Job 6:18
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish.
American King James Version (AKJV)
The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish.
American Standard Version (ASV)
The caravans that travel by the way of them turn aside; They go up into the waste, and perish.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
The camel-trains go out of their way; they go up into the waste and come to destruction.
Webster's Revision
The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish.
World English Bible
The caravans that travel beside them turn aside. They go up into the waste, and perish.
English Revised Version (ERV)
The caravans that travel by the way of them turn aside; they go up into the waste, and perish.
Clarke's Job 6:18 Bible Commentary
The paths of their way - They sometimes forsake their ancient channels, which is a frequent case with the river Ganges; and growing smaller and smaller from being divided into numerous streams, they go to nothing and perish - are at last utterly lost in the sands.
Barnes's Job 6:18 Bible Commentary
The paths of their way are turned aside - Noyes renders this, "The caravans turn aside to them on their way." Good, "The outlets of their channel wind about." Rosenmuller, "The bands of travelers direct their journey to them." Jerome, "Involved are the paths of their steps." According to the interpretation of Rosenmuller, Noyes, Umbreit, and others, it means that the caravans on their journey turn aside from their regular way in order to find water there; and that in doing it they go up into a desert and perish. According to the other interpretation, it means that the channels of the stream wind along until they diminish and come to nothing. This latter I take to be the true sense of the passage, as it is undoubtedly the most poetical. It is a representation of the stream winding along in its channels, or making new channels as it flows from the mountain, until it diminishes by evaporation, and finally comes to nothing.
They go to nothing - Noyes renders this very singularly, "into the desert," - meaning that the caravans, when they suppose they are going to a place of refreshment, actually go to a desert, and thus perish. The word used here, however תהוּ tôhû, does not occur in the sense of a desert elsewhere in the Scriptures. It denotes nothingness, emptiness, vanity (see Genesis 1:2), and very appropriately expresses the nothingness into which a stream vanishes when it is dried up or lost in the sand. The sense is, that those streams wander along until they become smaller and smaller, and then wholly disappear. They deceive the traveler who hoped to find refreshment there. Streams depending on snows and storms, and having no permanent fountains, cannot be confided in. Pretended friends are like them. In times of prosperity they are full of professions, and their aid is proffered to us. But we go to them when we need their assistance, when we are like the weary and thirsty traveler, and they disappear like deceitful streams in the sands of the desert.
Wesley's Job 6:18 Bible Commentary
6:18 Perish - They are gone out of their channel, flowing hither and thither, 'till they are quite consumed.