Job 18:11 - Meaning and Application

Bildad here describes the ruin wicked people are reserved for in the next world, and the ruin that often begins in this world too. He is asking us to look at how miserable sinners become when their judgment comes. First, he pictures them as crushed and shaken by constant fear, coming from guilt and dread of God’s anger (Job 18:11, Job 18:12).

“Terror shall make him afraid on every side.” His own conscience keeps haunting him, so he can never be at rest. Wherever he goes, those fears go with him. Whatever he looks at seems to remind him of judgment, with heaven against him, hell opening for him, and earth itself seeming to reject him. A person who carries his own accuser and tormentor inside him cannot help being afraid on every side.

This fear drives him to run, like the guilty man in Proverbs who flees even when no one is chasing him (Proverbs 28:1). But running will not help, because his feet are already caught in the snare (Job 18:9). A sinner may as soon overpower God’s almighty power as escape God’s all-seeing knowledge (Amos 9:2, Amos 9:3). No wonder he is broken and confused with fear. He sees his ruin coming, for destruction is ready at his side, waiting for the word to strike, and he is brought to desolation in a moment (Psalm 73:19).

He also knows he has no strength to fight it off, escape it, or endure it. The things he trusted in, his wealth, power, honor, friends, and stubborn pride, fail him when he needs them most. They are “hunger-bitten,” meaning they are too weak to help him, like a starving man who can do no work. In that condition, no wonder he becomes a terror to himself. The path of sin is a path of fear, and it leads to lasting confusion. The present fears of a guilty and unrested conscience are only a foretaste of that end, as they were for Cain and Judas.

Second, Bildad says the wicked are swallowed up by a miserable death, even if their life seemed safe and joyful. He sees the sinner dying, seized by the “firstborn of death,” meaning some disease or blow that looks especially like death itself, a great and fearful death (2 Corinthians 1:10). The warning signs of death wear away the strength of his body, even down to his bones. Then “his confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle” (Job 18:14). Everything he depended on for support is taken away, and he has nothing left to lean on, not even his own body. What he once trusted as his strength is pulled out like a tree from the ground.

Then he is dead, and faith must look at his case. He is brought to the king of terrors. While he lived, he was surrounded by terrors (Job 18:11), and death was the ruler of them all. Human beings are held in slavery by the fear of death all their lives (Hebrews 2:15), and at last they are brought face to face with what they long feared. Death is terrible by nature, and even our Savior prayed, “Father, save me from this hour.” But for the wicked, death is especially the king of terrors, because it ends the life they loved and opens the way into endless misery. How thankful the saints should be, and how much they owe the Lord Jesus, through whom death is so changed that this king of terrors becomes a friend and servant!

He is then driven from light into darkness (Job 18:18), from the light of this world and his success in it into the darkness of the grave and the darkness of hell, into utter darkness, never to see light again (Psalm 49:19). There is not even the smallest ray of hope. He is also chased out of the world, hurried away by death’s messengers against his will. It is like Adam being driven from paradise, because this world is his paradise. The picture shows that he would gladly stay, and is unwilling to leave, but he must go. The world is tired of him and forces him out, glad to be rid of him. That is the death of a wicked man.

Third, Bildad says the sinner’s family falls with him (Job 18:15). God’s wrath and curse rest not only on his own head and heart, but on his house too, consuming it down to the timber and stones (Zechariah 5:4). Death itself lives in his tent. After driving him out, it takes over his house, bringing terror and ruin to all he leaves behind. Even the dwelling is destroyed because of its owner. Brimstone is scattered over his home, like the judgment on Sodom, which seems to be the reference here. Some think Bildad is also mocking Job by pointing to the fire from heaven that burned Job’s sheep and servants.

The reason for this ruin is that the house is “none of his,” meaning it was unjustly gained or wrongly kept from the true owner. So he should not expect comfort or lasting security from it. His children also perish, either with him or after him (Job 18:16). His roots dry up in his own person beneath the ground, and above ground his branch, meaning each child in the family, is cut off. That is how the houses of Jeroboam, Baasha, and Ahab were cut off, so that none of their descendants remained alive. Those who take root in this world may expect such drying up. But if we are rooted in Christ, even our leaf will not wither, much less will our branch be cut off. Anyone who truly cares about the honor of a family and the good of its children should fear sin, because sin can wither a house.

Bildad says again that the sinner’s family is wiped out (Job 18:19). He will have no son or grandson to inherit his estate or keep his name alive, and no relative will remain in his house. Sin brings a curse on later generations, and a father’s guilt is often visited on his children. Bildad may also be aiming this at Job, since Job had lost his children and servants. But not everyone who dies childless is therefore godless. There is a name better than the names of sons and daughters.

Fourth, he says the sinner’s memory is buried with him, or made hateful. He will either be forgotten or spoken of with shame (Job 18:17). “His remembrance shall perish from the earth.” If it dies out there, it dies completely, because it was never written in heaven, as the names of the saints are (Luke 10:20).

All his honor will be thrown down and lost in the dust, or covered with lasting shame. He will leave no respected name behind him, and he will go away unloved and unwanted. In this way, God’s judgments follow him after death in this world, showing the misery his soul will know after death and giving a foretaste of the lasting shame and contempt he will face on the great day. “The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot” (Proverbs 10:7).

See, too, the universal shock at his fall (Job 18:20). Those who witness it are frightened, because the change is so sudden and the judgment so terrible, and it warns everyone around them. Those who come later and hear the report are also stunned. Their ears ring, their hearts shake, and they cry out, “Lord, how terrible you are in your judgments!” A place or person that is completely ruined is said to be made an astonishment (Deuteronomy 28:37; 2 Chronicles 7:21; Jeremiah 25:9; Jeremiah 25:18). Horrible sins bring strange punishments.

Bildad also says that this was the agreed wisdom of the patriarchal age, built on their knowledge of God and their many observations of his providence (Job 18:21). “Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place, this is the condition, of one who does not know God.” Here we see both the start and the end of the wicked life in this evil world. Its start is ignorance of God, and it is a willful ignorance, because there is enough about him to leave people without excuse. They do not know God, and then they commit every kind of evil. Pharaoh did not know the Lord, and so he would not obey his voice.

The end of such a life is total ruin. Such, so miserable, are the homes of the wicked. Vengeance will be taken on those who do not know God (2 Thessalonians 1:8). God will get honor from those who give him none. So let us stand in awe and not sin, because the end of sin will surely be bitter.