Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,
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Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,
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Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
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Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said:
Cross-references (4)
Passages linked to Job 18:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Job 2:11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him.
- Job 8:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,
- Job 25:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,
- Job 42:7-9 It was so, that after Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has. Now therefore, take to yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept him, that I not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.” So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did what Yahweh commanded them, and Yahweh accepted Job.
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 18:1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
Job 18:1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
Ver. 1. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said] Not so much disputing as inveighing against Job in a sharp and angry oration, wherein he elegantly describeth the woe of a wicked man, but wrongfully wresteth the same against good Job, who might well say with him in Tacitus, Tu linguae, ego aurium dominus, If I cannot command thy tongue, yet I can command mine own ears; or with another, Didicit ille maledicere, et ego contemnere, This man hath learned to reproach, and I to slight his contempts and contumelies; unless I should yield, that wicked men only are grievously afflicted in this life present; that they are not to be reckoned wicked who prosper in their way, but those only who suffer extremely.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Bildad here shoots his arrows, even bitter words, against…
Bildad here shoots his arrows, even bitter words, against poor Job, little thinking that, though he was a wise and good man, in this instance he was serving Satan's design in adding to Job's affliction.
I. He charges him with idle endless talk, as Eliphaz had done (Job 15:2, Job 15:3): How long will it be ere you make an end of words? Job 18:2. Here he reflects, not only upon Job himself, but either upon all the managers of the conference (thinking perhaps that Eliphaz and Zophar did not speak so closely to the purpose as they might have done) or upon some that were present, who possibly took part with Job, and put in a word now and then in his favour, though it be not recorded. Bildad was weary of hearing others speak, and impatient till it came to his turn, which cannot be observed to any man's praise, for we ought to be swift to hear and slow to speak. It is common for contenders to monopolize the reputation of wisdom, and then to insist upon it as their privilege to be dictators. How unbecoming this conduct is in others every one can see; but few that are guilty of it can see it in themselves. Time was when Job had the last word in all debates (Job 29:22): After my words they spoke not again. Then he was in power and prosperity; but now that he was impoverished and brought low he could scarcely be allowed to speak at all, and every thing he said was as much vilified as formerly it had been magnified. Wisdom therefore (as the world goes) is good with an inheritance (Ecc 7:11); for the poor man's wisdom is despised, and, because he is poor, his words are not heard, Ecc 9:16.
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II. With a regardlessness of what was said to him, intimated in that, Mark, and afterwards we will speak. And it is to no purpose to speak, though what is said be ever so much to the purpose, if those to whom it is addressed will not mark and observe it. Let the ear be opened to hear as the learned, and then the tongues of the learned will do good service (Isa 50:4) and not otherwise. It is an encouragement to those that speak of the things of God to see the hearers attentive.
III. With a haughty contempt and disdain of his friends and of that which they offered (Job 18:3): Wherefore are we counted as beasts? This was invidious. Job had indeed called them mockers, had represented them both as unwise and as unkind, wanting both in the reason and tenderness of men, but he did not count them beasts; yet Bildad so represents the matter, 1. Because his high spirit resented what Job had said as if it had been the greatest affront imaginable. Proud men are apt to think themselves slighted more than really they are. 2. Because his hot spirit was willing to find a pretence to be hard upon Job. Those that incline to be severe upon others will have it thought that others have first been so upon them.
IV. With outrageous passion: He teareth himself in his anger, Job 18:4. Herein he seems to reflect upon what Job had said (Job 13:14): Wherefore did I take my flesh in my teeth? "It is thy own fault," says Bildad. Or he reflected upon what he said Job 16:9, where he seemed to charge it upon God, or, as some think, upon Eliphaz: He teareth me in his wrath. "No," says Bildad; "thou alone shalt bear it." He teareth himself in his anger. Note, Anger is a sin that is its own punishment. Fretful passionate people tear and torment themselves. He teareth his soul (so the word is); every sin wounds the soul, tears that, wrongs that (Pro 8:36), unbridled passion particularly.
V. With a proud and arrogant expectation to give law even to Providence itself: "Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? Surely not; there is no reason for that, that the course of nature should be changed and the settled rules of government violated to gratify the humour of one man. Job, dost thou think the world cannot stand without thee; but that, if thou art ruined, all the world is ruined and forsaken with thee?" Some make it a reproof of Job's justification of himself, falsely insinuating that either Job was a wicked man or we must deny a Providence and suppose that God has forsaken the earth and the rock of ages is removed. It is rather a just reproof of his passionate complaints. When we quarrel with the events of Providence we forget that, whatever befals us, it is, 1. According to the eternal purpose and counsel of God. 2. According to the written word. Thus it is written that in the world we must have tribulation, that, since we sin daily, we must expect to smart for it; and, 3. According to the usual way and custom, the track of Providence, nothing but what is common to men; and to expect that God's counsels should change, his method alter, and his word fail, to please us, is as absurd and unreasonable as to think the earth should be forsaken for us and the rock removed out of its place.
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John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said. Who, next…
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said. Who, next to Eliphaz, spoke before, and now in his turn attacks Job a second time, and more roughly and severely than before; now he gives him no advice or counsel, nor any instructions and exhortations for his good, nor suggests that it might be better times with him again, as he had done before; but only heaps up charges against him, and describes the miserable circumstances of a wicked man, as near to Job's as he could; thereby endeavouring to confirm his former position, that wicked men are punished of God, and to have this conclusion drawn from it, that Job must needs be a wicked man, since he was so greatly afflicted.
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said. Who, next to Eliphaz, spoke before, and now in his turn attacks Job a second time, and more roughly and severely than before; now he gives him no advice or counsel, nor any instructions and exhortations for his good, nor suggests that it might be better times with him again, as he had done before; but only heaps up charges against him, and describes the miserable circumstances of a wicked man, as near to Job's as he could; thereby endeavouring to confirm his former position, that wicked men are punished of God, and to have this conclusion drawn from it, that Job must needs be a wicked man, since he was so greatly afflicted.
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Job 18:2
job 18:2
job 18:2
job 18:2How long will it be ere ye make an end of words?.... Because these words are expressed the plural number, some think more persons than one are addressed, either Eliphaz and Job together, who are complained of as taking up all the time, and having all the talk to themselves, that another could scarce put in a word; Bildad could say this with a better grace, because his discourses were but short; or else all his friends, whom he blames for not stopping Job's mouth at once, and for lengthening out the dispute with him; as if he should say, why are you so complaisant to him, to wait till he has done speaking, before you reply? why do not you, without any ceremony, interrupt him, and not suffer him to go on with his prate, a man that is so insufferably rude as to reckon us all as beasts? and to what purpose is it to talk to such a man, that is so hardened and incorrigible, so proud and conceited? it is all labour in vain, and mere beating the air; it is high time to have done talking, and to put an end to the dispute, when things are such a pass with him as they are: or else the words are directed to Job, and his friends that were with him, who might now and then speak a word in his behalf, though their words are not recorded; or, however, by their looks or gestures might show their approbation of Job's defences: that there were others present besides Job and his three friends, it is probable; yea, it is certain that Elihu was present all the while, but he was not altogether of Job's mind; nor does it appear that he had any to take his part, for his brethren, acquaintance, kinsfolk, and familiar friends, stood at a distance from him, and his maids and menservants used him ill; and even his own wife was not very kind to him, as he declares in the following chapter; wherefore it seems best of all to understand these words as spoken to Job alone, the plural being used for the singular, according to the idiom of the tongue in which they were spoken, and so are a charge of loquacity against him for talking too much, and too long, unless it had been to better purpose; and in like manner Bildad begins his first reply to Job, Job 8:2; a late interpreter renders the words, "how long will you lay snares with words" (e)? use cautious words, set snares with words to catch, lie upon the catch, and lay hold upon a word, and improve it to disadvantage, which is imprudently or inadvertently dropped:
mark, and afterwards we will speak; or "let us speak" (f); after we have well considered things, got a right understanding of them, and thoroughly digested them, and have well concerted things, and have thought very closely what reply to make to them; and so the words are a tacit reflection of Bildad's on his other two friends, that they spoke before they thought, and therefore some things impertinently, which Job took the advantage of against them; wherefore it would be right, for the future, to mark and consider things well beforehand, and then speak, as they then would with greater propriety, and more to the purpose: public speakers especially, or such who are engaged in public service, or in a public dispute, should meditate beforehand what to say, lest they deliver what is crude and undigested, and may be turned against them. Our Lord indeed directed his disciples, when called before kings and, governors for his sake, not to premeditate what they should answer; but that was an extraordinary case, and they were promised to have extraordinary assistance, whereby some great ends were to be answered, the confusion of their enemies, and the confirmation of the Christian religion. But the words seem rather directed to Job, and to carry in them a charge of inattention to what was said to him by his friends; and therefore Bildad exhorts him to mark and observe what they said to him, to listen attentively to that, and well consider it, and then it would be an encouragement to them to proceed in discoursing with him. Job is represented like some hearers, that stop their ears to the voice of the charmer charming ever so wisely; or that are careless and inattentive to what they hear, and let it pass, and never think of it more; whereas hearers of the word should be swift to hear, and listen with attention, and take care that they let not slip what they have heard, and that they meditate upon it in order to get instruction by it, and when they hear in such a manner it is? a encouragement to speak; or else the sense is, "act wisely" (g), like an honest man, and show yourself to be a wise man, a man of understanding, that well weighs and considers things, and rightly takes them in, and receives instruction by them, and talks like a sensible man: "then afterwards we will speak"; or otherwise, if you go on to talk in the foolish manner you do, it is to no purpose to carry on the dispute; the best way is to put an end to it at once.
(e) Schultens. (f) "et postea loquamur", Piscator, Mercerus, Cocceius. (g) "diserte agatis", Schultens.
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John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Bildad sharply reproves Job, as proud and impatient, ver.…
Bildad sharply reproves Job, as proud and impatient, ver. 1- 4. And enlarges on the misery of the wicked, ver. 5-12.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Bildad, in a speech of passionate invective, accuses Job…
CHAPTER XVIII
Bildad, in a speech of passionate invective, accuses Job of
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impatience and impiety, 1-4;
shows the fearful end of the wicked and their posterity; and
apparently applies the whole to Job, whom he threatens with
the most ruinous end, 5-21.
NOTES ON CHAP. XVIII
Verse 1. Then answered Bildad] The following analysis of this speech, by Mr. Heath, is judicious: "Bildad, irritated to the last degree that Job should treat their advice with so much contempt, is no longer able to keep his passions within the bounds of decency. He proceeds to downright abuse; and finding little attention given by Job to his arguments, he tries to terrify him into a compliance. To that end he draws a yet more terrible picture of the final end of wicked men than any yet preceding, throwing in all the circumstances of Job's calamities, that he might plainly perceive the resemblance, and at the same time insinuating that he had much worse still to expect, unless he prevented it by a speedy change of behaviour. That it was the highest arrogance in him to suppose that he was of consequence enough to be the cause of altering the general rules of Providence, Job 18:4. And that it was much more expedient for the good of the whole, that he, by his example, should deter others from treading in the same path of wickedness and folly;" Job 18:5-7.
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Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Job 18:1. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite — Bildad,…
Job 18:1. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite — Bildad, irritated to the last degree that Job should treat their advice with so much contempt, is no longer able to keep his passions within the bounds of decency, He proceeds to downright abuse; and, finding little attention given by Job to his arguments, he tries to terrify him into a compliance. To that end he draws a yet more terrible picture of the final end of a wicked man than any preceding; throwing in all the circumstances of Job’s calamities, that he might plainly perceive the resemblance; and, at the same time, insinuating that he had much worse still to expect, unless he prevented it by a speedy change of behaviour. That it was the highest arrogance in him to suppose that he was of consequence enough to be the cause of altering the general rules of providence, And that it was much more expedient for the good of the whole, that he, by his example, should deter others from treading in the same path of wickedness and folly. — Heath.
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Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain II. Bildad and Job: Ch. 18–19
II. Bildad and Job: Ch. 18–19
A.—Bildad: Job’s passionate outbreaks are useless, for the Divine ordinance, instituted from of old, is still in force, securing that the hardened sinner’s doom shall suddenly and surely overtake him
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Job 18
1. Sharp rebuke of Job, the foolish and blustering boaster:
Job_18:1-4
1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said:
2 How long will it be ere ye make an end of words?
Mark, and afterwards we will speak.
3 Wherefore are we counted as beasts,
and reputed vile in your sight?
4 He teareth himself in his anger!
shall the earth be forsaken for thee?
and shall the rock be removed out of his place?
