Job

Job 18

21 verses · Wisdom · Old Testament

1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

2“How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and afterwards we will speak. 3Why are we counted as animals, which have become unclean in your sight? 4You who tear yourself in your anger, will the earth be forsaken for you? Or will the rock be removed out of its place?
5“Yes, the light of the wicked will be put out. The spark of his fire won’t shine. 6The light will be dark in his tent. His lamp above him will be put out. 7The steps of his strength will be shortened. His own counsel will cast him down. 8For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he wanders into its mesh. 9A snare will take him by the heel. A trap will catch him. 10A noose is hidden for him in the ground, a trap for him on the path. 11Terrors will make him afraid on every side, and will chase him at his heels. 12His strength will be famished. Calamity will be ready at his side. 13The members of his body will be devoured. The firstborn of death will devour his members. 14He will be rooted out of the security of his tent. He will be brought to the king of terrors. 15There will dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur will be scattered on his habitation. 16His roots will be dried up beneath. His branch will be cut off above. 17His memory will perish from the earth. He will have no name in the street. 18He will be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world. 19He will have neither son nor grandson among his people, nor any remaining where he lived. 20Those who come after will be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened. 21Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.”

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What others are saying

4 commentators · 48 notes on this chapter

Matthew HenryEnglish Puritan / Nonconformist · 1708–17143

Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.

Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.

v. 1–4

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…

v. 5–10

The rest of Bildad's discourse is entirely taken up in an elegant description of the miserable condition of a wicked man, in which there is a great deal of certain truth, and which will be of excellent use if duly considered - that a sinful condition is a sad…

v. 11–21

Bildad here describes the destruction itself which wicked people are reserved for in the other world, and which, in some degree, often seizes them in this world. Come, and see what a miserable condition the sinner is in when his day comes to fall. I. See him…

John GillParticular Baptist / High Calvinist · 1746–176321

The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.

Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.

v. 1

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…

v. 2

How 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…

v. 3

Wherefore are we counted as beasts,.... This seems to refer to Job 12:7; where Job sends them to the beasts, to get knowledge and instruction; and therefore it was concluded he reckoned them as such, and put them on a level with them, yea, made them inferior…

Keil & DelitzschGerman Lutheran, conservative-critical · 1861–18756

The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.

Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.

v. 1–3

1 Then began Bildad the Shuhite, and said: 2 How long will ye hunt for words?! Attend, and afterwards we will speak. 3 Wherefore are we accounted as beasts, And narrow-minded in your eyes? Job's speeches are long, and certainly are a trial of patience to the…

v. 4–7

4 Thou art he who teareth himself in his anger: Shall the earth become desolate for thy sake, And a rock remove from its place? 5 Notwithstanding, the light of the wicked shall be put out, And the glow of his fire shineth not; 6 The light becometh dark in his…

v. 8–11

8 For he is driven into the net by his own feet, And he walketh over a snare. 9 The trap holdeth his heel fast, The noose bindeth him. 10 His snare lieth hidden in the earth, His nets upon the path; 11 Terrors affright him on every side, And scare him at…

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownScottish Presbyterian / Reformed · 187118

The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.

Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.

v. 3

beasts--alluding to what Job said (Job 12:7; so Isa 1:3). vile--rather from a Hebrew root, "to stop up." "Stubborn," answering to the stupidity implied in the parallel first clause [UMBREIT]. Why should we give occasion by your empty speeches for our being…

v. 4

Rather, turning to Job, "thou that tearest thyself in anger" (Job 5:2). be forsaken?--become desolate. He alludes here to Job's words as to the "rock," crumbling away (Job 14:18-19); but in a different application. He says bitterly "for thee." Wert thou not…

v. 5

That (Job 18:4) cannot be. The decree of God is unalterable, the light (prosperity) of the wicked shall at length be put out. his fire--alluding to Arabian hospitality, which prided itself on welcoming the stranger to the fire in the tent, and even lit fires…

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