes the thought unit with the words “The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.” Bildad states “The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way” as one poetic claim in Bildad Pictures the Wicked's Light and Steps Trapped.
Read It With
- Job 18:5–18:10
Read Job 18:10 with 18:5–18:10. Read alone, “The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way” could lose its speaker, the question or claim it develops, and the unit's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Bildad says the wicked person's light goes out and describes feet, counsel, and hidden traps converging on ruin.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Bildad continues from Job 18:1–18:4: Bildad tells Job to stop speaking, complains that the friends are treated as beasts, and asks whether the world should be reordered for Job's anger. Job 18:5–18:10 now develops the next distinct movement: Bildad says the wicked person's light goes out and describes feet, counsel, and hidden traps converging on ruin. Within that relationship, Job 18:10 closes the thought unit through “The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.”
Read Job 18:5–10 together
Why these verses belong together: Job 18:5–18:10 follows the pinned KJV paragraphing and holds together one sustained speech movement: “Bildad Pictures the Wicked's Light and Steps Trapped.” The next unit begins with a new stanza, question sequence, scene, speaker response, or rhetorical turn.
Verse 5. 5 Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.
Verse 6. 6 The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.
Verse 7. 7 The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.
Verse 8. 8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.
Verse 9. 9 The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him.
Verse 10. 10 The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.
What Remains True
Bildad says the wicked person's light goes out and describes feet, counsel, and hidden traps converging on ruin. The speech must be tested against evidence, the prose frame, Job's counterevidence, and the closing verdict before it becomes enduring counsel. Job 18:10 carries that bounded truth through “The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.”
How It Can Shape Life
- Test Bildad's speech in Job 18:5–18:10 against the narrated evidence, Job's countercase, and the final verdict before repeating it to a person who suffers. Preserve this unit-specific boundary in the action: The imagery remains a general wisdom portrait deployed against Job, not proof that calamity identifies wickedness. The verse-specific evidence to retain is “The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.”
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Job 18:5–18:10 — Bildad Pictures the Wicked's Light and Steps TrappedSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Job 18:5–18:10, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 18:5–18:10
Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Job
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006; current official PDF
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 18:5–18:10.
Exact location: Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 18:5–18:10
Open the official NET Job PDF ↗