Job 18 commentary

Bildad had before given Job good advice and encouragement; here he used nothing but rebukes, and declared his ruin. And he concluded that Job shut out the providence of God from the management of human affairs, because he would not admit himself to be wicked.

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 snare for himself, and God is preparing for his destruction. See here how the sinner runs himself into the snare.

Bildad describes the destruction wicked people are kept for, in the other world, and which in some degree, often seizes them in this world. The way of sin is the way of fear, and leads to everlasting confusion, of which the present terrors of an impure conscience are earnests, as in Cain and Judas. Miserable indeed is a wicked man's death, how secure soever his life was. See him dying; all that he trusts to for his support shall be taken from him. How happy are the saints, and how indebted to the lord Jesus, by whom death is so far done away and changed, that this king of terrors is become a friend and a servant! See the wicked man's family sunk and cut off. His children shall perish, either with him or after him. Those who consult the true honour of their family, and its welfare, will be afraid of withering all by sin. The judgments of God follow the wicked man after death in this world, as a proof of the misery his soul is in after death, and as an earnest of that everlasting shame and contempt to which he shall rise in the great day. The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot, Pr 10:7. It would be well if this report of wicked men would cause any to flee from the wrath to come, from which their power, policy, and riches cannot deliver them. But Jesus ever liveth to deliver all who trust in him. Bear up then, suffering believers. Ye shall for a little time have sorrow, but your Beloved, your Saviour, will see you again; your hearts shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh away.

CHAPTER 18

SECOND SERIES.

Job 18:1-21. Reply of Bildad.

2. ye--the other two friends of Job, whom Bildad charges with having spoken mere "words," that is, empty speeches; opposed to "mark," that is, come to reason, consider the question intelligently; and then let us speak.

3. beasts--alluding to what Job said (Job 12:7; so Is 1:3).

vile--rather from a Hebrew root, "to stop up." "Stubborn," answering to the stupidity implied in the parallel first clause [Umbreit]. Why should we give occasion by your empty speeches for our being mutually reputed, in the sight of Job and one another, as unintelligent? (Job 17:4, 10).

4. Rather, turning to Job, "thou that tearest thyself in anger" (Job 5:2).

be forsaken?--become desolate. He alludes here to Job's words as to the "rock," crumbling away (Job 14:18, 19); but in a different application. He says bitterly "for thee." Wert thou not punished as thou art, and as thou art unwilling to bear, the eternal order of the universe would be disturbed and the earth become desolate through unavenged wickedness [Umbreit]. Bildad takes it for granted Job is a great sinner (Job 8:3-6; Is 24:5, 6). "Shall that which stands fast as a rock be removed for your special accommodation?"

5. That (Job 18:4) cannot be. The decree of God is unalterable, the light (prosperity) of the wicked shall at length be put out.

his fire--alluding to Arabian hospitality, which prided itself on welcoming the stranger to the fire in the tent, and even lit fires to direct him to it. The ungodly shall be deprived of the means to show hospitality. His dwelling shall be dark and desolate!

6. 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 (Psa 18:28). To put out the lamp was an image of utter desolation.

7. steps of his strength--Hebrew, for "His strong steps." A firm step marks health. To be straitened in steps is to be no longer able to move about at will (Pr 4:12).

his own counsel--Plans shall be the means of his fall (Job 5:13).

8. he walketh upon--rather, "he lets himself go into the net" [Umbreit]. If the English Version be retained, then understand "snare" to be the pitfall, covered over with branches and earth, which when walked upon give way (Psa 9:15; 35:8).

9. robber--rather answering to "gin" in the parallel clause, "the noose shall hold him fast" [Umbreit].

11. Terrors--often mentioned in this book (Job 18:14; 24:17; &c.). The terrors excited through an evil conscience are here personified. "Magor-missabib" (Jr 20:3).

drive ... to his feet--rather, "shall pursue" (literally, "scatter," Ha 3:14) him close "at his heels" (literally, "immediately after his feet," Ha 3:5; 1Sa 25:42; Hebrew). The image is that of a pursuing conqueror who scatters the enemy [Umbreit].

12. The Hebrew is brief and bold, "his strength is hungry."

destruction--that is, a great calamity (Pr 1:27).

ready at his side--close at hand to destroy him (Pr 19:29).

13. Umbreit has "he" for "it," that is, "in the rage of hunger he shall devour his own body"; or, "his own children" (La 4:10). Rather, "destruction" from Job 18:12 is nominative to "devour."

strength--rather, "members" (literally, the "branches" of a tree).

the first-born of death--a personification full of poetical horror. The first-born son held the chief place (Ge 49:3); so here the chiefest (most deadly) disease that death has ever engendered (Is 14:30; "first-born of the poor"--the poorest). The Arabs call fever, "daughter of death."

14. confidence--all that the father trusted in for domestic happiness, children, fortune, &c., referring to Job's losses.

rooted out--suddenly torn away, it shall bring--that is, he shall be brought; or, as Umbreit better has, "Thou (God) shalt bring him slowly." The Hebrew expresses, "to stride slowly and solemnly." The godless has a fearful death for long before his eyes, and is at last taken by it. Alluding to Job's case. The King of terrors, not like the heathen Pluto, the tabled ruler of the dead, but Death, with all its terrors to the ungodly, personified.

15. It--"Terror" shall haunt, &c., and not as Umbreit, "another," which the last clause of the verse disproves.

none of his--It is his no longer.

brimstone--probably comparing the calamity of Job by the "fire of God" (Job 1:16) to the destruction of guilty Sodom by fire and brimstone (Ge 19:24).

16. Roots--himself.

branch--his children (Job 8:12; 15:30; Mal 4:1).

17. street--Men shall not speak of him in meeting in the highways; rather, "in the field" or "meadow"; the shepherds shall no more mention his name--a picture from nomadic life [Umbreit].

18. light ... darkness--existence--nonexistence.

19. nephew--(so Is 14:22). But it is translated "grandson" (Ge 21:23); translate "kinsman."

20. after ... before--rather, "those in the West--those in the East"; that is, all people; literally, "those behind--those before"; for Orientals in geography turn with their faces to the east (not to the north as we), and back to the west; so that before--east; behind--north (so Zec 14:8).

day--of ruin (Ob 12).

affrighted--seized with terror (Job 21:6; Is 13:8).

21. (Job 8:22, Margin).

Then answered Bildad - The following analysis of this speech, by Mr. Heath, is judicious: "Bildad, irritated to the last degree that Job should treat their advice with so much contempt, is no longer able to keep his passions within the bounds of decency. He proceeds to downright abuse; and finding little attention given by Job to his arguments, he tries to terrify him into a compliance. To that end he draws a yet more terrible picture of the final end of wicked men than any yet preceding, throwing in all the circumstances of Job's calamities, that he might plainly perceive the resemblance, and at the same time insinuating that he had much worse still to expect, unless he prevented it by a speedy change of behavior. That it was the highest arrogance in him to suppose that he was of consequence enough to be the cause of altering the general rules of Providence, Job 18:4. And that it was much more expedient for the good of the whole, that he, by his example, should deter others from treading in the same path of wickedness and folly;" Job 18:5-7.

How long will it be ere ye make an end - It is difficult to say to whom this address is made: being in the plural number, it can hardly be supposed to mean Job only. It probably means all present; as if he had said, It is vain to talk with this man, and follow him through all his quibbles: take notice of this, and then let us all deliver our sentiments fully to him, without paying any regard to his self-vindications. It must be owned that this is the plan which Bildad followed; and he amply unburdens a mind that was laboring under the spirit of rancour and abuse. Instead of How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? Mr. Good translates: "How long will ye plant thorns (irritating, lacerating, wounding invectives) among words?" translating the unusual term קנצי kintsey, thorns, instead of bounds or limits. The word קנצי kintsey may be the Chaldee form for קצי kitsey, the נ nun being inserted by the Chaldeans for the sake of euphony, as is frequently done; and it may be considered as the contracted plural from קץ kats, a thorn, from קץ kats, to lacerate, rather than קץ kets, an end, from קצה katsah, to cut off. Schultens and others have contended that קנץ kanats, is an Arabic word, used also in Hebrew; that (Arabic) kanasa, signifies to hunt, to lay snares; and hence (Arabic) maknas, a snare: and that the words should be translated, "How long will you put captious snares in words?" But I prefer קנצי kintsey, as being the Chaldee form for קצי kitsey, whether it be considered as expressing limits or thorns; as the whole instance is formed after the Chaldee model, as is evident, not only in the word in question, but also in למלין lemillin, to words, the Chaldee plural instead of למלים lemillim, the Hebrew plural.

Counted as beasts - Thou treatest us as if we had neither reason nor understanding.

He teareth himself in his anger - Literally, Rending his own soul in his anger; as if he had said, Thou art a madman: thy fury has such a sway over thee that thou eatest thy own flesh. While thou treatest us as beasts, we see thee to be a furious maniac, destroying thy own life.

Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? - To say the least, afflictions are the common lot of men. Must God work a miracle in providence, in order to exempt thee from the operation of natural causes? Dost thou wish to engross all the attention and care of providence to thyself alone? What pride and insolence!

The light of the wicked shall be put out - Some think it would be better to translate the original, "Let the light of the wicked be extinguished!" Thou art a bad man, and thou hast perverted the understanding which God hath given thee. Let that understanding, that abused gift, be taken away. From this verse to the end of the chapter is a continual invective against Job.

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.

The steps of his strength - Even in his greatest prosperity he shall be in straits and difficulties.

His own counsel - He shall be the dupe and the victim of his own airy, ambitious, and impious schemes.

For he is cast into a net - His own conduct will infallibly bring him to ruin. He shall be like a wild beast taken in a net; the more he flounces in order to extricate himself, the more he shall be entangled.

He walketh upon a snare - He is continually walking on the meshes of a net, by which he must soon be entangled and overthrown.

The gin shall take him - Houbigant reads the tenth before the ninth verse, thus: "The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way. The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him." From the beginning of the seventh verse to the end of the thirteenth there is an allusion to the various arts and methods practiced in hunting. 1. A number of persons extend themselves in a forest, and drive the game before them, still straitening the space from a broad base to a narrow point in form of a triangle, so that the farther they go the less room have they on the right and left, the hunters lining each side, while the drovers with their dogs are coming up behind. "The steps of his strength shall be straitened," Job 18:7. 2. Nets, gins, and pitfalls, are laid or formed in different places, so that many are taken before they come to the point where the two lines close. "He is cast into a net, he walketh upon a snare - the trap is laid for him in the way - the snare in the ground," Job 18:8-10. 3. The howling of the dogs, with the shouts of the huntsmen, fill him with dismay, and cause him to run himself beyond his strength and out of breath. "Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet," Job 18:11. 4. While spent with hunger and fatigue, he is entangled in the spread nets; and the huntsman either pierces him with an arrow or spear, or cuts the sinews of his legs, so that he is easily captured and destroyed. "The robbers shall prevail against him," Job 18:9. "His strength is hunger-bitten, and destruction is ready at his side," Job 18:12. This latter verse is thus paraphrased by the Chaldee: "Let his first-born son be famished; and affliction be prepared for his wife."

It shall devour the strength of his skin - This may refer to the elephant, or to the rhinoceros, whose skin scarcely any dart can pierce: but in the case referred to above, the animal is taken in a pitfall, and then the first-born of death - a sudden and overwhelming stroke - deprives him of life. See the account of hunting the elephant in the East at the end of the chapter, Job 18:21 (note). The Chaldee has: "The strength of his skin shall devour his flesh; and the angel of death shall consume his children."

His confidence shall be rooted out - His dwelling-place, how well soever fortified, shah now he deemed utterly insecure.

And it shall bring him to the king of terrors - Or, as Mr. Good translates, "And dissolution shall invade him as a monarch." He shall be completely and finally overpowered. The phrase king of terrors has been generally thought to mean death; but it is not used in any such way in the text. For למלך בלהות lemelech ballahoth, to the king of destructions, one of De Rossi's MSS. has כמלך kemelech, "as a king;" and one, instead of בלהות ballahoth, with ו vau holem, to indicate the plural, terrors or destructions, has בלהות ballahuth, with ו vau shurek, which is singular, and signifies terror, destruction. So the Vulgate seems to have read, as it translates, Et calcet super eum, quasi rex, interitis; "And shall tread upon him as a king or destroyer. Or as a king who is determined utterly to destroy him." On this verse the bishop of Killala, Dr. Stock, says, "I am sorry to part with a beautiful phrase in our common version, the king of terrors, as descriptive of death; but there is no authority for it in the Hebrew text." It may however be stated that death has been denominated by similar epithets both among the Greeks and Romans.

