“It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.”
"By disease the firstborn of death is devoured; the limbs of his body are devoured." Disease consumes the wicked person's body. The metaphor of "firstborn of death" suggests that sickness is death's offspring, its representative. The verse emphasizes disease as progressive consumption.
Church Fathers on Job 18:13
Let it devour the beauty of his skin; and let the firstborn death consume his arms. ‘The beauty of his skin’ is temporal glory, which whereas it is coveted as an object without us, is retained as a beauty on the skin. But by the title of ‘arms’ works are not unfitly set forth, in that the work of the body is done by the arms. And what is death but sin, which kills the soul to the interior life? Whence it is written; Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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