Job 18:11 Commentary and Bible Study

The wicked are haunted by terrors which never leave him entirely so that he is unable to ever be completely at peace. He wants to lie down and forget about them but when he tries to do so, they force their way into his mind and he is compelled in anxiety to get to his feet and look around him, and prepare for the next invasion of his tranquillity. Constantly, the reader gets the impression that the three comforters are holding up a mirror to Job, reflecting precisely the trials that he is experiencing and then interpreting them in the worst possible light. This is despicable, for they betray their friendship to Job and abandon him in his hour of need; they dishonestly take the side of God when they too have no explanation for what is happening; they ignore the reality of the world in which the wicked do not get dealt with in anything like such a clear-cut way; they act as if they had no guilt of their own and as if they could afford to look down on Job; they dishonestly speak as if they are drawing on the wisdom of the past when they are more like those who make it up as they go along, observing Job and echoing his troubles back to him – so prejudiced and lacking in original thought are they.Bildad continues by describing the sapping of the strength of the evil man. His resources fail and consequently he himself fails physically and in every other respect – an indication that he is heading for complete destruction. His skin begins to die off in patches giving him a terrible appearance and causing extreme discomfort and widespread infection. This could be understood metaphorically in the general case, but is probably literal in Job’s case. By the firstborn of death he means the strongest and greatest of the children of death. This firstborn child attacks his limbs. We learn more about the terrible condition that Job was in, by this supposed description of the wicked man.He is uprooted or torn away from the confidence or security of his tent. There he had been at ease, safe in familiar surroundings, but his wickedness could not allow him to continue like this unmolested. Suddenly, when he least expected it, he was snatched from this protected environment and exposed to the consequences of his sin; he is paraded before the king of terrors – death which has no equal and strikes us at the foundation of our being. Bildad builds on fears that were already present in Job’s heart, amplifying them as much as he can.The subject of the verb in verse 15 – ‘it shall dwell’ – is feminine singular, and so too is the word ‘it’ in verse 14. The only feminine noun nearby is the plural noun ‘terrors’, and both verses should probably be understood to refer to terror or as the GNV has it in verse 15 to ‘fear’. Terror will dwell in his tent, for he will never be able to get away from it. He will have this occupant of his house who is none of his and does not belong there. Consistent with this, brimstone will be poured out on his habitation, just as it was poured out on Sodom.