So Virgil, Aen. vi., ver. 100. -

Quando hic inferni janua regi Dicitur. "The gates of the king of hell are reported to be here."

And Ovid, Metam. lib. v., ver. 356, 359.

Inde tremit tellus: et rex pavit ipse silentum.

Hanc metuens cladem, tenebrosa sede tyrannus Exierat. "Earth's inmost bowels quake, and nature groans;

His terrors reach the direful King of Hell.

Fearing this destruction, the tyrant left hisgloomy court."

And in Sophocles, (Oedip. Colon., ver. 1628, edit. Johnson). Εννυχιων αναξ, Αιδωνευ. "O Pluto, king of shades."

That is, the invisible demon, who dwells in darkness impenetrable. Old Coverdale translates: Very fearfulnesse shall bringe him to the kynge.

It shall dwell in his tabernacle - Desolation is here personified, and it is said that it shall be the inhabitant, its former owner being destroyed. Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation, so that, like Sodom and Gomorrah, it may be an everlasting monument of the Divine displeasure. In the Persian poet Saady, we find a couplet which contains a similar sentiment: -

Purdeh daree meekund dar keesri Keesar ankeboot

Boomee Noobat meezund ber kumbed Afraseeab. "The spider holds the veil in the palace of Caesar;

The owl stands sentinel on the watchtower of Afrasiab."

The palaces of those mighty kings are so desolate that the spider is the only chamberlain, and the owl the only sentinel. The web of the former is all that remains as a substitute for the costly veil furnished by the chamberlain in the palace of the Roman monarch; and the hooting of the latter is the only remaining substitute for the sound of drums and trumpets by which the guards were accustomed to be relieved at the watchtower of the Persian king. The word (Persic) Keesur, the same as kaisar or Caesar, is the term which the Asiatics always use when they designate the Roman emperor. Afrasiab was an ancient king who invaded and conquered Persia about seven hundred years before the Christian era. After having reigned twelve years, he was defeated and slain by Zalzer and his son, the famous Rustem. The present reigning family of Constantinople claim descent from this ancient monarch.

Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation - This may either refer to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, as has already been intimated, or to an ancient custom of fumigating houses with brimstone, in order to purify them from defilement. Pliny says, Hist. Nat., lib. xxxv., c. 15, speaking of the uses of sulphur, Habet et in religionibus locum ad expiandas suffitu domos; which Dr. Holland paraphrases thus: "Moreover brimstone is employed ceremoniously in hallowing of houses; for many are of opinion that the perfume and burning thereof will keep out all enchantments; yea, and drive away foul fiends and evil sprites that do haunt a place."

Ovid refers to the same, De Arte. Am., lib. ii. ver. 329.

Et veniat, quae lustret anus lectumque locumque:

Praeferat et tremula sulphur et ova manu.

This alludes to the ceremony of purifying the bed or place in which a sick person was confined; an old woman or nurse was the operator, and eggs and sulphur were the instruments of purification. On this and other methods of purgation see an excellent note in Servius on these words of Virgil, Aen. vi., ver. 740. -

Aliae panduntur inanes

Suspensae ad ventos: aliis sub gurgite vasto

Infectum eluitur scelus, aut exuritur igni. "For this are various penances subjoin'd;

And some are hung to bleach upon the wind;

Some plunged in waters, others, plunged in fires."

Unde etiam, says Servius, in sacris Liberi omnibus tres sunt istae purgationes: nam aut taeda purgantur et sulphure, aut aqua abluuntur, aut aere ventilantur. "These three kinds of purgation are used in the rites of Bacchus: they are purged by flame and sulphur, or washed in water, or ventilated by the winds."

But it is most likely that Bildad, in his usual uncharitable manner, alludes to the destruction of Job's property and family by winds and fire: for the Fire of God fell from heaven and burnt up the sheep and the servants, and Consumed them; and a great wind, probably the sulphureous suffocating simoom, smote the four corners of the house, where Job's children were feasting, and killed them; see Job 1:16, Job 1:19.

His roots shall be dried up - his branch be cut off - He shall be as utterly destroyed, both in himself, his posterity, and his property, as a tree is whose branches are all lopped off, and whose every root is cut away.

His remembrance shall perish - He shall have none to survive him, to continue his name among men.

No name in the street - He shall never be a man of reputation; after his demise, none shall talk of his fame.

He shall be driven from light - He shall be taken off by a violent death.

And chased out of the world - The wicked is Driven Away in his iniquity. This shows his reluctance to depart from life.

He shall neither have son nor nephew - Coverdale, following the Vulgate, translates thus: He shal neither have children ner kynss folk among his people, no ner eny posterite in his countrie: yonge and olde shal be astonyshed at his death.

They that come after him - The young shall be struck with astonishment when they hear the relation of the judgments of God upon this wicked man. As they that went before. The aged who were his contemporaries, and who saw the judgments that fell on him, were affrighted, אחזו שער achazu saar, seized with horror - were horrified; or, as Mr. Good has well expressed it, were panic-struck.

Such are the dwellings - This is the common lot of the wicked; and it shall be particularly the case with him who knoweth not God, that is Job, for it is evident he alludes to him. Poor Job! hard was thy lot, severe were thy sufferings. On the elephant hunt to which I have referred, Job 18:13, I shall borrow the following account extracted from Mr. Cordiner's History of Ceylon, by Mr. Good: - "We have a curious description of the elephant hunt, which is pursued in a manner not essentially different from the preceding, except that the snares are pallisadoed with the strongest possible stakes, instead of being netted, and still farther fortified by interlacings. They are numerous, but connected together; every snare or inclosure growing gradually narrower, and opening into each other by a gate or two that will only admit the entrance of a single animal at a time. "The wood in which elephants are known to abound is first surrounded, excepting at the end where the foremost and widest inclosure is situated, with fires placed on moveable pedestals, which in every direction are drawn closer and closer, and, aided by loud and perpetual shouts, drive the animals forward till they enter into the outer snare. After which the same process is continued, and they are driven by fear into a second, into a third, and into a fourth; till at length the elephants become so much sub-divided, that by the aid of cordage fastened carefully round their limbs, and the management of decoy elephants, they are easily capable of being led away one by one, and tamed. A single hunt thus conducted will sometimes occupy not less than two months of unremitting labor; and the entrance of the elephants into the snares is regarded as an amusement or sport of the highest character, and as such is attended by all the principal families of the country." Account of Ceylon, p. 218-226.

Ye - Thou, O Job; of whom he speaks here, as also ver.3, in the plural number, as was a common idiotism of the Eastern language, to speak thus of one person, especially where he was one of eminency. Mark - Consider the matter better.

Beasts - Ignorant, and stupid men, chap.17:4,10.

He - Job. Thou art thy own tormentor. Forsaken - Shall God give over the government of the earth for thy sake, to prevent thy complaints and clamours? Shall the counsels of God, which are more immoveable than rocks, and the whole course of his providence be altered to comply with thy humours?

Steps - His strong steps, by a vulgar Hebraism: his attempts and actions; such of them as seem to be contrived with greatest strength of understanding, and carried on with greatest resolution. Straitened - Shall be hindered and entangled. He shall be cast into difficulties and perplexities, so that he shall not be able to proceed, and to accomplish his enterprizes.

Feet - By his own designs and actions.

First - born - A terrible kind of death. The first - born was the chief of his brethren, and therefore this title is given to things eminent in their kind.

Confidence - All the matter of his confidence, his riches, and children. Terrors - To death, which even Aristotle called, The most terrible of all terribles. And this it will do, either because it will expose him to his enemies, who will kill him; or because the sense of his disappointments, and losses, and dangers, will break his heart.

It - Destruction, expressed ver.12, shall fix its abode with him. Because - Because it is none of his own, being got from others by deceit or violence. Brimstone - It shall be utterly destroyed, as it were, by fire and brimstone. He seems to allude both to the destruction of Sodom, which happened not long before these times, and to the judgment which befel Job, chap.1:16.

Darkness - From a prosperous life to disgrace and misery, and to the grave, the land of darkness.

Astonied - At the day of his destruction. They shall be amazed at the suddenness, and dreadfulness of it. Before - Before the persons last mentioned. Those who lived in the time and place where this judgment was inflicted.

The place - The condition.

2. How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? Mark , and afterwards we will speak.

Either 1. You my Brethren. Why do you not give over discoursing with Iob, who is wholly transported with rage, and not fit to be discoursed with, at least until both you and he have better considered what to say. Or rather 2. Thou, O Iob, of whom he speaks here, as also v. 3. in the plural number, either because there were some other person or persons present at this Debate, who by their words or gestures shewed themselves favourers of Iob's cause: or because it was a common Idiotism of the Eastern Language to speak thus of one person, especially where he was one of Eminency or Authority. Iob's Speeches were generally longer than his friends, and they seemed very tedious to them.

Consider the matter and our words better. Or, inform us, Heb. make us to understand. Seeing thou lookest upon us as ignorant and brutish men, as it follows, do thou instruct and inform us. Cease cavilling and railing, and produce thy strong Reasons, that we may consider and answer them, or yield to them.

3. Wherefore are we counted as Beasts , and reputed vile in your sight ?

i. e. Ignorant, blockish and stupid men, Ch. 17. 4, 10.

Heb. polluted, or unclean, i. e. not fit to be conversed or discoursed with; or contemptible, as such things are.

Either 1. To your faces, or in your own hearing. Or 2. In thy sight or Judgment, O Iob; so he speaks of Iob in the plural number, as he did v. 2.

Marginal references: Heb. hidden. Lam. 4. 1.

4. He teareth himself in his anger: shall the Earth be forsaken for thee ? and shall the rock be removed out of his place ?

i. e. Iob, of whom he speaks in the third person for the second, as Ch. 12. 4. & 16. 7. Obad. 3 3. Or, O thou that tearest thy self. Thou complainest of us for vexing thee with our speeches, when in truth thou art thy own greatest tormenter by thy own impatience and rage.

To wit, by God. Shall God give over the government of the Earth, and Men, and things in it, and suffer all things to fall out by chance, and promiscuously to good and bad men, without any regard to his Truth, or Wisdom, or Justice? Shall God forbear to rule the World righteously, as he hath hitherto done, in favouring good men, and destroying the wicked?

i. e. For thy sake; or to prevent thy Complaints and Clamours.

Shall the Counsels of God, which are more firm and unmoveable than Rocks, and the whole course of his Providence be altered to comply with thy fancies or Humours?

Marginal references: Heb. his Soul.

5. Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out , and the spark of his fire shall not shine.

The thing is true and certain, notwithstanding thy dissatisfaction and opposition against it.

All their Glory and Felicity shall perish.

i. e. Their highest and brightest Glory, which he calleth the spark, &c. because, like a spark, it shines briskly for a moment, but is quickly extinct.

6. The Light shall be dark in his Tabernacle , and his Candle shall be put out with him .

i. e. In his Family. In stead of his former splendour, both he and his shall fall into extremity of misery.

i. e. His Glory shall die with him, and not descend to his posterity, as he hoped and designed. Or, his Candle, which was with him, or shone upon him, shall be put out.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word], Lamp.

7. The steps of his strength shall be straitned , and his own Counsel shall cast him down .

i. e. His strong steps, by a vulgar Hebraism. By steps he means his Counsels, as the next branch explains it, his attempts and actions, and by steps of strength, such of them as seem to be most firm and settled, contrived with greatest strength of Understanding, and carried on with great resolution and might.

i. e. Shall be hindred and entangled. He shall be cast into great difficulties, and troubles, and perplexities, so that he shall not be able to proceed, and to accomplish his Enterprizes, but shall find himself ensnared by his own devices, as the next words declare it. This Phrase is used also, Prov. 4. 11, 12. and it is opposed to the enlarging of a mans way or steps, which signifies success and prosperity, as Psal. 4. 1. & 31. 8.

He shall be undone by his own contrivances, either because God will give him up to dangerous and destructive mistakes of his way, or because God will oppose him, and turn his own devices against him; which he can easily do, by throwing in unexpected accidents.

8. For he is cast into a Net by his own Feet , and he walketh upon a snare .

By his own choice, and design, and actions.

And therefore must needs be entangled and destroyed.

9. The Grin shall take him by the heel , and the Robber shall prevail against him.

i. e. Take fast hold of him, so as to keep him in those distresses

When he is ensnared, the Robber shall come upon him, and take, and spoil, or kill him. Or, the horrible or terrible man, the Huntsman, that said the Snare for him. A Metaphor from those who hunt for wild Beasts, who first lay snares for them, and then seize upon them in the snares.

Marginal references: Chap. 5. 5.

10. The Snare is laid for him in the ground , and a Trap for him in the way.

Where he doth not expect nor discern it. The former snare he laid for himself, but this was laid for him by another.

