Job 18:3














Bildad again replies, mentioning that the passionate outbreaks of Job are useless. He holds fast to his original principle, that, according to the Law of God, the hardened sinner will suddenly meet his doom. And some secret sin, he persists, must be the cause of the present suffering.

I. INTRODUCTION: DENUNCIATION OF JOB AS A FOOLISH AND VIOLENT SPEAKER. (Vers. 1-4.) He is one who "hunts after words." Let him be truly sensible and rational, begs this confident Pharisaic preacher. "Why do you treat us as stupid beasts? ' he indignantly expostulates. "You tear yourself to pieces in your anger, and think yourself lacerated by God" (comp. Job 7:16). Does Job exact the earth to be depopulated and rocks to be removed for his sake? Bildad thinks that Job's repeated assertion of his innocence aims at the subversion of the moral order of the world - the holy order given by God (comp. Romans 3:5, 6). It is a grand thought, though misapplied by the speaker. The order of God, alike in nature and the human spirit, is unchangeable, and admits of no exception. But this order is not to be misunderstood by drawing conclusions from the outward to the inward life. Where the higher, the spiritual, is concerned, reason, Scripture, and conscience, rather than any outward tokens, must decide the truth.

II. DESCRIPTION OF THE DREADFUL DOOM OF THE HARDENED SINNER. (Vers. 5-21.) Most solemn and pathetic; a masterpiece of dramatic representation. A series of striking figures is made to pass before the eye of imagination.

1. The light of the wicked is put out; no flame leaps from his fire, no cheerful lamp hangs from his tent-roof. This is a favourite image (Job 21:17; Job 29:3; Psalm 18:28; Proverbs 13:9). The Arabs say, "Fate has put out my lamp" (vers. 5, 6).

2. Another figure: his steps are hemmed in - current in the East - and his own counsel overthrows him (ver. 7).

3. Again, the figure of the nets and snares and pitfalls, by which he meets his ruin (vers. 8-10). Terrible thoughts and dread events throng around him, and pursue him, like the Erinnyes of the Greek mythology - messengers from God to disquiet his guilty soul (ver. 11).

4. Disaster and ruin are personified in the poetic description. The one has an eager hunger for him; the other stands ready, like an armed foe, to cast him down (ver. 12).

III. The description now TAKES A MORE PERSONAL DIRECTION - POINTING TO THE STATE OF JOB.

1. His disease - the terrible elephantiasis - the "first-born of death," devours him piecemeal (ver. 13).

2. Expelled from his secure abode, he advances into the power of the "king of terrors" (ver. 14). He dwells in the tent of another, while brimstone from heaven desolates his former habitation (comp. Job 15:34; Deuteronomy 29:22, 23; Psalm 11:6). This, it is said, is still at the present day the most dreadful of images to the mind of the Semitic peoples - the desolation of the home (ver. 15).

3. Another figure: he is like a tree, withered at the root, and topped above (ver. 16). An imprecation was written on the sarcophagus of Eshmunazar, "Let him have neither roots below nor branches above]" (comp. Isaiah 5:24; Amos 2:9).

4. His memory passes away from the land, and his name is known over the wide steppe no more (ver. 17; comp. Job 13:12). He is thrust out of the light of life and happiness into the darkness of calamity and death, and is hunted from the round habitable earth (ver. 18). No scion nor shoot springs from him among the people; none escaped from his utter ruin in his dwellings (ver. 19).

5. An awful impression is felt by all, in East and West alike, who contemplate so dreadful a doom. "Thus," concludes Bildad, "it befalleth the dwellings of the unrighteous, and the place of him that knew not - recognized and honoured not - God" (vers. 20, 21). Detaching this address from its inappropriate application to the sufferer, it is in itself a noble piece of warning and exhortation. Letus gather from it a few lessons.

1. The curse of the wicked is the extinction of the light of God, who is the Light and Brightness of the righteous (vers. 5, sqq.; Psalm 36:9, 10; Psalm 119:105). The light, again, may be taken as a figure for the clear knowledge of man's destiny, a clear consciousness in the whole life (Matthew 6:22, 23). Then the light in the tent enhances the figure, and beautifully points to this clear consciousness in the daily relations of the house.