2. Description of the dreadful doom of the hardened evil-doer:
Job_18:5-21
5 Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out,
and the spark of his fire shall not shine.
6 The light shall be dark in his tabernacle,
and his candle shall be put out with him.
7 The steps of his strength shall be straitened,
and his own counsel shall cast him down.
8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
and he walketh upon a snare.
9 The gin shall take him by the heel,
and the robber shall prevail against him.
10 The snare is laid for him in the ground,
and a trap for him in the way.
11 Terrors shall make him afraid on every side,
and shall drive him to his feet.
12 His strength shall be hunger-bitten,
and destruction shall be ready at his side.
13 It shall devour the strength of his skin;
even the first-born of death shall devour his strength.
14 His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle,
and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.
15 It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his;
brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.
16 His roots shall be dried up beneath,
and above shall his branch be cut off.
17 His remembrance shall perish from the earth,
and he shall have no name in the street.
18 He shall be driven from light into darkness,
and chased out of the world.
19 He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people
nor any remaining in his dwellings.
20 They that come after him shall be astonished at his day,
as they that went before were affrighted.
21 Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked,
and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. In opposition to Job’s solemn appeal to God as a witness of his innocence, Bildad continues fixed in his former preconceived opinion, that a secret crime must be the cause of his heavy burden of suffering. After a short, sharp, censorious introduction, in which he pays back Job’s bitter and harsh reprimands in the same coin, (Job_18:2-4), he shows that, notwithstanding Job’s passionate bluster, the old divine decree was still in force, by virtue of which a sudden merited punishment from God carries off the hardened sinner, and with him his entire household and race (vers 5–21). He thus presents a companion piece to that description of the doom of the ungodly with which Eliphaz had closed his preceding discourse (Job_15:20-35), this delineation of Bildad’s being new only in form, but being similar to that of Eliphaz throughout as to its substance and tendency. The whole discourse is divided into six strophes of three to four verses each, of which the first forms the introductory section spoken of above, while the remaining five belongs to the long main division, Job_18:5-21.
2. Introduction and First Strophe: A short, sharp rebuke of Job as a foolish boaster, raving with passion; Job_18:2-4.
Job_18:2. How long will ye yet hunt for words?—Let it be observed that Bildad’s former discourse began with a like impatient question, Job_8:2 (there עַד־אָן, here עַד־אָנָה) and further, that he addresses his opponent in the plural, for the reason that the latter had himself first made his cause identical with the cause of all the righteous, and had thereby himself provoked this representative association of his person with all who were like-minded. [“Some say that he thinks of Job as one of a number; Ewald observes that the controversy becomes more wide and general [representing two great parties or divisions of mankind]; and Schlottmann conjectures that Bildad fixes his eye on individuals of his hearers, on whose countenances he believed he saw a certain inclination to side with Job. This conjecture we will leave to itself; but the remark which Schlottmann also makes that Bildad regards Job as a type of a whole class, is correct, only one must also add, this address in the plural is a reply to Job’s sarcasm (Job_12:2) by a similar one. As Job has told his friends that they act as if they were mankind in general, and all wisdom were concentrated in them, so Bildad has taken it amiss that Job connects himself with the whole of the truly upright, righteous, and pure; and he addresses him in the plural because he, the unit, has puffed himself up as such a collective whole.” Delitzsch], Still further Job had also begun his last discourse (see Job_16:3) with a complaint about the useless interminable discourse of the friends,—a complaint which Bildad here retaliates, although to be sure in an altered form. [“Job’s speeches are long, and certainly are a trial of patience to the three, and the heaviest trial to Bildad, whose turn now comes on, because he is at pains throughout to be brief. Hence the reproach of endless babbling with which he begins here, as at Job_8:2.” Del.]. שִׂים קִנְצֵי למ׳ is not “to put an end to words, to make an end of speaking” (so the ancient versions, Rabbis, Rosenm., Gesen. [E. V. Umbreit. Lee, Carey, Renan]), etc.; for a plural קִּנְצִים (with a resolved Daghesh for קִצִּים, [see Green, § 54 3]), for קֵץ. cannot be shown elsewhere. Moreover in that case we should rather look for the singular construction שִׂים קֵץ (see Job_28:3). [Merx introduces the sing, into the text. Rodwell renders עַד־אָנָה as an exclamation, and the following Imperf. (like that of b) as an Imperative,—“How long? Make an end of words.” So substantially Bernard, except that he supplies the clause following in Job_8:2. This construction however still leaves the plural קִנְצֵי unaccounted for. According to the usual construction the clause should have לֹא after עַד־אָנָה, to render which with E. V., etc. “How long will it be ere,” etc., is forced and gratuitous.—E.]. We are to take קִנְצֵי (with Castell., Schult., J. D. Michaelis, Ewald, Hirzel, Del. [Dillm., Schlottm., Con., Words.], etc.), as plur. constr. of קָנֵץlaqueus (a hunter’s noose, a snare), so that the phrase under consideration signifies, “making a hunt for, hunting after words” (laqueus verbis tenders, verba venando capere). By this however is intended not contradiction and opposition perpetually renewed, but only uninterrupted, yet useless speaking. [Fürst, while agreeing with the above derivation of קִנְצֵי, explains it here as fig. for perversion, contortion: “how long will ye make a perversion of words?” But this explanation of the figure is less natural and appropriate. Bildad’s charge against Job and his party is that they were hunting after words, straining after something to say, when there was really nothing to be said.—E.]—Understand, and afterwards we will speak.—תָּבִינוּ, “will you understand,” voluntative for the Imperative בִּינוּ; comp. on Job_17:10 a.
Job_18:3. Why are we accounted as the brute?—a harsh allusion to Job_17:4; Job_17:10; comp. also Psa_73:22.—Are regarded as stupid in your eyes?—נִטְמִינוּ, from = טמה טמם ,אטם, “to stop up,” hence lit. “are (are treated as) stopped up in your eyes,” i. e. are in your opinion stupid, blockheads (comp. the similar phrase in Isa_59:1). The LXX. exchange the word, which does not appear elsewhere, for נִדְמִינוּ, σεσιωπήκαμεν; the Targ. gives טמענא, “are sunk.” The Vulg. finally (followed by many moderns, including Dillmann [Ewald, Noyes, Lee, Con., Car., Rod., and so E. V.]) derives the word from טמא = טמה, “to be impure” (Lev_11:43), and translates accordingly: et sorduimus coram vobis. But this meaning would be a stronger departure from that of the first member than is allowed by the structure of the verses elsewhere in this discourse, which exhibit throughout a thoroughly rigid parallelism. Moreover it would obscure too much the antithetic reference to Job_17:8-9.
Job_18:4. O thou, who tearest thyself in thy rage.—This exclamation, which is prefixed to the address proper to Job, and put in the third person ([so apud Arabes ubique fere, Schult.], comp. Job_17:10 a), is in direct contradiction to the saying of Job in Job_16:9, which represents him as torn by God, whereas he proves that the cause of the tearing is his own furious passion.—For thee [LXX. probably reading הַבְמוּתְךָ, which Merx adopts into the text, render ἐὰν σὺ αποθάνης] should the earth be depopulated [lit. forsaken] (comp. עזב in Isa_7:16; Isa_6:12) [on the form תֵּעָזַב, with Pattach in the ultimate, see Green, § 91, 6], and a rock remove out of its place (comp. Job_14:18; Job_9:5). Both these things would come to pass if the moral order of the world, established by God as an unchangeable law, more especially as it reveals itself in rewarding the good and punishing the wicked, were to depart from its fixed course; or in other words, should God cease to be a righteous rewarder. For that, as Bildad thinks, is what Job really desires in denying his guilt; his passionate incessant assertion of his innocence points to a dissolution of the whole sacred fabric of universal order as established by God (comp. Rom_3:5-6). [A fine and most effective stroke of sarcasm. On the one side, the puny, impotent storming of Job’s wrath; on the other, the calm, unalterable movement of Divine Law. How foolish the former when confronting the latter! And by what right could he expect the Divine Order to be overthrown for his sake? For thee (emphatic) is everything to be plunged into desolation and chaos?—E.]
3. The terrible doom of hardened sinners, described as a salutary warning and instruction, for Job: Job_18:5-21.
Second Strophe: Job_18:5-7. [The destruction of the wicked declared.]
Job_18:5. Notwithstanding, the light of the wicked shall go out.—גַּם adding to that which has already been said something new and unexpected, like ὅμως, equivalent to “notwithstanding;” comp. Psa_129:2; Eze_16:28. The “light going out” is a figure of prosperity destroyed (comp. Job_30:26); so also in the i second member: and the flames of his fire shine not. As to שָׁבִיב, “flame,” comp. Dan_3:22; Dan_7:9. Also as to the transition from the plural in a (“wicked ones”) to the sing, in b (his fire), see on Job_17:5; Ewald, § 319, a.
Job_18:6. The light darkens (lit. “has darkened,” חָשַׁךְ, Perf. of certainty, as in Job_5:20) in his tent (comp. Job_21:17; Job_29:3; Psa_18:29 [28]; Pro_13:9),and his lamp above him (i. e., the lamp hanging down above him from the covering of his tent, comp. Ecc_12:6) goes out.—this figure of the extinction of the light of prosperity which is repeated again and again, is alike familiar to the Hebrew and to the Arabian; the latter also says: “Fate has put out my light.”
Job_18:7. His mighty steps [lit. the steps of his strength] are straitened: another figure which is “just as Arabic as it is Biblical” (Del.). Comp. in regard to it Pro_4:12; Psa_18:37 [36]. Also as regards the form יֵצְרוּ (not from יָצַר, as Gesen. [Fürst], and Hirzel say, but Imperf. form צרר, see Ewald, § 138, b. [The meaning is clearly: his movements are hampered, his powers are contracted by the pent-up limits which shut him in],—And his own counsel casts him down: comp. Job_5:12 seq., and as regards עֵצָה in the bad sense of the counsel of the wicked, see Job_10:3; Job_21:16.
Third Strophe: Job_18:8-11. [Everything conspires to destroy the sinner.]
Job_18:8. For his feet drive him into a net: lit. “he is driven, sent forth” (שֻׁלַּח, precisely as in Jdg_5:15) [by or with his own feet. A vivid paradoxical expression, conveying also a profound truth. The sinner is driven, and yet rushes on to his ruin. He is divided against himself. He pursues his course at once with and against his will.—E.]—And he walks over pitfalls.—שְׂבָכָה, net-like, cross-barred work, or lattice-work, applied here specially to a snare (as in Arabic schabacah, snare), hence a cross-barred covering laid over a deep pit. [“He thinks he is walking upon solid ground, but he is grievously mistaken; it is but a delicate net-work, spread over an unfathomable abyss, into which, therefore, he every moment risks to be precipitated.” Bernard.]
Job_18:9-10 continue still further the same figures derived from hunting, snare, cord and noose. In Job_18:8-10 there are six different implements mentioned as being in readiness to capture the evil-doer; a vivid variety of expression which reminds us of the five names given to the lion by Eliphaz, Job_4:10 seq.; comp. also on Job_19:13 seq.
Job_18:9. A trap holds his heel fast, and a snare takes fast hold upon him.—To the simple אחז, to hold, corresponds in b the significantly stronger חזק which, however, is used with עַל [instead of בְּ], thus giving expression to the idea of a mighty, overpowering seizure, [The jussive form יַחֲזֵק is used simply by poetic license.] On צַמִּים, snare [which is not plur., but sing., after the form צַדִּיק, from צמם], comp. on Job_5:5. [The rendering of E. V.: “robbers” is to be rejected here, as well as in Job_5:5.]
Job_18:10. Hidden in the ground is his cord, and his gin upon the pathway.—[The suffixes here undoubtedly refer to the sinner, and not, according to Conant’s rendering—“its cord—its noose”—to the snare of Job_18:9. “The continuation in Job_18:10 of the figure of the fowler affirms that that issue of his life, Job_18:9, has been preparing long beforehand.; the prosperity of the evil-doer from the beginning tends towards ruin.” Del.]