Marginal references: Heb. hidden.

11. Terrours shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his Feet .

Both from men, and from God, and from his own unquiet Mind and guilty Conscience.

Shall force him to flee hither and thither, and he knows not whither, being secure and safe no where, but pursued by terrours from place to place.

Marginal references: Ch. 15. 21. Jer. 6. 25. & 20. 3. & 46. 5. & 49. 29.; Heb. scatter him.

12. His strength shall be hunger-bitten , and destruction shall be ready at his side .

Either 1. His Children, which are, and are called a mans strength, as Gen. 49. 3. Psal. [illegible: 1+ letters] 27. 4, 5. Or rather 2. His Wealth, and Power, and Prosperity.

Or famished, i. e. utterly consumed.

i. e. Shall follow him at the heels, as a most diligent servant, or constant companion.

Marginal references: Ch. 15. 23.

13. It shall devour the strength of his skin : even the first-born of death shall devour his strength.

Heb. The bars, or rather, the branches of the skin, i. e. either the veins, and sinews which branch out themselves through the skin as well as elsewhere: Or the fat and flesh which like Bars support the skin, and adorn and beautifie it, as branches do a Tree; without which the skin is shrivel'd up and deformed.

i. e. A most remarkable and terrible kind of death. The first-born was the chief of his Brethren, and therefore this title is given to things eminent in their kind, as Isa. 14. 30. Col. 1. 18. Heb. 12. 23. Rev. 1. 5.

Marginal references: Heb. bars.

14. His confidence shall be rooted out of his Tabernacle . and it shall bring him to the King of terrours .

i. e. All the matter of his Confidence, his Riches, Children, &c.

i. e. Out of his Habitation.

To wit, the loss of his Confidence.

Either 1. Into extream Fears and horrours of mind. Or 2. To Death, which even Aristotle called, The most terrible of all terribles. And this it will do▪ either because it will expose him to his Enemies, who will kill him: or because the sense of his disappointments, and losses, and dangers, will oppress his Spirits, and break his Heart.

Marginal references: Chap. 8. 14. & 11. 20. Psal. 112. 10. Prov. 10. 28.

15. It shall dwell in his Tabernacle , because it is none of his : brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation .

It, i. e. destruction, expressed v. 12. and designed by this particle, it, v. 13. shall not come upon him and his for a season, for then there might be some hopes of Recovery; but it shall fix its abode with him.

This may be added either 1. By way of correction, did I say, his Tabernacle? I must retract the expression; for in truth, it is none of his, it is become another mans. Or 2. As a reason of the ruine of his Tabernacle, because it is none of his own, but got from others by deceit or violence. But these words are, and may be joined with the former, and both thus rendred, A stranger, (Heb. one that is not his, that is not descended from him, and hath no relation to him) shall dwell in his Tabernacle, i. e. shall possess his House and Goods.

It shall be utterly and prodigiously destroyed, as it were by Fire and Brimstone. He seems to allude both to the destruction of Sodom, upon which God did scatter Brimstone and Fire, which happened not long before these times, and could not be unknown to them who lived near that place, and were diligent observers of Gods works; and to the judgment which be[illegible: 1+ letters]el Iob, Ch. 1. 16. when the stranger hath taken and rifled his dwelling, he shall forsake it as an accursed place, and shall burn it with Fire and Brimstone; that there may be no monument of so vile a person left upon the Earth.

16. His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off .

i. e. He shall be destroyed both root and branch, i. e. both himself and all his posterity. Compare Mal. 4. 1.

17. His remembrance shall perish from the Earth, and he shall have no name in the street.

Instead of that Honour and Renown which he designed to have both whilest he lived, and after his death, he is not so much as remembred unless it be with contempt and reproach.

Marginal references: Psal. 109. 13. Prov. 2. 22. & 10. 7.

18. He shall be driven from light into darkness , and chased out of the World.

Heb. They shall drive him. i. e. his Enemies, or those whom he hath oppressed; or they whom God shall appoint to do it, whether Angels or men. Or it is an impersonal Speech, and to be rendred passively, as it is also Iob 7. 3. Luk. 12. 20. & 16. 9.

From a splendid and prosperous Life to disgrace and misery, and to the Grave, the Land of Darkness and Forgetfulness, as the following words explain it.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word] shall [illegible: 1 word] ▪

19. He shall neither have Son nor Nephew among his People , nor any remaining in his, dwellings.

But if any such survive, they shall be in the hands and power of strangers, or rather of their Enemies.

Marginal references: Isa. 14. 2[illegible: 1+ letters] Jer. 22. 3[illegible: 1+ letters].

20. They that come after him shall be astonied at his day , as they that went before were affrighted .

i. e. At the day of his destruction, as the word day is used, Psal. 37. 13. & 137. 7. Ezek. 21. 25. Obad. 12. They shall be amazed at the suddenness, and dreadfulness, and prodigiousness of it, as Iob's Friends were at his Calamities, Ch. 2. 12, 13.

i. e. Before the persons last mentioned. Those who lived in the time and place where this judgment was inflicted.

Or, filled with horrour, partly through Humanity and Compassion, and partly for Fear, lest the Judgment should overtake them also.

Marginal references: Or, [illegible: 1 word] with [illegible: 1 word].; Heb. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1+ letters]old or [illegible: 1 word] ▪

21. Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God .

i. e. Who doth not acknowledge, nor fear, nor serve God, as this Phrase is used, 1 Sam. 2. 12. Psal. 79. 6. 2 Thes. 1. 8.

Job 18:1-3   1  Then began Bildad the Shuhite, and said:   2  How long will ye hunt for words?!

Attend, and afterwards we will speak.   3  Wherefore are we accounted as beasts,

And narrow-minded in your eyes?

Job’s speeches are long, and certainly are a trial of patience to the three, and the heaviest trial to Bildad, whose turn now comes on, because he is at pains throughout to be brief. Hence the reproach of endless babbling with which he begins here, as at Job 8:2, when he at last has an opportunity of speaking; in connection with which it must, however, not be forgotten that Job also, Job 16:3, satirically calls upon them to cease. He is indeed more entitled than his opponents to the entreaty not to weary him with long speeches. The question, Job 18:2, if קנצי six derived from קץ, furnishes no sense, unless perhaps it is, with Ralbag, explained: how long do you make close upon close in order, when you seem to have come to an end, to begin continually anew? For to give the thought: how long do you make no end of speaking, it must have been לא עד־אנה, as the lxx (μέχρι τίνος ου ̓ παύσῃ:) involuntarily inserts the negative. And what should the plur. mean by this rendering? The form קנצי = קצּי would not cause doubt; for though קצּים does not occur elsewhere in the Old Testament, it is nevertheless sufficient that it is good Aramaic (קצּין), and that another Hebr. plural, as קצי, קצוי, קצוות, would have been hardly in accordance with the usage of the language. But the plural would not be suitable here generally, the over-delicate explanation of Ralbag perhaps excepted. Since the book of Job abounds in Arabisms, and in Arabic qanaṣa (as synon. of ṣâd) signifies venari, venando capere, and qanṣun (maqnaṣun) cassis, rete venatorium; since, further, שׂים קנצים (comp. שׂים ארב, Jer 9:7) is an incontrovertible reading, and all the difficulties in connection with the reference to קץ lying in the עד־אנה for עד־אנה לא and in the plur. vanish, we translate with Castell., Schultens, J. D. Mich., and most modern expositors: how long (here not different from Job 8:2; Job 19:2) will ye lay snares (construction, as also by the other rendering, like Job 24:5; Job 36:16, according to Ges. §116, 1) for words; which, however, is not equivalent to hunt for words in order to contradict, but in order to talk on continually.In post-bibl. Hebrew, קנצים has become common in the signification, proofs, arguments, as e.g., a Karaitic poet says, ויחוד שׁמך בקנצים הקימותי, the oneness of thy name have I upheld with proofs; vid., Pinsker, Likute Kadmoniot. Zur Gesch. des Karaismus und der karâischen Literatur, 1860, S. קסו.

Job is the person addressed, for Bildad agrees with the two others. It is remarkable, however, that he addresses Job with “you.” Some say that he thinks of Job as one of a number; Ewald observes that the controversy becomes more wide and general; and Schlottm. conjectures that Bildad fixes his eye on individuals of his hearers, on whose countenances he believed he saw a certain inclination to side with Job. This conjecture we will leave to itself; but the remark which Schlottm. also makes, that Bildad regards Job as a type of a whole class, is correct, only one must also add, this address in the plur. is a reply to Job’s sarcasm by a similar one. As Job has told the friends that they act as if they were mankind in general, and all wisdom were concentrated in them, so Bildad has taken it amiss that Job connects himself with the whole of the truly upright, righteous, and pure; and he addresses him in the plural, because he, the unit, has puffed himself up as such a collective whole. This wrangler - he means - with such a train behind him, cannot accomplish anything: Oh that you would understand (הבין, as e.g., Job 42:3, not causative, as Job 6:24), i.e., come to your senses, and afterward we will speak, i.e., it is only then possible to walk in the way of understanding. That is not now possible, when he, as one who plays the part of their many, treats them, the three who are agreed in opposition to him, as totally void of understanding, and each one of them unwise, in expressions like Job 17:4, Job 17:10. Looking to Psa 49:13, 21, one might be tempted to regard נטמינוּ (on the vowel î instead of ê, vid., Ges. §75, rem. 7) as an interchange of consonants from נדמינו: be silent, make an end, ye profligati; but the supposition of this interchange of consonants would be arbitrary. On the other hand, there is no suitable thought in “why are we accounted unclean?” (Vulg. sorduimus), from טמה = טמא, Lev 11:43 (Ges. §75, vi.); the complaint would have no right connection, except it were a very slight one, with Job 17:9. On the contrary, if we suppose a verb טמה in the signification opplere, obturare, which is peculiar to this consonant-combination in the whole range of the Semitic languages (comp. א־טם, Arab. 'ṭm , obstruere, Aram. טמּם, טמטם, Arab. ṭmm , e.g., Talm.: transgression stoppeth up, מטמטמת, man’s heart), and after which this טמה has been explained by the Jewish expositors (Raschi: נחשׁבנו טמומים), and is interpreted by סתם (Parchon: נסתמה דעתנו), we gain a sense which corresponds both with previous reproaches of Job and the parallelism, and we decide in its favour with the majority of modern expositors. With the interrogative Wherefore, Bildad appeals to Job’s conscience. These invectives proceed from an impassioned self-delusion towards the truth, which he wards off from himself, but cannot however alter.

Job 18:4-7   4  Thou art he who teareth himself in his anger:

Shall the earth become desolate for thy sake,

And a rock remove from its place?   5  Notwithstanding, the light of the wicked shall be put out,

And the glow of his fire shineth not;   6  The light becometh dark in his tent,

And his lamp above him is extinguished;   7  His vigorous steps are straitened,

And his own counsel casteth him down.

The meaning of the strophe is this: Dost thou imagine that, by thy vehement conduct, by which thou art become enraged against thyself, thou canst effect any change in the established divine order of the world? It is a divine law, that sufferings are the punishment of sin; thou canst no more alter this, than that at thy command, or for thy sake, the earth, which is appointed to be the habitation of man (Isa 45:18), will become desolate (tê‛âzab with the tone drawn back, according to Ges. §29, 3, b, Arab. with similar signification in intrans. Kal t‛azibu), or a rock remove from its place (on יעתּק, vid., Job 14:18). Bildad here lays to Job’s charge what Job, in Job 16:9, has said of God’s anger, that it tears him: he himself tears himself in his rage at the inevitable lot under which he ought penitently to bow. The address, Job 18:4, as apud Arabes ubique fere (Schult.), is put objectively (not: Oh thou, who); comp. what is said on כּלּם, Job 17:10, which is influenced by the same syntactic custom. The lxx transl. Job 18:4: Why! will Hades be tenantless if thou diest (ἐὰν σὺ ἀποθάνῃς)? after which Rosenm. explains: tuâ causâ h. e. te cadente. But that ought to be הבמוּתך. The peopling of the earth is only an example of the arrangements of divine omnipotence and wisdom, the continuance of which is exalted over the human power of volition, and does not in the least yield to human self-will, as (Job 18:4) the rock is an example, and at the same time an emblem, of what God has fixed and rendered immoveable. That of which he here treats as fixed by God is the law of retribution. However much Job may rage, this law is and remains the unavoidable power that rules over the evil-doer.

Job 18:8-11   8  For he is driven into the net by his own feet,

And he walketh over a snare.   9  The trap holdeth his heel fast,

The noose bindeth him. 10  His snare lieth hidden in the earth,

His nets upon the path; 11  Terrors affright him on every side,

And scare him at every step.

