Bible Strands
Job 18:8
For his own feet lead him into a net, and he wanders into its mesh.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Bildad addresses Job during his second speech, describing the trajectory of the wicked man. The statement sits at the center of Job 18, immediately following the description of the man's shortened stride and self-defeating schemes.
The words — The Hebrew שֻׁלַּ֣ח (shu.Lach) translates literally as "he is caught," and בְּ/רֶ֣שֶׁת (be./Re.shet) means "a net." Combined with יִתְהַלָּֽךְ\׃ (yit.ha.Lakh), "he walks about," the text states that the man's own movement brings him into confinement.
The thread — The motif of self-entrapment reappears in Psalms 9:15, where nations fall into a pit they dug, and in Psalms 35:8, which describes the hidden net turning back on its creator. Job 22:10 similarly declares that snares now surround the one who once set them.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to acknowledge that destruction frequently originates from internal choices rather than external opposition. It demands a clear-eyed assessment of how personal actions can become the direct instrument of one's downfall.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.
Cross-references
- Psalms 9:15 The nations have fallen into a pit of their making; their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.
- Job 22:10 Therefore snares surround you, and sudden peril terrifies you;
- Psalms 35:8 May ruin befall them by surprise; may the net they hid ensnare them; may they fall into the hazard they created.
- Esther 3:9 If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will deposit ten thousand talents of silver into the royal treasury to pay those who carry it out.”
- Esther 6:13 Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened. His advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, “Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has begun, is Jewish, you will not prevail against him—for surely you will fall before him.”
- Esther 7:5 Then King Xerxes spoke up and asked Queen Esther, “Who is this, and where is the one who would devise such a scheme?”
- Esther 7:10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the fury of the king subsided.
- Proverbs 5:22 The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
- Proverbs 29:6 An evil man is caught by his own sin, but a righteous one sings and rejoices.
- Ezekiel 32:3 This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will spread My net over you with a company of many peoples, and they will draw you up in My net.