Job 18

TODAY’S ENGLISH VERSION

Bildad

2 Job, can people like you never be quiet?

If you stopped to listen we could talk to you.

3 What makes you think we are as stupid as cattle? 4 You are only hurting yourself with your anger.

Will the earth be deserted because of you? Will mountains be moved because of you?

5 The wicked man’s light will be put out;

its flame will never burn again.

6 The lamp in his tent will be darkened. 7 His steps were firm, but now he limps;

he fallsa victim of his own advice.

8 He walks into a net and his feet are caught; 9 a trap catches his heels and holds him. 10 On the ground a snare is hidden for him;

a trap has been set in his path.

11** **All around him terror is waiting;

it follows him at every step.

12 He used to be rich, but now he goes hungry;

disaster stands and waits at his side.

13 A deadly disease spreads over his body,

and causes his arms and legs to rot.

14 He is torn from the tent where he lived secure,

and is dragged off to face King Death.

15 Now anyone may live in his tent

after sulfur is sprinkled to disinfect it!

16 His roots and branches are withered and dry. 17 His fame is ended at home and abroad;

no one remembers him any more.

18 He will be driven out of the land of the living,

driven from light into darkness.

19 He has no descendants, no survivors. 20 From east to west, everyone who hears of his fate

shudders and trembles with fear.

21 This is the fate of evil men,

the fate of those who care nothing for God.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 18:1-21

Bildad attacks Job for three reasons. What are they?

Bildad’s speech is exhausted by a syndrome. What is it?

Why does Bildad call Job egocentric?

Does Job call his friends dumb unclean beasts?

Job said God tore him (Job 16:9). Bildad says Job tore himself. Who is right?

What is the meaning of the figure of a rock in verse four?

To what circumstance in Job’s life does the light of the wicked have reference?

Notice the objective, impersonal manner in which the words of Bildad are couched. What does this say of the man?

What does the use of the light in the tent suggest as to the time of the writing of this book?

Bildad’s speech is tied together by what literary device?

The wicked (Job in particular) are like an aging man. How so? Cf. Job 18:7.

The wicked man falls into all manner of traps. He traps himself by his feebleness. Name three other traps that catch the wicked. Cf. Job 18:8-9. What is the gin?

Bildad describes an actual experience in Job 18:11. What is it?

Trouble and calamity are personified in Job 18:12. What are they about to do to the wicked man?

Job 18:13 contains a reference to Job’s disease. What is said about it?

Who is the king of terrors? Why so described?

How was brimstone or sulphur used in Job 18:15?

The metaphor of the root and branch and fruit in Job 18:16 refers to what in the experience of Job?

How can Bildad be so positively cruel in the promises he makes concerning Job’s family?

Job and all like him will be chased out of the worldfrom light to darkness. Who will do this? When?

The lack of progeny is also the lack of what? i.e., according to Bildad.

What day is discussed in Job 18:20? What will happen?

Bildad’s truth is a half-lie. Explain. Why was this man so void of sympathy?

Job 18:1-4

C.

THE GRANDEUR AND MISERY OF MAN OR IMPOSSIBILITY OF SELF-JUSTIFICATION (Job 18:1-21)

Sharp rebuke of Job (Job 18:1-4)

TEXT 18:1-4

**1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,

2 How long will ye hunt for words?

Consider, and afterwards we will speak. 3 Wherefore are we counted as beasts,

Andare become unclean in your sight?

4 Thou that tearest thyself in thine anger,

Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?**

COMMENT 18:1-4

**Job 18:1**Bildad’s second speech (Job 18:1-21) reveals a consciously restrained lack of feeling. He attacks Job for his lack of appreciation for ancient wisdom, his abusive language, and also implies that Job cannot expect to be exempted from the universal lawthat suffering is inevitably punishment for sinJob 12:6. The content of the speech is largely composed of a legalistic tirade concerning the fate of those who know not God. The tone of the speech is exhausted by a warning and threat syndrome. There is not one word of consolation to be found in it. Bildad always addresses Job in the plural (you as plural is obscured in our translations), perhaps as a member of the class of unrighteous persons. His speech is divided into two parts: (1) Job 18:2-4; and (2) Job 18:5-21.

**Job 18:2**The first part of his speech seeks an answer to the question: Why is Job so contemptuous of his friends? He charges that Job is so egocentric that he expects God to change the laws of creation for him. Bildad suggests that Job has spoken long enough and should stop long enough for his friends to give rebuttal. Dhorme suggests that the Hebrew word translated in A. V. as consider is a rhetorical device which is used to ask Job to be intelligent, i.e., if the dialogue is to continue, Job must show some signs of intelligence, thus far absent.