The Pual שׁלּח signifies not merely to be betrayed into, but driven into, like the Piel, Job 30:12, to drive away, and as it is to be translated in the similar passage in the song of Deborah, Jdg 5:15 : “And as Issachar, Barak was driven (i.e., with desire for fighting) behind him down into the valley (the place of meeting under Mount Tabor);” בּרגליו, which there signifies, according to Jdg 4:10; Jdg 8:5, ”upon his feet = close behind him,” is here intended of the intermediate cause: by his own feet he is hurried into the net, i.e., against his will, and yet with his own feet he runs into destruction. The same thing is said in Job 18:8; the way on which he complacently wanders up and down (which the Hithp. signifies here) is שׂבכה, lattice-work, here a snare (Arab. schabacah, a net, from שׂבך, schabaca, to intertwine, weave), and consequently will suddenly break in and bring him to ruin. This fact of delivering himself over to destruction is established in apocopated futt. (Job 18:9) used as praes., and without the voluntative signification in accordance with the poetic licence: a trap catches a heel (poetic brevity for: the trap catches his heel), a noose seizes upon him, עליו (but with the accompanying notion of overpowering him, which the translation “bind” is intended to express). Such is the meaning of צמּים here, which is not plur., but sing., from צמם (Arab. ḍmm), to tie, and it unites in itself the meanings of snare-layer (Job 5:5) and of snare; the form (as אבּיר, אדּיר) corresponds more to the former, but does not, however, exclude the latter, as תּנּין and לפּיד (λαμπάς) show.

The continuation in Job 18:10 of the figure of the fowler affirms that that issue of his life (Job 18:9) has been preparing long beforehand; the prosperity of the evil-doer from the beginning tends towards ruin. Instead of חבלו we have the pointing חבלו, as it would be in Arab. in a similar sense hhabluhu (from hhabl, a cord, a net). The nearer destruction is now to him, the stronger is the hold which his foreboding has over him, since, as Job 18:11 adds, terrible thoughts (בּלּהות) and terrible apparitions fill him with dismay, and haunt him, following upon his feet. לרגליו, close behind him, as Gen 30:30; 1Sa 25:42; Isa 41:2; Hab 3:5. The best authorized pointing of the verb is והפיצהוּ, with Segol (Ges. §104, 2, c), Chateph-Segol, and Kibbutz. Except in Hab 3:14, where the prophet includes himself with his people, הפיץ, diffundere, dissipare (vid., Job 37:11; Job 40:11), never has a person as its obj. elsewhere. It would also probably not be used, but for the idea that the spectres of terror pursue him at every step, and are now here, now there, and his person is as it were multiplied.

Job 18:12-15 12  His calamity looketh hunger-bitten,

And misfortune is ready for his fall. 13  It devoureth the members of his skin;

The first-born of death devoureth his members. 14  That in which he trusted is torn away out of his tent,

And he must march on to the king of terrors. 15  Beings strange to him dwell in his tent;

Brimstone is strewn over his habitation.

The description of the actual and total destruction of the evil-doer now begins with יהי (as Job 24:14, after the manner of the voluntative forms already used in Job 24:9). Step by step it traces his course to the total destruction, which leaves no trace of him, but still bears evident marks of being the fulfilment of the curse pronounced upon him. In opposition to this explanation, Targ., Raschi, and others, explain אנו according to Gen 49:3 : the son of his manhood’s strength becomes hungry, which sounds comical rather than tragic; another Targ. transl.: he becomes hungry in his mourning, which is indeed inadmissible, because the signif. planctus, luctus, belongs to the derivatives of אנה, אנן, but not to און. But even the translation recently adopted by Ew., Stick., and Schlottm., “his strength becomes hungry,” is unsatisfactory; for it is in itself no misfortune to be hungry, and רעב does not in itself signify “exhausted with hunger.” It is also an odd metaphor, that strength becomes hungry; we would then rather read with Reiske, רעב באנו, famelicus in media potentia sua. But as און signifies strength (Job 18:7), so און (root אן, to breathe and pant) signifies both wickedness and evil (the latter either as evil = calamity, or as anhelitus, sorrow, Arab. ain); and the thought that his (i.e., appointed to the evil-doer) calamity is hungry to swallow him up (Syr., Hirz., Hahn, and others), suits the parallelism perfectly: "and misfortune stands ready for his fall."If רעב elsewhere corresponds to the Arabic rugb, to be voraciously hungry, the Arab. ra‛b, to be paralyzed with fright, might correspond to it in the present passage: "from all sides spectres alarm him (בעתהו from בעת = Arab. bgt, to fall suddenly upon any one; or better: = b‛ṯ, to hunt up, excitare, to cause to rise, to fill with alarm) and urge him forward, seizing on his heels; then his strength becomes a paralyzing fright (רעב), and destruction is ready to overwhelm him." The ro‛b (רעב, thus in Damascus) or ra‛b (רעב, thus in Hauran and among the Beduins) is a state of mind which only occurs among us in a lower degree, but among the Arabs it is worthy of note as a psychological fact. If the wahm (Arab. 'l - whm), or idea of some great and inevitable danger or misfortune, overpowers the Arab, all strength of mind and body suddenly forsakes him, so that he breaks down powerless and defenceless. Thus on July 8, 1860, in Damascus, in a few hours, about 6000 Christian men were slain, without any one raising a hand or uttering a cry for mercy. Both European and native doctors have assured me the ro‛b in Arabia kills, and I have witnessed instances myself. Since it often produces a stiffness of the limbs with chronic paralysis, all kinds of paralysis are called ro‛b, and the paralytics mar‛ûb. - Wetzst. איד signifies prop. a weight, burden, then a load of suffering, and gen. calamity (root אד, Arab. âda, e.g., Sur. 2, 256, la jaâduhu, it is not difficult for him, and adda, comp. on Psa 31:12); and לצלעו not: at his side (Ges., Ew., Schlottm., Hahn), but, according to Psa 35:15; Psa 38:18 : for his fall (lxx freely, but correctly: ἐξαίσιοϚ); for instead of "at the side" (Arab. ila ganbi), they no more say in Hebrew than in Germ. "at the ribs."

Job 18:13 figuratively describes how calamity takes possession of him. The members, which are called יצרים in Job 17:7, as parts of the form of the body, are here called בּדּים, as the parts into which the body branches out, or rather, since the word originally signifies a part, as that which is actually split off (vid., on Job 17:16, where it denotes "cross-bars"), or according to appearance that which rises up, and from this primary signification applied to the body and plants, the members (not merely as Farisol interprets: the veins) of which the body consists and into which it is distributed. עור (distinct from גּלד, Job 16:15, similar in meaning to Arab. baschar, but also to the Arab. gild, of which the former signifies rather the epidermis, the latter the skin in the widest sense) is the soluble surface of the naked animal body. בּכור מות devours this, and indeed, as the repetition implies, gradually, but surely and entirely. "The first-born of the poor," Isa 14:30, are those not merely who belong (בּני) to the race of the poor, but the poor in the highest sense and first rank. So here diseases are conceived of as children of death, as in the Arabic malignant fevers are called benât el - menı̂jeh, daughters of fate or death; that disease which Bildad has in his mind, as the one more terrible and dangerous than all others, he calls the "first-born of death," as that in which the whole destroying power of death is contained, as in the first-born the whole strength of his parent.In Arabic the positive is expressed in the same metonymies with abu, e.g., abû 'l - chêr, the benevolent; on the other hand, e.g., ibn el̇hhâge is much stronger than abu 'l - hhâge: the person who is called ibn is conceived of as a child of these conditions; they belong to his inmost nature, and have not merely affected him slightly and passed off. The Hebrew בכור represents the superlative, because among Semites the power and dignity of the father is transmitted to the first-born. So far as I know, the Arab does not use this superlative; for what is terrible and revolting he uses "mother," e.g., umm el - fâritt, mother of death, a name for the plague (in one of the modern popular poets of Damascus), umm el - quashshâsh, mother of the sweeping death, a name for war (in the same); for that which awakens the emotions of joy and grief he frequently uses "daughter." In an Arabian song of victory the fatal arrows are called benât el - môt, and the heroes (slayers) in the battle benı̂ el - môt, which is similar to the figure used in the book of Job. Moreover, that disease which eats up the limbs could not be described by a more appropriate epithet than בכור מות. Its proper name is shunned in common life; and if it is necessary to mention those who are affected with it, they always say sâdât el - gudhamâ to avoid offending the company, or to escape the curse of the thing mentioned. - Wetzst.

The Targ. understands the figure similarly, since it transl. מלאך מותא (angel of death); another Targ. has instead שׁרוּי מותא, the firstling of death, which is intended in the sense of the primogenita (= praematura) mors of Jerome. Least of all is it to be understood with Ewald as an intensive expression for בן־מות,   1Sa 20:31, of the evil-doer as liable to death. While now disease in the most fearful form consumes the body of the evil-doer, מבטחו (with Dag.f. impl., as Job 8:14; Job 31:24, Olsh. §198, b) (a collective word, which signifies everything in which he trusted) is torn away out of his tent; thus also Rosenm., Ew., and Umbr. explain, while Hirz., Hlgst., Schlottm., and Hahn regard מבטחו as in apposition to אהלו, in favour of which Job 8:14 is only a seemingly suitable parallel. It means everything that made the ungodly man happy as head of a household, and gave him the brightest hopes of the future. This is torn away (evellitur) from his household, so that he, who is dying off, alone survives. Thus, therefore, Job 18:14 describes how he also himself dies at last. Several modern expositors, especially Stickel, after the example of Jerome (et calcet super eum quasi rex interitus), and of the Syr. (praecipitem eum reddent terrores regis), take בּלּהות as subj., which is syntactically possible (vid., Job 27:20; Job 30:15): and destruction causes him to march towards itself (Ges.: fugant eum) like a military leader; but since הצעיד signifies to cause to approach, and since no אליו (to itself) stands with it, למלך is to be considered as denoting the goal, especially as ל never directly signifies instar. In the passage advanced in its favour it denotes that which anything becomes, that which one makes a thing by the mode of treatment (Job 39:16), or whither anything extends (e.g., in Schultens on Job 13:12 : they had claws li-machâlîbi, i.e., "approaching to the claws" of wild beasts).Comp a note infra on Job 21:4. - Tr.

One falls into these strange interpretations when one departs from the accentuation, which unites מלך בלהות quite correctly by Munach.

Death itself is called "the king of terrors," in distinction from the terrible disease which is called its first-born. Death is also personified elsewhere, as Isa 28:15, and esp. Psa 49:15, where it appears as a רעה, ruler in Hades, as in the Indian mythology the name of the infernal king Jamas signifies the tyrant or the tamer. The biblical representation does not recognise a king of Hades, as Jamas and Pluto: the judicial power of death is allotted to angels, of whom one, the angel of the abyss, is called Abaddon (אבדון), Rev 9:11; and the chief possessor of this judicial power, ὁ τὸδράτος ἔχων τοῦ θανάτον, is, according to Heb 2:14, the angel-prince, who, according to the prologue of our book, has also brought a fatal disease upon Job, without, however, in this instance being able to go further than to bring him to the brink of the abyss. It would therefore not be contrary to the spirit of the book if we were to understand Satan by the king of terrors, who, among other appellations in Jewish theology, is called שׂר על־התהו, because he has his existence in the Thohu, and seeks to hurl back every living being into the Thohu. But since the prologue casts a veil over that which remains unknown in this world in the midst of tragic woes, and since a reference to Satan is found nowhere else in the book - on the contrary, Job himself and the friends trace back directly to God that mysterious affliction which forms the dramatic knot - we understand (which is perfectly sufficient) by the king of terrors death itself, and with Hirz., Ew., and most expositors, transl.: "and it causes him to march onward to the king of terrors." The "it" is a secret power, as also elsewhere the fem. is used as neut. to denote the "dark power" (Ewald, §294,b) of natural and supernatural events, although sometimes, e.g., Job 4:16; Isa 14:9, the masc. is also so applied. After the evil-doer is tormented for a while with temporary בלהות, and made tender, and reduced to ripeness for death by the first-born of death, he falls into the possession of the king of בלהות himself; slowly and solemnly, but surely and inevitably (as תצעיד implies, with which is combined the idea of the march of a criminal to the place of execution), he is led to this king by an unseen arm.

