Глава 18

Bildad's speech in the second conversation. 1–3. Attack. 4. The stability of the laws of retribution. 5–21. The death of a sinner is his inevitable fate. Job 18:1. And Bildad the Shebahite answered and said: Job 18:2. When will you put an end to such speeches? think about it, and then we’ll talk. Job 18:3. Why should we be considered animals and be humiliated in your own eyes? Bildad's call (cf. Job 8.2) for a cool, thoughtful (“think about it, and then we will talk” - v. 2) discussion of the issue is motivated by the fact that in the heat of an argument, in a state of irritability, friends reproach each other for a lack of prudence (“why do you consider us to be animals and take us for foolish creatures” - v. 3; Job 12:2–3; 15:2–3; 17:10). The preconceived idea of ​​“mutual foolishness” does not allow one to agree with the other; interferes with finding out the truth. Job 18:4. O you who rend your soul in your wrath! Is it possible for you to let the earth become desolate and the rock to move from its place? The harmful consequences of this attitude affect Job himself. Disagreeing with friends, being confident that he is right and encountering only one objection, he “tears his soul in anger” - he becomes irritated, tormented (cf. Job 17.2). But no matter how passionate his speeches may be, they are not able to change the law of the moral world order according to which only sinners are punished on earth. It is as immutable as the laws of the physical world. The earth designated by God for human habitation (Isaiah 45.18) will always remain inhabited; according to the word of man, the rock will not move from its place, and the law of retribution for sins will certainly not be abolished. Job 18:5. Yes, the light of the wicked will go out, and there will be no spark left from his fire. Job 18:6. The light in his tent will be darkened, and his lamp will go out over him. The law of retribution is manifested in the fact that the happiness (“light”, “lamp” - cf. Job 21:17, 29.3; Proverbs 13.9, 20.20, 24.20) of the wicked is never lasting. It disappears completely: “there will be no spark left from its fire” (v. 5), or in literal translation: “the flame of its hearth will cease to shine.” Job 18:7. The steps of his power will be shortened, and his own plans will overthrow him, Job 18:8. for he will fall into the net with his own feet and will walk on the snares. Job 18:9. The noose will catch his leg, and the robber will catch him. Job 18:10. Snares for him and traps on the road are secretly laid out on the ground. All manifestations of the sinner’s strength and power will be reduced to nothing, and the reason for this is his own deeds (v. 1). Without noticing it (v. 10), he will become entangled in them, like a bird in a snare and trap (cf. Proverbs 5.22). Job 18:11. Terrors will frighten him from all sides and force him to rush here and there. Job 18:12. His strength will be exhausted from hunger, and death is ready at his side. The closer death is, the stronger the premonition of it becomes, and the more efforts are made to save it (“they will make him rush hither and thither” - v. 11). But the latter is impossible: the sinner is surrounded by horrors, omens of disaster. The desire to get rid of them only weakens him, just as hunger weakens a person: and death is ready. Job 18:13. The members of his body will be eaten, the firstborn of death will eat his members. Preparing his own death, the wicked dies in terrible torment. “The members of his body will be eaten by ... the firstborn of death,” that is, his body will be destroyed by the most terrible diseases (cf. Isa. 14.30: “the firstborn of the poor” are the poorest), in which all the destructive power of death is concentrated, as it were, just as the strength of his parents is concentrated in the firstborn (Gen. 49.3). Job 18:14. His hope will be driven out of his tent, and this will bring him down to the king of horrors. According to an accurate translation from the Hebrew, the first half of this verse should read: “he will be driven out of his tent, which served as his safety.” Struck by an incurable disease, the wicked dies (“descends to the king of horrors” of death, cf. Job 10.21–22) in the very tent in which he considered himself safe. Job 18:15–21. Punishment falls not only on the wicked himself, but on his home and family. Job 18:15. They will dwell in his tent, because it is no longer his; his dwelling will be sprinkled with brimstone. Since areas sprinkled with sulfur are uninhabited for people (Deut. 29.22-23), then by those who have to settle in the tent of the wicked it is more natural to mean not people, but wild animals, among other things, jackals, with which the prophets populate the ruins of cities that have suffered the wrath of God (Is. 13.20-22, 27.10). Job 18:16. Its roots from below will dry up, and its branches from above will wither. The complete destruction of a tree with branches and roots (Isa 5.24; Am 2.9) is an image of the death of the family of the wicked, which is discussed below (v. 19). Job 18:17. The memory of him will disappear from the earth, and his name will not be on the square. Job 18:18. They will drive him out of the light into darkness and wipe him off the face of the earth. Of the wicked, like his home, no trace remains: the memory of him disappears, which was considered the greatest misfortune (Deut. 25.6; Sir 46.14–16), and the name is consigned to oblivion “in the square”, literally from the Hebrew “on the face of the chutz” - “field” (Job 5.10; Proverbs 8.26), in areas lying outside the borders of the country in which he lived wicked. Art. 18 represents a figurative expression of the thought of Art. 17. Job 18:19. Neither his son nor his grandson will be among his people, and there will be no one left in his dwellings. There is no offspring left from the wicked. Job 18:20. Descendants will be horrified by his day, and contemporaries will be in awe. The day of the sinner’s death is only forever remembered, both for contemporaries and for descendants, according to the explanation of others (Delitsch), - for the peoples of the East and West, because Heb. the word "acharonim" ("descendants") is used in the sense of "west", and "kadmonim" ("contemporaries") - "east". This interpretation is confirmed by the remark of Art. 17 that the name of the wicked is forgotten in the regions outside his homeland. Job 18:21. Such are the dwellings of the wicked, and such is the place of him who does not know God. In view, perhaps, of Job's statement (Job 17.11–16), Bildad does not find it necessary to end his speech with a word of consolation, as he did the first time (Job 8.21). You might be interested in: