Job 18

18:2-3 How long before you stop talking? Bildad addressed Job in the plural, perhaps meaning “people like you.”

18:5 The light of the wicked will be snuffed out could be a metaphor for a life of confused darkness (Prov 4:19); more likely, it indicates an early death (Prov 13:9; 24:20).

18:7 The stride that is shortened is the opposite of walking and running in the blessed life (Prov 4:12).

18:8-10 A series of hunting devices illustrates the biblical principle of retribution (see study note on 34:11).

18:11-13 Bildad applies the biblical principle of retribution (18:8-10) to Job, as do Eliphaz (15:21-23) and Zophar (20:25).

18:13 death devours: Isaiah later reversed the figure and saw the Lord as swallowing up death (Isa 25:8; see 1 Cor 15:54).

18:15 The image of burning sulfur recalls the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24) and suggests the fate of all the wicked (Ps 11:6; Rev 19:20; 21:8).

18:17 Being forgotten by those who come later is a familiar curse against the wicked (see 18:19; Pss 34:16; 109:13; Prov 10:7).

18:19 This curse of childlessness (see 18:16; Pss 109:13; Isa 14:21-22) and Bildad’s earlier cruelty (Job 8:4) show that he regarded Job’s condition as the just reward for his wickedness (1:18-19).

18:20 in the west . . . in the east: These phrases might refer to people from times past and times to come or to people from various places.

18:21 Bildad kept implying that Job had rejected God (15:4, 13, 25).