In Job 18:15 the description advances another step deeper into the calamity of the evil-doer’s habitation, which is now become completely desolate. Since Job 18:15 says that brimstone (from heaven, Gen 19:24; Psa 11:6) is strewn over the evil-doer’s habitation, i.e., in order to mark it as a place that, having been visited with the fulfilment of the curse, shall not henceforth be rebuilt and inhabited (vid., Deu 29:22., and supra, on Job 15:28), Job 18:15 cannot be intended to affirm that a company of men strange to him take up their abode in his tent. But we shall not, however, on that account take בלהות as the subj. of תּשׁכּון. The only natural translation is: what does not belong to him dwells in his tent (Ew. §294, b); מבּלי, elsewhere praepos. (Job 4:11, Job 4:20; Job 24:7.), is here an adverb of negation, as which it is often used as an intensive of אין, e.g., Exo 14:11. It is unnecessary to take the מ as partitive (Hirz.), although it can have a special signification, as Deu 28:55 (because not), by being separated from בלי. The neutral fem. תשׁכון refers to such inhabitants as are described in Isa 13:20., Job 27:10., Job 34:11., Zep 2:9, and in other descriptions of desolation. Creatures and things which are strange to the deceased rich man, as jackals and nettles, inhabit his domain, which is appointed to eternal unfruitfulness; neither children nor possessions survive him to keep up his name. What does dwell in his tent serves only to keep up the recollection of the curse which has overtaken him.The desolation of his house is the most terrible calamity for the Semite, i.e., when all belonging to his family die or are reduced to poverty, their habitation is desolated, and their ruins are become the byword of future generations. For the Beduin especially, although his hair tent leaves no mark, the thought of the desolation of his house, the extinction of his hospitable hearth, is terrible. - Wetzst.

Job 18:16-19 16  His roots wither beneath,

And above his branch is lopped off. 17  His remembrance is vanished from the land,

And he hath no name far and wide on the plain; 18  They drive him from light into darkness,

And chase him out of the world. 19  He hath neither offspring nor descendant among his people,

Nor is there an escaped one in his dwellings.

The evil-doer is represented under the figure of a plant, Job 18:16, as we have had similar figures already, Job 8:16., Job 15:30, Job 15:32.;To such biblical figures taken from plants, according to which root and branch are become familiar in the sense of ancestors and descendants (comp. Sir. 23:25, 40:15; Wisd. 4:3-5; Rom 11:16), the arbor consanguineitatis, which is not Roman, but is become common in the Christian refinement of the Roman right, may be traced back; the first trace of this is found in Isidorus Hispalensis (as also the Cabbalistic tree אילן, which represents the Sephir-genealogy, has its origin in Spain). his complete extirpation is like the dying off of the root and of the branch, as Amo 2:9; Isa 5:24, and “let him not have a root below and a branch above” in the inscription on the sarcophagus of Eschmunazar. Here we again meet with ימּל, the proper meaning of which is so disputed; it is translated by the Targ. (as by us) as Niph. יתמולל, but the meaning “to wither” is near at hand, which, as we said on Job 14:2, may be gained as well from the primary notion “to fall to pieces” (whence lxx ἐπιπεσεῖται), as from the primary notion “to parch, dry.” אמל (whence אמלל, formed after the manner of the Arabic IX. form, usually of failing; vid., Caspari, §59) offers a third possible explanation; it signifies originally to be long and lax, to let anything hang down, and thence in Arab. (amala) to hope, i.e., to look out into the distance. Not the evil-doer’s family alone is rooted out, but also his memory. With חוּץ, a very relative notion, both the street outside in front of the house (Job 31:32), and the pasture beyond the dwelling (Job 5:10), are described; here it is to be explained according to Pro 8:26 (ארץ וחוצות), where Hitz. remarks: “The lxx translates correctly ἀοικήτους. The districts beyond each persons’ land, which also belong to no one else, the desert, whither one goes forth, is meant.” So ארץ seems also here (comp. Job 30:8) to denote the land that is regularly inhabited - Job himself is a large proprietor within the range of a city (Job 29:7) - and חוץ the steppe traversed by the wandering tribes which lies out beyond. Thus also the Syr. version transl. 'al apai barito, over the plain of the desert, after which the Arabic version is el - barrı̂je (the synon. of bedw , bâdije , whence the name of the BeduinThe village with its meadow-land is el - beled wa 'l - berr. The arable land, in distinction from the steppe, is el - ardd el - âmira, and the steppe is el - berrı̂je. If both are intended, ardd can be used alone. Used specially, el - berrı̂je is the proper name for the great Syrian desert; hence the proverb: el - hhurrı̂je fi 'l - berrı̇je, there is freedom in the steppe (not in towns and villages). - Wetzst.).

What is directly said in Job 18:17 is repeated figuratively in Job 18:18; as also what has been figuratively expressed in Job 18:16 is repeated in Job 18:19 without figure. The subj. of the verbs in Job 18:18 remains in the background, as Job 4:19; Psa 63:11; Luk 12:20 : they thrust him out of the light (of life, prosperity, and fame) into the darkness (of misfortune, death, and oblivion); so that the illustris becomes not merely ignobilis, but totally ignotus, and they hunt him forth (ינדּהוּ from the Hiph. הנד of the verb נדד, instead of which it might also be ינדהו from נדּה, they banish him) out of the habitable world (for this is the signification of תּבל, the earth as built upon and inhabited). There remains to him in his race neither sprout nor shoot; thus the rhyming alliteration נין and נכד (according to Luzzatto on Isa 14:22, used only of the descendants of persons in high rank, and certainly a nobler expression than our rhyming pairs: Germ. Stumpf und Stiel, Mann und Maus, Kind und Kegel). And there is no escaped one (as Deu 2:34 and freq., Arab. shârid, one fleeing; sharûd, a fugitive) in his abodes (מגוּר, as only besides Psa 55:16). Thus to die away without descendant and remembrance is still at the present day among the Arab races that profess Dı̂n Ibrâhı̂m (the religion of Abraham) the most unhappy thought, for the point of gravitation of continuance beyond the grave is transferred by them to the immortality of the righteous in the continuance of his posterity and works in this world (vid., supra, p. 386); and where else should it be at the time of Job, since no revelation had as yet drawn the curtain aside from the future world? Now follows the declamatory conclusion of the speech.

Job 18:20-21 20  Those who dwell in the west are astonished at his day,

And trembling seizeth those who dwell in the east; 21  Surely thus it befalleth the dwellings of the unrighteous,

And thus the place of him that knew not God.

It is as much in accordance with the usage of Arabic as it is biblical, to call the day of a man’s doom “his day,” the day of a battle at a place “the day of that place.” Who are the אחרנים who are astonished at it, and the קדמנים whom terror (שׂער as twice besides in this sense in Ezek.) seizes, or as it is properly, who seize terror, i.e., of themselves, without being able to do otherwise than yield to the emotion (as Job 21:6; Isa 13:8; comp. on the contrary Exo 15:14.)? Hirz., Schlottm., Hahn, and others, understand posterity by אחרנים, and by קדמנים their ancestors, therefore Job’s contemporaries. But the return from the posterity to those then living is strange, and the usage of the language is opposed to it; for קדמנים is elsewhere always what belongs to the previous age in relation to the speaker (e.g., 1Sa 24:14, comp. Ecc 4:16). Since, then, קדמני is used in the signification eastern (e.g., הים הקדמוני, the eastern sea = the Dead Sea), and אחרון in the signification western (e.g., הים האחרון, the western sea = the Mediterranean), it is much more suited both to the order of the words and the usage of the language to understand, with Schult., Oetinger, Umbr., and Ew., the former of those dwelling in the west, and the latter of those dwelling in the east. In the summarizing Job 18:21, the retrospective pronouns are also praegn., like Job 8:19; Job 20:29, comp. Job 26:14 : Thus is it, viz., according to their fate, i.e., thus it befalls them; and אך here retains its original affirmative signification (as in the concluding verse of Psa 58:1-11), although in Hebrew this is blended with the restrictive. וזה has Rebia mugrasch instead of great Schalscheleth,Vid., Psalter ii. 503, and comp. Davidson, Outlines of Hebrew Accentuation (1861), p. 92, note. and מקום has in correct texts Legarme, which must be followed by לא־ידע with Illuj on the penult. On the relative clause לא־ידע אל without אשׁר, comp. e.g., Job 29:16; and on this use of the st. constr., vid., Ges. §116, 3. The last verse is as though those mentioned in Job 18:20 pointed with the finger to the example of punishment in the ”desolated” dwellings which have been visited by the curse.

This second speech of Bildad begins, like the first (Job 8:2), with the reproach of endless babbling; but it does not end like the first (Job 8:22). The first closed with the words: "Thy haters shall be clothed with shame, and the tent of the godless is no more," the second is only an amplification of the second half of this conclusion, without taking up again anywhere the tone of promise, which there also embraces the threatening.

It is manifest also from this speech, that the friends, to express it in the words of the old commentators, know nothing of evangelical but only of legal suffering, and also only of legal, nothing of evangelical, righteousness. For the righteousness of which Job boasts is not the righteousness of single works of the law, but of a disposition directed to God, of conduct proceeding from faith, or (as the Old Testament generally says) from trust in God’s mercy, the weaknesses of which are forgiven because they are exonerated by the habitual disposition of the man and the primary aim of his actions. The fact that the principle, “suffering is the consequence of human unrighteousness,” is accounted by Bildad as the formula of an inviolable law of the moral order of the world, is closely connected with that outward aspect of human righteousness. One can only thus judge when one regards human righteousness and human destiny from the purely legal point of view. A man, as soon as we conceive him in faith, and therefore under grace, is no longer under that supposed exclusive fundamental law of the divine dealing. Brentius is quite right when he observes that the sentence of the law certainly is modified for the sake of the godly who have the word of promise. Bildad knows nothing of the worth and power which a man attains by a righteous heart. By faith he is removed from the domain of God’s justice, which recompenses according to the law of works; and before the power of faith even rocks move from their place.

Bildad then goes off into a detailed description of the total destruction into which the evil-doer, after going about for a time oppressed with the terrors of his conscience as one walking over snares, at last sinks beneath a painful sickness. The description is terribly brilliant, solemn, and pathetic, as becomes the stern preacher of repentance with haughty mien and pharisaic self-confidence; it is none the less beautiful, and, considered in itself, also true - a masterpiece of the poet’s skill in poetic idealizing, and in apportioning out the truth in dramatic form. The speech only becomes untrue through the application of the truth advanced, and this untruthfulness the poet has most delicately presented in it. For with a view of terrifying Job, Bildad interweaves distinct references to Job in his description; he knows, however, also how to conceal them under the rich drapery of diversified figures. The first-born of death, that hands the ungodly over to death itself, the king of terrors, by consuming the limbs of the ungodly, is the Arabian leprosy, which slowly destroys the body. The brimstone indicates the fire of God, which, having fallen from heaven, has burned up one part of the herds and servants of Job; the withering of the branch, the death of Job’s children, whom he himself, as a drying-up root that will also soon die off, has survived. Job is the ungodly man, who, with wealth, children, name, and all that he possessed, is being destroyed as an example of punishment for posterity both far and near.

But, in reality, Job is not an example of punishment, but an example for consolation to posterity; and what posterity has to relate is not Job’s ruin, but his wondrous deliverance (Psa 22:31.). He is no עוּל, but a righteous man; not one who לא ידע־אל, but he knows God better than the friends, although he contends with Him, and they defend Him. It is with him as with the righteous One, who complains, Psa 69:21 : “Contempt hath broken my heart, and I became sick: I hoped for sympathy, but in vain; for comforters, and found none;” and Psa 38:12 (comp. Psa 31:12; Psa 55:13-15; Psa 69:9; Psa 88:9, 19): “My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my stroke, and my kinsmen stand afar off.” Not without a deep purpose does the poet make Bildad to address Job in the plural. The address is first directed to Job alone; nevertheless it is so put, that what Bildad says to Job is also intended to be said to others of a like way of thinking, therefore to a whole party of the opposite opinion to himself. Who are these like-minded? Hirzel rightly refers to Job 17:8. Job is the representative of the suffering and misjudged righteous, in other words: of the “congregation,” whose blessedness is hidden beneath an outward form of suffering. One is hereby reminded that in the second part of Isaiah the יהוה עבד is also at one time spoken of in the sing., and at another time in the plur.; since this idea, by a remarkable contraction and expansion of expression (systole and diastole), at one time describes the one servant of Jehovah, and at another the congregation of the servants of Jehovah, which has its head in Him. Thus we again have a trace of the fact that the poet is narrating a history that is of universal significance, and that, although Job is no mere personification, he has in him brought forth to view an idea connected with the history of redemption. The ancient interpreters were on the track of this idea when they said in their way, that in Job we behold the image of Christ, and the figure of His church. Christi personam figuraliter gessit, says Beda; and Gregory, after having stated and explained that there is not in the Old Testament a righteous man who does not typically point to Christ, says: Beatus Iob venturi cum suo corpore typum redemtoris insinuat.

