1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, 2 "How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and afterwards we will speak. 3 Why are we counted as animals, which have become unclean in your sight? 4 You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you? Or shall the rock be removed out of its place? 5 "Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out, The spark of his fire shall not shine. 6 The light shall be dark in his tent. His lamp above him shall be put out. 7 The steps of his strength shall be shortened. His own counsel shall cast him down. 8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he wanders into its mesh. 9 A snare will take him by the heel. A trap will catch him. 10 A noose is hidden for him in the ground, 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 famished. Calamity shall be ready at his side. 13 The members of his body shall be devoured. The firstborn of death shall devour his members. 14 He shall be rooted out of his tent where he trusts. He shall be brought to the king of terrors. 15 There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur shall be scattered on his habitation. 16 His roots shall be dried up beneath. Above shall his branch be cut off. 17 His memory shall perish from the earth. 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 grandson among his people, nor any remaining where he lived. 20 Those who come after shall be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened. 21 Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn't know God."
Bildad, in a speech of passionate invective, accuses Job of impatience and impiety, Job 18:1-4; shows the fearful end of the wicked and their posterity; and apparently applies the whole to Job, whom he threatens with the most ruinous end, vv. 5-21.
INTRODUCTION TO JOB 18
In this chapter is Bildad's second reply to Job, in which he falls with great fury upon him, very sharply inveighs against him, and very highly charges him; the charges he brings against him are talkativeness and inattention to what was said to him, Job 18:1; contempt of his friends, impatience under his affliction, and pride and arrogance, as if the whole world, the course of nature and providence, and God himself all must give way to him, Job 18:3; nevertheless, he is assured of the miserable state of a wicked man, sooner or later, which is described by the extinction of his light of prosperity, Job 18:5; by the defeat of his counsels, being ensnared in a net laid for him, Job 18:7; by the terrible judgments of the sword, famine, and pestilence, by one or the other of which he is brought to death, the king of terrors, Job 18:11; by the destruction of his habitation and of his posterity, so that he has none to hear his name, or perpetuate his memory, Job 18:15; by his being driven out of the world, leaving no issue behind him, to the astonishment of all that knew him, Job 18:18; and the chapter is closed with this observation, that this is the common case of wicked and irreligious persons, Job 18:21.
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