Job 18
Bildad hints Job is godless
Bildad jumps in to trash-talk Job
1Bildad from Shuah said:2Are we there yet?
Or are you going to talk forever?
Why don't you take a break
And give us a chance to talk?
3You seem to think we’re stupid,
As dumb as an ox.
4You're angry right now,
So angry that you might hurt yourself.
Would you feel better
if the human race could be wiped out,
or the mountains laid flat?
How to indirectly call Job wicked
5The wicked get their lights put out.Their lamps are snuffed.
6Their tents go dark.
There’s no one to light the lamps.
7Their fast-paced walking days are over.
They plotted, tripped, and fell.
8They dropped into a net,
Walking right into the trap.
9It caught them by the heel
And didn’t let them go.
10It was a noosed rope that hooked them.
They stepped right into it.
11They live in constant terror,
Knowing trouble can strike from any direction.
12Tragedy hungers for them.
Disaster waits for them.
One stumble is all it takes,
and they’re down.
The wicked have bad skin
13Skin disease devours them. [1]Death swallows up their first child.
14Arrested, they’re dragged out of the tents,
And hauled to the King of Terror. [2]
15Fire takes possession of their home,
As burning sulfur rains onto the tent top.
16Roots of the family tree dry and die.
Branches above wither and break.
17The family fades away,
As a memory lost to history.
In time,
No one remembers their names.
18They are deported—evicted from light,
Exiled to darkness beyond this world.
19They leave behind no child, no family, no relative at all.
Everyone living with them isn’t living anymore.
20Lands west are appalled by their story.
Lands east are horrified.
21This is the destiny of wicked people,
The fate of those who reject God.
Footnotes
This is probably the best clue in Bildad’s speech that indicates he is talking about Job. Job’s skin was peppered with “oozing sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head” (Job 2:19). And the next line in the poem refers to his children all killed in a crushing windstorm (Job 1:19). To this point, Job may have agreed with Bildad on almost everything. But now suddenly Job has to rethink what Bildad has said. And he has to digest the criticism that he is the one who is wicked and is about to get snuffed out for being such an evil person.
The King of Terror in this context sounds like the tragedy that kills a person. In Job’s case, it might be his failure to cope with his staggering loss of family and livestock. “King of Terror” was a title people in ancient times could relate to. In the Sumerian culture of what is now Iraq, Nergal was the god of “inflicted death.” He was occasionally called the “King of Terror Land” who lived in a “Terrible House.” Greeks later called this god Hades.
Discussion Questions
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