Second Address of Eliphaz. (b. c. 1520.)

1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, 2 How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak. 3 Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight? 4 He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?

Bildad here shoots his arrows, even bitter words, against poor Job, little thinking that, though he was a wise and good man, in this instance he was serving Satan's design in adding to Job's affliction.

I. He charges him with idle endless talk, as Eliphaz had done (ch. xv. 2, 3): How long will it be ere you make an end of words? v. 2. Here he reflects, not only upon Job himself, but either upon all the managers of the conference (thinking perhaps that Eliphaz and Zophar did not speak so closely to the purpose as they might have done) or upon some that were present, who possibly took part with Job, and put in a word now and then in his favour, though it be not recorded. Bildad was weary of hearing others speak, and impatient till it came to his turn, which cannot be observed to any man's praise, for we ought to be swift to hear and slow to speak. It is common for contenders to monopolize the reputation of wisdom, and then to insist upon it as their privilege to be dictators. How unbecoming this conduct is in others every one can see; but few that are guilty of it can see it in themselves. Time was when Job had the last word in all debates (ch. xxix. 22): After my words they spoke not again. Then he was in power and prosperity; but now that he was impoverished and brought low he could scarcely be allowed to speak at all, and every thing he said was as much vilified as formerly it had been magnified. Wisdom therefore (as the world goes) is good with an inheritance (Eccl. vii. 11); for the poor man's wisdom is despised, and, because he is poor, his words are not heard, Eccl. ix. 16.

II. With a regardlessness of what was said to him, intimated in that, Mark, and afterwards we will speak. And it is to no purpose to speak, though what is said be ever so much to the purpose, if those to whom it is addressed will not mark and observe it. Let the ear be opened to hear as the learned, and then the tongues of the learned will do good service (Isa. l. 4) and not otherwise. It is an encouragement to those that speak of the things of God to see the hearers attentive.

III. With a haughty contempt and disdain of his friends and of that which they offered (v. 3): Wherefore are we counted as beasts? This was invidious. Job had indeed called them mockers, had represented them both as unwise and as unkind, wanting both in the reason and tenderness of men, but he did not count them beasts; yet Bildad so represents the matter, 1. Because his high spirit resented what Job had said as if it had been the greatest affront imaginable. Proud men are apt to think themselves slighted more than really they are. 2. Because his hot spirit was willing to find a pretence to be hard upon Job. Those that incline to be severe upon others will have it thought that others have first been so upon them.

IV. With outrageous passion: He teareth himself in his anger, v. 4. Herein he seems to reflect upon what Job had said (ch. xiii. 14): Wherefore did I take my flesh in my teeth? "It is thy own fault," says Bildad. Or he reflected upon what he said ch. xvi. 9, where he seemed to charge it upon God, or, as some think, upon Eliphaz: He teareth me in his wrath. "No," says Bildad; "thou alone shalt bear it." He teareth himself in his anger. Note, Anger is a sin that is its own punishment. Fretful passionate people tear and torment themselves. He teareth his soul (so the word is); every sin wounds the soul, tears that, wrongs that (Prov. viii. 36), unbridled passion particularly.

V. With a proud and arrogant expectation to give law even to Providence itself: "Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? Surely not; there is no reason for that, that the course of nature should be changed and the settled rules of government violated to gratify the humour of one man. Job, dost thou think the world cannot stand without thee; but that, if thou art ruined, all the world is ruined and forsaken with thee?" Some make it a reproof of Job's justification of himself, falsely insinuating that either Job was a wicked man or we must deny a Providence and suppose that God has forsaken the earth and the rock of ages is removed. It is rather a just reproof of his passionate complaints. When we quarrel with the events of Providence we forget that, whatever befals us, it is, 1. According to the eternal purpose and counsel of God. 2. According to the written word. Thus it is written that in the world we must have tribulation, that, since we sin daily, we must expect to smart for it; and, 3. According to the usual way and custom, the track of Providence, nothing but what is common to men; and to expect that God's counsels should change, his method alter, and his word fail, to please us, is as absurd and unreasonable as to think the earth should be forsaken for us and the rock removed out of its place.

Miserable Condition of the Wicked. (b. c. 1520.)

5 Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine. 6 The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him. 7 The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down. 8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare. 9 The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him. 10 The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.

The rest of Bildad's discourse is entirely taken up in an elegant description of the miserable condition of a wicked man, in which there is a great deal of certain truth, and which will be of excellent use if duly considered—that a sinful condition is a sad condition, and that iniquity will be men's ruin if they do not repent of it. But it is not true that all wicked people are visibly and openly made thus miserable in this world; nor is it true that all who are brought into great distress and trouble in this world are therefore to be deemed and adjudged wicked men, when no other proof appears against them; and therefore, though Bildad thought the application of it to Job was easy, yet it was not safe nor just. In these verses we have,

I. The destruction of the wicked foreseen and foretold, under the similitude of darkness (v. 5, 6): Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out. Even his light, the best and brightest part of him, shall be put out; even that which he rejoiced in shall fail him. Or the yea may refer to Job's complaints of the great distress he was in and the darkness he should shortly make his bed in. "Yea," says Bildad, "So it is; thou art clouded, and straitened, and made miserable, and no better could be expected; for the light of the wicked shall be put out, and therefore thine shall." Observe here, 1. The wicked may have some light for a while, some pleasure, some joy, some hope within, as well as wealth, and honour, and power without. But his light is but a spark (v. 5), a little thing and soon extinguished. It is but a candle (v. 6), wasting, and burning down, and easily blown out. It is not the light of the Lord (that is sun-light), but the light of his own fire and sparks of his own kindling, Isa. l. 11. 2. His light will certainly be put out at length, quite put out, so that not the least spark of it shall remain with which to kindle another fire. Even while he is in his tabernacle, while he is in the body, which is the tabernacle of the soul (2 Cor. v. 1), the light shall be dark; he shall have no true solid comfort, no joy that is satisfying, no hope that is supporting. Even the light that is in him is darkness; and how great is that darkness! But, when he is put out of this tabernacle by death, his candle shall be put out with him. The period of his life will be the final period of all his days and will turn all his hopes into endless despair. When a wicked man dies his expectation shall perish, Prov. xi. 7. He shall lie down in sorrow.

II. The preparatives for that destruction represented under the similitude of a beast or bird caught in a snare, or a malefactor arrested and taken into custody in order to his punishment, v. 7-10. 1. Satan is preparing for his destruction. He is the robber that shall prevail against him (v. 9); for, as he was a murderer, so he was a robber, from the beginning. He, as the tempter, lays snares for sinners in the way, wherever they go, and he shall prevail. If he make them sinful like himself, he will make them miserable like himself. He hunts for the precious life. 2. He is himself preparing for his own destruction by going on in sin, and so treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. God gives him up, as he deserves and desires, to his own counsels, and then his own counsels cast him down, v. 7. His sinful projects and pursuits bring him into mischief. He is cast into a net by his own feet (v. 8), runs upon his own destruction, is snared in the work of his own hands (Ps. ix. 16); his own tongue falls upon him, Ps. lxiv. 8. In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare. 3. God is preparing for his destruction. The sinner by his sin is preparing the fuel and then God by his wrath is preparing the fire. See here, (1.) How the sinner is infatuated, to run himself into the snare; and whom God will destroy he infatuates. (2.) How he is embarrassed: The steps of his strength, his mighty designs and efforts, shall be straitened, so that he shall not compass what he intended; and the more he strives to extricate himself the more will he be entangled. Evil men wax worse and worse. (3.) How he is secured and kept from escaping the judgments of God that are in pursuit of him. The gin shall take him by the heel. He can no more escape the divine wrath that is in pursuit of him than a man, so held, can flee from the pursuer. God knows how to reserve the wicked for the day of judgment, 2 Pet. ii. 9.

11 Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet. 12 His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side. 13 It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength. 14 His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors. 15 It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation. 16 His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off. 17 His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street. 18 He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world. 19 He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings. 20 They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted. 21 Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.

Bildad here describes the destruction itself which wicked people are reserved for in the other world, and which, in some degree, often seizes them in this world. Come, and see what a miserable condition the sinner is in when his day comes to fall.

I. See him disheartened and weakened by continual terrors arising from the sense of his own guilt and the dread of God's wrath (v. 11, 12): Terror shall make him afraid on every side. The terrors of his own conscience shall haunt him, so that he shall never be easy. Wherever he goes, these shall follow him; which way soever he looks, these shall stare him in the face. It will make him tremble to see himself fought against by the whole creation, to see Heaven frowning on him, hell gaping for him, and earth sick of him. He that carries his own accuser, and his own tormentor, always in his bosom, cannot but be afraid on every side. This will drive him to his feet, like the malefactor, who, being conscious of his own guilt, takes to his heels and flees when none pursues, Prov. xxviii. 1. But his feet will do him no service; they are fast in the snare, v. 9. The sinner may as soon overpower the divine omnipotence as flee from the divine omniscience, Amos ix. 2, 3. No marvel that the sinner is dispirited and distracted with fear, for, 1. He sees his ruin approaching: Destruction shall be ready at his side, to seize him whenever justice gives the word, so that he is brought into desolation in a moment, Ps. lxxiii. 19. 2. He feels himself utterly unable to grapple with it, either to escape it or to bear up under it. That which he relied upon as his strength (his wealth, power, pomp, friends, and the hardiness of his own spirit) shall fail him in the time of need, and be hunger-bitten, that is, it shall do him no more service than a famished man, pining away for hunger, would do in work or war. The case being thus with him, no marvel that he is a terror to himself. Note, The way of sin is a way of fear, and leads to everlasting confusion, of which the present terrors of an impure and unpacified conscience are earnests, as they were to Cain and Judas.

II. See him devoured and swallowed up by a miserable death; and miserable indeed a wicked man's death is, how secure and jovial soever his life was. 1. See him dying, arrested by the first-born of death (some disease, or some stroke that has in it a more than ordinary resemblance of death itself; so great a death, as it is called, 2 Cor. i. 10, a messenger of death that has in it an uncommon strength and terror), weakened by the harbingers of death, which devour the strength of his skin, that is, it shall bring rottenness into his bones and consume them. His confidence shall then be rooted out of his tabernacle (v. 14), that is, all that he trusted to for his support shall be taken from him, and he shall have nothing to rely upon, no, not his own tabernacle. His own soul was his confidence, but that shall be rooted out of the tabernacle of the body, as a tree that cumbered the ground. "Thy soul shall be required of thee." 2. See him dead, and see his case then with an eye of faith. (1.) He is then brought to the king of terrors. He was surrounded with terrors while he lived (v. 11), and death was the king of all those terrors; they fought against the sinner in death's name, for it is by reason of death that sinners are all their lifetime subject to bondage (Heb. ii. 15), and at length they will be brought to that which they so long feared, as a captive to the conqueror. Death is terrible to nature; our Saviour himself prayed, Father, save me from this hour. But to the wicked it is in a special manner the king of terrors, both as it is a period to that life in which they placed their happiness and a passage to that life where they will find their endless misery. How happy then are the saints, and how much indebted to the Lord Jesus, by whom death is so far abolished, and the property of it altered, that this king of terrors becomes a friend and servant! (2.) He is then driven from the light into darkness (v. 18), from the light of this world, and his prosperous condition in it, into darkness, the darkness of the grave, the darkness of hell, into utter darkness, never to see light (Ps. xlix. 19), not the least gleam, nor any hopes of it. (3.) He is then chased out of the world, hurried and dragged away by the messengers of death, sorely against his will, chased as Adam out of paradise, for the world is his paradise. It intimates that he would fain stay here; he is loth to depart, but go he must; all the world is weary of him, and therefore chases him out, as glad to get rid of him. This is death to a wicked man.

III. See his family sunk and cut off, v. 15. The wrath and curse of God light and lie, not only upon his head and heart, but upon his house too, to consume it with the timber and stones thereof, Zech. v. 4. Death itself shall dwell in his tabernacle, and, having expelled him, shall take possession of his house, to the terror and destruction of all that he leaves behind. Even the dwelling shall be ruined for the sake of its owner: Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation, rained upon it as upon Sodom, to the destruction of which this seems to have reference. Some think he here upbraids Job with the burning of his sheep and servants with fire from heaven. The reason is here given why his tabernacle is thus marked for ruin: Because it is none of his; that is, it was unjustly got, and kept, from the rightful owner, and therefore let him not expect either the comfort or the continuance of it. His children shall perish, either with him or after him, v. 16. So that, his roots being in his own person dried up beneath, above his branch (every child of his family) shall be cut off. Thus the houses of Jeroboam, Baasha, and Ahab, were cut off; none that descended from them were left alive. Those who take root in the earth may expect it will thus be dried up; but, if we be rooted in Christ, even our leaf shall not wither, much less shall our branch be cut off. Those who consult the true honour of their family, and the welfare of its branches, will be afraid of withering it by sin. The extirpation of the sinner's family is mentioned again (v. 19): He shall neither have son nor nephew, child nor grandchild, to enjoy his estate and bear up his name, nor shall there be any remaining in his dwelling akin to him. Sin entails a curse upon posterity, and the iniquity of the fathers is often visited upon the children. Herein, also, it is probable that Bildad reflects upon the death of Job's children and servants, as a further proof of his being a wicked man; whereas all that are written childless are not thereby written graceless; there is a name better than that of sons and daughters.

