Job 18

This chapter belongs to the second cycle of speeches between Job and his three friends in the Book of Job. In Job 16 and Job 17, Job calls his friends "miserable comforters" and pleads his innocence; in this chapter Bildad responds once again.

Outline

• Verses 1–4: Bildad tells Job to stop talking and to consider. He demands to know why Job counts the friends as beasts, and asks whether, for the sake of Job, who "teareth himself in his anger," the earth should be forsaken or the rock removed out of its place.
• Verses 5–6: The light of the wicked is put out, and the lamp in his tent grows dark.
• Verses 7–10: The wicked man is cast down by his own counsel and caught in a net, a snare, and a trap.
• Verses 11–14: Terrors pursue him on every side, and famine and calamity follow him. "The firstborn of death" devours his limbs, and he is brought to "the king of terrors."
• Verses 15–19: Others dwell in his tent, and brimstone is scattered upon his habitation. His roots and branches wither, his name is forgotten, and he is left with neither son nor grandson.
• Verses 20–21: People are astonished at his end. Bildad concludes that such are the dwellings of the unrighteous, of him who does not know God.

Key Verses

• Job 18:5 "Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out": The contrast between light and darkness introduces the theme of the entire chapter.
• Job 18:14 "It shall bring him to the king of terrors": This depiction of death as a king is frequently quoted.
• Job 18:21 "Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked": This verse contains Bildad's conclusion that suffering is the consequence of wickedness.

People and Places

• Bildad: A Shuhite and one of Job's three friends.
• Job: The person Bildad directly rebukes in this chapter.
• Shuah: Refers to Bildad's place of origin. Some identify the Shuhites as descendants of Shuah, the son of Abraham and Keturah (Genesis 25:2), but this is uncertain.

Points for Reflection

• Bildad never mentions Job by name. In context, however, his lengthy description of the fate of the wicked reads as aimed at Job's own circumstances. To Job, who had lost his children and his possessions, the statement that the wicked man will have neither son nor grandson would have been especially painful.
• The words of this chapter are the argument of a friend recorded in Scripture, not a conclusion that the Book of Job endorses as it stands. In Job 42:7–10, God says that the friends have not spoken of him the thing that is right. For this reason, commentaries and sermons across many denominations caution against quoting the friends' words in isolation as teaching that directly reveals God's will.
• "The firstborn of death" and "the king of terrors" are poetic expressions that personify death and disease. Some scholars compare them with ancient Near Eastern conceptions of death as a deity.
• The brimstone of verse 15 recalls the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24).
• In verse 20, "they that come after him" and "they that went before" are rendered in some translations as "those of the west" and "those of the east."
• The idea that suffering is necessarily the result of sin is taken up again in the New Testament. Jesus corrects this view in the case of a man born blind (John 9:1–3). The following chapter, Job 19, contains Job's reply and his confession, "I know that my redeemer liveth."