Job 18 - Introduction

TODAY'S ENGLISH VERSION

Bildad

2 Job, can people like you never be quiet?

If you stopped to listen we could talk to you.

3 What makes you think we are as stupid as cattle?
4 You are only hurting yourself with your anger.

Will the earth be deserted because of you?
Will mountains be moved because of you?

5 The wicked man's light will be put out;

its flame will never burn again.

6 The lamp in his tent will be darkened.
7 His steps were firm, but now he limps;

he fallsa victim of his own advice.

8 He walks into a net and his feet are caught;
9 a trap catches his heels and holds him.
10 On the ground a snare is hidden for him;

a trap has been set in his path.

11 All around him terror is waiting;

it follows him at every step.

12 He used to be rich, but now he goes hungry;

disaster stands and waits at his side.

13 A deadly disease spreads over his body,

and causes his arms and legs to rot.

14 He is torn from the tent where he lived secure,

and is dragged off to face King Death.

15 Now anyone may live in his tent

after sulfur is sprinkled to disinfect it!

16 His roots and branches are withered and dry.
17 His fame is ended at home and abroad;

no one remembers him any more.

18 He will be driven out of the land of the living,

driven from light into darkness.

19 He has no descendants, no survivors.
20 From east to west, everyone who hears of his fate

shudders and trembles with fear.

21 This is the fate of evil men,

the fate of those who care nothing for God.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 18:1-21

355.

Bildad attacks Job for three reasons. What are they?

356.

Bildad's speech is exhausted by a syndrome. What is it?

357.

Why does Bildad call Job egocentric?

358.

Does Job call his friends dumb unclean beasts?

359.

Job said God tore him (Job 16:9). Bildad says Job tore himself. Who is right?

360.

What is the meaning of the figure of a rock in verse four?

361.

To what circumstance in Job's life does the light of the wicked have reference?

362.

Notice the objective, impersonal manner in which the words of Bildad are couched. What does this say of the man?

363.

What does the use of the light in the tent suggest as to the time of the writing of this book?

364.

Bildad's speech is tied together by what literary device?

365.

The wicked (Job in particular) are like an aging man. How so? Cf. Job 18:7.

366.

The wicked man falls into all manner of traps. He traps himself by his feebleness. Name three other traps that catch the wicked. Cf. Job 18:8-9. What is the gin?

367.

Bildad describes an actual experience in Job 18:11. What is it?

368.

Trouble and calamity are personified in Job 18:12. What are they about to do to the wicked man?

369.

Job 18:13 contains a reference to Job's disease. What is said about it?

370.

Who is the king of terrors? Why so described?

371.

How was brimstone or sulphur used in Job 18:15?

372.

The metaphor of the root and branch and fruit in Job 18:16 refers to what in the experience of Job?

373.

How can Bildad be so positively cruel in the promises he makes concerning Job's family?

374.

Job and all like him will be chased out of the worldfrom light to darkness. Who will do this? When?

375.

The lack of progeny is also the lack of what? i.e., according to Bildad.

376.

What day is discussed in Job 18:20? What will happen?

377.

Bildad's truth is a half-lie. Explain. Why was this man so void of sympathy?