Job 18:6

_THE LIGHT SHALL BE DARK IN HIS TABERNACLE, AND HIS CANDLE SHALL BE PUT OUT WITH HIM._ Candle - the lamp which in the East is usually fastened to the ceiling. Oil abounds in those regions, and the lamp was kept burning all night, as now in Egypt, where the poorest would rather dispense with food than the night-lamp (Psalms 18:28). To put out the lamp was an image of utter desolation. WITH HIM - rather, above him; over his head....

5-10 Bildad describes the miserable condition of a wicked man; in which there is much certain truth, if we consider that a sinful condition is a sad condition, and that sin will be men's ruin, if they do not repent. Though Bildad thought the application of it to Job was easy, yet it was not safe nor just. It is common for angry disputants to rank their opponents among God's enemies, and to draw wrong conclusions from important truths. The destruction of the wicked is foretold. That destruction is represented under the similitude of a beast or bird caught in a snare, or a malefactor taken into custody. Satan, as he was a murderer, so he was a robber, from the beginning. He, the tempter, lays snares for sinners wherever they go. If he makes them sinful like himself, he will make them miserable like himself. Satan hunts for the precious life. In the transgression of an evil man there is a...

Verse Job 18:6. _THE LIGHT SHALL BE DARK IN HIS TABERNACLE_] His _property_ shall be destroyed, his house pillaged, and himself and his family come to an untimely end. _HIS CANDLE SHALL BE PUT OUT_] He shall have no _posterity_....

AND HIS CANDLE - Margin, lamp. The reference is to a lamp that was suspended from the ceiling. The Arabians are fond of this image. Thus, they say, “Bad fortune has extinguished my lamp.” Of a man whose hopes are remarkably blasted, they say, “He is like a lamp which is immediately extinguished if you let it sink in the oil.” See Schultens. The putting out of a lamp is to the Orientals an image of utter desolation. It is the universal custom to have a light burning in their houses at night. “The houses of Egypt, in modern times, are never without lights; they burn lamps all the night long, and in every occupied apartment. So requisite to the comfort of a family is this custom reckoned, and so imperious is the power which it exercises, that the poorest people. would rather retrench part of their food than neglect it.” Paxton. It is not improbable that this custom prevailed in former times...

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....

THE LIGHT SHALL THE DARK IN HIS TABERNACLE,.... Not the light of the eye, in the tabernacle of his body, rather the light of nature and reason in him; and when that "light [that is] in [a man becomes] darkness", as our Lord says, "how great [is] that darkness!" Matthew 6:23; but best of all it designs the light of prosperity in his house and family, which should be quite obscured: AND HIS CANDLE SHALL BE PUT OUT WITH HIM; which sometimes signifies the spirit of man, his rational soul, called "the candle of the Lord", Proverbs 20:27; which, though it dies not when man dies, yet its light is extinct with respect to the things of this life, and all its thoughts and reasonings are no more about civil matters, and the affairs of this world; in that sense this light is put out,

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...

DARK. Hebrew. _hashak:_ see note on Job 3:6. showing that the man is dead, and not alive to keep the light burning. TABERNACLE. tent. CANDLE. lamp. WITH HIM. over him: see note on "dark", above....

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....