Job 18 - Introduction
_A.M. 2484. B.C. 1520._ Bildad sharply reproves Job, as proud and impatient, Job 18:1; and enlarges on the misery of the wicked, Job 18:5.... [ Continue Reading ]
_A.M. 2484. B.C. 1520._ Bildad sharply reproves Job, as proud and impatient, Job 18:1; and enlarges on the misery of the wicked, Job 18:5.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then answered Bildad the Shuhite_ Bildad, irritated to the last degree that Job should treat their advice with so much contempt, is no longer able to keep his passions within the bounds of decency, He proceeds to downright abuse; and, finding little attention given by Job to his arguments, he tries... [ Continue Reading ]
_How long will it be ere you wake an end_ How long shall we continue this dispute? Why do not you, my brethren, give over discoursing with Job, who is so transported by his passions, as not to be fit to be discoursed with? At least, forbear to proceed till both you and he shall better understand the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore are we counted as beasts?_ That is, ignorant and stupid men, Job 17:4; Job 17:10; _and reputed vile in your sight_ Hebrew, נשׂמנו, _nitmeinu, polluted_ or _unclean;_ that is, not fit to be conversed with, or contemptible, as such things are. _He teareth himself in his anger _ That is, Job... [ Continue Reading ]
_Yea_ Depend upon it, the thing is true and certain, notwithstanding thy dissatisfaction and opposition to it; _the light of the wicked shall be put out_ All their glory and felicity shall perish: _and the spark of his fire shall not shine_ His light is but a spark, which shines briskly for a moment... [ Continue Reading ]
_He is cast into a net by his own feet_ By his own choice, design, and actions. _And he walketh upon a snare_ Or, as the words may be rendered, _runneth to and fro on the toils_, and therefore must needs be entangled and destroyed. “The metaphor” says Heath, “is taken from a beast, which the hunters... [ Continue Reading ]
_The gin shall take him by the heel_ That is, take fast hold on him, so as to keep him in those distresses. _And the robber shall prevail against him_ Hebrew, צמים, _tsammim, the horrible_ or _terrible man_, the huntsman that laid the snare for him shall come upon him, when he is insnared, take and... [ Continue Reading ]
_Terrors shall make him afraid_ Both from men and from God, and also from his own unquiet mind and guilty conscience. _And drive him to his feet_ Shall force him to flee different ways, being safe nowhere, but pursued by terrors from place to place, which, as Houbigant renders it, _shall be spread a... [ Continue Reading ]
_It shall devour_, &c. _“Filthy ulcers shall consume his skin; an untimely death shall destroy his children._ Heath and Houbigant. This sarcasm was peculiarly adapted to the case of Job, whose skin was thus consumed, and whose children had been destroyed in this manner. The reader must have had occa... [ Continue Reading ]
_His confidence_ That is, all the matter of his confidence, his riches, children, &c.; _shall be rooted out of his tabernacle_ That is, out of his habitation. _And it_ Namely, the loss of his confidence; _shall bring him to the king of terrors_ Either, 1st, Into extreme fears and horrors of mind; or... [ Continue Reading ]
_It shall dwell in his tabernacle_ Destruction, expressed Job 18:12, shall fix its abode with him. _Because it is none of his_ Because it is none of his own, being got from others by deceit or violence. _Brimstone shall be scattered on his habitation_ It shall be utterly destroyed, as it were, by fi... [ Continue Reading ]
_His roots shall be dried up_, &c. That is, he shall be destroyed, both root and branch; both himself and his posterity. _His remembrance shall perish_ Instead of that honour and renown which he designed and expected to have, both while he lived, and after his death, he shall not be so much as remem... [ Continue Reading ]
_They that come after him_ And hear the report of it, _shall be astonied at his day_ The day of his destruction. They shall be amazed at the suddenness and dreadfulness of it. _As they that went before were affrighted As his elders_ (so Heath renders it) _were seized with horror;_ namely, those who... [ Continue Reading ]