Job 18:7-8 | KingComments | STEP | With the remark that Job ‘tears himself in his anger’, Bildad blames him for being out of his mind, that he talks like a madman, like someone who does not know what he is saying ( ). Job has claimed that God is tearing him ( ). No, Bildad says, you do that yourself, God does not. Everyone and everything has to give way to the statements of Job. Everyone can disappear and what is a symbol of steadfastness can be moved, but the thinking of Job is stuck. We would say: even if everyone stands upside down, Job does not change his mind and holds on to it rigidly. Bildad’s way of arguing proves nothing more than the weakness of his own arguments. What Bildad says has nothing to do with the content. Someone who cannot convince his opponent, but does not want to acknowledge his loss, will accuse the other of total immovability. He gets irritated by it and accuses the other person of being ‘inflexible’ in his opinions, that he is ‘stuck’ in his opinion, that he ‘doesn’t want to be open’ to other insights and so on. Well Job, Bildad continues his speech and repeats his argument as a teacher to a student who is slow in understanding, you can be sure that “the light of the wicked goes out” ( ; ). By this he means that Job may well think that he has the light, that he can judge his situation well, but that his light will go out because he is a wicked man. Even the flame of his fire will no longer give light, which means that his house will be uninhabited. For Bildad it is clear from God’s judgments about Job and his statements about them that Job is a hypocrite and a sinner. The light that he had over his life, through which he could see everything in its proper meaning, has been darkened ( ). Job can no longer see how things really are, because his mind is darkened, Bildad judges. By “his lamp” can be meant the spirit of a human being ( ). When a person dies, his spirit does not die, but he can no longer let his light shine over the things of this life. On the day his spirit leaves him, “in that very day his thoughts perish” ( ). As long as Job is still alive, he can no longer make the vigorous strides of the past ( ). He is hindered in this by his troubles and sicknesses that have come upon him because of his sins. What he has recommended to others has become his trap. He perishes in his own counsel. His counsel was to sin for the purpose of prosperity. But that counsel has become his downfall.

‏ Job 18:7-8

The Certain Destiny of the Wicked

With the remark that Job ‘tears himself in his anger’, Bildad blames him for being out of his mind, that he talks like a madman, like someone who does not know what he is saying (Job 18:4). Job has claimed that God is tearing him (Job 16:9). No, Bildad says, you do that yourself, God does not. Everyone and everything has to give way to the statements of Job. Everyone can disappear and what is a symbol of steadfastness can be moved, but the thinking of Job is stuck. We would say: even if everyone stands upside down, Job does not change his mind and holds on to it rigidly.

Bildad’s way of arguing proves nothing more than the weakness of his own arguments. What Bildad says has nothing to do with the content. Someone who cannot convince his opponent, but does not want to acknowledge his loss, will accuse the other of total immovability. He gets irritated by it and accuses the other person of being ‘inflexible’ in his opinions, that he is ‘stuck’ in his opinion, that he ‘doesn’t want to be open’ to other insights and so on.

Well Job, Bildad continues his speech and repeats his argument as a teacher to a student who is slow in understanding, you can be sure that “the light of the wicked goes out” (Job 18:5; Job 21:17). By this he means that Job may well think that he has the light, that he can judge his situation well, but that his light will go out because he is a wicked man. Even the flame of his fire will no longer give light, which means that his house will be uninhabited. For Bildad it is clear from God’s judgments about Job and his statements about them that Job is a hypocrite and a sinner.

The light that he had over his life, through which he could see everything in its proper meaning, has been darkened (Job 18:6). Job can no longer see how things really are, because his mind is darkened, Bildad judges. By “his lamp” can be meant the spirit of a human being (Pro 20:27). When a person dies, his spirit does not die, but he can no longer let his light shine over the things of this life. On the day his spirit leaves him, “in that very day his thoughts perish” (Psa 146:4).

As long as Job is still alive, he can no longer make the vigorous strides of the past (Job 18:7). He is hindered in this by his troubles and sicknesses that have come upon him because of his sins. What he has recommended to others has become his trap. He perishes in his own counsel. His counsel was to sin for the purpose of prosperity. But that counsel has become his downfall.

Walked Into the Trap

Bildad expands on the retribution that is the part of the wicked. In Job 18:8-10 he uses the illustration of a trap to catch wild animals. He applies this to the entanglement of an evil person, with whom he means none other than Job. The idea is that whoever is out to do bad things will have to bear the consequences. It is the law that wherever a wicked person goes, he will eventually become entangled in death. “Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap” (Gal 6:7b).

One who is hindered in his walk by his sins (Job 18:7) will not get far either. He is stopped because he is thrown into a net (Job 18:8). He does not realize that he is walking over a trap over which a webbing has been laid. When he walks over it, he sinks through the webbing and ends up in the trap. Here it is emphasized that he chooses this path himself, so he chooses his own downfall.

In Job 18:9 the emphasis is placed on the suddenness of his downfall. Suddenly he is stopped in his walk because a snare grabs him by the heel. He can no longer move a step. The situation overtakes and overwhelms him, without him being able to free himself from it. He didn’t foresee it, didn’t take it into account.

In Job 18:10 it is more about the inevitable. Someone who goes the way of sin inevitably faces a noose and a trap hidden from him. They lie there especially for him who goes a way of sin. He will be ensnared and captured by them. This fate afflicts everyone who goes the way of sin. Job must know that he is in misery like a trap because he has gone the way of sin.