**Job 18:3**Bildad resents Job’s comparison of his friends as dumb beastJob 16:9-10. Line two in A. V. hardly conveys what the text saysWhy are we stupid from tamah, to be stopped up intellectually, not unclean as A. V. (so Brown, Driver, and Briggs, Lexicon)Psalms 73:22.[197]

[197] Blommerde’S, Northwest Semitic Grammar and Job remarks do not seem to be helpful in understanding this verse.

**Job 18:4**Bildad asserts, without feeling, that Job is the cause of his own suffering because he refuses to take the proper means to remove God’s judgment from himself and his household. The rock is sometimes an epithet of God, probably so here. The law of retribution is as solid and firm as a rock and is part of the structure of the universe. Bildad alludes to Job’s remarks in Job 16:9to the effect that God has torn me in His wrath. He retorts that Job has torn himself. If the established order of the universe dictates that suffering is the empirical proof of sin, does Job think that this order is to be modified for him?[198] The last phrase is a quotation from Job 14:18 b.

[198] M. Dahood, JBL, 1959, p. 306, for analysis of this theme.

2. The certain dreadful doom of the hardened evildoer (Job 18:5-21)

Job 18:5-21

TEXT 18:5-21

**5 Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out,

And the spark of the fire shall not shine.

6 The light shall be dark in his tent,

And his lamp above him shall be put out.

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 the toils.

9 A gin shall take him by the heel,

And a snare shall lay hold on him.

10 A noose is hid for him in the ground,

And a trap for him in the way.

11 Terrors shall make him afraid on every side,

And shall chase him at his heels.

12 His strength shall be hunger-bitten,

And calamity shall be ready at his side.

13 The members of his body shall be devoured,

Yea, the first-born of death shall devour his members.

14 He shall be rooted out of his tent wherein he trusteth;

And he shall be brought to the king of terrors.

15 There shall dwell in his tent that which 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 have neither son nor son’s son among his people,

Nor any remaining where he sojourned.

20 They that come after shall be astonished at his day,

As they that went before were affrighted.

21 Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,

And this is the place of him that knoweth not God.

COMMENT 18:5-21**

Job 18:5This verse initiates the second part of Bildad’s speech. Job’s sole remaining possession is the horrible memory of his past prosperity and present agony. The Hebrew tenses convey the meaning that this is a condition which is continuous. The light burning in a house is symbolic of continuous prosperityJob 21:17; 1 Kings 11:36; Proverbs 13:9; Proverbs 20:20; and Proverbs 24:20. The extinction of these symbols of happiness and prosperity is a mark of judgment on the household. Failing light is a sign of disaster, (cf. Jesus said that I am the light of the world, John 8:12).

**Job 18:6**The tent implies that the event is occurring in the patriarchal age (see discussion of possible date for authorship)Job 5:24; Job 8:22; Job 12:6; and Job 15:34. Bildad’s speech progresses with the use of proverbial sayings: (1) Job 18:5-7sinner’s light goes out; (2) Job 18:8-11deterioration to downfall; (3) Job 18:12-14final condition; (4) Job 18:, 15-17extinction of his race and names; and (5) Job 18:18-21horror of his fate. His home is engulfed by darknesshis lamp above him shall be put out.

**Job 18:7**Like the strength of an aging man, the fortunes of the wicked will fail. Metaphorically, the steps of his strength expresses the confident stride of a prosperous manPsa 18:36. The evil motives of an unrighteous man will ultimately throw him down, i.e., bring him to calamity and ruin.

**Job 18:8-9**This verse and the next develop the image of the perils in the path of the wicked. Bildad uses a variety of terms for the traps and snares which the wicked will encounter in life. The steps of the unrighteous man are reduced to a feeble hobble, then ensnared by his own evil motives. The net (for catching birdsPro 1:17; Psalms 140:5) and toils (lit. network, webbingthings interwoven) are means of his own destruction.[199] Probably the latter snare has reference to webbing placed over a pit to catch an animalsuddenly and unawares. This is Bildad’s description of Job’s ensnaring himself. In Job 18:9 the world of an evil man is full of traps. The gin is a fowlers trapHos 9:8. The term snare comes from a root meaning veilIsa 47:2. Probably it refers to a trap made from some kind of mesh.