Job_18:11 unites the figures by way of explanation in a more general expression.—On every side terrors affright him.—בַּלָּהוֹת signifies two things at once—terrible thoughts and terrible circumstances, here naturally such as are sent by God upon the wicked to disturb him.—And scare him at his footsteps;i. e. pursuing him: לְרַגְלָיו meaning “step for step, close behind;” comp. Gen_30:30; 1Sa_25:42; Isa_41:2; Hab_3:5.—[E. V. “shall drive him to his feet” is ambiguous.] הֵפִיץ, lit. diffundere, dissipare, hence requiring a collective for its object (as e. g. “host” in Hab_3:14), or a word representing a mass (as e. g. “cloud, smoke,” comp. Job_37:11; Job_40:11, etc.); here, however, exceptionally connected with a single individual as its object, and hence synonymous with רדף, to chase, scare (comp. Job_30:15). [“It would probably not be used here, but for the idea that the spectres of terror pursue him at every step, and are now here, now there, and his person is multiplied.” Del.]
Fourth Strophe: Job_18:11-14. Description of the final overthrow of the wicked in its three stages: outward adversity, mutilation of the body by disease, and death—hence manifestly pointing at Job.
Job_18:12. His calamity shows itself hungry.—The voluntat. יְהִי used for the finite: comp. Job_18:9, also below Job_24:14.—אֹנוֹ, defective for אוֹנוֹ, is more correctly derived from אָוֶן in the sense of calamity, misfortune, than from אוֹן, “strength.” The latter rendering, which is adopted by the Vulgate, Rosenm., Ewald, Stickel, Schlottm., Dillm. [E. V., Umbreit, Good, Lee, Wem., Noyes, Con., Car., Rod., Elz.], yields a sense which is in itself entirely appropriate: “then does his strength become hungry.” [“But this rendering is unsatisfactory, for it is in itself no misfortune to be hungry, and רָעֵב does not in itself signify ‘exhausted with hunger.’ It is also an odd metaphor that strength becomes hungry.” Delitzsch.] But the rendering favored by the Peshito, Hirzel, Hahn, Del. [Renan, Words.], etc.—“his calamity shows itself hungry (towards him); it seems greedy, eager to devour him” agrees better both with the second member of the parallelism, and with the actual course of Job’s adversity, which began with a series of external calamities suddenly bursting upon him, to which Bildad manifestly refers. The explanation of the Targ. [and Bernard]—“the son of his manhood’s strength (comp. אוֹן in Gen_49:3) becomes hungry” destroys the connection [and “sounds comical rather than tragic,” Del.]; and Reiske’s translation—“he is hungry in the midst of his strength”—assumes the correctness of the conjectural reading רָעֵב בְּאֹנוֹ, which is entirely without support.—And destruction (אֵיד, lit. “a heavy burden, a load of suffering,” hence stronger than אָוֶן, comp. Job_21:17; Oba_1:13) is ready for his fall.—לְצַלְעוֹ might of itself signify “at his side” (lit. “rib”), being thus equivalent to בְּיָדוֹ, Job_15:23 (Gesen., Ew., Schlottm., Dillm.), [E. V., Good, Lee, Bernard, Wem, Words., Noy., Ren., Con., Car., Rod., Elz.]; but a more forcible meaning is obtained, if in accordance with Psa_35:15; Psa_38:18, we take צֶלַע to mean “limping, fall,” and so find destruction represented as in readiness to cast down the wicked.
Job_18:13. There devours the parts of his skin (בַּדִּים elsewhere “cross-bars,” or “branches of a tree,” comp. Job_17:16; used here of the members of the body: עוֹר here for the body; comp. on Job_2:4), there devours his parts the first-born of death [or with a smoother English construction, by inverting the order of clauses, as Rodwell: “The first-born of death shall devour—devour the limbs of his body”]. According to this rendering, which is already justified by the ancient versions, and which has of late been quite generally adopted, בְּכוֹר מָוֶת is the subject of the whole verse, and is placed for emphasis at the end. By this “first-born of death,” we are to understand not the “angel of death” as the Targum explains it, nor again “death” itself, as Hahn thinks, but a peculiarly dangerous and terrible disease, [“in which the whole destroying power of death is contained, as in the first-born the whole strength of his parent.” Del.]. Comp. the Arabic designation of fatal fevers as benât el-menîjeh, “daughters of fate or death.” The whole verse thus points with indubitable clearness to Job’s disease, the elephantiasis, which devours the limbs and mutilates the body,—an allusion which is altogether lost, if, with Umbreit and Ewald, we make the wicked himself the subject of the verse, understanding him to be designated in b by way of apposition as “the first-born of death, i. e., as surely doomed to death, and to be compared in the rest of the verse to one in hunger devouring his own limbs, as in Isa_9:19 [20].
Job_18:14. He is torn out of his tent, wherein he trusted:מִבְטָחוֹ as in Job_8:14. מִבְטָחוֹ is taken as the subject of the sentence by E. V., Rosenm., Umbr., Ewald. Noyes, Bernard. Good, Lee, Wemyss, Carey, Barnes, Rod., Merx, Delitzsch; the meaning being as explained by the latter: “Everything that makes the ungodly man happy as head of a household, and gives him the brightest hopes of a future, is torn away from his household, so that he, who is dying off, alone survives.” The rendering of our Comm. is adopted by Dillmann, Schlottm., Conant, Renan, Hirzel, Hahn, Heiligst.—It is defended by Dillmann on the ground that according to the order of the description the fate of his tent and household is not mentioned until verse 15; and also that by its position מבטחו stands in apposition to אחלו, whereas according to the other construction the order should have been inverted, מבטחז as subject coming immediately after the verb: grounds which seem satisfactory.—E.].—And he must march to the king of terrors: lit., “and it makes him march” (תצעידהו fem. used as neuter), viz., his calamity, the dismal something, the secret power which effects his ruin [“After the evil-doer is tormented for a while with temporary בלהות, and made tender and reduced to ripeness for death by the first-born of death, he falls into the possession of the king of בלהות himself; slowly and solemnly, but surely and inevitably (as תצעיד implies, with which is combined the idea of the march of a criminal to the place of execution), he is led to this king by an unseen arm.” Delitzsch]. The “king of terrors” is death himself, who is here, as in Psa_49:15 [14]; Isa_28:15 personified as a ruler of the underworld. He is not however to be identified with the king of the under-world in the heathen mythologies (e. g., with the Yama of the Hindus, or the Pluto of the Romans, with whom Schärer and Ewald here institute a comparison), nor with Satan. For although the latter is in Heb_2:14 designated as ὁ τὸ κράτος ἔχων τοῦ θανάτου, in our book according to Job_1:6 seq., he appears in quite another character than that of a prince of death. Neither can the Angel of the abyss, Abaddon (Rev_9:11) be brought into the comparison here, since the king of terrors is unmistakably the personification of death itself. We produce an unsuitable enfeebling of the sense if, with the Pesh., Vulg., Böttcher, Stickel, [Parkhurst, Noyes, Good, Wemyss, Carey] disregarding the accentuation we separate בַּלָּהוֹת from מֶלֶךְ, and render it as subj. of ׃תצעידהו “and destruction makes him march onward to itself, as to a king” [or: “Terror pursues him like a king,” Noyes]—a rendering which is made untenable by the disconnected and obscure position which, in the absence of a clause more precisely qualifying it, it assigns to לְמֶלֶךְ (instead of which we might rather look for כְּמֶלֶךְ).
Fifth Strophe: Job_18:15-17. Description of the influence of the calamity as extending beyond the death of the wicked man, destroying his race, his posterity, and his memory.
Job_18:15. There dwells in his tent that which does not belong to him: or again: “of that which is not his.” For מִבְּלִי־לוֹ may be rendered in both ways, either partitively (Hirzel), or, which is to be preferred, as a strengthened negation אֲשֶׁר מִבְּליִ־לוֹ, “that which is not his” (comp. the adverbial מִבְּלִי in Exo_14:11; also the similar, yet more frequent מֵאֵין; and in general Ewald, § 294, a). In any case לֹא־לַהּ in Job_39:16 may be compared with it. The fem. תשׁכון (for neuter) is explained on the ground that the forsaken tent is thought of as being inhabited not by human beings, but by wild beasts (Isa_13:20 seq.; Job_34:11 seq.), or wild vegetation (Zep_2:9).—Brimstone is scattered on his habitation, viz., from heaven (Gen_19:24) in order to make it, the entire habitation of the wretched man (נָוֵהוּ as in Job_5:3) a solitude, the monument of an everlasting curse; comp. Job_15:34; Deu_29:22; Psa_11:6; also the remark of Wetzstein in Delitzsch, founded on personal observation of present modes of thought and customs among the orientals: “The desolation of his house is the most terrible calamity for the Semite; i. e., when all belonging to his family die, or are reduced to poverty, their habitation is desolated, and their ruins are become the by word of future generations. For the Bedouin especially, although his hair tent leaves no mark, the thought of the desolation of his house, the extinction of his hospitable hearth, is terrible.”
Job_18:16. His roots dry up from beneath, and his branch (קָצִיר as in Job_14:9) withers above (not, “is lopped off,” Del. [E. V., Conant, etc.] comp. above on Job_14:2): [“the derivation from מלל “to cut off,” is here altogether untenable, for the cutting off of the branches of a tree dried up in the roots is meaningless.” Dillm.]. The same vegetable figure, in illustration of the same thing; see above, Job_15:32 seq.; comp. Amo_2:9; Isa_5:24, also the inscription on the sarcophagus of Eschmunazar: “Let there not be to him a root below or a branch above!”
Job_18:17. His memory perishes out of the land, and he has no (longer a) name on the (wide) plain.—As אֶרֶץ in the first member denotes the “land with a settled population,” so חוּץ denotes the region outside of this inhabited land, the wide plain, steppe, wilderness. Comp. on Job_5:10, also the parallel phrase אֶרֶץ וְחוּצוֹת in Pro_8:26 (see on the passage).
Sixth Strophe (together with a closing verse): Job_18:18-21. [After his destruction the wicked lives in the memory of posterity only as a warning example].
Job_18:18. He is driven out of the light into the darkness (i. e., out of the light of life and happiness into the darkness of calamity and death), and chased out of the habitable world. יְנִדֻּהוּ, from the Hiph. הֵנֵד of the verb תֵּבֵל ;נדד used of the inhabited globe, the οἰκουμένη. The third plural of both verbs expresses the subject indefinitely, as in Job_4:19; Job_7:3; Job_19:26. It would be legitimate to take as the object referred to by the suffixes, not the wicked man himself, but his שֵׁם and זֵכֶר (Seb. Schmidt, Ewald). The following verse however makes this interpretation less probable.
Job_18:19. No sprout, no shoot (remains) to him among his people.—The phrase “sprout and shoot” will most nearly and strikingly reproduce the short and forcible alliteration of נִין וְנֶכֶד, which is found also in Gen_21:23; Isa_14:22.—And there is no escaped one (שָׂרִיד, as in Deu_2:34, etc.), in his dwellings. מָגוּר, “lodging, dwelling,” elsewhere only in Psa_55:16. The whole verse expresses, only still more directly and impressively, what was first of all said figuratively above in Job_18:16.
Job_18:20. They of the West are astonished on account of his day (i. e., the day of doom, of destruction; comp. יוֹם in Psa_37:13; Psa_137:7; Oba_1:12, etc.), and they of the East are seized with terror (lit., “they take fright,” seize upon terror, in accordance with a mode of expression employed also in Job_21:6; Isa_13:8; Hos_10:6. The אֲחַרוֹנִים, as well as the קַּדְמֹנִים, might certainly, according to the general usage of the words elsewhere, denote “posterity,” together with the “ancestors” (i. e., the fathers, now living, of the later generations), hence the successors of the wicked, together with his contemporaries. So, besides the ancient versions [and E. V.], many moderns, e. g. Hirzel, Schlottmann, Hahn [Lee, Bernard, Noyes, Conant, Wordsworth, Renan, Rodwell], etc. A more suitable meaning is obtained, however, if (with Schultens, Oetinger, Umbreit, Ewald, Delitzsch, Dillmann), [Wemyss, Barnes, Carey, Elzas, Merx], we take the words in a local sense: the “men of the west,” the “men of the east,” the neighbors on both sides, those who live towards the east, and those who live towards the west [Dillmann inelegantly: “those to the rear, and those to the front”]. Comp. the well-known designation of the Mediterranean as הים האחרון (the western sea), and of the Dead Sea as הקדמוני (the eastern sea). [Del. objects to the former rendering: “The return from the posterity to those then living is strange, and the usage of the language is opposed to it; for קדמנים is elsewhere always what belongs to the previous age in relation to the speaker; e. g.1Sa_24:14; comp. Ecc_4:16.” Schlottmann, on the other hand, argues that the temporal sense is much better suited to the entire connection than the local.]
