Job Chapter 18

Bildad paints the wicked man's fate as a trap, a snuffed-out light, and a forgotten name.

Job 18: Bildad Describes the Wicked's End

Job 18 gives Bildad's second speech, impatient with Job's grief in Job 17 and asking how long before Job's words come to an end. He describes the wicked man caught by a gin at his heel and a net laid in his path.


Then responded Bildad the Shuhite, and said:—

How long will ye make a perversion of words? Ye should understand, and, afterwards, we could speak.

Wherefore are we accounted like beasts? or appear stupid, in thine eyes?

One tearing in pieces his own soul in his anger,—For thy sake, shall the earth be forsaken? or the rock be moved out of its place?

Even the light of the lawless, shall go out,—Neither shall shine the flame of his fire;

The light, hath darkened in his tent, Yea, his lamp above him, goeth out;

The steppings of his strength are hemmed in, and his own counsel casteth him down;

For he is thrust into a net by his own feet, and, upon a trap, he marcheth;

There catcheth him—by the heel—a gin, there holdeth him fast—a noose:

Concealed in the ground is a cord for him,—and a snare for him, on the path.

Round about, terrors have startled him, and have driven him to his feet.

Let his strength be famished, and, calamity, be ready at his side;

Let it devour the members of his body, Let the firstborn of death devour his members;

Uprooted, out of his tent, be his confidence, and let it drive him down to the king of terrors;

There shall dwell in his tent, what is naught-of-his, Let brimstone be strewed over his dwelling;

Beneath, let his roots be dried up, and, above, be cut off his branch;

His memorial, have perished out of the land, and let him have no name over the face of the open field;

Let them thrust him out of light into darkness, Yea, out of the world, let them chase him;

Let him have neither scion nor seed among his people, neither any survivor in his place of sojourn:

Over his day, have they been astounded who come behind, and, them who are in advance, a shudder hath seized.

Surely, these, are the dwellings of him that is perverse, and, this, is the place of him that knoweth not GOD.

Bildad declares that 'the light of the wicked shall be put out,' a fate that contrasts with the steady light promised the righteous in <a href="/bible/rotherham/proverbs/chapter-13/9">Proverbs 13:9</a>. Job's reply, including his famous confession of hope, follows in <a href="/bible/rotherham/job/chapter-19">Job 19</a>.