Job 18:3

_WHEREFORE ARE WE COUNTED AS BEASTS, AND REPUTED VILE IN YOUR SIGHT?_ Beasts - alluding to what Job said (Job 12:7; so Isaiah 1:3; Psalms 49:12; Psalms 49:20). VILE - rather, from a Hebrew root, to stop up х_ NITMIYNUW_ (H2933), not from _ TAAMEE'_ (H2930), but from _ TAAMAAH_ (H2933), or _ 'AATAM_ (H331)]. 'Stubborn,' answering to the stupidity implied in the parallel first clause (Umbreit). Why should we give occasion by your e

1-4 Bildad had before given Job good advice and encouragement; here he used nothing but rebukes, and declared his ruin. And he concluded that Job shut out the providence of God from the management of human affairs, because he would not admit himself to be wicked....

Verse Job 18:3. _COUNTED AS BEASTS_] Thou treatest us as if we had neither reason nor understanding....

WHEREFORE ARE WE COUNTED AS BEASTS? - “Why are we treated in your remarks as if we had no sense, and were unworthy of sound argument in reply to what we say?” It is possible that there may be reference here to what Job said Job 12:7 - that even the beasts could give them information about God. But the general idea is, that Job had not treated their views with the attention which they deserved, but had regarded them as unworthy of notice. AND REPUTED VILE - The word used here (טמה _ṭâmâh_) means to be unclean, or polluted; and the idea is, that Job regarded them as worthless or impious....

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....

WHEREFORE ARE WE COUNTED AS BEASTS,.... This seems to refer to Job 12:7; where Job sends them to the beasts, to get knowledge and instruction; and therefore it was concluded he reckoned them as such, and put them on a level with them, yea, made them inferior to them; or to Job 17:4; where they are represented as destitute of wisdom and understanding, and therefore it is supposed were counted by Job no other than as beasts. Man, by the fall, is indeed become like them, and some are more brutish than they, and all are brutish as to spiritual knowledge and understanding; and those that are most sensible of themselves are ready to acknowledge their ignorance, that they are more brutish than any, and especially are as a beast before God; and particularly with respect to knowledge of the methods of Providence, in rega

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...

WHEREFORE... ? Figure of speech _Erotesis._ App-6. VILE: or, stupid. YOUR SIGHT. Septuagint and Syriac read "thine eyes"....

_and reputed vile_ lit. _and are unclean_. Bildad describes what Job's treatment of his friends suggests to him as Job's idea of them. The reference is to the passages, ch. Job 17:4; Job 17:10, and the words "clean of hands" ch. Job 17:9, which Job had used of himself and other unjustly persecuted men, cf. Psalms 73:22....