Job_18:21. A concluding verse, which properly lies outside of the strophe-structure of the discourse, similar to Job_5:27; Job_8:19.—Only thus does it befall the dwellings of the unrighteous, and thus the place of him who (לֹא־יָדַע without אֲשֶׁר, comp. Job_29:16; Gesen, § 116 [§ 121], 3), knew not God:i. e. did not recognize and honor God, did not concern himself about Him (Job_24:1). Hahn, Dillmann, etc., correctly render אַךְ at the beginning of this verse not affirmatively,=“yea, surely,” but restrictively—“only so, not otherwise does it happen to the dwellings of the unrighteous,” etc. For it is only by this rendering that Bildad’s whole description receives the emphatic conclusion which was to be expected after its solemn and pathetic opening, Job_18:5 seq.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Bildad appears here again, as in his former discourse, Job 8., as essentially an imitator of Eliphaz, without being able to present much that is new in comparison with his older associate and predecessor. So far as his picture of the restless condition and irretrievable destruction of the wicked (Job_18:4 seq.) is in all essentials a copy of that of Eliphaz in Job_15:20 seq., while at the same time this, instead of being the subject of a particular section, runs through his entire argument as its all-controlling theme, he appears poorer in original ideas than his model. At the same time he rivals, and indeed surpasses, his associate now again, as before, in wealth of imagery and in the variety of his illustrations derived from the life of nature and humanity, for the vivid and skilful handling of which the speaker is pre-eminently distinguished among the three friends. He uses the peculiar phraseology of the Chokmah with consummate art; and this aptness and elegance of style compensates in a measure for its lack of originality. Especially does his terrible portraiture of the wicked man encountering his doom, like that of Eliphaz in Job 15., or even in a higher degree than that in some particulars, acquire by virtue of these qualities a peculiar significance as regards its æsthetic beauty, its relation to scriptural theology, and its parenetic value. “The description is terribly brilliant, solemn and pathetic, as becomes the stern preacher of repentance with haughty mien and pharisaic self-confidence; it is none the less beautiful, and, considered in itself, also true—a masterpiece of the poet’s skill in poetic idealizing, and in apportioning out the truth in dramatic form.” (Delitzsch i. 332). Especially are the gradual steps in the destruction of the wicked (Job_18:12 seq.), and the participation of all that he leaves behind him, of his posterity, his property, and his memory, in his own sudden downfall and total ruin (Job_18:15 seq.), described with masterly power. All this is presented with such internal truth, and in such harmony with the experiences of all mankind, that the description, considered in itself, and detached from its connections, is well adapted to exert a salutary influence for all time in the way of warning and exhortation, and edification even for the Christian world.
2. It is true nevertheless that the malignant application to the person of Job of the sharp points and venomous stings of this portraiture, wonderful as it is in itself, destroys the pure enjoyment of the study of it, and warns the thoughtful reader at every step to exercise caution in the acceptance of these maxims of wisdom, which, while sounding beautifully, are applied solely and altogether in the service of an illiberal legal pharisaic and narrow view of life. [“Bildad knows nothing of the worth and power which a man attains by a righteous heart. By faith he is removed from the domain of God’s justice, which recompenses according to the law of works, and before the power of faith even rocks remove from their place” (see Job_18:4). Delitzsch.] The unmistakable directness of the allusions to Job’s former calamities (in Job_18:12-14 which point to the frightful disease which afflicted him; in Job_18:15, where the shower of brimstone is a reminder of Job_1:16 seq., and in Job_18:16, where the “withering of the branch” points to the death of the children) takes away from the description, although true in itself, that which alone could constitute it a universal truth, and lowers it to the doubtful rank of a representation having a partisan purpose. It compels us to regard its author, moreover, as a preacher of morality entangled in a carnal, external, legal dogmatism, destitute of all earnest, deep and pure experience of the nature of human sin, as well as of the divine righteousness, and for that very reason misunderstanding the real significance of Job’s sufferings, and doing gross injustice to his person. We are thus constrained to put Bildad, as a practical representative and teacher of the Divine wisdom of the Old Testament, far below his opponent. The practical commentator, especially when engaged in the continuous exposition of the whole poem, cannot help keeping in view these considerations, which impair the religious and ethical value of this discourse. In its characteristic traits and motives, it yields comparatively little that is directly profitable and edifying.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Job_18:3 seq. Oecolampadius: Truly the ungodly are vile in the eyes of the godly, and are recognized as being more stupid than brutes; but this is in accordance with a healthy judgment, and free from contempt. For the world was even crucified to Paul, yet what did he not do that he might benefit those who were in the world? The godly therefore seem vile to the ungodly in quite a different sense from that in which the ungodly seem vile to the godly; for to the one class belongs charity, which the other class in every way neglect; the former act without pride, the latter with the utmost pride.—Brentius (on Job_18:4): It is no common trial of faith, that we must think of ourselves as not being of such consequence with God that He for our sakes should change common events, and His own pre-established order. … We seem to think that God rather will change His usual course on our account.—Wohlfarth: God’s plan is indeed unchangeable and without exceptions, alike in the realm of nature, and in that of spirit. But we must beware of erring by arguing from that which is external to that which is internal. In that which pertains to the spiritual, the higher, that which is to decide is, not external indications, but reason, Scripture, and conscience.
Job_18:5 seq. Brentius: These curses on the wicked are that his light may be put out, and that the spark of his fire may not shine. For the Lord and His Word are true light and splendor, as David says (Psa_36:10 [Psa_36:9]; Psa_119:105). The wicked have neither, for they say in their heart: There is no God.—V. Gerlach: The light is here in general the symbol of a clear knowledge of man’s destiny, of serene consciousness in the whole life (Mat_6:22 seq.); the light of the tent carries the symbol further, and points to this clearness, even in a man’s daily household affairs, as something which ceases to be for the ungodly.
Job_18:17 seq. Lange: The memory which a man leaves behind him is of little consequence; it is enough if we are known to God in respect of that which is good. Many righteous souls are hidden from the world, because they have wrought their works in the most quiet way in God (Joh_3:21); while, on the contrary, many an ungodly man makes noise and disturbance enough, so that he is talked about after his death. …… But to the believing child of God it is still granted as his special beatitude that he shall see God, who will make his life an example, bringing it forth into the light, and causing it even after his death to shed a sweet savor to the praise of God (Pro_10:7).
Job_18:21. Brentius: Truly it is not without purpose that the Holy Spirit so often, even ad fastidium sets forth in this book the judgment which befalls the ungodly; it is to admonish us, lest we should be disturbed by the prosperity of the ungodly, knowing that the judgment hangs over their head, and will be executed most speedily, as you have most impressively set forth in regard to this matter in Psalms 73. For although the application of these judgments to Job by the friends is altogether forced, their opinions nevertheless are most true, and are written for our instruction.—Wohlfarth (on Job_18:5-21): By what tokens can we determine that any one truly reveres God? Not by his scrupulous attention to the external observances of religion, not by the external events which befall him, not by the individual good works which he does, but by the faith which he confesses, by the whole direction of his life toward that which is Godlike, by the composure with which he dies: Psa_73:17; Psa_73:19, etc.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1. Then answered Bildad — The wicked man, inflated…
BILDAD’S SECOND REPLY.
1. Then answered Bildad — The wicked man, inflated with vanity, may rage like a wild beast, but nature will keep on in her course. God, however, does not forget or neglect him, as is evident in the extinction of the lamp within his home and in the many snares laid for his ruin. Bildad proceeds to paint the doom of a miserable sinner — his darkest colours he draws out of the misfortunes of Job. That doom is inevitable, full of terror, overwhelming. Heaven fights against him with its fires, destroys his children, crushes all hope, chases him into the outer darkness, and sets him as a monument of perpetual desolation. “The description is terribly brilliant, solemn, and pathetic, as becomes the stern preacher of repentance, with haughty mien and pharisaic self-confidence,… a masterpiece of the poet’s skill in poetic idealizing.” — Delitzsch.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. Job had used very hard words regarding his…
1. Job had used very hard words regarding his friends; he had called them annoying comforters (ch. Job_16:2) and scorners (ch. Job_16:20), and complained of being beset by their illusory mockeries (ch. Job_17:2); and said that God had sent blindness and want of understanding upon them, and that there was not one wise man among them (ch. Job_17:4-10).
But he had gone further. He had appeared to regard himself and them in their treatment of him as types of two classes—himself as the type of the “upright” and “innocent” and “clean of hands” (ch. Job_17:8-9), exposed to the contumely and spitting of the “peoples,” the “godless” (ch. Job_17:6-8) and the ruthless (ch. Job_17:5).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) How long?—Bildad begins very much as Job himself…
XVIII.
(1) How long?—Bildad begins very much as Job himself had done (Job 16).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 1-21. Bildad"s second speech is no improvement upon…
Vers. 1-21. Bildad"s second speech is no improvement upon his first (Job 8). He has evidently been exceedingly nettled by Job"s contemptuous words concerning his "comforters"; (Job_16:2, 11 17:10) and aims at nothing but venting his anger, and terrifying Job by a series of denunciations and threats. Job has become to him "the wicked man" (vers. 5, 21), an embodiment of all that is evil, and one "that knoweth not God." No punishment is too severe for him.
Vers. 1, 2. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? (So Rosenmuller, Gesenius, Welte, Merx, Lee, and Canon Cook.) Others render, "How long will ye lay snares for words?" which is a possible translation, but does not give a very good sense. Bildad, a tolerably concise speaker himself, (see Job_8:2-22 Job_25:2-6) is impatient at the length of Job"s replies. He had already, in his former speech, (Job_8:2) reproached Job with his prolixity; now he repeats the charge. The employment of the second person plural in this and the following verses is not very easily accounted for. Bildad can scarcely mean to blame his friend Eliphaz. Perhaps he regards Job as having supporters among the lookers-on, of whom there may have been several besides Elihu. (Job_32:2) Mark; rather, consider; i.e. think a little, instead of talking. And afterwards we will speak. Then, calmly and without hurry, we will proceed to reply to what you have said.
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Vers. 1-21. Bildad to Job: an Arabian orator"s discourse.
I THE FAULTY INTRODUCTION. Bildad possessed at least three qualifications indispensable to successful speaking fervid imagination, glowing eloquence, and vehement passion. He was characterized also by three fatal defects want of calmness, or self-containment, want of prudence, and want of sympathetic tenderness. Being destitute of these, he blundered like an inexperienced amateur, starting out on his oration in a hurricane of passion and ill humour, planting daggers in the breast he hoped to win by his eloquence, and forfeiting, by the very keenness of his invective, all possibility of effecting good impressions by his words. He impeached Job of:
1. Senseless verbosity. Of speaking at an undue length; of talking for talking"s sake; of hunting after words in order to overwhelm his opponents; of speaking without consideration, talking when he ought to have been thinking, making words do duty for ideas; of speaking instead of listening to his betters (ver. 2). The first is the error of the facile-tongued; the second, of the shallow-pated; the third, of the conceited egotist. If Job sinned in either of these respects, he was not undeserving of reproof, much more if he erred in all. But Bildad, whose genius was not original, was probably moved to use the language of censure as much by a desire to imitate Eliphaz, (Job_15:2) or to retort upon Job, (Job_16:3) as by strong repugnance to the patriarch"s offence.
2. Unjustifiable contempt. Job had accused the friends of lacking spiritual discernment. (Job_7:4) Bildad interpreted the charge to mean that Job regarded them as brute beasts, devoid of sense and reason (ver. 3). If Job did so, he was guilty of altogether unwarranted depreciation of his fellows. That nature, which God made only a little short of Divinity, (Psa_8:5 Heb_2:6) must for ever be parted by a wide gulf from the irrational creation. Only when men voluntarily extinguish all spiritual susceptibility by continuance in sin can they be legitimately compared to the beasts that perish. (Psa_49:12, Psa_49:20) This the friends had not done; and it is certain Job had not called them beasts. But, being men of a high spirit, they were quick to take offence.
3. Self-devouring rage. An old insinuation of Eliphaz"s reproduced, (Job_5:2) with a specific allusion to Job"s language charging God with tearing him in his anger, (Job_16:9) in contradistinction to which Bildad averred that Job tore himself, literally, "his soul," in his anger (ver. 4), meaning that the patriarch"s misery was the fruit of his own frantic and excited behaviour, which again was the immediate result of his soul"s fretful and wrathful resentment against God"s providential inflictions. That Job"s behaviour under his unparalleled calamities was not perfect, is obvious; that his impatience was such as to call for censure from men, may be doubted. (Jam_5:11) Yet Bildad"s reproach suggests that while all "anger is a short madness," it is supreme insanity to fume and fret at the Divine dispensations, and that the most miserable man on earth must surely be he whose soul swells with rage against God because of his paternal chastisements.
