Job 18

CHAPTER 18

Bildad (18:1–21)

1–4 Bildad feels insulted by Job's negative remarks directed against the three friends.⁴² He considers Job to be irrational—tearing himself to pieces—and also self-centered, as if the whole earth had to be abandoned for Job's sake (verse 4).

5–21 In this part of the chapter Bildad gives another long description of the fate of the wicked, such as we have seen before (Job 8:11–19; 15:20–35). Again Bildad's main point is that all wicked people, without exception, are punished in this life. Bildad implies—though he doesn't state it—that Job must be wicked himself, or he wouldn't have experienced such suffering. In the end, it will be up to Job whether or not he is counted among the wicked. Certainly Bildad has warned him!⁴³

Note that many of the punishments that Bildad lists here have already happened to Job; it almost seems as if Bildad is describing Job in these verses. In verse 21, Bildad ends by defining a wicked or evil man as a man who knows not God. Knowing God is the first step in overcoming evil.⁴⁴