[199] G. Gerleman, Journal of Semitic Studies, 4, 1958, 252-254, for interpretation of beragloywwith his feet as an idiomatic phrase meaning on the spot, or immediately. But this hardly fits the context.

**Job 18:10**A rope, or cord, lies hidden in the groundIsa 8:14; Jeremiah 48:44; Psalms 74:7; Psalms 140:6; and Proverbs 5:22. This type is used to ensnare birds and smaller animals. The term trap (root means to capture) in the second line is found only here and probably is a general descriptive word for any catching device.

**Job 18:11**Bildad is here referring to an actual experience which a wicked person will have, not one caused by a fearful conscience. The verb translated chase is usually employed to denote the scattering of a group, but here of an individual. The image suggests bewilderment and almost total emotional and intellectual confusion.[200]

[200] M. Dahood, Psalms, Vol. I, Anchor, on Psalms 38:18.

**Job 18:12**Trouble and calamity, about to seize him, are ravenously hungry. The Hebrew text can be saying Let his strength be hungry. Dahood’s emendations suggest hungry one is an epithet of motdeath. The second line literally says to or for his rib which, as the Targums suggested, can mean wife. But the general sense is that misfortune is always ready and able to bring him to destruction.

**Job 18:13**Here is a cryptic reference to the lethal disease that is consuming Job’s body. The Hebrew texts make no senselit. It shall consume the limbs of his skin. Perhaps the late G. E. Wright’s suggestion at least produces a meaningful lineBy disease his skin is consumed. Wright’s suggestion, reinforced by the one provided by Sarna, reveals the essence of the meaning of this verse. The firstborn of mot will devour his skin with two hands, yea with his two hands he will devour (him).[201] The firstborn of death is probably a metaphor for Job’s deadly disease. Death is firstbornbekor, i.e., heir with rights of primogeniturePsa 89:28. Disease is death’s firstborn.

[201] N. Sarna, JBL, 1963, p. 317, suggests that badde here means two hands and baddayw in Job 18:14 means with his two hands.

**Job 18:14**The wicked is marched[202] from the security of his own tent, then conducted into the presence of the King of Terror. This phrase is a personification of death, as firstborn is of disease.

[202] W. Moran, Biblica, 1964, p. 82, n. 1.

**Job 18:15**The Hebrew literally states In his tent no trace of him remains.. -‘Perhaps the brimstone or sulphur is to be understood as disinfectant.[203]

[203] This verse is grammatically corrupt, so see suggestions of M. Dahood, Biblica, 37, 1956, 339; and his Biblica, 38,1957, 312ff; and G. R. Driver, Vetus Testamentum, 1955, p. 79.

**Job 18:16**Bildad returns to his metaphor based on vegetable lifeJob 8:11 ff; Job 14:7 ff. Destruction of root and fruit is proverbialAmo 2:9. Here the image refers to progeny and posterity. Branches is a collective term as in Job 14:9, and they shall be cut off. Nothing will remain of Job’s household.

**Job 18:17**Job and his posterity will be completely cut off from the earth. His children are destroyed, and even his name will be erased from memoryPsa 9:6; Psalms 34:16; and Psalms 109:15 b.

**Job 18:18**The Hebrew word found here and translated as world expressed the finality, totality, and cosmic absence of his name. The verbs are in the indefinite third person and are equivalent to the passive voice, meaning They shall chase or drive him from light into darknessJob 3:20 and Job 17:13.

**Job 18:19**The feared fate of the extinction of the family is set before Job. Nothing could be more disastrous than the demise of a man’s household. A lack of progeny is a lack of God’s blessings.[204]

[204] M. Buttenweiser, The Book of Job, 1922.

**Job 18:20**The day is his final day or fate1 Samuel 26:10; Jer. 1:27; Ezekiel 21:29; and Psalms 37:13. The words translated before and after are literally behind and beforemeaning followers and predecessors. The A. V. were affrighted is literally they laid hold on horror, Job 21:6laid hold on shuddering. Perhaps the best translation would be over his end coming generations will be appalled, and his contemporaries will be seized with shuddering.-

**Job 18:21**Bildad summarily assures Job of his fate, as a member of the class of the wicked. Job, can you not see the irrefutable proof that you are a godless man? Here again Bildad’s truth is half a lie. Severity, not sympathy flows from his lips. Violent indignation, but no mercy, is heaped upon Job’s pitiful head. Is there no grace in a world of suffering? Surely Job will later cryIn my hands no price I bring; simply to the cross I cling. But not yet!