Job 18:10-20

10 On the ground a snare is hidden; a trap has been set in their path.

11 All around them terror is waiting; it follows them at every step.

12 They used to be rich, but now they go hungry; disaster stands and waits at their side.

13 A deadly disease spreads over their bodies and causes their arms and legs to rot.

14 They are torn from the tents where they lived secure, and are dragged off to face King Death.

15 Now anyone may live in their tents - after sulfur is sprinkled to disinfect them!

16 Their roots and branches are withered and dry.

17 Their fame is ended at home and abroad; no one remembers them any more.

18 They will be driven out of the land of the living, driven from light into darkness.

19 They have no descendants, no survivors.

20 From east to west, all who hear of their fate shudder and tremble with fear.

Job 18:10-20 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Now anyone may live in their tents; [Hebrew unclear.]
• [b]. to disinfect them: [Sulfur was used in the ancient world as a disinfectant and to clean rooms that had contained corpses.]