CHAPTER XVIII _Bildad, in a speech of passionate invective, accuses Job of_ _impatience and impiety_, 1-4; _shows the fearful end of the wicked and their posterity; and_ _apparently applies the whole to Job, whom he threatens with_ _the most ruinous end_, 5-21. NOTES ON CHAP. XVIII Verse Job... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 18:2. _HOW LONG_ WILL IT BE ERE _YE MAKE AN END_] It is difficult to say to whom this address is made: being in the _plural_ number, it can hardly be supposed to mean Job only. It probably means all present; as if he had said, It is vain to talk with this man, and follow him through all h... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 18:3. _COUNTED AS BEASTS_] Thou treatest us as if we had neither reason nor understanding.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 18:4. _HE TEARETH HIMSELF IN HIS ANGER_] Literally, _Rending his_ _own soul in his anger_; as if he had said, Thou art a madman: thy fury has such a sway over thee that thou eatest thy own flesh. While thou treatest us as beasts, we see thee to be a furious maniac, destroying thy own life.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 18:5. _THE LIGHT OF THE WICKED SHALL BE PUT OUT_] Some think it would be better to translate the original, "Let the light of the wicked be extinguished!" Thou art a bad man, and thou hast perverted the understanding which God hath given thee. Let that understanding, that abused gift, be ta... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 18:6. _THE LIGHT SHALL BE DARK IN HIS TABERNACLE_] His _property_ shall be destroyed, his house pillaged, and himself and his family come to an untimely end. _HIS CANDLE SHALL BE PUT OUT_] He shall have no _posterity_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 18:7. _THE STEPS OF HIS STRENGTH_] Even in his greatest prosperity he shall be in straits and difficulties. _HIS OWN COUNSEL_] He shall be the dupe and the victim of his own airy, ambitious, and impious schemes.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 18:8. _FOR HE IS CAST INTO A NET_] His own conduct will infallibly bring him to ruin. He shall be like a wild beast taken in a net; the more he flounces in order to extricate himself, the more he shall be entangled. _HE WALKETH UPON A SNARE._] He is continually walking on the meshes of a... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 18:9. _THE GIN SHALL TAKE HIM_] _Houbigant_ reads the _tenth_ before the _ninth_ verse, thus: "The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way. The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him." From the beginning of the _seventh_ verse t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 18:13. _IT SHALL DEVOUR THE STRENGTH OF HIS SKIN_] This may refer to the _elephant_, or to the _rhinoceros_, whose skin scarcely any dart can pierce: but in the case referred to above, the animal is taken in a pitfall, and then the _first-born of death _- a sudden and _overwhelming stroke... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 18:14. _HIS CONFIDENCE SHALL BE ROOTED OUT_] His dwelling-place, how well soever fortified, shall now he deemed utterly insecure. _AND IT SHALL BRING HIM TO THE KING OF TERRORS._] Or, as Mr. _Good_ translates, "And dissolution shall invade him as a monarch." He shall be completely and fin... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 18:15. _IT SHALL DWELL IN HIS TABERNACLE_] _Desolation_ is here _personified_, and it is said that it shall be the inhabitant, its former owner being destroyed. _Brimstone shall be scattered upon_ _his habitation_, so that, like Sodom and Gomorrah, it may be an everlasting monument of the... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 18:16. _HIS ROOTS SHALL BE DRIED UP - HIS BRANCH BE CUT OFF._] He shall be as utterly destroyed, both in _himself_, his _posterity_, and his _property_, as a tree is whose branches are all lopped off, and whose every root is cut away.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 18:17. _HIS REMEMBRANCE SHALL PERISH_] He shall have none to survive him, to continue his name among men. _NO NAME IN THE STREET._] He shall never be a man of reputation; after his demise, none shall talk of his _fame_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 18:18. _HE SHALL BE DRIVEN FROM LIGHT_] He shall be taken off by a violent death. _AND CHASED OUT OF THE WORLD._] The wicked is DRIVEN AWAY in _his_ _iniquity_. This shows his reluctance to depart from life.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 18:19. _HE SHALL NEITHER HAVE SON NOR NEPHEW_] _Coverdale_, following the _Vulgate_, translates thus: _We shal neither have_ _children ner kynss folk among his people, no ner eny posterite in_ _his countrie: yonge and olde shal be astonyshed at his death_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 18:20. _THEY THAT COME AFTER_ HIM] The _young_ shall be struck with astonishment when they hear the relation of the judgments of God upon this wicked man. _As they that went before_. The _aged_ who were his contemporaries, and who saw the judgments that fell on him, were affrighted, אחזו ש... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 18:21. _SUCH_ ARE _THE DWELLINGS_] This is the common lot of the wicked; and it shall be particularly the case with him _who knoweth_ _not God_, that is _Job_, for it is evident he alludes to him. Poor Job! hard was thy lot, severe were thy sufferings. ON the elephant hunt to which I have... [ Continue Reading ]