Job 18:1-10

1 And Bildad the Shuhite answereth and saith: --

2 When do ye set an end to words? Consider ye, and afterwards do we speak.

3 Wherefore have we been reckoned as cattle? We have been defiled in your eyes!

4 (He is tearing himself in his anger.) For thy sake is earth forsaken? And removed is a rock from its place?

5 Also, the light of the wicked is extinguished. And there doth not shine a spark of his fire.

6 The light hath been dark in his tent, And his lamp over him is extinguished.

7 Straitened are the steps of his strength, And cast him down doth his own counsel.

8 For he is sent into a net by his own feet, And on a snare he doth walk habitually.

9 Seize on the heel doth a gin, Prevail over him do the designing.

10 Hidden in the earth is his cord, And his trap on the path.

Job 18:1-10 Meaning and Commentary

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 18:1,2; 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 18:3,4; 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 18:5,6; by the defeat of his counsels, being ensnared in a net laid for him, Job 18:7-10; 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 18:11-14; by the destruction of his habitation and of his posterity, so that he has none to hear his name, or perpetuate his memory, Job 18:15-17; by his being driven out of the world, leaving no issue behind him, to the astonishment of all that knew him, Job 18:18-20; and the chapter is closed with this observation, that this is the common case of wicked and irreligious persons, Job 18:21.