2. (Vers. 17, sqq.) The memory a man leaves behind is not of so much consequence as the consciousness in life of being known to God. There are many true and hidden ones in the world, whose deeds are done in secret for God's sake (John 3:21); and many godless ones, who make so great a stir and noise in the world that they are talked of after they are gone. It is a peculiar blessing to the child of God if he be made an example to any, and after his death a sweet savour ascends from his life to God's praise (Proverbs 10:7).

3. The repeated descriptions of the doom of the ungodly are intended to quell our envy at the sight of unhallowed prospering, and direct our thoughts to the inward, the only real life. How can we judge whether any one is a true fearer of God? Not from his religious observances, not from the external fortunes which befall him, not from his individual good works; but from the .faith which he owns, from the whole direction of his life to the Divine, from the frame of mind in which he dies (Psalm 73:17, 19, etc.; Wohlfarth). - J.

His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.
The world understands by the word "wicked" one who offends against the law of conscience, — one who breaks the second table of the law, the only table which it thinks important. Scripture means by it one who violates his relationship to God, — who transgresses the first table of the law. The term "wicked" has much more reference to the state of their hearts towards God than their state before man. Bildad shows the effects of wickedness.

I. ON THE WICKED MAN HIMSELF (vers. 7, 8). The great point in these verses is the certainty with which he brings misery upon himself. His very sins are made his chastisement.

II. ON HIS FAMILY (ver. 6). "The light shall be darkened in his tabernacle." In some Eastern countries a lamp is suspended from the ceiling of each room, and kept burning all the night, so that the house is full of light. And so, in the dwellings of the godly, there is light — the light of God's presence. But in the dwellings of the ungodly there is no such light, and no blessing. And with the absence of this there is also, very often, the absence of family union and love. Very different is the Christian's confidence. It rests upon a faithful and unchanging Saviour. Its roots strike deep into the everlasting hills.

(George Wagner.)

It shall bring him to the king of terrors.
Under a threefold consideration.

1. If we consider the antecedents, the forerunners or harbingers of death, which are pains, sicknesses, and diseases.

2. If we consider the nature of death. What is death? Death is a disunion; all disunions are troublesome, and some are terrible. Those are most terrible which rend that from us which is nearest to us. Death is also a privation, and a total privation. Death is such a privation, as from which there can be no return to nature.

3. In regard of the consequents. Rottenness and corruption consume the dead, and darkness covers them in the grave. We may ranks a threefold gradation of the terribleness of death.(1) To a godly man, when his spiritual state is unsettled.(2) When his worldly estate is well settled, when he hath deeply engaged in the creature, and his earthly mountain apparently stands strong.(3) Death is most terrible to those who, though they have the knowledge of God, and outwardly profess the Gospel of Christ, yet walk contrary to it. It should be our study, as it is our wisdom, to make this "king of terrors" a kind of "king of comfort" to us. Many believers have attained to this.A believer moves on these principles.

1. That death cannot break the bond of the covenant between God and us.

2. Death may break the union between the soul and the body, but it cannot break the union between the soul and Christ. This outlives death.

3. The apostle asserts that the sting of death is out.

4. Scripture calls death a sleep or rest.

5. Death puts a period to our earthly sorrows, and we have no reason to be sorry for that.

6. It is called a "going to God," in whom we shall have an eternal enjoyment.

7. It is a dying to live, as well as a dying from life.

(Joseph Caryl.).

Then Job answered and said.
Homilist.
I. JOB BITTERLY COMPLAINING.

1. He complains of the conduct of his friends, and especially their want of sympathy.

(1)They exasperated him with their words.

(2)With their persistent hostility.

(3)With their callousness.

(4)With their assumed superiority.Nothing tends more to aggravate a man's suffering than the heartless and wordy talk of those who controvert his opinions in the hour of his distress.

2. He complains of the conduct of his God. God had "overthrown and confounded him": had "refused him a hearing and hedged up his way." He complains that he was utterly "deprived of his honours and his hope." God had even treated him as "an enemy, and sent troops of calamities to overwhelm him." God had put "all society against him." These complainings reveal —

(1)a most lamentable condition of existence;

(2)considerable imperfections in moral character.