IV. See his memory buried with him, or made odious; he shall either be forgotten or spoken of with dishonour (v. 17): His remembrance shall perish from the earth; and, if it perish thence, it perishes wholly, for it was never written in heaven, as the names of the saints are, Luke x. 20. All his honour shall be laid and lost in the dust, or stained with perpetual infamy, so that he shall have no name in the street, departing without being desired. Thus the judgments of God follow him, after death, in this world, as an indication of the misery his soul is in after death, and an earnest of that everlasting shame and contempt to which he shall rise in the great day. The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot, Prov. x. 7.

V. See a universal amazement at his fall, v. 20. Those that see it are affrighted, so sudden is the change, so dreadful the execution, so threatening to all about him: and those that come after, and hear the report of it, are astonished at it; their ears are made to tingle, and their hearts to tremble, and they cry out, Lord, how terrible art thou in thy judgments! A place or person utterly ruined is said to be made an astonishment, Deut. xxviii. 37; 2 Chron. vii. 21; Jer. xxv. 9, 18. Horrible sins bring strange punishments.

VI. See all this averred as the unanimous sense of the patriarchal age, grounded upon their knowledge of God and their many observations of his providence (v. 21): Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place (this the condition) of him that knows not God! See here what is the beginning, and what is the end, of the wickedness of this wicked world. 1. The beginning of it is ignorance of God, and it is a wilful ignorance, for there is that to be known of him which is sufficient to leave them for ever inexcusable. They know not God, and then they commit all iniquity. Pharaoh knows not the Lord, and therefore will not obey his voice. 2. The end of it, and that is utter destruction. Such, so miserable, are the dwellings of the wicked. Vengeance will be taken of those that know not God, 2 Thess. i. 8. For those whom he has not honour from he will get himself honour upon. Let us therefore stand in awe and not sin, for it will certainly be bitterness in the latter end.

CHAP. XVIII. Verſe 1. Then anſwered Bild ad the Shuhite, and ſaid.]

NOT ſo much diſputing, as inveying againſt Job in a ſharp and angry Oration, wherein he elegantly deſcribeth the woe of a wicked man, but wrongfully wreſteth the ſame againſt good Job. who might well ſay with him in Tacitus; Tu linguae, ego aurium dominus. If I cannot command thy tongue, yet I can command mine own ears: Or with Another, Didicit ille maledicere, & ego contemnere; This man hath learned to reproach, and I to ſlight his contempts and contumelies; unleſſe I ſhould yeeld that wicked men only are grievouſly afflicted in this life preſent, that they are not to be reckoned wicked, who proſper in their way; but thoſe only who ſufer extremely.

Verſe 2. How long will it be are you make an end of words?] Firſt he taxeth Job of talkativeneſſe, when himſelf talked much, but ſpake little, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. De Alcibiade Plutarch. ſave only what he had ſpoken before, chap. 8. Though Job had ſufficiently refuted him But as nothing in the world is more unreaſonable then an ignorant perſon, who thinketh nothing well done, but that which he doth himſelf; ſo thoſe that bear themſelves over-bold upon their owne knowledg, and over ween their own abilities account it a great injury if any diſſent from them in opinion and judgement. And ſuch a one here Bildad ſheweth himſelf to be by his exordium ex ab[illegible: 2 letters]pto. as Junius phraſeth it, his abrupt beginning, as if he could beare no longer with Jobs prittle prattle; who if he were more prolix then his friends, he had greater reaſon, as being heavily afflicted, and falſly accuſed,Quando tandem finem loquendi ſeu nugandi potius facies? Lav. Among the Romans the Plaintiff was allowed but three hours, the Defendant ſix. But why doth Bilànd beſpeak [illegible: 1 letter]ob here in the Plural Number? Was it for Honours ſake (as Cajetan holdeth?) I ſcarce think it. Was it becauſe he thought Job to be poſſeſſed by an evil ſpirit (as Philip after Bode?) No neither. But this he ſeemeth to do, either as bending his ſpeech to the by-ſtanders, who ſeemed to favour Job, and ſometimes to put in a word for him; whom therefore Bildad looked upon as his fellow hypocrites: or elſe, by an irony he ſpeaks unto Job as unto many,Vos ô Calliope precor. Virg. becauſe he ſeemed to ſet up his opinion above all theirs, and would needs have his counter to ſtand for a thouſand pounds.

mark and afterwards we will ſpeak] Let thy words be henceforth dipped and died in thy heart before they be uttered: let our words alſo be duly weighed, that ſome end may be put to theſe altercations and diſputes.

Verſe 3. Wherefore are we counted as beaſts, &c?] Here he taxeth Job of pride and arrogancy; grounding upon thoſe words of his taken at the worſt, chap. 12.7. and 17.4, 10. and not conſidering his caſe, that he was full of paine, which maketh wiſe men tetchy (as oppreſſion maketh them mad, Eccleſ. 7.7.) and that they had ſorely provoked him by their bitter taunts, and ſcurrilous invectives, which called for ſo ſharp a curry-comb. Peſſime antem habes by po[illegible: 1 letter]riſin. ſi contemnatur; Hypocriſie loves not to be ſighted, faith Brentius here. And Gregory upon this Text faith. Thus in Bildad Hereticks are ſet forth, who ſtomack it much that the faithful take upon them to reprove them, as carried away by errour; as if the knowledge of the truth reſided in themſelves only, and all others had no more underſtanding then beaſts. This people which know not the Law are curſed, ſay thoſe Phariſees, John. 7.49.John 11.49. Ye know nothing at all, ſaith Caiaphas to his Aſſeſſors. The Gnoſticks and Illuminates gave out themſelves, to be the only knowing men, &c. But if Bildad had been right ſet, he would neither have ſo far miſconſtrued Jobs words, nor yet have been behind to befool and be beaſt himſelf as Aſaph in like caſe did, Pſal. 73.22. Where he uſeth the Plural of the word here uſed in the Singular, calling himſelfe, Behemoth, id eſt, magna[illegible: 1 letter] & craſſam beſtiam, a great and a groſſe beaſt.

And reputed vile in your ſight] Heb. Polluted or unclean; that is, as beaſts unfit for food, much leſſe fit for ſacrifice. The ſame Hebrew word ſignifieth, polluted and vile. Every wicked man is a vile man, be he never ſo high and honourable in the worlds account, as Antiochus, Dan. 11.21. is called a vile perſon, and yet he was the great King of Syria, firnamed Epiphanes, or Illuſtrious, and by the flattering Samaritans, he was ſtiled, Antiochus the mighty God. See Pſal. 15.4.

Verſe 4. He teareth himſelf in anger.] Here he chargeth Job with deſperate madneſſe, as if through extreme impatience he fell ſoul upon his owne fleſh, as did that Demoniack in the Goſpel, Bajazet the great Turk in his iron Cage, Pope Boniface the eighth, when clapt up cloſe Priſoner in Saint Angelo: and as they ſay the Tyger doth, when he heareth a dram ſtruck up, he teareth his own fleſh with his teeth: or at all ravenous Deaſts teare in pleces the prey which they have taken. Many read the Text thus, O the man which teareth his ſoul in his anger. Or. O thou which teareſt thy ſelf. Labia mirdet, caput quaſſat, veſtimenta ſcindis, & ſe in cotumnas impingit. Sen[illegible: 2 letters]. &c. The Moraliſt deſcribeth an angry man forcibly held by his friends, biting his own lips, rending his cloathes, and daſhing himſelf againſt the pillars, &c. Such a one Bildad maketh Job to be, [illegible: 1 word] or Mankind, as we ſay: and he takes occaſion likely, from thoſe word of his, chap. 13.14. But love would have thought no evil. Bildad herein ſinned againſt the Law of love, las likewiſe he doth much more in the following vehement interrogation, charging Job with inſolent boldneſſe againſt God.

Shall the earth be forſaken for thee?] Shall God caſt off the care of his earthly Kingdome to gratifie thee, and to make good thine Aſſertion, That good men may ſuffer, and bad men go unpuniſhed? Never think it: thou maiſt ſooner expect him to overturn the whole world for thy ſake, and put every thing out of that order he hath decreed and made it in, then ceaſe to be juſt in puniſhing the wicked. The courſe of Juſtice is as firmly ſettled as the courſe of Nature is. Fias juſtitia, periac mand[illegible: 2 letters]. Of Fabricim it was ſaid, That the Sun might as eaſily be turned out of his track, as he out of his path of Juſtice; much more they it be ſo ſaid of Almighty God, the Rock that cannot be removed, though he varieth the manner, the means, the times and ſeaſons of executing Juſtice, as ſeemeth beſt unto his heavenly wiſdom.

Verſe 5. Tea the light of the wicked ſhall be put out.] The enſuing deſcription of a wicked mans unhappineſſe in life; at death, and after death, is very true, and daintily ſet forth, but falſly and wrongfully wreſted againſt Job, You, or, of a ſurety, the light of the wicked ſhall be put out: though thou wilt not hear of it, but the truth ſhall be ſpoken, however it be taken, and thou ſhalt hereby ſee thy ſelf to be a wicked man,Merlin. becauſe thy light is extinct, that is, thy outward proſperity fitly compared to light; becauſe 1. It cheareth our minds. 2. Directeth our hands to every buſineſſe. 3. Leſſeneth our frights. 4. Rendreth us conſpicuous. The light of the wicked ſhall put out it ſelf, (ſo ſome render it:) he is commonly the cauſe of his own ruine.

And the ſpark of his fire ſhall not ſhine] He is quenched as the fire of the thornes, Pſalm 118.12. Whereof after a while, neither ſpark nor ſpunk remaineth.

Verſ. 6. The light ſhall be dark in his Tabernacle] The glory of his family ſhall be obſcured: he and his ſhall come to utter and unexpected ruine, as Hamans did.

And his candle ſhalt be put out with him] He and his proſperity ſhall dye together: he ſhall go out in a ſnuff, and leave nothing behind him but a deteſtable name. Sicat fetis fugrens vedit, ſit ille moritas hone erepitium cecenit, ſaith Melancthon concerning Echius his laſt piece, De conjugio ficet duum, Or, his candle ſhall be put out above him, ſo the Vulgar Interpreter: the Lamps which gliſtered over head, during the pride and pomp of his Feaſts, ſhal give us more light: or if they give any, it ſhall be but to ſhine upon his Tomb.

Verſe 7. The ſteps of his ſtrength ſhall be ſtr[illegible: 3 letters]ed] that is, ſaith Vatablus, he ſhall not do what he would and was wont. He ſhall loſt his courage in the midſt of his enterprizes, and not be able to effect his attempts.

And his own counſel ſhall caſt him down] His cunning ſhall faile him, his counſel, whereby once he roſe, ſhall ſerve but to advance his overthrow, and to precipitate him into miſery. We uſe to ſay of a cunning-pated fellow, that he never wanteth a trick wherewith to help himſelf; but there is neither power not policy againſt the Lord and his judgements. Of the Athenians it is ſaid, that Minerva turned all their evil counſel into good unto them. Gods enemies have no ſuch friend to help them at a dead lift. The ſtone cut out of the mountaine without hands, ſhall bring down the golden Image with a powder, and make it like the chaſſe of the Summerfloor, Dan. 2.35.

Verſe 8. For he is caſt into a net by his own feet.] Wicked men are even ambitious of deſtruction: judgements need not go to find them out: they run to meet their bane. Divine Juſtice and their own indiſcretion undo them. He hath ſent his feet into the net. ſo the Vulgar rendreth it. He is ſent into a net by his own feet, ſo Mr. Broughton. His own iniquities ſhall take the wicked himſelf, and he ſhall be holden with the cords of his ſins, Prov. 5.22. theſe ſhall caſt him into inextricable ſtraits.

