Bildad Speaks
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite r replied:
2 How long until you stop talking?
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 abandoned on your account,
or a rock be removed from its place?
5 Yes, the light s of the wicked t is extinguished;
the flame of his fire does not glow.
6 The light in his tent grows dark, u
and the lamp beside him is put out.
7 His powerful stride is shortened,
and his own schemes trip him up. v
8 For his own feet lead him into a net,
and he strays into its mesh.
9 A trap catches him by the heel;
a noose seizes him.
10 A rope lies hidden for him on the ground,
and a snare waits for him along the path.
11 Terrors frighten him on every side w
and harass him at every step.
12 His strength is depleted;
disaster lies ready for him to stumble.
13 Parts of his skin are eaten away;
death’s firstborn consumes his limbs.
14 He is ripped from the security of his tent
and marched away to the king of terrors.
15 Nothing he owned remains in his tent.
Burning sulfur x is scattered over his home.
16 His roots below dry up,
and his branches above wither away. y
17 All memory z of him perishes from the earth;
he has no name anywhere.
18 He is driven from light to darkness
and chased from the inhabited world.
19 He has no children or descendants among his people,
no survivor where he used to live. a
20 Those in the west are appalled b at his fate,
while those in the east tremble in horror.
21 Indeed, such is the dwelling of the unjust man,
and this is the place of the one who does not know God. c
18:1–4. Bildad begins with a strong retort against Job, rejecting as nonsense what Job has said. Job ended his previous speech with a list of rhetorical questions, and Bildad opens his speech in the same fashion (18:2). Once again the speaker starts with a barrage of insults (cf. Eliphaz in 15:2–3 and Job in 16:2–3). Bildad charges that Job (or perhaps the other friends, because “you” is plural) has been playing clever word games rather than entering into serious debate. By urging Job to be sensible, Bildad implies that Job’s words are nonsense and that therefore there are no reasonable grounds for conversing with him.
18:5–7. The major portion of Bildad’s speech (18:5–21) is a lecture; he contends that the world functions as a machine in which wickedness is always judged by God. In Bildad’s system of thought there is no room for ambiguity or exceptions. Life is predictable because wickedness is always punished (18:5; cf. Ps 1:6; Pr 12:21). That Bildad does not mention God until verse 21 suggests that he views the retribution formula as an inflexible natural law, a machine working without divine intervention.
18:8–16. Bildad continues to emphasize that there is no way for the wicked to avoid just retribution for sin. Six different terms for a trap are used in 18:8–10. This concentration of similar language indicates that wherever the wicked go, they are just a step away from being ensnared in a trap they cannot foresee. They cannot avoid the judgment that their sin deserves. Judgment is thoroughly predictable.
18:17–21. Bildad concludes that the wicked are left without any future after they die, because no one remembers them (18:17) and they have no offspring to survive them (18:19). In the OT, barrenness or death without surviving descendants was regarded as a deep grief (cf. the anguished cries of Rachel in Gn 30:1 and Hannah in 1 Sm 1:11–16). Those who had no physical posterity to carry on their names resorted to other means to gain some form of social immortality (e.g., 2 Sm 18:18; Ps 49:11).