4. Egotistical presumption. In the judgment of Bildad, Job appeared to imagine that the Divine Law, which connected suffering with sin, should in his case be suspended; but that, Bildad assured the patriarch, would be as likely to occur as that, in order to oblige him, the earth which God had appointed for man"s habitation should become tenantless, or the rock which Heaven"s ordinance has rendered fixed and immovable should be suddenly transported from its place (ver. 4). The reign of law in the material universe, and the fore-ordination of events in human history, have been frequently employed exactly as they are here used by Bildad, viz. to demonstrate the non-credibility of miracles, the inefficacy of prayer, the impossibility of such a thing as a special providence, and the intolerable arrogance of a being so mean and insignificant as man imagining that in any of the ways implied in these doctrines God would, in his behalf, interfere with the established order of things. But it h; no presumption to believe in what Scripture teaches the possibility of miracles, (Mat_19:26) the efficacy of prayer, (Psa_65:2 Mat_7:7 Jam_1:5) the reality of a special providence; (Psa_40:17 Mat_10:30) since the first can be proved by adequate testimony, while the second and third are supported and confirmed by the inner witness of conscience. Even the case pronounced by Bildad to be impossible, viz. the suspension of the moral law of retribution, has come to pass. The salvation of man through the cross of Jesus Christ attests the fallacy of Bildad"s fundamental assumption. And now Bildad, having proceeded thus far with his oration, for any good he was likely to do to Job, might and should have prudently relapsed into silence. Nevertheless, he preached an eloquent discourse.
II THE LOFTY THEME. The subject descanted on by Bildad was the inevitable retribution which sooner or later overtook the wicked. Set forth under an emblem familiar to Oriental poetry, viz. the extinction of the fire in a dwelling, and of the lamp depending from the roof of a tent (vers. 5, 6), it was depicted as:
1. Delayed. The evil-doer was not arrested by the hand of Providence the moment he set forth on his career, but was allowed for a season to thrive by his ungodliness, to amass wealth, acquire power, and secure friends, to become the head of a family or the chief of a clan, and to possess a tent, or rather a circle of tents, with his own commodious, well-furnished, richly ornamented, brilliantly lighted tabernacle in the midst. So Eliphaz saw the foolish taking root, (Job_5:3) and David beheld the wicked spreading like a green bay tree, (Psa_37:35) and Asaph witnessed the ungodly prospering until at last they were suddenly overwhelmed. (Psa_73:13)
2. Certain. Nevertheless, i.e. notwithstanding all contrary appearances, the sinner"s own security, his determination to resist or evade the pursuing Nemesis, his fierce resentment when the hand of the destroyer should apprehend him, "the light of the wicked should be put out." Not absolutely and universally true of their terrestrial career, it is yet positively sure that the prosperity of the ungodly shall decline, if not on earth, at least in the future world.
3. Complete. The glow upon the sinner"s hearth and the lamp from his roof should be equally extinguished. The light in which he sunned himself, i.e. his personal comfort and happiness, and the light in which he shone to others, i.e. his greatness and glory, should alike fade and become dark. Sometimes such experience is the lot of God"s people, as the case of Job testifies. Happy they to whom Jehovah is an everlasting Light, (Isa_60:19) and who, when they sit in temporal darkness, can rejoice in his cheering beams. (Mic_7:8)
III THE BRILLIANT ILLUSTRATION. The wicked man"s career, from the moment of his apprehension by misfortune till the hour of his complete destruction, was next represented in a series of graphic pictures. In these he appears as:
1. Snared by calamity. (Vers. 7-10)
(1) Unexpectedly; when, at the height of prosperity, in the fulness of pride, and conscious of strength, he stalks forth with giant strides to execute the wicked counsels he has formed. (Job_5:3 Ecc_9:12 Luk_21:34, 35 1Th_5:3)
(2) Willingly; as if disdainfully defiant of every attempt to arrest his career, marching deliberately into the toffs, so that practically "his own counsel casts him down," and "his own feet thrust him into a net" A melancholy example of that "vaulting ambition which o"erleaps itself and falls on the other side;" of that self avenging Nemesis which slumbers in the bosom of every sin, but especially of a great sin; of that terrible infatuation which sometimes seizes on the souls of wicked men, and impels them, with stupid blindness to, or reckless disregard of, consequences, forward to their own destruction.
(3) Effectually; the gin taking him by the heel, and the noose holding him fast, so that first his proud steps become straitened, and finally himself is cast down.
(4) Inevitably; the snare that is to arrest him lying already in the ground and only waiting his arrival, the import of which seems to be that the moment a transgressor enters on his evil path he starts upon a road that must sooner or later conduct him to ruin.
1. Haunted by terrors. (Vers. 11, 12) The evil conscience that he carries in his bosom, though long slumbering, at last awakes, inspires him with fearful forebodings of impending disaster, peoples all the atmosphere around him with ghostly apparitions which dog his footsteps, summons up before his startled vision, well-nigh every moment of his wretched existence, spectral shadows of coming woe, which paralyze his strength and utterly unman his wicked soul. (Cf. Eliphaz"s picture of a guilty conscience Job_15:21) of which Bildad"s appears to be an echo and imitation.)
2. Arrested by disease. (Vers. 13, 14) (On the expression, "the firstborn of death," see Exposition.) The obvious allusion is to such a malady as Job"s leprosy, which, when it apprehends a sinner,
(1) devours the strength (or bars) of his skin, i.e. consumes either the members of the body (Delitzsch), or" the muscles which are to the skin what bars are to a gate, or those passages and orifices, those inlets and outlets of the body, at which many forms of disease first display their presence and power (Cox);
(2) ejects him from his house, causing him who formerly sat in confident security within his tent to remove, as under the ban of Divine displeasure, from the presence and habitations of his fellow-men; and
(3) conducts him to the king of terrors, which death must ever be to the ungodly and impenitent, though to them who believe in Christ, who hath conquered death, its character and aspect are completely changed. (1Co_15:55 Heb_2:14, Heb_2:15)
4. Overwhelmed with destruction. (Vers. 15-17) And this in three particulars:
(1) the desolation of his homestead, which, being doomed, like Jericho, to remain ununhbited, is henceforth tenanted by "creatures and things strange to the deceased rich man, such as jackals and nettles" (Delitzisch), or haunted ever afterwards by ghostly terrors (Cox) a thought which Bildad again copies from the preceeding speech of Eliphaz.
(2) the extirpation of his family, even to its utter destruction, root and branch, so that neither he, the root, shall remain, nor any of the branches, his offspring, shall survive (vers. 16, 19) most terrible calamity that can happen to a Semite" (Wetstein, quoted by Delitzsch);
(3) the extinction of his memory, the complete perishing of all remembrance of him, so that his name is never mentioned in the land or on the street (Pro_2:22 Pro_10:7 Psa_34:16) a pitiable doom for those to contemplate who have no hope of any immortality beyond the posthumous renown which their great power, extensive fame, or notorious wickedness may enable them to secure, though a comparatively small deprivation for them whose names are registered in heaven, and will be held in everlasting remembrance by God even if they should be forgotten by man.
1. Thrust into dark ness. (Ver. 18) Chased from the world as unfit to live longer on the earth, (Pro_14:32) as afterwards, though falsely, Christ (Luk_23:18) and St. Paul; (Act_22:22) driven away from the light of day into the darkness of death, from the light of prosperity into the darkness of misfortune, from the light of happiness into the darkness of misery a terribly true picture of the fate of the impenitent.
2. Loaded with infamy. (Ver. 20) Transformed into an object of horror and amazement to
(1) the people of all lands who dwell in the East and those who dwell in the West" (Delitzsch); and
(2) the people of all times that come after," i.e. posterity, and "them that went before," i.e. the wicked man"s contemporaries. In this sense "the evil that men do lives after them," and "some men"s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment, and some men they follow after". (1Ti_5:24) The language of Bildad is true of the Sodomites, (2Pe_2:6) Balsam, (2Pe_2:15, 2Pe_2:16) Judas, (Act_1:18) and transgressors of a like order.
IV THE MISTAKEN APPLICATION. That Job was the subject of Bildad"s sombre sketch is apparent from the portrait of Job"s character prefixed by the speaker to his dismal harangue, the resemblance in many points of Bildad"s imaginary picture to the actual history of the patriarch, and the sharp incisive manner in which the moral of his tale is pointed out (ver. 21). Yet the preacher completely misdirected his discourse. For:
1. The character he portrayed did not belong to Job. Job was not a wicked man, and a man that knew not God, as Bildad was perfectly aware; but, as Job contended, and God himself allowed, "a perfect man and an upright, one that feared God and eschewed evil.
2. The sermon he preached did not apply to Job. Even of wicked men it was not always and universally true that retribution overtook them on account of their misdeeds. But of Job it was wholly incorrect that he was suffering for his sins.
3. The future he predicted was not experienced by Job. In part it seemed to be, but in its principal ingredients it was not. He was cast down from his prosperity, but he was not chased out of the world. The light was for a season extinguished in his dwelling, but it was afterward rekindled with greater brilliancy than before. His homestead was ruined, but not cursed, being afterwards re-erected and blessed. His first family was taken from him, but a second was bestowed. His name was not consigned to infamy, but has been crowned with everlasting renown.
Learn:
1. That no preacher should carry personalities to the pulpit.
2. That a great text should, if possible, be followed by a great sermon.
3. That an orator should study to be true rather than brilliant in his illustrations.
4. That discourses otherwise good are sometimes delivered to the wrong hearers.
5. That the predictions of angry prophets are seldom fulfilled.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-21. Renewed rebukes and warnings.
Bildad again replies, mentioning that the passionate outbreaks of Job are useless. He holds fast to his original principle, that, according to the Law of God, the hardened sinner will suddenly meet his doom. And some secret sin, he persists, must be the cause of the present suffering.
I INTRODUCTION: DENUNCIATION OF JOB AS A FOOLISH AND VIOLENT SPEAKER. (Vers. 1-4) He is one who "hunts after words." Let him be truly sensible and rational, begs this confident Pharisaic preacher. "Why do you treat us as stupid beasts? " he indignantly expostulates. "You tear yourself to pieces in your anger, and think yourself lacerated by God". (comp. Job_7:16) Does Job exact the earth to be depopulated and rocks to be removed for his sake? Bildad thinks that Job"s repeated assertion of his innocence aims at the subversion of the moral order of the world the holy order given by God. (comp. Rom_3:5, Rom_3:6) It is a grand thought, though misapplied by the speaker. The order of God, alike in nature and the human spirit, is unchangeable, and admits of no exception. But this order is not to be misunderstood by drawing conclusions from the outward to the inward life. Where the higher, the spiritual, is concerned, reason, Scripture, and conscience, rather than any outward tokens, must decide the truth.
II DESCRIPTION OF THE DREADFUL DOOM OF THE HARDENED SINNER. (Vers. 5-21) Most solemn and pathetic; a masterpiece of dramatic representation. A series of striking figures is made to pass before the eye of imagination.
1. The light of the wicked is put out; no flame leaps from his fire, no cheerful lamp hangs from his tent-roof. This is a favourite image. (Job_21:17 Job_29:3 Psa_18:28 Pro_13:9) The Arabs say, "Fate has put out my lamp" (vers. 5, 6).
2. Another figure: his steps are hemmed in current in the East and his own counsel overthrows him (ver. 7).
3. Again, the figure of the nets and snares and pitfalls, by which he meets his ruin (vers. 8-10). Terrible thoughts and dread events throng around him, and pursue him, like the Erinnyes of the Greek mythology messengers from God to disquiet his guilty soul (ver. 11).
4. Disaster and ruin are personified in the poetic description. The one ha san eager hunger for him; the other stands ready, like an armed foe, to cast him down (ver. 12).
III The description now TAKES A MORE PERSONAL DIRECTION POINTING TO THE STATE OF JOB.
1. His disease the terrible elephantiasis the "first-born of death," devours him piecemeal (ver. 13).
2. Expelled from his secure abode, he advances into the power of the "king of terrors" (ver. 14). He dwells in the tent of another, while brimstone from heaven desolates his former habitation. (comp. Job_15:34 Deu_29:22, 23 Psa_11:6) This, it is said, is still at the present day the most dreadful of images to the mind of the Semitic peoples the desolation of the home (ver. 15).
