Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 18

How long? —Bildad begins very much as Job himself had done (Job 16:0).

Wherefore are we counted as beasts.

This refers to Job’s words (Job 13:4 and other similar passages, Job 16:2 and other similar passages). In this chapter, there is a marked increase in his harshness and violence.

It has, however, a certain resemblance to Job 8:0, since Bildad works out a simile here, as he did there; and in Job 18:16 the two similes touch.

In Job 18:2, which resembles Job 8:2, we must supply, as the Authorized Version does, Will it be ere? or the negative, Will you not make? or similar, or else we must render, “How long [will you speak thus]? Make an end of words,” or similar.

The plural is used because Job is regarded as the representative of a class, or else as we use the plural instead of the singular in addressing a person.

He teareth himself in his anger. —As Eliphaz had charged Job (Job 15:4) with the evil tendencies of his speeches, so Bildad here compares him to a maniac, and assumes that the effect of his teaching will be to banish God from the earth, and remove the strength and hope of man. The last clause is a direct quotation from Job in Job 14:18; it looks, therefore, very much like a wilful perversion of Job’s words, for it is clear that he used them very differently.

Even if there were no intentional misrepresentation Bildad applies Job’s words to his own purposes. The drift of his question is, “Can you expect the course of God’s providence to be altered for you? On the contrary, the retribution that awaits the wicked is sure and swift; for truly (Job 18:5) the light of the wicked shall be put out.”

The steps of his strength. — that is, his giant strides. He will be the victim of his own devices, and when they seem to hold out the hope of prosperity, they will lead him to destruction. .

He is cast into a net. —Job had compared himself to one hunted by the Almighty (Job 10:16), and Bildad here describes the evil man as snared in a net, but it is one for which he has no one to thank but himself. It is his own pit he falls into; the insinuation being that Job is likewise responsible for his calamities, which are the punishment of his sin. It is to be observed that in this and the following verses the speaker heaps together every word he can find descriptive of the art of snaring.