Job 18

General context

Bildad the Shuhite answers a second time. He asks how long before an end is made of words, and says to mark and afterwards the friends will speak; he asks why they are counted as beasts and reputed vile. He says Job tears himself in his anger and asks whether the earth should be forsaken for him or the rock removed from its place. He then describes the wicked man: his light is put out, his candle darkened in his tabernacle, his steps straitened, his own counsel casts him down. He is cast into a net by his own feet, taken by the heel in a gin, with a snare in the ground and a trap in the way; terrors frighten him on every side, his strength is hungerbitten, destruction waits at his side, and the firstborn of death devours his strength. His confidence is rooted out of his tabernacle and he is brought to the king of terrors; brimstone is scattered on his habitation. His roots dry up beneath and his branch is cut off above; his remembrance perishes and he has no name in the street; he is driven from light into darkness and chased out of the world. He has neither son nor nephew among his people nor anyone remaining in his dwellings, and those who come after are astonished at his day. Bildad concludes that such are the dwellings of the wicked and the place of him who does not know God.

Cited passages: Job 18:1, Job 18:2, Job 18:3, Job 18:4, Job 18:5, Job 18:6, Job 18:7, Job 18:8, Job 18:9, Job 18:10, Job 18:11, Job 18:12, Job 18:13, Job 18:14, Job 18:15, Job 18:16, Job 18:17, Job 18:18, Job 18:19, Job 18:20, Job 18:21

Job 18 (KJV)

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Historical context

Bildad's second speech is introduced only by Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said; his first was chapter 8. His opening ye and your sight in verses 2 and 3 are plural though Job alone has been speaking; the text does not explain the plural. He teareth himself in his anger is Bildad's reading of Job's conduct; Job in 16.9 had said that God tears him, so Bildad reassigns the tearing to Job's own anger. The portrait from verse 5 to verse 21 is of the wicked in general and names no one, and Bildad does not say that Job is this man; but the features he lists, a candle put out in the tabernacle, brimstone on the habitation, no son or nephew, none remaining in his dwellings, sit beside the fire of God in 1.16 and the deaths of Job's children in 1.19. Whether Bildad intends the match is not stated. The king of terrors and the firstborn of death are Bildad's phrases, not explained further in the text. The chapter contains no promise to Job, conditional or otherwise, unlike Bildad's first speech in 8.20 to 22.

Cited passages: Job 18:1, Job 8:1, Job 18:2, Job 18:3, Job 18:4, Job 16:9, Job 18:6, Job 18:15, Job 18:19, Job 1:16, Job 1:19, Job 18:13, Job 18:14, Job 8:20, Job 18:21

Literary context

After a three-verse rebuke the speech is a single sustained portrait, organized by images of capture and extinction. Light is the first figure and the last: the light of the wicked shall be put out in verse 5, driven from light into darkness in verse 18. In between come the trap words, net, snare, gin, snare, trap, in verses 8 to 10, so that the wicked man is caught by his own feet. Then come personified destroyers, terrors, destruction, the firstborn of death, the king of terrors. The plant image, roots dried beneath and branch cut off above, repeats Bildad's own figure from 8.16 to 19 and Eliphaz's from 15.30 to 33. The speech ends where Job's had ended, with a dwelling: Job said the grave is his house in 17.13, and Bildad answers with the dwellings of the wicked. The question shall the earth be forsaken for thee reduces Job's complaint to a demand that the world rearrange itself. Job's reply at 19.2 asks how long they will break him in pieces with words.

Cited passages: Job 18:2, Job 18:5, Job 18:18, Job 18:8, Job 18:9, Job 18:10, Job 18:11, Job 18:13, Job 18:14, Job 18:16, Job 8:16, Job 15:30, Job 17:13, Job 18:21, Job 18:4, Job 19:2

Key moments

1. Bildad speaks again (Job 18:1). Bildad the Shuhite answers a second time.
2. Counted as beasts (Job 18:3). Bildad asks why the friends are reputed vile.
3. Shall the earth be forsaken? (Job 18:4). Bildad asks whether the earth should be forsaken for Job.
4. Light of the wicked put out (Job 18:5). Bildad says the wicked man's light and spark will not shine.
5. Caught in his own net (Job 18:8). Bildad says the wicked man is cast into a net by his own feet.
6. The king of terrors (Job 18:14). Bildad says the wicked man is brought to the king of terrors.
7. No son nor nephew (Job 18:19). Bildad says the wicked man leaves no descendants among his people.

For reflection

Bildad never names Job, yet many details of his wicked man match something Job has lost. Is the text showing a friend who speaks in general to avoid saying the cruel thing, or one who says it by other means?

People in this chapter

Also indexed here:

• Bildad