3. Another figure: he is like a tree, withered at the root, and topped above( ver. 16). An imprecation was written on the sarcophagus of Eshmunazar, "Let him have neither roots below nor branches above]". (comp. Amo_2:9)
4. His memory passes away from the land, and his name is known over the wide steppe no more (ver. 17; comp. Job_13:12). He is thrust out of the light of life and happiness into the darkness of calamity and death, and is hunted from the round habitable earth (ver. 18). No scion nor shoot springs from him among the people; none escaped from his utter ruin in his dwellings (ver. 19).
5. An awful impression is felt by all, in East and West alike, who contemplate so dreadful a doom. "Thus," concludes Bildad, "it befalleth the dwellings of the unrighteous, and the place of him that knew not recognized and honoured not God" (vers. 20, 21). Detaching this address from its inappropriate application to the sufferer, it is in itself a noble piece of warning and exhortation. Let us gather from it a few lessons.
6. The curse of the wicked is the extinction of the light of God, who is the Light and Brightness of the righteous. (vers. 5, sqq.; Psa_36:9, 10 119:105) The light, again, may be taken as a figure for the clear knowledge of man"s destiny, a clear consciousness in the whole life. (Mat_6:22, Mat_6:23) Then the light in the tent enhances the figure, and beautifully points to this clear consciousness in the daily relations of the house.
7. (Vers. 17, sqq.) The memory a man leaves behind is not of so much consequence as the consciousness in life of being known to God. There are many true and hidden ones in the world, whose deeds are done in secret for God"s sake; (Joh_3:21) and many godless ones, who make so great a stir and noise in the world that they are talked of after they are gone. It is a peculiar blessing to the child of God if he be made an example to any, and after his death a sweet savour ascends from his life to God"s praise. (Pro_10:7)
8. The repeated descriptions of the doom of the ungodly are intended to quell our envy at the sight of unhallowed prospering, and direct our thoughts to the inward, the only real life. How can we judge whether any one is a true fearer of God? Not from his religious observances, not from the external fortunes which befall him, not from his individual good works; but from the faith which he owns, from the whole direction of his life to the Divine, from the frame of mind in which he dies. J. (Psa_73:17, Psa_73:19, etc.; Wohlfarth)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Then answered Bildad the Shuhite.
Job_18:1-21
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite.
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The danger of denouncing wickedness
How wonderfully well the three comforters painted the portrait of wickedness! Nothing can be added to their delineation of sin. Every touch is the touch of a master. If you would see what wickedness is, read the speeches which are delivered in the Book of Job. Nothing can be added to their grim truthfulness. But there is a great danger about this; there is a danger that men may make a trade of denouncing wickedness. There is also a danger that men may fall into a mere habit of making prayers. This is the difficulty of all organised and official spiritual life. It is a danger which we cannot set aside; it is, indeed, a peril we can hardly modify; but there is a horrible danger in having to read the Bible at an appointed hour, to offer a prayer at a given stroke of the clock, and to assemble for worship upon a public holiday, But all this seems to be unavoidable; the very spirit of order requires it; there must be some law of consent and fellowship, otherwise public worship would be impossible; but consider the tremendous effect upon the man who has to conduct that worship! It is a terrible thing to have to denounce sin every Sunday twice at least; it is enough to ruin the soul to be called upon to utter holy words at mechanical periods. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
The second discourse of Bildad
We may look at the words of Bildad in this chapter in two aspects: as representing the reprehensible in conduct, and the retributive in destiny.
I. The reprehensible in conduct. There are four things implied in the second, third, and fourth verses, which must be regarded as elements of evil.
1. There is wordiness. How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? Job had spoken much. Wordiness implies superficiality. Copiousness of speech is seldom retold in connection with profundity of thought. But it promotes, as well as implies, infertility of thought. The man of fluent utterance gets on so well without thinking, that he loses the habit of reflection. Nor is it less an evil to the hearer. The wordy man wastes their precious time, exhausts their patience, and often irritates his auditors.
2. There is unthoughtfulness. Mark, and afterwards we will speak. He insinuates that Job had spoken without thought or intelligence, and calls upon him to deliberate before he speaks. Unthoughtfulness is an evil of no small magnitude.
3. There is contemptuousness. Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight? Job had said in the preceding chapter, Thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them. Bildad perhaps refers to this, and insinuates that Job had treated him and those who were on his side as the beasts of the field--senseless and polluted. Contempt for men is an evil: it is a moral wrong.
4. There is rage. He teareth himself in his anger. Bildad means to indicate that Job was in a paroxysm of fury, that he had thrown aside the reins of reason, and that he was borne on the whirlwind of exasperated passion. Hence he administers reproof: Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? As if he had said, Thou speakest as if everything and everybody must give way to thee; as if the interests of all others must yield to thee; and that thou must have the whole world to thyself, and all of us must clear off. Shall the rock be removed out of his place? As if he had said, It would seem from thy reckless speech that thou wouldest have the most immutable things in nature to suit thy comfort and convenience. Rage is bad. When man gives way to temper he dishonours his nature, he imperils his well-being, he wars with God and the order of the universe. Now we are far enough from justifying Bildad in charging these evils upon Job; albeit he was right in treating them as evils.
II. The retributive is destiny. What are the retributive calamities that pursue and overtake the sinner?
1. Desolation. The light of the wicked shall be put out. Light, by the Orientals, was ever used as the emblem of prosperity. The extinction of the light therefore is an image of utter desolation. Sin evermore makes desolate.
2. Embarrassment. The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own council shall cast him down, etc. In every step of the sinners path it may be said the snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him by the way. Truly the wicked is snared by the work of his own hands.
3. Alarms. Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet, etc. (verses 11-14). Fear is at once the offspring and avenger of sin. The guilty conscience peoples the whole sphere of life with the grim emissaries of retribution. Fear is one of hells most tormenting fiends.
4. Destruction. It shall dwell in his tabernacle because it is none of his, etc. (verses 15-21). His home will be gone; his tabernacle will be none of his any longer. His memory will be gone. His remembrance shall perish from the earth. Once his name was heard in the street, pronounced perhaps often in the day by merchant, manufacturer, clerk, etc., but it has passed away from all tongues. His presence will be gone. He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world. His progeny will be gone. He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people. His nearest relations will soon follow him to the grave, and none will appear to make mention of his name. Suffering must follow sin, as certain as season follows season. Hell is bound by chains stronger than those that bind the planets to the sun. (Homilist.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Job 18
XV.
A SCHEME OF WORLD RULE
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Job 18
BILDAD SPEAKS
COMPOSED in the orderly parallelism of the finished mashal, this speech of Bildad stands out in its strength and subtlety and, no less, in its cruel rigour quite distinct among those addressed to Job. It is the most trenchant attack the sufferer has to bear. The law of retribution is stated in a hard collected tone which seems to leave no room for doubt. The force that overbears and kills is presented rather as fate or destiny than as moral government. No attempt is made to describe the character of the man on whom punishment falls. We hear nothing of proud defiance or the crime of settling in habitations under the Divine curse. Bildad ventures no definitions that may not fit Jobs case. He labels a man godless, and then, with a dogged relish, follows his entanglement in the net of disaster. All he says is general, abstract; nevertheless, the whole of it is calculated to pierce the armour of Jobs supposed presumption. It is not to be borne longer; that against all wisdom and certainty this man, plainly set among the objects of wrath, should go on defending himself as if the judgment of men and God went for nothing.
With singular inconsistency the wicked man is spoken of as one who for some time prospers in the world. He has a settlement from which he is ejected, a family that perishes, a name of some repute which he loses. Bildad begins by admitting what he afterwards denies, that a man of evil life may have success. It is indeed only for a time, and perhaps the idea is that he becomes wicked as he becomes rich and strong. Yet if the effect of prosperity is to make a man proud and cruel and so bring him at once into snares and pitfalls according to a rigorous natural law-how then can worldly success be the reward of virtue? Bildad is nearer the mark with description than with reasoning. It is as though he said to Job, Doubtless you were a good man once; you were my friend and a servant of God; but I very much fear that prosperity has done you harm. It is clear that, as a godless man, you are now driven from light into darkness, that fear and death wait for you. The speaker does not see that he is overturning his own scheme of world rule.
There is bitterness here, the personal feeling of one who has a view to enforce. Does the man before him think he is of such account that the Almighty will intervene to become surety for him and justify his self-righteousness? It is necessary that Job shall not even seem to get the best of the argument. No bystander shall say his novel heresies appear to have a colour of truth. The speaker is accordingly very unlike what he was in his first address. The show of politeness and friendship is laid aside. We see the temper of a mind fed on traditional views of truth, bound in the fetters of self-satisfied incompetence. In his admirable exposition of this part of the book Dr. Cox cites various Arabic proverbs of long standing which are embodied, one way or other, in Bildads speech. It is a cold creed which builds on this wisdom of the world. He who can use grim sayings against others is apt to think himself superior to their frailties, in no danger of the penalties he threatens. And the speech of Bildad is irritating just because everything is omitted which might give a hinge or loop to Jobs criticism.
Nowhere is the skill of the author better shown than in making these protagonists of Job say false things plausibly and effectively. His resources are marvellous. After the first circle of speeches the lines of opposition to Job marked out by the tenor of the controversy might seem to admit no more or very little fresh argument. Yet this address is as graphic and picturesque as those before it. The full strength of the opposition is thrown into those sentences piling threat on threat with such apparent truth. The reason is that the crisis approaches. By Bildads attack the sufferer is to be roused to his loftiest effort, -that prophetic word which is in one sense the raison detre of the book. One may say the work done here is for all time. The manifesto of humanity against rabbinism, of the plain mans faith against hard theology, is set beside the most specious arguments for a rule dividing men into good and bad, simply as they appear to be happy or unfortunate.
Bildad opens the attack by charging Job with hunting for words-an accusation of a general kind apparently referring to the strong expressions he had used in describing his sufferings at the hand of God and from the criticism of men. He then calls Job to understand his own errors, that he may be in a position to receive the truth. Perverting and exaggerating the language of Job, he demands why the friends should be counted as beasts and unclean, and why they should be so branded by a man who was in revolt against providence.
"Why are we counted as beasts,
As unclean even in your sight?
Thou that tearest thyself in thine anger-
For thy sake shall the earth be forsaken,
And the rock be moved from its place?"
Ewalds interpretation here brings out the force of the questions. "Does this madman who complained that Gods wrath tore him, but who, on the contrary, sufficiently betrays his own bad conscience by tearing himself in his anger, really demand that on his account, that he may be justified, the earth shall be made desolate (since really, if God Himself should pervert justice, order, and peace, the blessings of the happy occupation of the earth could not subsist)? Does he also hope that what is firmest, the Divine order of the world, should be removed from its place? Oh, the fool, who in his own perversity and confusion rebels against the everlasting order of the universe!" All is settled from time immemorial by the laws of providence. Without more discussion Bildad reaffirms what the unchangeable decree, as he knows it, certainly is.
Nevertheless the light of the wicked shall be put out,
And the gleam of his fire shall not shine,
The light shall fade in his tent,
And his lamp over him shall be put out.
The steps of his strength shall be straitened,
And his own counsel shall cast him down.
For into a net his own feet urge him,
And he walketh over the toils.
A snare seizeth him by the heel,
And a noose holdeth him fast:
In the ground its loop is hidden,
And its mesh in the path.
By reiteration, by a play on words the fact as it appears to Bildad is made very clear-that for the wicked man the world is full of perils, deliberately prepared as snares for wild animals are set by the hunter. The general proposition is that the light of his prosperity is an accident. It shall soon be put out and his home be given to desolation. This comes to pass first by a restraint put on his movements. The sense of some inimical power observing him, pursuing him, compels him to move carefully and no longer with the free stride of security. Then in the narrow range to which he is confined he is caught again and again by the snares and meshes set for him by invisible hands. His best devices for his own safety bring him into peril.
In the open country and in the narrow path alike he is seized and held fast. More and more closely the adverse power confines him, bearing upon his freedom and his life till his superstitious fears are kindled. Terrors confound him now on every side and suddenly presented startle him to his feet. This once strong man becomes weak; he who had abundance knows what it is to hunger. And death is now plainly in his cup. Destruction, a hateful figure, is constantly at his side, appearing as disease which attacks the body. It is leprosy, the very disease Job is suffering.
"It devoureth the members of his skin,
Devoureth his members, even the firstborn of death,
He is plucked from the tent of his confidence,
And he is brought to the king of terrors."
