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The Book of Job

Chapter Eighteen: Bildad Answers Again

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Bildad Answers Again

Job: chapter 18
1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,

2 How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.
3 Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?
4 He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?
5 Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.
6 The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.
7 The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.
8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.
9 The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him.
10 The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.
11 Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.
12 His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side.
13 It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.
14 His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.
15 It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.
16 His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.
17 His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.
18 He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
19 He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings.
20 They that come after him shall be astonished at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.
21 Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.

Knowing Job's predicament, and sympathizing with him, it is increasingly hard to read the increasing vehemence with which the three friends assail Job. ‘You talk too much’, Bildad begins, ‘stop and then we will speak.’ He is invoking corporate authority here. The three men are one body of thought. ‘How dare you compare us as beasts’ (16:10) ‘and insult us’ (18:3).

Bildad then proceeds to dismiss Job, as if Job weren't even there: “He teareth himself in his anger” (18:4), and describe Job's plight as the punishment of the wicked: “The light of the wicked shall be put out” (18:5). As one commentator suggests, “Bildad is deeply offended and finds in Job a touch of madness” (Vicchio 2020, loc. 4574; quoting Ewald, Commentary on the Book of Job, 197). Vicchio quotes others, including T.F. Royds, who suggests that “Bildad['s] protests against Job's discourse is one of the most passionate effusions of the phlegmatic speaker (Vicchio 2020, loc. 4589). In discussing this vehemence, Vicchio quotes Carol A. Newsom, who suggests Bildad's accusation that Job ‘treats them like cattle’ (18:3) is because, “Even though Job has not used such a term, he has ridiculed the herd mentality embedded in the clichéd and platitudinous language of the friends (Vicchio 2020, loc. 4589).

In the culture of the middle east, a curse is a serious thing. Blessings or curses cannot be undone. The most vivid picture of this is in Essau's stolen blessing (Gen. 27:33-40), which could not be undone. In the book of Esther, the king's decree against the Jews could not be undone, so a counter-decree was devised (Esther 8:6-8). Against this backdrop, Bildad is carefully speaking in generic terms, although he is clearly speaking specifically about Job. Bildad has the decency not to level any new curses against Job.

He Walks into the Snare

Bildad further asserts of the wicked (i.e., Job) that “his own counsel shall cast him down” (18:7). Job, according to the friends, is causing his own suffering. “He is cast into a net by his own feet” (18:8). The three men have discussed Job's situation and decided that it because of some grave sin. Certain that Job's woes are punishment for sin which Job strongly denies, Bildad can only imagine that Job is lying. The three men suppose that Job is willfully walking into the snares set for him (18:8 & 10).

By now, Bildad knows that he cannot scare Job into a confession, yet he continues to try. If nothing else, he wants God to know that he is on God's side, not Job's. He enumerates all the tragedies that Job suffers: “Terrors shall make him afraid on every side” (18:11), “destruction...shall devour the strength of his skin” (18:12-13), “brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation” (18:15), “He shall be...chased out of the world” (18:18), “he shall neither have son nor nephew among his people” (18:19). Bildad smugly concludes, “Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God” (18:21). “Bildad is certain that Job is wrong and he is right, and the puzzling thing is that Bildad can prove his statements, while Job has to remain silent” (Chambers 1990, 87). Look at the list: Job is hemmed in by terrors (9:17-18), his skin is being eaten away (2:7), fire has fallen on his possessions (1:16), his branch is gone (his children) (1:18-19), he has been chased out and now lives at the dump (2:8). How can Job argue against Bildad?

Noting how small Bildad's scope is, how close to ‘my home’ and ‘my family’ it is, Penn-Lewis suggests: “It is inevitable that Job should be misunderstood by such a man. How could he comprehend the depth of surrender to God shown by Job? Even more, how could he understand God's deepest purposes for His devoted servant in placing him in the crucible?” (Penn-Lewis, 80). In fairness to Bildad, Job doesn't understand either. At the end of the book, we know about the contest between God and Satan, but Job still doesn't and neither do any of the other men. Only Job can truly appreciate the change that God will make in him. Against that background, the contest is a trifle.


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*All Bible quotes are from the King James Version unless otherwise indicated.



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