Job 18:21

Surely such [are] the dwellings of the wicked,.... As before described; as that the light should be dark in them; a wicked man's confidence should be rooted out of them; everything shocking and

Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God. (Job 7:22 , margin, "The dwelling-place of the wicked shall come to nought" - Hebrew, 'shall not be').

i.e. Who doth not acknowledge, nor fear, nor serve God, as this phrase is used, .

Job 18:21 Surely such [are] the dwellings of the wicked, and this [is] the place [of him that] knoweth not God.Ver. 21. Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked] As sure as death it is so; and this is oft inculcated, because hardly believed. Bildad hints at Job in all this, and therefore speaks of the wicked here in the singular number; as who should say, Thou art the man. But Job’ s innocence served him for a Heptaboean buckler. And this is the place] That is, the state. Of him that knoweth not God] Periphrasis impii, saith Drusius; this is the character of a graceless man. "Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?" Psalms 14:4. No, none that they were a button the better for.

(21) Dwellings of the wicked.—That is to say, of the wicked man. As Bildad designedly uses the singular here, there can be little doubt that he as designedly intended this terrible and cruel picture to represent Job himself.

Verse 21. Such are the dwellings] This is the common lot of the wicked; and it shall be particularly the case with him who knoweth not God, that is Job, for it is evident he alludes to him. Poor Job! hard was thy lot, severe were thy sufferings. ON the elephant hunt to which I have referred, Job 18:13, I shall borrow the following account extracted from Mr. Cordiner's History of Ceylon, by Mr. Good: - "We have a curious description of the elephant hunt, which is pursued in a manner not essentially different from the preceding, except that the snares are pallisadoed with the strongest possible stakes, instead of being netted, and still farther fortified by interlacings. They are numerous, but connected together; every snare or inclosure growing gradually narrower, and opening into each other by a gate or two that will only admit the entrance of a single animal at a time. "The wood in which elephants are known to abound is first surrounded, excepting at the end where the foremost and widest inclosure is situated, with fires placed on moveable pedestals, which in every direction are drawn closer and closer, and, aided by loud and perpetual shouts, drive the animals forward till they enter into the outer snare. After which the same process is continued, and they are driven by fear into a second, into a third, and into a fourth; till at length the elephants become so much sub-divided, that by the aid of cordage fastened carefully round their limbs, and the management of decoy elephants, they are easily capable of being led away one by one, and tamed. A single hunt thus conducted will sometimes occupy not less than two months of unremitting labour; and the entrance of the elephants into the snares is regarded as an amusement or sport of the highest character, and as such is attended by all the principal families of the country." Account of Ceylon, p. 218-226.

5–21. The disastrous end of the wicked, in the moral order of the world, is certain The last verse naturally led over to this idea, which is the theme of the speech. The idea is set out in a great variety of graphic figures, and the speech is studded with sententious and proverbial sayings in the manner of the speaker’s first discourse (ch. 8). The history of the wicked man’s downfall is followed through all its stages:— Job 18:5-7. The principle—the sinner’s light goes out. Job 18:8-11. The progress of his downfall. Job 18:12-14. The final scenes. Job 18:15-17. The extinction of his race and name. Job 18:18-21. Men’s horror of his fate and memory. –7. The principle—the sinner’s light goes out. The word yea means “notwithstanding”—in spite of Job’s struggling against the law, the law remains and verifies itself universally. The bright beacon light on the sinner’s tent goes out, and the cheerful flame on his hearth shines no more. His home is desolate. The word “light” lends itself in all languages for such general use, as the Arab proverb says, Fate has put out my light—extinguished my prosperity. The picture here however is scarcely to be so generalized.

Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked - The conclusion or sum of the whole matter.

21. That knoweth not God — These words, last in the Hebrew also, furnish a climax — a sneer at Job’s most solemn protestations. (Job 16:19.)