Job 18:20

_THEY THAT COME AFTER HIM SHALL BE ASTONIED AT HIS DAY, AS THEY THAT WENT BEFORE WERE AFFRIGHTED._ After... before - rather, 'those in the West-those in the East' - i:e., all people; literally, those behind-these before; because Orientals, in geography, turn with their face to the East (not to the North, as we do), and back to the West; so that before-East: behind-West (so Zechariah 14:8, "the former (i:e., Eastern) sea-the hinder (Western) sea"). However, the English, version is good sense: "they that went before" are the sinner's contemporaries, contrasted with "those that come after him." DAY - of ruin (Obadiah 1:12; Psalms 37:13;...

11-21 Bildad describes the destruction wicked people are kept for, in the other world, and which in some degree, often seizes them in this world. The way of sin is the way of fear, and leads to everlasting confusion, of which the present terrors of an impure conscience are earnests, as in Cain and Judas. Miserable indeed is a wicked man's death, how secure soever his life was. See him dying; all that he trusts to for his support shall be taken from him. How happy are the saints, and how indebted to the lord Jesus, by whom death is so far done away and changed, that this king of terrors is become a friend and a servant! See the wicked man's family sunk and cut off. His children shall perish, either with him or after him. Those who consult the true honour of their family, and its welfare, will be afraid of withering all by sin. The judgments of God follow the wicked man after death in thi...

Verse Job 18:20. _THEY THAT COME AFTER_ HIM] The _young_ shall be struck with astonishment when they hear the relation of the judgments of God upon this wicked man. _As they that went before_. The _aged_ who were his contemporaries, and who saw the judgments that fell on him, were affrighted, אחזו שער _achazu saar, seized with_ _horror _- were _horrified_; or, as Mr. _Good_ has well expressed it, _were panic-struck_....

THEY THAT COME AFTER HIM - Future ages; they who may hear of his history and of the manner in which he was cut off from life. So the passage has been generally rendered; so, substantially, it is by Dr. Good, Dr. Noyes, Rosenmuller, and Luther. The Vulgate translates it _novissimi_; the Septuagint, ἔσχατοι _eschatoi_ - “the last” - meaning those that should live after him, or at a later period. But Schultens supposes that the word used here denotes those in “the West,” and the corresponding word rendered “went before,” denotes those in “the East.” With this view Wemyss concurs, who renders the whole verse: “The West shall be astonished at his end; The East shall be panic-struck.” According to this, it means that those who dwelt in

EXPOSITION JOB 18:1 Bildad's second speech is no improvement upon his first (Job 8:1.). He has evidently been exceedingly nettled by Job's contemptuous words concerning his "comforters" (Job 16:2, Job 16:11; Job 17:10); and aims at nothing but venting his anger, and terrifying Job by a series of denunciations and threats. Job has become to him "the_ _wicked man" (verses 5, 21), an embodiment of all that is evil, and one "that knoweth not God." No punishment is too severe for him....

THEY THAT COME AFTER [HIM] SHALL BE ASTONISHED AT HIS DAY,.... At the day of his calamity and distress, ruin and destruction, see Psalms 37:13; it would be extremely amazing to them how it should be, that a man who was in such flourishing and prosperous circumstances, should be brought at once, he and his family, into such extreme poverty, and into such a distressed and forlorn condition; they should be, as it were, thunderstruck at it, not being able to account for it: by these are meant such as are younger than the wicked man, and that continue longer than he, yet upon the spot when his calamity befell; or else posterity in later times, who would be made acquainted with the whole affair, and be surprised at the relation of it: AS THEY THAT WENT BEFORE WERE AFFRIGHTED; not that lived before the times of the wicked man, for they could not see his day, or be s

CHAPTER 18 BILDAD'S SECOND ADDRESS _ 1. New reproaches (Job 18:1)_ 2. Once again, the wicked and what they deserve (Job 18:5) Job 18:1. Bildad has the good sense in this second oration to be very brief. He, like Eliphaz, pays his compliments to Job and reproaches him. How long are you going to speak yet any way! You, you tell us that we are like the beasts, stupid and ignorant! Keep on with your nonsense, you but tear yourself in your anger, it is all unavailing and changes not things for thee. This is the meaning of his rebuke. Job 18:5. Then the favored theme, the wicked and what is in store for them. Apart from the falsity of the a

JOB 18. SECOND SPEECH OF BILDAD.Bildad speaks this time at unusual length, but his speech has no significance, since it simply describes the fate of the godless. Into the description of this, however, there are interwoven direct allusions to Job's case, so that to this degree it serves to increase Job's perplexity and bring on the crisis (Duhm). Job 18:2 contains the usual personal polemic; in Job 18:2 we must read sing. for plur.; Job 18:4 asks Job if the earth is to be turned upside down to suit him. Job 18:5 contains an extended picture of the fate of the godless. In...

DAY. Put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Adjunct), App-6, for the thing done in the day: i.e. his fall....

The disastrous end of the wicked, in the moral order of the world, is certain The last verse naturally led over to this idea, which is the theme of the speech. The idea is set out in a great variety of graphic figures, and the speech is studded with sententious and proverbial sayings in the manner of the speaker's first discourse (ch. 8). The history of the wicked man's downfall is followed through all its stages: Job 18:5. The principle the sinner's light goes out. Job 18:8. The progress of his downfall. Job 18:12. The final scenes. Job 18:15. The extinction of his race and name....