Job 18
Introduction
Job 18 is the second speech of Bildad the Shuhite, delivered as part of the second cycle of dialogue (chapters 15–21). In the first cycle, Bildad had spoken more gently, urging Job to seek God and promising restoration if he was pure (chapter 8). Now his tone has hardened. He is offended by Job's dismissal of the friends' counsel and opens with an irritated rebuke before launching into a sustained, vivid description of the fate of the wicked. His speech is essentially a sermon on one theme: the wicked are doomed.
Bildad's speech is a masterpiece of dark poetry. He uses a cascade of images — extinguished lamps, tangled nets, snapping traps, devouring disease, uprooted trees, erased memory — to paint a comprehensive picture of destruction. The "wicked man" he describes is never named, but the audience (both Job and the reader) cannot miss the implication: Bildad believes he is describing Job. Every detail — the darkened tent, the diseased skin, the loss of offspring, the horror of onlookers — mirrors Job's actual situation. Bildad's theology is simple and brutal: this is what happens to those who do not know God. The speech sets up Job's devastating response in chapter 19, where he will reject Bildad's framework entirely and make his famous declaration: "I know that my Redeemer lives."
Bildad's Rebuke (vv. 1–4)
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied: 2 "How long until you end these speeches? Show some sense, and then we can talk. 3 Why are we regarded as cattle, as stupid in your sight? 4 You who tear yourself in anger — should the earth be forsaken on your account, or the rocks be moved from their place?
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: 2 "How long will you set traps for words? Understand, and then we can speak. 3 Why are we counted as beasts — considered dull in your eyes? 4 You who tear yourself apart in your anger — should the earth be abandoned for your sake, or the rock be dislodged from its place?
Notes
קִנְצֵי לְמִלִּין ("traps/ends for words") — The word qintsim is unusual and debated. It may mean "snares, traps" (from a root meaning "to ensnare") or "ends, limits" (from qets, "end"). The BSB reads "end these speeches," taking it as "set an end to words." But many scholars favor "traps for words" — Bildad is accusing Job of laying verbal snares, trying to catch his friends in rhetorical traps. The KJV's "make an end of words" reflects the alternative reading. Either way, Bildad is exasperated with what he sees as Job's endless and manipulative speech.
תָּבִינוּ וְאַחַר נְדַבֵּר ("understand, and afterward we can speak") — Bildad demands that Job first understand (from bin, "to discern, to have insight") before the conversation can continue. The word bin is a key term in wisdom literature (Proverbs 1:2, Proverbs 2:5, Proverbs 4:1). Bildad is essentially saying: "You are not yet wise enough to have this conversation."
כַבְּהֵמָה ("as cattle/beasts") — The word behemah refers to large domesticated animals — cattle, livestock. It is the same word used in Genesis 1:24 for the beasts of the field and will appear again in Job 40:15 for the mighty "Behemoth." Bildad complains that Job treats his friends as dumb animals. The irony is that Bildad himself will soon treat Job as a textbook example of wickedness, without any personal sensitivity.
נִטְמִינוּ ("considered unclean/dull") — This verb (tame') can mean "to be unclean" or "to be stopped up, dull." The BSB renders it "stupid," which captures the sense: Bildad feels Job regards them as intellectually worthless. In other contexts tame' refers to ritual or moral impurity (Leviticus 11:43), so there may be a secondary sting — Job has treated them as impure, unfit.
טֹרֵף נַפְשׁוֹ בְּאַפּוֹ ("tearing himself apart in his anger") — The verb taraph means "to tear, to rend" — it is the verb used of a lion tearing its prey (Genesis 37:33, Psalm 7:2). Bildad says Job is like a wild animal mauling itself in rage. The phrase nafsho ("himself," literally "his soul/life") makes it reflexive: Job's anger is self-destructive. Then comes the rhetorical question: should the entire moral order of creation be rearranged to accommodate Job's tantrum? Should the earth be emptied and the bedrock moved? Bildad sees Job's complaints against God as cosmic arrogance.
The Light of the Wicked Is Extinguished (vv. 5–6)
5 Indeed, the lamp of the wicked is extinguished; the flame of his fire does not glow. 6 The light in his tent grows dark, and the lamp beside him goes out.
5 Indeed, the light of the wicked is snuffed out, and the flame of his fire gives no glow. 6 The light grows dark in his tent, and his lamp above him is extinguished.
Notes
אוֹר רְשָׁעִים יִדְעָךְ ("the light of the wicked is extinguished") — The verb da'akh means "to go out, to be extinguished" (of fire or lamp). It appears also in Proverbs 13:9 ("the lamp of the wicked is snuffed out") and Proverbs 20:20 ("his lamp will be snuffed out in deep darkness"). Bildad draws on traditional wisdom imagery. In the ancient Near East, a burning lamp symbolized life, prosperity, and the continuation of a family line. A lamp going out signified death, the end of a household, or divine judgment. This is the controlling metaphor for the entire speech.
