Job 12:5

5. A lamp despised All interpreters acknowledge the obscurity of this verse to be exceedingly great. Schultens speaks of more than ten different opinions. “The words of this text are dark,” says the quaint Caryl, “and there are not a few who make the lamp the darkest word in it.” Rosenmuller and others render it: “A despised torch, in the thought of one happy, is he who is ready to slip with his feet.” Friends were meant for use. When no longer serviceable they are thrown away like burned out torches. Prosperity thrusts away the scaffolding by the help of which the edifice was built. Thus these friends basked in the light of Job’s success but now they treat him as they would a useless torch. Such is the way of the world in every age “to give to the tottering still another push.” Dillmann. But most critics properly regard the le of לפיד ( torch) as a prefix, and the pidh as meaning misfortune. For misfortune ( there is) scorn in the thought of the secure; ( scorn) ready for those who waver in their steps. In like mariner Ewald, Conant, Hirtzel, etc. In the last clause Dillmann and Furst follow Eichhorn in rendering nakhon, (ready,) a blow or destruction.