Bildad Speaks: God Punishes the Wicked
1 Bildad reproved Job of presumption and impatience. 5 The calamities of the wicked.
Job 18:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
Greatly irritated that Job should treat the advice of his friends with so much contempt, Bildad is no longer able to restrain his emotions. He heaps scornful abuse upon Job and tries to terrify him into compliance. He draws a more terrible picture of the end of the wicked than any preceding; and insinuates that Job has still worse to expect if he does not change his ways. To Bildad, Job has become a wicked man (vs. 5, 21), an embodiment of evil. No punishment is too severe for one so reprobate.
Job 18:2 “When will you end these speeches? Be sensible, and then we can talk.
Bildad reproaches Job for his many words. In his former speech he had done likewise (ch. 8:2). think a little instead of talking. Then, calmly and without hurry, we will proceed to reply to what you have said.
Job 18:3 Why are we regarded as cattle and considered stupid in your sight?
Bildad may be referring to what Job said in ch. 12:7, that even the beasts could give these friends information about God. The general idea seems to be that Job had not treated their views with the regard they felt such wisdom deserved.
Job 18:4 You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger, is the earth to be abandoned for your sake? Or must the rocks be moved from their place?
Bildad’s reproach is not wholly unjust, but he fails to take into account the effects that Job’s suffering has had on his thinking.
Job 18:5 “The lamp of a wicked man is snuffed out; the flame of his fire stops burning.
This verse begins a series of apparently proverbial sayings, showing that calamity is sure to overtake the wicked. The words here may refer to the customs of Arab hospitality, in which fires were kept burning for the benefit of strangers and guests (see Prov. 13:9; 24:20).
Job 18:6 The light in his tent becomes dark; the lamp beside him goes out.
The putting out of a lamp is, to the Orientals, an image of utter desolation. The light burning in the house and the fire burning on the hearth are symbols that the fortunes of the owner are still intact. When those fortunes are broken the light goes out (see ch. 21:17).
Job 18:7 The vigor of his step is weakened; his own schemes throw him down.
A figurative way of saying that his sphere of activity shall be narrowed, his activities restricted, his powers confined. His own counsel. See Job 5:13; Ps. 7:14–16; 9:16; 10:2; Hosea 10:6.
Job 18:8 His feet thrust him into a net; he wanders into its mesh.
The wicked ruin themselves while plotting the ruin of others.
Job 18:9 A trap seizes him by the heel; a snare holds him fast.
Job 18:10 A noose is hidden for him on the ground; a trap lies in his path.
Bildad heaps together every word that he can think of that is descriptive of the art of snaring. A great variety of contrivances for snaring are represented in the early monuments.
Job 18:11 Terrors startle him on every side and dog his every step.
Job 18:12 Calamity is hungry for him; disaster is ready for him when he falls.
Job 18:13 It eats away parts of his skin; death’s firstborn devours his limbs.
It seems that diseases are referred to as sons of death, that is, sons causing death. In this event the “firstborn of death” would be a disease of a particularly grievous nature. There is probably a direct reference to Job and his affliction.
Job 18:14 He is torn from the security of his tent and marched off to the king of terrors.
The security of the home is lost. King of terrors. Probably a reference to death.
Job 18:15 Fire resides in his tent; burning sulfur is scattered over his dwelling.
Job 18:16 His roots dry up below and his branches wither above.
Another image of complete desolation.
Job 18:17 The memory of him perishes from the earth; he has no name in the land.
The world will feel no loss when the wicked man is gone (see Ps. 34:16; 109:13).
Job 18:18 He is driven from light into the realm of darkness and is banished from the world.
What Job represents as a welcome retreat (see chs. 10:21, 22; 17:16), whither he would gladly withdraw himself, Bildad depicts as a banishment, into which Job will be driven on account of his sins.
Job 18:19 He has no offspring or descendants among his people, no survivor where once he lived.
The wicked man shall be a vagabond without a home, sojourning now here, now there. Neither among his own people nor in the places of his temporary abode shall he leave any descendants. Bildad probably refers to the destruction of Job’s children.
Job 18:20 People of the west are appalled at his fate; those of the east are seized with horror.
Job 18:21 Surely such is the dwelling of an evil man; such is the place of one who does not know God.”
Bildad adds nothing startlingly new in the outburst of denunciation found in this chapter. He expresses with fresh vehemence his conception that Job’s calamities are the result of his sins. It may be that the renewed fury of Bildad’s attack was due in part to the frustration he felt as a result of the fact that his earlier admonitions had fallen on deaf ears. Perhaps Bildad had run out of logic and was now relying on vehemence to supply the lack.