שְׁבִיב אִשּׁוֹ ("the flame/spark of his fire") — The word sheviv means "flame" or "spark" and occurs only here in the Old Testament. It refers to the flickering tongue of fire itself. Not only is the lamp extinguished — even the last spark gives off no light.
נֵרוֹ עָלָיו יִדְעָךְ ("his lamp above him is extinguished") — The same verb da'akh is repeated from verse 5, creating a drumbeat of extinguishing. The lamp that hangs above him — the one that illuminated his daily life, his tent, his evening meals — goes out. Bildad is constructing a systematic collapse: first the general light, then the flame, then the tent light, then the personal lamp. Everything dims.
Trapped by His Own Steps (vv. 7–10)
7 His vigorous stride is shortened, and his own schemes trip him up. 8 For his own feet lead him into a net, and he wanders into its mesh. 9 A trap seizes his heel; a snare grips him. 10 A noose is hidden in the ground, and a trap lies in his path.
7 The steps of his vigor are hemmed in, and his own counsel throws him down. 8 For he is flung into a net by his own feet, and he walks upon a mesh. 9 A trap seizes him by the heel; a snare tightens on him. 10 A rope is hidden for him in the ground, and a trap for him on the path.
Notes
צַעֲדֵי אוֹנוֹ ("the steps of his vigor") — The word on means "strength, vigor, wealth" (cf. Genesis 49:3, where Jacob calls Reuben "my firstborn, my strength [on], the first sign of my manhood"). The wicked man once walked with powerful, confident strides. Now those steps are yetsru — "narrowed, hemmed in, constricted" (from tsarar, "to be narrow, to be in distress"). The open road has become a tight corridor.
עֲצָתוֹ ("his own counsel") — The word etsah means "counsel, plan, advice" — the very thing the wise are supposed to excel at (Proverbs 1:5, Proverbs 12:15, Proverbs 19:20). Bildad says the wicked man's own wisdom is what brings him down. His clever schemes become the instrument of his ruin. The verb tashlikh ("throws him down") is forceful — it means to hurl, to fling (cf. Jonah 1:5, where cargo is hurled into the sea).
Verses 8–10 pile up six different terms for traps: reshet (net), sevakhah (mesh/lattice), pach (trap/bird-snare), tsammim (snare/noose), chevel (rope/cord), and malkudet (trap/device). This extraordinary accumulation creates the impression of an inescapable web of destruction. No matter which way the wicked man turns, another trap awaits. The repetition is deliberate: Bildad wants to convey the absolute inevitability of judgment.
פָּח ("trap") — This word typically refers to a bird-trap — a device that snaps shut on the foot or neck. It appears frequently in Psalms and Proverbs as a metaphor for hidden danger (Psalm 91:3, Psalm 124:7, Psalm 140:5, Psalm 141:9). The trap seizes the aqev (heel) — evoking the image of a steel-jawed trap clamping shut on the ankle. The word aqev (heel) is the same root as the name Jacob (Ya'aqov), who "grasped the heel" (Genesis 25:26). There may be a subtle suggestion that the wicked man is caught by his own cunning, like a Jacob caught in his own trickery.
Terrors and Disease Consume Him (vv. 11–14)
11 Terrors frighten him on every side and harass his every step. 12 His strength is depleted, and calamity is ready at his side. 13 It devours patches of his skin; the firstborn of death devours his limbs. 14 He is torn from the shelter of his tent and is marched off to the king of terrors.
11 Terrors startle him on every side and scatter him at his feet. 12 His strength becomes famished, and disaster stands ready at his side. 13 It eats away the limbs of his skin; the firstborn of death devours his limbs. 14 He is torn from his tent — his security — and it marches him off to the king of terrors.
Notes
בַלָּהוֹת ("terrors") — This word means "sudden terrors, horrors." It appears in Job 18:11, Job 18:14, Job 24:17, Job 27:20, and Job 30:15 — always in the context of overwhelming, paralyzing dread. In verse 11 they surround him; in verse 14 they have a "king." Bildad personifies terror as an army that encircles, harasses, and finally claims the wicked man as a subject.
וֶהֱפִיצֻהוּ לְרַגְלָיו ("and scatter him at his feet") — The verb hephits means "to scatter, to disperse" (cf. Genesis 11:8, where God scatters the builders of Babel). The terrors chase the wicked man and scatter him — driving him in every direction, making him stumble and flee. The BSB's "harass his every step" smooths this out; the Hebrew is more violent. The terrors are like hunting dogs that nip at his heels.
