Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Job
Book: Job
Chapter: 18
Overview:
Bildad reproves
Job.
(1-4) Ruin attends the wicked.
(5-10) The
ruin of the wicked.
(11-21)
1-4 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.
5-10 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.
11-21 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.