12 Hungry is his sorrow, And calamity is ready at his side.
The satiated for bread hired themselves, And the hungry have ceased. While the barren hath borne seven, And she abounding with sons hath languished.
and it hath been, every one who is left in thy house doth come in to bow himself to him, for a wage of silver, and a cake of bread, and hath said, Admit me, I pray thee, unto one of the priest's offices, to eat a morsel of bread.'
If `one' turn not, His sword he sharpeneth, His bow he hath trodden -- He prepareth it, Yea, for him He hath prepared Instruments of death, His arrows for burning pursuers He maketh. Lo, he travaileth `with' iniquity, And he hath conceived perverseness, And hath brought forth falsehood.
Young lions have lacked and been hungry, And those seeking Jehovah lack not any good,
-- And it hath passed over into it, hardened and hungry, And it hath come to pass, That it is hungry, and hath been wroth, And made light of its king, and of its God, And hath looked upwards.
for when they may say, Peace and surety, then sudden destruction doth stand by them, as the travail `doth' her who is with child, and they shall not escape;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Job 18
Commentary on Job 18 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 18
In this chapter Bildad makes a second assault upon Job. In his first discourse (ch. 8) he had given him encouragement to hope that all should yet be well with him. But here there is not a word of that; he has grown more peevish, and is so far from being convinced by Job's reasonings that he is but more exasperated.
In this he seems, all along, to have an eye to Job's complaints of the miserable condition he was in, that he was in the dark, bewildered, ensnared, terrified, and hastening out of the world. "This,' says Bildad, "is the condition of a wicked man; and therefore thou art one.'
Job 18:1-4
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.
Job 18:5-10
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,
Job 18:11-21
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.