Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 18:3

"Wherefore are we counted as beasts, [And] are become unclean in your sight?" — Job 18:3 (ASV)

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.