The Book of Job

⭑ Catholic Public Domain Version 2009 ⭑

- Chapter 18 -

Bildad: The wicked will be punished

But Baldad the Suhite responded by saying:

How long will you throw around words? Understand first, and then let us speak.

Why have we been treated like mules, as if we were unworthy before you?

You, who ruins your own soul in your fury, will the earth be forsaken because of you, and will the cliffs be moved from their place?

Will not the light of the impious be put out, and the flame of his fire refuse to shine?

Light will become darkness in his tabernacle, and the lamp that is over him will be extinguished.

His strong steps will be constrained, and his own counsel will cast him down uncontrollably.(a)

For he has caused his own feet to go into a net, and he has walked into its web.

His heel will be held in a snare, and thirst will rage against him.

A trap has been hidden for him in the earth, and a decoy, along his path.

Horrifying things will terrify him everywhere and will entangle his feet.

Let his strength be diminished by famine, and let starvation invade his ribs.

Let it devour the beauty of his skin; let the ancient death consume his arms.(b)

Let his confidence be torn away from his tabernacle, and let ruin trample over him like a king.(c)

Let the companions of he who is not, dwell in his tabernacle; let brimstone rain down upon his tabernacle.(d)

Let his roots be dried up from beneath him, and his harvest be crushed from above.

Let the memory of him perish from the earth, and let not his name be celebrated in the streets.

He will expel him from light into darkness, and he will remove him from the world.

Neither his offspring, nor his descendants, will exist among his people, nor will there be any remnants in his country.

The last will be astonished at his day, and the first will be overcome with horror.(e)

And so, these are the tabernacles of the sinful, and this the place of he who does not know God.(f)

Footnotes

(a)18:7 The word ‘præcipitabit’ means to cast down headlong or in an uncontrollable fashion.(Conte)

(b)18:13 The phrase ‘primogenita mors’ means ‘first-born death,’ but it has been translated as ‘ancient death’ because the first-born is the eldest son.(Conte)

(c)18:14 Here tabernacle can mean tent or house, but it is translated more literally so that the additional possible meaning of a religious house or church can be included in the range of possible meanings.(Conte)

(d)18:15 The meaning is obscure. It may refer to demons, who are companions of Satan. It may refer to the companions of death, since death is not so much an ‘is’ and an ‘is not.’(Conte)

(e)18:20 The word ‘novissimi’ refers to the last to arrive or the newest arrivals. When paired with ‘primos’ it clearly refers to the last as opposed to the first. In other words, the first persons after this time period will be overcome with horror at such evil deeds and horrific events, and the last persons on earth will still know of these things and still be astonished.(Conte)

(f)18:21 The word ‘iniqui,’ and similar words in the Bible, tend to be translated by scholars with more extreme terms like wicked or evil-doers, because the scholars don’t want to use words that might apply such passages to themselves. But, truly, each of us is, to one extent or another, a sinner or an impious person. Such passages are not referring only to the extreme case of the most wicked, but to all sinners.(Conte)