Table of Contents
Job 18
Job 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 astonied 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.
Notes
Cross Reference
Concordance
Commentary
Rashi
Verse 2
<html><b>Bildad’s reply</b><br><b>“How long?”</b> will you prolong the discussion? <b>Consider</b> Be silent to understand and to hear what we will speak.</html>
Verse 3
<html><b>and reputed dull in your sight</b> Heb. נטמינו. We are considered in your eyes as stopped up. The word has no radical besides the “teth” “mem,” like טַמוֹנוּן פְלִשְתָּאֵי, which is the Aramaic translation of סִתְּמוּם פלשתים “the Philistines stopped them up” (Gen. 26:15). Some explain [this] as an expression of hiding (טמינה), but they are in error, because were that the case, the word would require two “nun”s, one for the radical and one for the plural suffix.</html>
Verse 4
<html><b>One who destroys his soul</b> He turns to Job, “To you I say, the one who destroys his soul in his anger and in his wrath.” <b>for your sake</b> For the sake of your innocence shall the earth be abandoned by its standard of justice? <b>and shall the Rock be removed</b> The Creator. <b>from His place</b> From His knowledge and from His nature.</html>
Verse 5
<html><b>Yea</b> Even now, according to your cry, this will be in force for generations. <b>the light of the wicked shall be put out</b> it shall spring from its place. <b>spark</b> Etinceler in French.</html>
Verse 7
<html><b>shall be straitened</b> They shall be short. <b>The steps of</b> The steps of his strength. <b>shall cast him down</b> His counsel that he advised, which will not be fulfilled [will cast him down].</html>
Verse 8
<html><b>For</b> his end will be that… <b>he shall be sent into a net</b> His feet will be sent to step on a net and be caught. <b>and he shall walk on the toils</b> Heb. שבכה. Every שבכה is made like a net, and that is the coif that is on the head of women.</html>
Verse 9
<html><b>shall seize</b> A trap shall seize him by the heel.</html>
Verse 10
<html><b>hidden…in the ground</b> under his feet. <b>A noose…for him</b> The rope of his trap, with which he will be caught. <b>and a trap for him</b> is hidden on the path just as they hide the noose of the trap for birds.</html>
Verse 11
<html><b>terrors</b> Demons. <b>and beat him off his fee</b> They knock him down to the ground.</html>
Verse 12
<html><b>His son</b> Heb. אֹנוֹ, lit, his strength. <b>for his wife</b> Heb. לצלעוֹ lit. his rib [alluding to Eve].</html>
Verse 13
<html><b>He shall eat the branches of his body</b> And he shall devour all the rest of his branches, viz. his sons and daughters. <b>the prince of death</b> Heb. בכור מות, as in (Ps. 89:28), “Also I will make him a prince (בכור).”</html>
Verse 14
<html><b>He shall be torn away from his wife</b> Heb. מאהלו, lit. from his tent. <b>who trusted him</b> Heb. מבטחו, his trust, who trusted him. (His trust), that she trusted him. <b>she will cause him to walk.</b> yet she will cause him to walk and will send him away (from her) to the grave, to the king of the demons.</html>
Verse 15
<html><b>She shall dwell</b> in his tent as a widow. <b>not being his</b> (that she will not be his) because he is dead, and ultimately brimstone shall be scattered on his dwelling.</html>
Verse 18
<html><b>They shall drive him</b> from heaven.</html>
Verse 19
<html><b>grandson</b> Heb. נכד, a son of the son.</html>
Verse 20
<html><b>the later people</b> They wondered when they heard of the misfortune that befell him. <b>quaking</b> Heb. שָׂעַר, tempest. This cannot be of the form of שֵׂעָר, hair, because the accent in שָׂעַר is not (on the “sin,” but on the “ayin,”) and it is not converted to a “kamatz” when it is cantillated with an “ethnachta” or a “sof pasuk.” I did not hear this.</html>
Verse 21
<html><b>These are only the dwellings of the unrighteous</b> This is their fate.</html>