Job 18

Chap. XVIII. Ver. 1—21. Bildad reproves Job, and describes the calamities of the wicked.—It should appear from Job’s own language, as well as from Bildad’s, that his mind was extremely agitated; and it is the manner of the Asiatics to express themselves with great energy. This may be observed of all the speakers in this narrative, and therefore need not be wondered at in Job himself, who felt what they only described. From these calamities it was the object of Bildad, who describes them in the most pointed and impressive language, to prove Job to be a wicked man. The evils here enumerated are indeed sufficiently appalling, without recurring to “groups of furies,” as some have done, or any other imaginary beings.

He is represented as exposed to “the snares of the fowler” equally with wild beasts and birds of prey; rooted out of all his possessions, without any memorial to preserve his name; and his body eaten up with disease, and about to be consigned to the silent tomb, without any of the

Notes on the verses

Chap. XVIII. Ver. 2. How long will ye make an end of words?—“Put (or see) ensnaring corm words?” Schultens, Scott, &c.—Mark—“Speak plainly,” Schultens and Heath; “discreetly,” Good. The LXX. render it “Hold, that we also may speak.” Ver. 4. He teareth himself.—Bishop Lowth renders it in the imperative, “Let him tear himself.”——Shall the earth be forsaken for thee?—Henley (one of Bishop Lowth’s annotators) remarks, “When the Orientals would reprove the pride or arrogance of any person, it is common for them to desire him to call to mind, how contemptible he and every mortal is, in these or similar apothegms: ‘What, though Mahomet were dead? The universe shall not fall for his sake. The world does not subsist for one man alone.’”—Lowth.

Ver. 6. His candle shall be put out.—This refers to a suspended lamp. Ver. 8. Cast into a net by his own feet.—That is, his feet become entangled. These verses refer to the ancient methods of ensnaring wild animals. Ver. 9. The robber.—In modern terms, perhaps, “the poacher;” the man who had laid the snares. Ver. 13. The strength…. his strength.—Meaning, the strong parts of his body, “bones;” or rather, perhaps, “muscles.”——The first-born of death.—If diseases be considered as the offspring of Death, the elephantiasis may well be considered his “first-born;” but as sickness precedes death, we rather incline to the idea of Reiske and Good, that the form of putrefaction may be intended.

See (Job 24:20). Ver. 15. It (or he, i.e. Death, the king of terrors) stone shall be scattered on his habitation.—Some suppose this to allude to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, (Genesis 19:24). (Psalms 11:6). But the word here used for habitation may include the whole residence—his home. The expression may therefore imply its utter abandonment to ruin and barrenness. See (Deuteronomy 29:23). Ver. 17. He shall have no name in the street.—That is, no street shall be called after his name. (Psalms 49:11). Ver. 19. Neither son nor nephew (or grandson) in his dwelling.—Schultens says, the word means, “a refuge for strangers.”