Thomas Aquinas Commentary Job 18:12-21

"His strength shall be hunger-bitten, And calamity shall be ready at his side. The members of his body shall be devoured, [Yea], the first-born of death shall devour his members. He shall be rooted out of his tent where he trusteth; And he shall be brought to the king of terrors. There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his: Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation. His roots shall be dried up beneath, And above shall his branch be cut off. His remembrance shall perish from the earth, And he shall have no name in the street. He shall be driven from light into darkness, And chased out of the world. He shall have neither son nor son`s son among his people, Nor any remaining where he sojourned. They that come after shall be astonished at his day, As they that went before were affrighted. Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous, And this is the place of him that knoweth not God." — Job 18:12-21 (ASV)

Previously, Bildad had described the punishments of sinners found in external adversities, but here he begins to address the punishments affecting the person himself. One must note that sins themselves implicate the sinner in external adversities, and so he described external adversities as if predicting them with some certainty. Bodily punishments, however, do not seem to be directly caused by the sins themselves, except perhaps for gluttony and lust, in which someone sins in his own body. Therefore, he does not describe bodily punishments by denouncing the sinner, but rather by threatening him. He begins with the bodily punishments that precede death, and because nourishment preserves the life of the body, he first calls for the removal of nourishment from him, by which a man first begins to be weakened. Regarding this, he says, 'His strength will be robbed by hunger.'

Then, when he lacks nourishment, his life is also taken away. Regarding this, he says, 'and let fasting invade his ribs,' by which he means the weakening of the vital functions, the principal one being the heart, which is contained under the ribs. The body's good qualities, which hunger begins to weaken, are totally consumed by death. The principal qualities of the body are beauty and strength, and so he then says, 'may his skin lose its beauty,' because beauty concerns external appearance, 'and may the arms of that man,' in which strength is especially found, 'be consumed by a premature'—that is, early—'death,' before the end of the natural span of life.

The dead man is taken out of his house, and regarding this he says, 'May trust be torn away violently from his tent,' because he did not place his hope in God, but in the ostentatious display and the glory of his house, of which he is deprived after death. Thrown out of his house, he is shut up in the tomb, where he is utterly destroyed in death. Regarding this, he says, 'and may destruction trample him like a king,' because death, like a king in the fullness of his power, grinds him into dust.

When he has been taken from his house, the dead man's household members remain, with whom he had fellowship in this life. Concerning this, he then says, 'May the companions of the one who no longer lives'—that is, of the dead man who now takes no part in human affairs—'inhabit his tent.' When the master dies, the members of the household mourn and show signs of sadness, either by wearing black and poor garments or by offensive odors. He expresses this when he says, 'let sulfur be sprinkled in his tent.' In this text, one understands this to mean all those things that can be signs of sadness, just as pleasant odors are used as a sign of rejoicing.

When a man has died, frequently everything that was his goes to ruin. He shows this consequence by beginning first with those things produced from the earth. Some of what he planted may still remain as seedlings after he dies. Expressing this, he says, 'Behold! May his roots be dried up,' so that if he had sown or planted anything, it may be destroyed and not bear fruit. However, as for those things that have already produced fruit, he says, 'and may his harvest above be ruined.' One can apply this to any business he has just begun or that is already almost finished.

He then proceeds to the renown that remains for a man after his death, by which some men desire to live on in the memories of others and also have glory after death. Thus, regarding the removal of the sinner from people's memories, he then says, 'Let the memory of that man perish from the earth.' As for the end of his celebrated fame, he then says, 'may his name not be celebrated in the streets.' He says this pointedly because a person's name is celebrated only by a crowd, which is usually found in the streets.

Thus, when his memory and the public renown of his name end, the brightness of his glory will be changed into the darkness of perpetual oblivion. Expressing this, he says, 'It will expel him from the light into darkness'—that is, from earthly glory to oblivion. When his fame ceases and his body has been consumed by death, nothing of him will remain any longer in the world. This is because Bildad and his companions were of the opinion that the soul did not survive after death. 'And it will transfer him from this world,' so that nothing of him remains in the world.

But since parents also live on through their children, he rejects this possibility, saying, 'His seed will not exist,' because his sons will be dead, 'nor offspring in his people,' since neither grandsons nor great-grandsons will remain, nor even his relatives. And so he then says, 'nor any remain in his territory'—neither those related by blood nor members of his household by whom his memory might be kept.

He shows the effect this has on the hearts of others when he then says, 'On his day'—which is the day of his ruin—'the youngest men will be astonished.' That is, the youngest members of the people will be stunned with great wonder, unable to comprehend how the great glory of a sinner has suddenly been reduced to nothing. As for the elders, he then says, 'horror will invade the first men,' fearing that the same thing might happen to them.

He seems to have introduced this to answer what Job had said previously: Whether his sons are noble or base, he will not understand, yet his flesh, while he lives, will grieve (Job 14:21). From this, Job seemed to refute his friends' threats or their promises of things that would happen after his death. But here Bildad answers that great tragedies of this kind, which happen after death, are still inflicted by God as punishments for the correction of others, even though the dead man does not know about them.

Since he had described some punishments for a sinner that are proper to the journey of this present life, and others that are proper to the end of that journey—death and the things that happen after death—he therefore adds an epilogue. 'These are the tents of the evil man,' which refers to his progress in the course of this present life, because travelers use tents. However, regarding the ultimate end, which is like the end of a journey, he then says, 'Such is the home of him who has no knowledge of God,' either through unbelief or disobedience.