II. JOB FIRMLY CONFIDING. He still held on to his faith in God as the vindicator of his character.

1. His confidence arose from faith in a Divine vindicator.

2. A vindicator who would one day appear on the earth.

3. Whom he would personally see for himself,

4. Who would so thoroughly clear him that his accusers would be filled with self-accusation. "But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?"

(Homilist.)

People
Bildad, Job
Places
Uz
Topics
Animals, Beasts, Cattle, Completely, Considered, Counted, Defiled, Dull, Reckoned, Regarded, Reputed, Seem, Sight, Stupid, Unclean, Vile, Wherefore
Outline
1. Bildad reproves Job for presumption and impatience
5. The calamities of the wicked

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Job 18:3

     4624   cow

Library
Whether the Fire of Hell is Beneath the Earth?
Objection 1: It would seem that this fire is not beneath the earth. For it is said of the damned (Job 18:18), "And God shall remove him out of the globe [Douay: 'world']." Therefore the fire whereby the damned will be punished is not beneath the earth but outside the globe. Objection 2: Further, nothing violent or accidental can be everlasting. But this fire will be in hell for ever. Therefore it will be there, not by force but naturally. Now fire cannot be under the earth save by violence. Therefore
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether the Devil is the Head of all the Wicked?
Objection 1: It would seem that the devil is not the head of the wicked. For it belongs to the head to diffuse sense and movement into the members, as a gloss says, on Eph. 1:22, "And made Him head," etc. But the devil has no power of spreading the evil of sin, which proceeds from the will of the sinner. Therefore the devil cannot be called the head of the wicked. Objection 2: Further, by every sin a man is made evil. But not every sin is from the devil; and this is plain as regards the demons, who
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

The Difference Between the Two Testaments.
1. Five points of difference between the Old and the New Testaments. These belong to the mode of administration rather than the substance. First difference. In the Old Testament the heavenly inheritance is exhibited under temporal blessings; in the New, aids of this description are not employed. 2. Proof of this first difference from the simile of an heir in pupillarity, as in Gal. 4:1. 3. This the reason why the Patriarchs, under the Law, set a higher value on this life and the blessings of it,
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Whether the Fire of Hell is of the Same Species as Ours?
Objection 1: It would seem that this fire is not of the same species as the corporeal fire which we see. For Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xx, 16): "In my opinion no man knows of what kind is the everlasting fire, unless the Spirit of God has revealed it to anyone." But all or nearly all know the nature of this fire of ours. Therefore that fire is not of the same species as this. Objection 2: Further, Gregory commenting on Job 10:26, "A fire that is not kindled shall devour him," says (Moral. xv):
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

The Desire of the Righteous Granted;
OR, A DISCOURSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS MAN'S DESIRES. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR As the tree is known by its fruit, so is the state of a man's heart known by his desires. The desires of the righteous are the touchstone or standard of Christian sincerity--the evidence of the new birth--the spiritual barometer of faith and grace--and the springs of obedience. Christ and him crucified is the ground of all our hopes--the foundation upon which all our desires after God and holiness are built--and the root
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

A Few Sighs from Hell;
or, The Groans of the Damned Soul: or, An Exposition of those Words in the Sixteenth of Luke, Concerning the Rich Man and the Beggar WHEREIN IS DISCOVERED THE LAMENTABLE STATE OF THE DAMNED; THEIR CRIES, THEIR DESIRES IN THEIR DISTRESSES, WITH THE DETERMINATION OF GOD UPON THEM. A GOOD WARNING WORD TO SINNERS, BOTH OLD AND YOUNG, TO TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION BETIMES, AND TO SEEK, BY FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST, TO AVOID, LEST THEY COME INTO THE SAME PLACE OF TORMENT. Also, a Brief Discourse touching the
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Job
The book of Job is one of the great masterpieces of the world's literature, if not indeed the greatest. The author was a man of superb literary genius, and of rich, daring, and original mind. The problem with which he deals is one of inexhaustible interest, and his treatment of it is everywhere characterized by a psychological insight, an intellectual courage, and a fertility and brilliance of resource which are nothing less than astonishing. Opinion has been divided as to how the book should be
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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