יְהִי רָעֵב אֹנוֹ ("his strength becomes famished") — Literally, "his vigor is hungry." The noun on (vigor/strength) appeared in verse 7. Now it is not merely restricted but starving. The BSB renders this as "his strength is depleted," but the Hebrew image is more vivid: strength itself is ravenous, eating itself from within. The KJV's "hunger-bitten" captures this perfectly.
אֵיד נָכוֹן לְצַלְעוֹ ("disaster stands ready at his side") — The word eid means "calamity, disaster" and often refers to the sudden ruin that overtakes the wicked (Deuteronomy 32:35, Proverbs 1:26, Proverbs 6:15, Proverbs 24:22). It is nakhon — "established, ready, prepared" — standing by his tsela' (side/rib). Calamity is personified as a companion standing beside him, waiting for the right moment to strike. The word tsela' is the same word used for Adam's "rib" in Genesis 2:21-22 — calamity is as close as a rib.
בְּכוֹר מָוֶת ("the firstborn of death") — One of the most striking phrases in Job. The "firstborn" (bekhor) was the strongest and most eminent child. "The firstborn of death" is therefore the most powerful or terrible manifestation of death — the deadliest disease, the chief agent of mortality. Some scholars connect it to the Canaanite underworld deity Mot (Death), whose "firstborn" would be his most fearsome servant. Others see it as simply a vivid personification: the worst disease death can produce. It devours the wicked man's baddim (limbs/members), eating his body piece by piece. This image almost certainly evokes Job's own diseased skin (2:7–8).
מֶלֶךְ בַּלָּהוֹת ("the king of terrors") — Just as death has a "firstborn," terror has a "king." The wicked man is torn from his tent — his mivtach (security, confidence, that in which he trusted) — and marched like a prisoner before the king of terrors. This figure may represent Death personified as a monarch, or Sheol's ruler, or simply the ultimate terror that awaits the wicked. In the ancient Near Eastern imagination, the underworld was a realm with its own sovereign. The wicked man does not just die — he is escorted to an audience with dread itself.
Total Destruction: Root, Name, and Offspring (vv. 15–19)
15 Fire resides in his tent; burning sulfur rains down on his dwelling. 16 The roots beneath him dry up, and the branches above him wither away. 17 The memory of him perishes from the earth, and he has no name in the land. 18 He is driven from light into darkness and is chased from the inhabited world. 19 He has no offspring or posterity among his people, no survivor where he once lived.
15 In his tent dwells what is not his; sulfur is scattered upon his habitation. 16 Below, his roots dry up, and above, his branches wither. 17 His memory perishes from the earth, and he has no name on the face of the land. 18 They drive him from light into darkness and chase him from the inhabited world. 19 He has no offspring and no descendant among his people, and no survivor in the places where he sojourned.
Notes
תִּשְׁכּוֹן בְּאָהֳלוֹ מִבְּלִי לוֹ ("there dwells in his tent what is not his") — This is one of the most difficult lines in the chapter. The BSB interprets "fire resides in his tent" (reading tishkon as referring to a destructive force), but the Hebrew literally says "there dwells in his tent what does not belong to him" (mibbeli lo = "without his [ownership]"). This could mean: (a) strangers occupy his tent after his death; (b) a foreign, evil presence has taken over; or (c) destruction dwells where life once was. The KJV's "It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his" captures the eerie ambiguity — something alien now inhabits what was once his home.
גָפְרִית ("sulfur/brimstone") — Sulfur is the substance rained on Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24) and is a standard Old Testament image of divine judgment (Deuteronomy 29:23, Isaiah 30:33, Isaiah 34:9, Ezekiel 38:22). Bildad invokes the imagery of total, fire-and-brimstone destruction. The sulfur is scattered (yezoreh, from zarah, "to scatter, to winnow") upon his naveh (dwelling/pasture) — the place that was once his green, settled home.
Verse 16: the tree metaphor — The wicked man is compared to a tree whose roots dry up below and whose branches wither above. This is the inverse of the blessed man in Psalm 1:3 ("like a tree planted by streams of water") and Jeremiah 17:8 ("a tree planted by the water"). Job himself used the tree metaphor in 14:7–9, holding out hope that a tree cut down might sprout again. Bildad's tree has no such hope: it dies from both ends simultaneously. The word qatsir (rendered "branches" but literally "harvest" or "shoots") emphasizes what should have been productive growth — now withered.
זִכְרוֹ אָבַד מִנִּי אָרֶץ ("his memory perishes from the earth") — In the ancient world, to have one's memory erased was a fate worse than death. A person's zekher (memory, remembrance) was how they lived on — through reputation, through children who carried the name forward, through monuments and deeds recalled by the community. To perish from the earth and to have no shem (name) is total annihilation of personhood. Compare Deuteronomy 25:6, Ruth 4:5, and 2 Samuel 18:18 (Absalom's pillar), where preserving a name is a primary concern.