The personification of death here is natural, and many parallels to the figure are easily found. Horror of death is a mark of strong healthy life, especially among those who see beyond only some dark Sheol of dreary hopeless existence. The "firstborn of death" is the frightful black leprosy, and it has that figurative name as possessing more than other diseases that power to corrupt the body which death itself fully exercises.
This cold prediction of the death of the godless from the very malady that has attacked Job is cruel indeed, especially from the lids of one who formerly promised health and felicity in this world as the result of penitence. We may say that Bildad has found it his duty to preach the terrors of God, and the duty appears congenial to him, for he describes with insistence and ornament the end of the godless. But he should have deferred this terrible homily till he had clear proof of Jobs wickedness. Bildad says things in his zeal of his spirit against the godless which he will afterwards bitterly regret.
Having brought the victim of destiny to the grave, the speaker has yet more to say. There were consequences that extended beyond a mans own suffering and extinction. His family, his name, all that was desired of remembrance in this world would be denied to the evildoer. In the universe, as Bildad sees it, there is no room for repentance or hope even to the children of the man against whom the decree of fate has gone forth.
They shall dwell in his tent that are none of his!
Brimstone shall be showered on his habitation;
His roots shall be dried upbeneath,
And above his branches shall wither;
His memory shall perish from the land,
And he shall have no name in the earth-
It shall be driven from light into darkness,
And chased out of the world.
The habitation of the sinner shall either pass into the hand of utter strangers or be covered with brimstone and made accursed. The roots of his family or clan, those who still survive of an older generation, and the branches above-children or grandchildren, as in Job_18:19 -shall wither away. So his memory shall perish, alike in the land where he dwelt and abroad in other regions. His name shall go into oblivion, chased with aversion and disgust out of the world. Such, says Bildad, is the fate of the wicked. Job saw fit to speak of men being astonished at the vindication he was to enjoy when God appeared for him. But the surprise would be of a different kind. At the utter destruction of the wicked man and his seed, his homestead and memory, they of the west would be astonished and they of the east affrighted. As logical as many another scheme since offered to the world, a moral scheme also, this of Bildad is at once determined and incoherent. He has no doubt, no hesitation in presenting it. Were he the moral governor, there would be no mercy for sinners who refused to be convicted of sin, in his way and according to his law of judgment. He would lay snares for them, hunt them down, snatch at every argument against them. In his view that is the only way to overcome unregenerate hearts and convince them of guilt. In order to save a man he would destroy him. To make him penitent and holy he would attack his whole right to live. Of the humane temper Bildad has almost none.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Bildad the bitterest and most hostile of the three…
BILDAD’S SECOND SPEECH
Bildad the bitterest and most hostile of the three friends. No speech as yet so insolent and provoking. Full of fiery scathing denunciation against—the wicked—intending, of course, its application to Job, without even the exhortation or promise to repentance.
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I. His introduction. Contains only angry and vehement reproof. Reproves Job—
1. For his loquacity and captiousness (Job_18:2). “How long will it be are ye make an end of words (or how long will ye lay snares for words?) mark (Heb. ‘understand,’ i.e., consider, viz., our arguments; perhaps, ‘be temperate,’ or. ‘speak clearly’), and afterwards we will speak” (or, “that afterwards we may speak”). Bildad’s language and tone not only passionate but contemptuous. “How long will ye,” &c., instead of “thou.” A great part of wisdom is to govern one’s temper. “A fool’s wrath is presently known; but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.” “Better is he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” Yet a wise man, from the weakness of human nature, may allow himself to be surprised into angry and contemptuous words. True wisdom characterized by meekness and gentleness—“meekness of wisdom.” The tongue and temper never more in need of a bridle than in a controversy. Easy to lose a religious spirit in a religions dispute. Christ, incarnate wisdom, a model in controversy—calm, patient, loving; always “meek and lowly;” reviled, without reviling again. Bildad impatient of Job’s reproof and depreciatory remarks in reference to his and his friends’ speeches. Represents Job as only catching at words; as like those Jews who “lay in wait for Jesus, seeking to catch something out of His mouth, and to entangle Him in His talk.” Observe—
(1) Passion is seldom truthful.
(2) Loss of temper generally proves weakness in argument. Consciousness of truth gives calmness in dispute. To bully an opponent is to confess yourself beaten.
(3) Patience and courtesy always due to an adversary.
2. For his pride and contempt (Job_18:3). “Wherefore are we counted as beasts (ignorant and brutish), and reputed vile in your sight?” Too much ground given in Job’s language for Bildad’s reproof. His spirit broken by trouble, and exasperated by their unfeeling, unjust, and deceitful conduct, Job had treated his friends with too much severity and contempt. Bildad particularly stung by Job’s contemptuous language in ch. Job_17:4; Job_17:10. Observe—
(1) “Grievous words” to be avoided, as always stirring up anger. In controversy, hard things apt to be said, and to be made harder than they are.
(2) Man’s moral as well as physical ‘goodliness as the flower of the field.’ Job not always able to answer with the “meekness of wisdom,” as in ch. Job_2:10.
3. For his passion (Job_18:4). “He teareth himself (or, ‘he that teareth himself,’ or, ‘thou that tearest thyself’) in his anger.” Job represented as a raging maniac. Probably too much foundation for the remark. Anger, according to a heathen sage, a short madness. Job’s appearance and demeanour probably that of a man not only deeply distressed but greatly excited. “Oppression maketh a wise man mad.” Arabs usually grave, solemn, unperturbed; yet capable of great excitement. Held highly discreditable for a good man to allow himself to be in a passion. Passion always injurious to the subject of it, both spiritually and physically. “He teareth himself in his anger;” Heb., “he teareth his soul.” Wrathful dispositions, says a Greek poet, are justly most painful to the parties themselves. “Wrath killeth the foolish man” (ch. Job_5:2).
4. For his self-conceit. “Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?” More bitter words. Cruel and unfeeling as addressed to a crushed and afflicted man. Proverbial expressions with the Arabs in reproving pride and arrogance. Reference to Job’s wish for a trial of his case by God, and his complaint of undue severity. Seemed as if he expected some special dispensation in his favour. The government of the world not to be abandoned for the sake of any individual’s concerns. The Almighty not to go out of the way of his usual procedure to meet any man’s wishes. The course of nature and the principles of the Divine government not to be arrested for any one’s special accommodation. For any to think so implies vain conceit of his own importance. Yet Job’s wish and complaint excusable. His circumstances peculiar. His treatment not in accordance with God’s ordinary procedure, and with the consciousness of his own character. Bildad’s questions founded in ignorance. Unnecessary for God to neglect the government of the universe, or contravene the course of nature, in order to attend to the concerns of an individual. Such attention a part of that government. The fall of a sparrow, as well as of an empire, included in God’s providence. Numbers the hairs of our head equally with the stars of the firmanent. Man, in ignorance or forgetfulness, transfers his own weakness and limitation to God’s Almightiness and infinity. The Divine government based on unchanging principles. Judgment and justice the habitation of God’s throne. Impossible and unnecessary to depart from these principles to meet any particular case. “God is a rock—His work is perfect; a God of truth and without iniquity.” God Himself, and the principles of His government, an immovable rock. His own unchangeableness, and that of His “immortal government,” the foundation of His people’s confidence.
II. Body of the Speech. Describes the experience and fate of the wicked (Job_18:5-20).
A favourite subject with these wise men in their dealing with Job. The object to terrify him into a penitent acknowledgment of guilt and supplication for forgiveness. The description meant to depict Job’s circumstances, and so to suggest, if not prove, his guilt. This and those similar ones in ch. Job_8:11-22, and ch. Job_15:20-25, probably recitations from the ancients, or the productions of the inspired poet, the author of the book. Extemporary versification, however, a highly valued accomplishment among Arab poets and philosophers. The object of Satan in these horrifying descriptions to irritate Job to cast off his religion in despair, as of no use to him. The class described—that of hardened transgressors, secret or open, who had enriched themselves by oppression or abused their power to the injury of others—men who neither feared God nor regarded men.—Job notoriously the reverse. Hence the mystery. The solution, according to the friends, in the secret iniquity of his heart and life. Job himself, conscious of his integrity, perplexed and distressed, and longing for a Divine explanation which should vindicate his character. Hence his occasional excitement and apparently extravagant language. Had to fight against appearances, manifest facts, and popular belief, or to confess himself a bad man. His outward and inward experience seldom, if ever, found except in notorious transgressors. Probably more frequent then than now. The following a highly-wrought picture, full of tragically sublime poetry. One image of horror followed by another still more terrific. The description that of a guilty man chased by the avenging justice of God—the Furies of the Greeks. The elements in the description—
1. Great reverse in circumstances (Job_18:5). “Yea (notwithstanding your complaint; or ‘also,’ take another description of the fate of the ungodly), the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark (or flame) of his fire shall not shine.” Perhaps more than a mere figure for the extinction of his prosperity and affluence. Probable allusion to the practice of rich Arabs kindling, towards evening, a fire in the neighbourhood of their dwelling, to invite and direct travellers to their hospitality. Such fires the glory of a wealthy Arab. Mark of the deepest adversity when no longer sustained. A frequent allusion in Arab poetry—
“Now by deepest want opprest;
Though once my hospitable light
Was blest by travellers at night.”—
Hariri.
Job’s fires of hospitality also now extinguished. (Job_18:6).—“The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle (or lamp) shall be put out with him” (or “over him;” Arab houses and tents always having a lamp burning during the night, that of the principal apartment hanging from the ceiling or from the centre of the tent; hence the lamp a figure for prosperity and happiness, its extinction indicating utter desolation). Death and misfortune darken the dwelling. Job’s present bitter experience. The experience of most at times. Only Jehovah himself an “an everlasting light.” Is so to His people, even in the midst of trouble. “When I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me” (Mic_7:8).
2. Removal of power and dignity (Job_18:7). “The steps of His strength (his steps formerly strong, as of a man in full health, prosperity, and power) shall be straitened” (confined as of a man in chains or imprisonment, or suffering from personal affliction). Image taken from a noble lion caught in the toils, and now lying prostrate. Picture of the contrast between Job’s former and present condition. For his former “steps” see ch. Job_29:6-7. Now lying on an ash-heap. Steps of strength soon changed into the feebleness of disease. Plans the most likely to succeed often, in Divine providence, impeded and rendered abortive. The misfortune of the wicked referred to their own sin as the cause. “His own counsel shall cast him down.” The lion caught in the toil when wandering about for prey. The wicked “snared in the work of their own hands.” Pharaoh’s counsel against Israel his own destruction. Cruel thrust at Job as a secret transgressor now caught in the midst of his ill-gotten gains.
3. Sudden and accumulated calamity (Job_18:8). “He is cast into a net by his own feet. (entangled with his feet in a net); he walketh upon a snare (walks unconsciously into a pit fall). The gin (or trap) shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him (or, ‘the snare lays hold upon him,’ so that he is unable to escape). The snare (or cord) is laid (or hidden) in the ground for him, and a trap for him in the way.” Image of a wild beast caught by the various stratagems of the hunter. Men’s calamities, especially those of the impenitent transgressor, often sudden. “As the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time when it falleth suddenly upon them (Ecc_9:12; see also Luk_21:34-35, and 1Th_5:3). The worst troubles those which come unforeseen. Job’s actual circumstances. Overtaken by sudden calamities in the very heyday of his prosperity. Variety of expression in the text to indicate the certainity and terribleness of the doom. “He who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit, and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare” (Isa_24:17-18).
5. Inward terrors (Job_18:11). “Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.” The terrors of an awakened and alarmed conscience among the consequences of persistent sin. Such terrors known in every land as overtaking the secret or notorious transgressors. “Who intent on evil ways will be able to defend his mind against the darts of conscience?” [Sophocles]. God’s scourge in the sinner’s own bosom. No rest or peace under its lashes. Attempts made to escape these “terrors,” but in vain. All flight ineffectual except flight through the cross. The terrors of conscience only quenched in the atoning blood of Christ. Job distressed at present by the “terrors of God,” but not those of an evil conscience (ch. Job_6:4).
6. Dreadful disease (Job_18:12-13). “His strength shall be hunger-bitten (famished; or, ‘his disease shall be voracious’), and destruction shall be ready at his side (or, ‘prepared for his side,’ or body,—ready to devour him). It shall devour the strength of his skin (the firm members of his body); even the first-born of death (one of the most dreadful of mortal diseases) shall devour his strength” (or, “prey upon his powerful limbs.”) Disease, with its feebleness and emaciation, personified as the executioner of Divine vengeance—the hungry hound of justice. Disease the result of sin; and often inflicted as a chastisement on the good and a punishment on the bad. Herod, the persecutor, seized and devoured by one of these dogs of vengeance in the midst of his pride and splendour (Act_12:21-23). Job’s terrible disease also, a “first-born of death,” to all appearance, and in the thought of his three friends, preying on him as a guilty transgressor. No creature, animate or inanimate, but may be made the instrument of Divine justice in punishing obstinate and impenitent offenders. Creatures, animal or vegetable, invisible to the naked eye, often the cause of most dreadful diseases. Cholera and the plague among the “first-born of death.”