And he walketh upon a ſuare.] Ʋpon a platted grin, ſaith Broughton; whereout the more he ſtrives to get, the more he entangleth himſelf.Sen de ira lib. 3 cap. 6. Sic laqueas fera dum jactat aſtringit. Sic aves viſcum dum trepidantes excutiunt, plumis omnibus illinunt. So the beaſt whilſt he toſſeth the ſnares wherein he is taken, ſtraitneth them: So the birds, while they think to ſhake off the birdlime, beſmeare all their feathers with it.

Verſe 9. The grin ſhall take him by the heel] Or, He ſhal lay hold on the grin with his heel. ſo Mercer readeth it: that is, he fooliſhly runs upon his own ruine, he periſheth by his own overſight.

And the Robber ſhall prevail againſt him] Horridi ſitibundi, the ſhaghaired Ruffians that have waſted their own eſtates, and now thirſt after other mens. Broughton readeth it, The ſavage ſhall lay hold on him. So that either by ſecret contrivance, or open violence he ſhall be undone.

Verſe 10 The ſnare is laid for him in the way, &c.] This heap of words, net, ſnare, grin, trap, cords, ſheweth that God hath many wayes to catch the wicked with; and that nuſquam & nunquam non eis impendeat exitium, deſtruction is ready to meet them at every turning. God cannot want a weapon to beat a Rebel.

And a trap for him in the way] He walks as it were upon a Mine of Gun-powder. The Hebrew hath it, His trap; ſuch as moſt of the Ceſars. till Conſtantine the great met with; and among the reſt Maximinus (that Maſtive Tyrant eight foot high) who daily devoured forty pounds of fleſh, and drank thereto ſix gallons of Wine. This ſoul beaſt after he had raiſed the ſixth Perſecution againſt the Chriſtians, eſpecially againſt the Paſtors of the Church, and exerciſed many other great cruelties, was told to his teeth,Mi[illegible: 2 letters]m in theatro. Elephas grandis eſt, & occiditur; Leo fortis eſt, & occiditur: Cave multos, ſi ſingulos non times. And it befel him accordingly; for at the ſiege of Aquileia in Italy, Euſeb. he was ſlaine as he ſlept at noon in his Tent by his own ſouldiers. Ezekiel foretelleth the degenerate ſons of Joſiah. that they ſhall be taken by the King of Babylon as beaſts in a toil. So Pharaoh, that natural brute beaſt, was made to be taken and deſtroyed. 2 Pet. 2.12. with Exod. 9.16. So Saul complaineth that God had forſaken him, and the Philiſtines thoſe ſavage creatures, were upon him, 2 Sam. 28. Behold I will ſend for many hunters, and they ſhal hunt them, &c. Jer. 16.16.

Verſe 11. Terrors ſhall make him afraid on every ſide.] Theſe terrors are, as it were, the cruel Sergeants and mercileſſe Officers of that King of terrors,Apparitores & lictores. Jun. verſe 14 arreſting him as it were in the Devils name, and bringing him to juſtice. How can it be but a terrible time with him; when death comes with a Writ of Habeas Corpus, and the Devil with a Writ of Habeas animam? when the cold earth muſt have his body, and hot hell hold his ſoul, according to that of the Pſalmiſt, Let death ſeiz[illegible: 1 letter] upon them, and let them go down quick into hell; for wickedneſſe is in their dwellings, and among them, Pſal. 55.17. The ſad forethought hereof cauſeth many unutterable griefs and gripings, perplexities of ſpirit, and convulſions of ſoul, a very hell above ground, and a foretaſte of eternal torments. The word here rendred terror, ſignifieth utmoſt affrightments, ſuch as put a man well nigh out of his wits and diſtract him. R. Solomon underſtandeth it of devils; others of furies, ſuch as the Poets fain. Moſt certain it is,Cic. Orat. pro Roſc. Amer. that a body is not ſo tormented with ſtings, or torn with ſtripes, as a mind with remembrance of wicked actions, and fear of future evils.

And ſhall drive him to his feet.] As they did Cain that Caitiff, Qui factus eſt à corde ſ[illegible: 2 letters] fugitivus, Tertul. who would fain have fled from his own conſcience (if he could have known whither) and became a Fugitive and a Vagabond upon the earth, Gen. 4.12. ſeeking to outrun his terrors, which yet dogged him hard at the heels. They ſhal preſſe him at his feet, ſo Broughton readeth this Text.

Verſe 12.Fit famelicum robur ejus. His ſtrength ſhall be hunger-bitten] Heb. His ſtrength (or wealth) ſhal be famine. Or, Famine ſhall be his ſtrength. He, who whilom having health and wealth at will, fared deliciouſly and gathered ſtrength, ſhall be hunger-ſtarved, and hardly have priſoners pittance; ſo much only as will neither keep him alive, nor ſuffer him to dye. See 1 Sam. 2.5.36. 'Tis as much, faith Brentius, as we uſe to ſay of an extreme poore or feeble perſon, his wealth is poverty, his ſtrength weakneſſe.

And deſtruction ſhall be ready at his ſide] i.e. Shall ſuddenly and inevitably ſeize upon him, there will be no running away from it, for can a man run from his ſide? The word ſignifieth not an ordinary calamity, but a dreadful and direful deſtruction. Some underſtand it of the Pluriſie, or Ʋlcers in the ſide of a man: Others of ribroſt, as they call it, tortures inflicted on condemned perſons (as Heb. 11.34) who are beaten with bats.

Verſe 13. It ſhall devour the ſtrength of his skin] i.e. his bones which ſupport his skin; theſe deſtruction ſhall devour or ſwallow up at a bit, as an hungry Monſter.

The firſt born of death ſhall devour his ſtrength] i.e. The Devil. ſay ſome, that Deſtroyer, Rev. 9.11. that old Man-ſlayer, John 8.44. Prince of death, Heb. 2.14 (as Chriſt is called Prince of Life, Act. 3.15) and firſt born of death, as Chriſt is the firſt born of the Reſurrection, Col. 1.18. Others underſtand it, De cruentiſſima at funeſtiſſima morte, of the moſt tragick and cruel kind of death. See Iſai. 14.30. Broughton readeth it, A ſtrange death ſhall cat the branches of his body, judgments ſhal come upon thee in their perfection, ſaith God to Babylon, Iſai. 47.9.

Verſe 14. And his confidence ſhall be rooted out of his Tabernacle] Whatſoever he truſteth in about his houſe ſhall be pulled up by the roots, or grub'd up. Thus it befel Doeg, Pſal. 52.7. And this diſappointment, this broken confidence of his, ſhall bring him (or make him go) to the King of terrors; i.e. to death that moſt terrible of terribles,Ariſtot. as the Philoſopher calleth it. Or the Devil (as R. Solomon interpreteth it) that black Prince, Eph. 6.12. to whom wicked men are brought by death, which to them is not only Natures Slaughterman, but Gods curſe, and hels Purveyour. hence Rev. 6 8. death haleth hell at the heels of it.

Verſe 15. It ſhall dwell in his Tabernacles, becauſe it is none of his] Heb. Not his: for why? the King of terrors hath turned him out of it, and taken it up for an habitation for himſelf. Some render it thus, nothing or have nothing. (that is want) ſhall dwell in his Tabernacle, his houſe ſhall be repleniſhed with emptineſſe, ſcarcity ſhall be the furniture of his habitation.

Brimſtone ſhall be ſcattered upon his habitation] As is alſo threatned, Pſal. 11.6. And as was executed upon Sodom and her ſifters: as alſo upon Diocleſian the Tyrant; who giving over his Empire,Euſeb. de Vita Conſt. lib. 5 decreed to lead the reſt of his life quietly. But he eſcaped not ſo, for after that his houſe was wholly conſumed with lightening, and a flame of fire that fell from heaven (not without a ſulphurous ſmell) he hiding himſelf for fear of the lightning, dyed within a little after.

Verſe 16. His roots ſhall be dryed up beneath, &c.] The meaning is, ſaith D[illegible: 1 letter]odate, he ſhall be deprived of Gods grace, which is the root of all happineſſe, and of his bleſſing, which is the top of it.

Verſe 17. His remembrance ſhall periſh from the earth] As a tree when root and branch is gone is clean forgotten, and no man remembreth where it grew; ſo ſhall it be with the wicked,Mercer. Non celebrabitur ejus nomon & fama, niſe in malum, Eccleſ. 8. 10. It is reckoned as a great benefit to a wicked man, to have his memory dye with him, which if it be preſerved, ſtinks in keeping, and remains as a curſe and perpetual diſgrace.

And he ſhall have no name] i.e. no honourable Name, no renowne. A good name only is a name, Eccleſ. 7.1. as a good wife only is a wife, Prov. 18.22. Every married woman is not a wife. Zillah Lamechs wife, was but the ſhadow of a wife, as her name alſo ſignifieth. In like ſort, thoſe only have a name in the ſtreets or publick places, who are talked of for good; as the Martyrs, who have left their names for a bleſſing. Iſai. 65.15. when as their wretched Perſecutors have left a vile ſnuff behind, their Lamps being put out in obſcurity.

Verſe 18. He ſhall be driven out of light into darkneſſe] Heb. They ſhall drive him: ſcil the devils ſhall drive him out of the light of life into outer darkneſſe, as they did that rich wretch. Luke 12.20. confer Mat. 8.12. and 25.30. The Dutch Tranſlation readeth it, Men ſhall drive him. Others underſtand it of his troubles and ſorrowes.

And chaſed out of the world] As Tarquin was by Collatine, as Ph[illegible: 2 letters]as was by Heraclius, kickt off the ſtage of the world as one phraſeth it; or as Job ſaith of ſome wicked, buried before half dead, chap. 27.15. Men ſhall chap their hands at him, and ſhal hiſs him out of his place, verſe 23.

Verſe 19. he ſhall neither have ſon nor Nephew, &c.] A ſore affliction to be written childleſſe, which yet is the portion of ſome good people, as Abel; many Prophets and Apoſtles, for whoſe comfort that is written, Iſai. 56.4.5. God, as he will be to his childleſſe children better then ten ſons; ſo he will give them in his houſe,1 Sam. 1.8 Iſal. 96.5. and within his wals, a place and a name, better then of ſons and of daughters the wil give them an everlaſting name that ſhal never be cut off. Not ſo the ungodly, thoſe men of Gods hand; for though full of children, they leave the reſt of their ſubſtance to their babes, Pſal. 17.14. yet it will prove to be but luctnoſa foecunditas, as Hierom ſpeaketh, they ſhall weep for their loſt children, and not be comforted, becauſe they are not. Or if they ſurvive, they prove ſingular cuts and croſſes to their wretched Parents, who have cauſe enough to cry out as Moſes ſometimes did, let me dye out of hand, and not ſee my wretchedneſſe, Num. 11.15. They are filled with [illegible: 2 letters]medicinable ſorrowes, in the loſſe either of their children or of their eſtates by their waſteful children, ſo that they praiſe the dead above the living, and wiſh they had never been born, Eccleſ. 4.2, 3.

Nor any remaining in his dwellings] When the ſouldiers ſlew the Tyrant Maximinius and his ſon, at the ſiege of Aquil[illegible: 1 letter]ia, they cryed out, Ex peſſima geneve ne catulum quidem habendum, Of ſo ill a kind, let not a whelp be kept alive.

Verſe 20 Ther that come after him ſhal be aſt[illegible: 2 letters]ied at his day] Future Ages hearing the relation of his diſmal deſtruction, ſhall ſtand agaſt, as if they beheld the dirty ruines of ſome once beautiful City. Happy they, if in good earneſt they could make that good uſe of it, which Herodotus the Hiſtorian ſaith, [non-Latin text not transcribed] Herod. men ſhould make of the overthrow of Troy; viz. to take notice thereby, that great ſinners muſt look for great puniſhments from God. But Ham and his Poſterity were little the better for the Deluge in their dayes: not the adjacent Countries for Sodoms downfal.

As they that went before were afrighted,] ſcil. His contemporaries and eye-witneſſes of his calamity apprehended horror, ſo the Hebrew hath it, they took a fright: which yet was little to the purpoſe without faith and repentance; and unleſſe their hearts fell down, when their hairs ſtood upright.

Verſe 21. Surely ſuch are the dwellings of the wicked] As ſure as death 'tis ſo; and this is oft inculcated, becauſe hardly believed. Bildad hints at Job in all this, and therefore ſpeaks of the wicked here in the ſingular number; as who ſhould ſay, Thou art the man. But Jobs innocency ſerved him for an Heptab[illegible: 1 letter]ean Buckler.

And this is the place] that is, the ſtate.Pſal. 14.4

Of him that knoweth not God] Periphraſis impii, ſaith Druſius: this is the character of a graceleſſe man. have the workers of iniquity no knowledg? No none, that they were a button the better for.