חוּץ ("the street/outside/the land") — The BSB translates "in the land," but chuts literally means "the outside" — the open street, the public square, the world beyond the home. His name will not be spoken outside — not in the marketplace, not in the gate where justice is done, not in any public forum. He is forgotten utterly.
מֵאוֹר אֶל חֹשֶׁךְ ("from light into darkness") — The speech comes full circle to its opening image. It began with the lamp of the wicked going out (v. 5); now the man himself is expelled from light into darkness. The vocabulary echoes the primordial separation of light and darkness in Genesis 1:4. The wicked man's fate is a reversal of creation — he is pushed back into the formless dark.
נִין ("offspring") and נֶכֶד ("descendant/posterity") — These two words form a standard pair meaning "offspring and descendants" — one's biological future. Nin refers to immediate offspring; nekhed to later generations (grandchildren and beyond). The pair appears also in Isaiah 14:22 (God's judgment on Babylon: "I will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offspring and posterity"). Bildad's point is absolute: the wicked man's family line is extinguished. No one carries on his name. Given that Job has just lost all ten of his children (1:18–19), this line is devastatingly cruel — whether or not Bildad intends it to be.
שָׂרִיד ("survivor") — A survivor, a remnant left after destruction. The word appears in the context of military defeat (Joshua 10:20, Judges 5:13, Obadiah 1:18). Bildad says there is not even a single sarid in the places where the wicked man once lived (megurav, "his sojourning places"). Complete erasure.
The Horror of Onlookers (vv. 20–21)
20 Those in the west are appalled at his fate, while those in the east tremble in horror. 21 Surely such is the dwelling of the wicked and the place of one who does not know God."
20 At his day, those who come after are appalled, and those who came before are seized with shuddering. 21 Surely these are the dwellings of the unrighteous, and this is the place of one who does not know God."
Notes
אַחֲרֹנִים ... קַדְמֹנִים ("those after ... those before") — These terms can mean either geographical ("western ... eastern," since in Hebrew the west is "behind" and the east is "in front") or temporal ("later generations ... earlier generations"). The BSB takes the geographical reading; I have preserved the temporal ambiguity: "those who come after" and "those who came before" suggest that the wicked man's fate is so horrifying that it appalls people across all time — both those who will hear of it in the future and those who witnessed it. Either reading reinforces the universal scope of the judgment.
נָשַׁמּוּ ("are appalled/desolated") — From shamem, "to be desolate, to be appalled" — the same word used to describe the desolation of a destroyed city (Lamentations 1:13, Lamentations 4:5) or the horror of those who witness it (Leviticus 26:32, Ezekiel 26:16). The onlookers are struck dumb, devastated by what they see. Their reaction confirms the totality of the destruction.
שָׂעַר ("shuddering/horror") — A physical trembling, a shudder that seizes the body (cf. Job 4:15, where Eliphaz describes "a spirit glided past my face; the hair of my body stood on end"). The qadmonim are physically gripped by horror — their bodies react to the sight of the wicked man's ruin.
עַוָּל ("unrighteous/evildoer") — Bildad uses avval (from aval, "to act wrongly") rather than rasha' (wicked), which he used in verse 5. The shift in vocabulary broadens the accusation: this is not just about the stereotypically "wicked" person, but about anyone who deviates from righteousness. The word avval carries a sense of injustice — one who perverts what is right.
לֹא יָדַע אֵל ("does not know God") — The final phrase is the theological summary of the entire speech. The wicked man's real crime, in Bildad's view, is that he does not know God. The word yada' means far more than intellectual knowledge — it implies intimate, personal, covenantal relationship (cf. Genesis 4:1, Hosea 6:6, Jeremiah 31:34). The man described in this speech is not merely a criminal; he is someone who has no living relationship with God. And the name Bildad uses — El — is the most basic, generic name for God, suggesting that the wicked man has not even a minimal awareness of the divine. This final line hangs in the air as a veiled accusation: if the shoe fits, Job, wear it.
The structural irony of the speech: Bildad describes in excruciating detail a man whose light is extinguished, whose body is consumed by disease, who is torn from his tent, whose children are dead, and who is a horror to all who see him. He presents this as a portrait of generic wickedness. But every detail matches Job's experience precisely — the darkened tent, the diseased skin (2:7), the lost children (1:18–19), the horrified friends who barely recognize him (2:12). Bildad cannot see that his "theology" is actually a weapon. He is telling a suffering man that his suffering proves his guilt. Job's response in chapter 19 will shatter this framework: "I know that my Redeemer lives" (19:25).