7. Utter want and desolation (Job_18:14-15). “His confidence (whatever he trusted in—wealth, power, family) shall be rooted out of his tabernacle (utterly, violently, and for ever removed, as a tree torn up by the roots), and it shall bring him to the king of terrors (or, ‘terrors like a king shall urge him forward’). It (the terror or desolation) shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his; brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation” (as that of a man lying under Divine wrath, or as a place doomed to a perpetual curse; made, like the Cities of the Plain, a monument of Divine vengeance). “The rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and as an high wall in his own conceit (Pro_18:11). This implied to have been Job’s case. Expressly denied, however, by him (ch. Job_31:24). Such confidence to be rooted out, as his now appeared to be. Chaldeans, Sabeans, and the fire of God had left only a single servant to carry the tale. Terror and desolation, like a victorious and relentless general, had marched him out of his strong city, to sit like a captive among the ashes. Observe—
(1) “Riches profit not in the day of wrath.” A man’s house is his castle, but is unable to hold out against the judgments of God. Chaldeans and Sabeans only God’s instruments in stripping a man of his ill-gotten wealth, and sending him out of a dwelling to which he has no just right.
(2) Alas for him of whom it is to be said: “Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches” (Psa_52:7). The lightning that strikes down his cattle as truly God’s messenger as the brimstone that was scattered on the houses of Sodom and Gomorrha.
(2) Death emphatically a “king of terrors” to the impenitent. The terrors of death only to be dissipated by faith in Him who “through death destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil; and delivered them, who through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb_2:14-15).
8. Ruin of family and estate (Job_18:16-19). “His roots shall be dried up beneath (as under the influence of a mighty curse), and above his branch shall be cut off.” His property and family alike annihilated by divine judgments. The narrative in Chap. 1, a mournful commentary on this verse. Job’s case apparently the doom of the wicked; destroyed “root and branch” (Mal_4:1). “He shall be driven from light into darkness (violently driven away out of life and luxury into death and despair), and chased out of the world (as a malefactor not fit to live). He shall neither have son nor nephew (or progeny) among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings (either as relations to inherit his estate, or dependents who had been supported by his bounty). His remembrance shall perish from the earth (or the land), and he shall have no name in the street” (in the places of concourse in the city, or in the fields among shepherds and husbandmen). The great desire among the godless rich to make themselves a name, and perpetuate their memory and their family in the world. “They call their lands after their own names” (Psa_49:11). But “the memory of the wicked shall rot.” Only the righteous are worthy to be, and shall be, “held in everlasting remembrance.” Job formerly the greatest man in the East, and his praise in everybody’s mouth. Now likely soon to be forgotten, and his name never to be mentioned but with a shudder. So his friends thought. But Job was not a wicked man, and a different fate awaited him. His patience and piety have diffused a fragrance throughout the world. His name one of the brightest constellations in the firmament of Holy Scripture.
9. An astonishment and horror to contentpories and posterity (Job_18:20). “They that come after him (succeeding generations, or ‘those in western regions’) shall be astonished at his day (his history, and the awful fate that overtook him), as they that went before (his contempories, or ‘those in eastern regions’), were affrighted.” Men in opposite quarters of the world, and even future generations should be struck with horror at his secret or open wickedness, and the terrible doom that followed it. Sufficiently harrowing to poor Job, who might see his present experience pourtrayed in the description. His calamities already a cause of astonishment and horror, as they have been in all ages—
(1) For their terribleness and extent;
(2) Their unlikeliness to happen to such a man;
(3) Their suddenness;
(4) The rapidity with which they followed each other;
(5) Their singularity and unusualness;
(6) Their contrast with his former prosperity;
(7) The mark they bore of the Divine anger, notwithstanding his pious and upright character. Job already a byword by his own confession. Awful prospect of what would be the case hereafter, unless God vindicated his character in time. Oppression in all this description sufficient to drive a wise man mad. Observe—(i.) Satan terribly skilful in the means he employs to allure a man to his ruin, or goad him to despair. (ii.) Blessed proof of the reality of religion, that Job, notwithstanding all this, still held fast his integrity. (iii.) God’s thoughts in regard to his people not as man’s thoughts. Job’s sufferings have thrown around his name a halo of imperishable glory, while man thought they would only surround it with horror.
III. Conclusion of the speech
Bildad clenches the terrible description with an emphatic application, by which Job was to appropriate it to himself, or at least to take warning from it. “Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.” This with Job’s desolate dwelling before his eyes! Not always true, however, in this life. Bad men not always haunted with terrors and tracked with misfortunes in this world. All the worse, however, if the vengeance is deferred to another. Awful picture presented in this description, of the experience awaiting the impenitent transgressor in a future state. The New Testament, as well as the Old, declares that “God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Righteous vengeance to overtake all that “know not God, and obey not the Gospel of his Son Jesus Christ.” To sin wilfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth is to bring down a fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.
Bildad’s vehemence, however, overshot itself. His closing sentence such as unintentionally to bring consolation rather than despair. Conscience could whisper,—Thou art not the man. Job neither wicked nor one who knew not God. This certain to himself, though perhaps more than doubtful to his vehement assailant. Observe:—
(1) Certainty as to our character and standing needful to bear up against Satan’s terrible blasts. The scathing storm of Bildad’s fiery denunciations Keenly felt, but Job conscious he was a child and servant of God.
(2) Blessed to be able, amidst Satanic buffetings, still to cling to God as a Father.
(3) The believer safe even in the pelting of the most pitiless storm. The righteous in Christ is an ‘everlasting foundation,’ which floods of temptations and hellish assaults are unable to sweep away. The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe. That name blessedly known to Job (ch. Job_19:25). Is it so to the reader?
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain There is a fourfold light in our nature, placed…
Job 18:6
There is a fourfold light in our nature, placed there by our Creator, the Father of our spirits. There is the light of the understanding, the light of the judgment, the light of the conscience, including the whole moral sense, and the light of the religious sensibility. These lights are as branches of one candlestick, and they constitute the natural light in man.
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I. This light may be diminished—nay, even extinguished—by wickedness. Never let us forget that sin reduces the natural light within us, and continuous sinning involves constant decrease in that light. By continuing in sin there is a hardening process carried on, so that sin is at length committed without fear, or remorse, or regret.
II. All sin tends to destroy faith in God and to stop intercourse with God. It withers all sense of His presence and of personal relation with Him, so that the whole tendency of sin is to reduce the light within a man. A lessening of the light is necessary before we can sin at all, but following sin is a still further reduction of the light as the expression of a retributive Providence.
III. There is a Deliverer from this position of darkness. Unto us has been born a Saviour. Just as there is a sun in the heavens to give us light by day, so there has been born to us a Saviour; and if our sins ruin us, we shall have destroyed ourselves.
S. Martin, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 145.
References: Job 18:10.—Sermons for Boys and Girls, p. 257. Job 18:12.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1510. Job 18—S. Cox, Expositor, 1st series, vol. vii., p. 410, and vol. viii., p. 127; Ibid., Commentary on Job, p. 216. 18-21—A. W. Momerie, Defects of Modern Christianity, p. 116. Job 19:17.—Expositor, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 429. Job 19:20.—J. Robertson, Ibid., 2nd series, vol. vi., p. 255.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Bildad's Second Speech
Bildad's Second Speech
Bildad replies with a rebuke to Job and a reassertion of the miserable lot of the wicked already asserted by Eliphaz; not so much, however, with covert reference to Job, to whose case the description is largely unsuitable, as in answer to his impeachment of God's moral government.
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1-4. Bildad protests against Job's violent language.
2. RV 'How long will ye lay snares for words'; i.e. hunt for arguments. Mark] RV 'consider (the matter).'
3. Cp. Job_17:2, Job_17:4-5, Job_17:10.
4a. RV 'Thou that tearest thyself in thine anger,' a rebuke to Job's rash utterance in Job_16:9. Shall the earth, etc.] Did Job imagine that God's universal law that sin must be followed by suffering would be reversed in his case, because of bis expressions of indignation?
5-21. He insists on the misery in the present life and the dishonour after death, which are the portion of sinners.
5, 6. The sinner's house shall be desolate.
Tabernacle] RV 'tent.'
7b. His crafty plans shall be his ruin.
9. Gin] i.e. trap. The word was originally 'grinne.'
9b. RV 'a snare shall lay hold on him.'
11. Drive him to his feet] RV 'chase him at his heels.'
12. Hunger-bitten] exhausted by hunger.
13. Strength of his skin] RV 'members of his body.' Firstborn of death] i.e. a deadly disease.
14a. Render, 'He shall be rooted out of the tent he trusted was his own.' King of terrors] death.
15a. RV 'There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his,' i.e. his possessions will pass into the hands of strangers. Some read, 'Lilith shall dwell in his tent.' Lilith is a nocturnal demon, that plays the part of a vampire. Brimstone shall be scattered] a sign of God's wrath (cp. Gen_19:24; Psa_11:6; Isa_34:9).
17. No name in the street] he is quite forgotten.
19. Nephew] RV 'son's son.'
20. Render, 'They of the west shall be astonished at his day (i.e. fate), and horror shall seize those on the east.' His name will be a byword throughout the world.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Hab 2:5")
grave
Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Hab 2:5")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain CHAPTER 18 Bildad’s Second Address
CHAPTER 18 Bildad’s Second Address
1. New reproaches (Job 18:1-4)
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2. Once again, the wicked and what they deserve (Job 18:5-21)
Job 18:1-4. Bildad has the good sense in this second oration to be very brief. He, like Eliphaz, pays his compliments to Job and reproaches him. How long are you going to speak yet any way! You, you tell us that we are like the beasts, stupid and ignorant! Keep on with your nonsense, you but tear yourself in your anger, it is all unavailing and changes not things for thee. This is the meaning of his rebuke.
Job 18:5-21. Then the favored theme, the wicked and what is in store for them. Apart from the falsity of the application of all Bildad says to Job, his words are certainly true and very poetic. Thus he speaks of the wicked and his fate:
Terrors make him afraid on every side,
And chase him at his footsteps.
Through pangs of hunger his strength declines,
Calamity ever stands ready at his side,
The members of his body to consume,
Yea, death’s firstborn his members shall destroy.
His confidence be rooted out of his tent,
It shall lead him away to the king of terrors.
They that are none of his shall dwell in his tent,
And upon it brimstone shall descend.
All his words, though true, were consummated cruelty. It must have been torture and agony unspeakable for suffering Job to hear himself thus portrayed as the wicked man, whose lot is well deserved.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Bildad Attacks Job
Bildad Attacks Job
v. 1. Then answered Bildad, the Shuhite, in a reprimand which was more severe even than his first, 8, and said,
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v. 2. How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? He accuses Job of hunting for words, of offering longwinded, endless discourses, useless arguments. Mark, and afterwards we will speak. Job should first make use of sense, get the proper understanding, then there would be some chance to reach an agreement.
v. 3. Wherefore are we counted as beasts, as the brute, a harsh allusion to 17:4-10, and reputed vile in your sight, regarded as stubborn blockheads by Job?
v. 4. He teareth himself in his anger, an exclamation referring to Job and accusing him of a furious temper, which causes him to tear around in his rage. Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? Did Job think that on his account the earth would be depopulated? And shall the rock be removed out of his place? Just as little as Job could change the fact that men lived on the earth and that rocks were given their place for resting, so little could he change the fact that suffering was sent as a punishment for crimes of every kind. Just as little as he could expect everything to be plunged into desolation and chaos, so little could he expect the divine order to be overthrown for his sake. Bildad was firmly convinced that his opinion concerning the guilt of Job was right.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
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See: Poetry and Parallelism
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Bildad the Shuhite is speaking to Job.
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said
"Bildad" is the name of a man who is a member of the tribe of Shuah. See how you translated this in Job 8:1.
When will you stop your talk?
This rhetorical question means that Job has been talking for too long. This may be written as a statement. AT: "Stop talking!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
Consider, and
"Be reasonable, and" or "Think about these things, and"
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.