Job 24:18 - Meaning and Application

Job ends this part of his speech by giving more examples of the cruelty of wicked men.

Some are pirates and robbers at sea. Many interpreters take the hard words in Job 24:18 this way: “He is swift upon the waters.” These men choose the fastest ships, then sail from channel to channel looking for prey. They gain so much from this work that their share is cursed in the earth, and they do not even care for the way of the vineyards. That is, as Bishop Patrick explains it, they look down on farmers and vineyard workers as poor and useless. Others take the verse to mean that sinners who fear exposure move quickly when they are found out, and hide not in vineyards, but in some cursed, lonely place no one notices.

Some are harsh toward people already in pain, and they add trouble to trouble. Barrenness, or not being able to have children, was seen as a deep shame. Some mock women in that condition, as Peninnah did to Hannah, just to wound them and make them miserable. Job calls this evil treatment of the barren woman in Job 24:21, or of those who have no children and so have no “arrows in their quiver,” meaning no sons to defend them in court or at the city gate (Psalm 127:5). They take advantage of such people because they are weak. In the same way, it is cruel to hurt a widow, when we should be doing good to her. Failing to help when we can is a kind of harm.

There are also people who train themselves in cruelty until they become so wild that they frighten even the strong in the land (Job 24:22). By their power, they draw the mighty into a snare. When anger takes hold of them, they lash out so fiercely that no one can feel safe near them. Their hand is against everyone, and everyone’s hand is against them (Genesis 16:12). It is hard to understand why anyone would enjoy making everyone afraid of them, yet some do.

Job then shows that these bold sinners often prosper for a time and live in ease. Sometimes they even die peacefully, like Ishmael, who was a man of this kind, yet lived and died in the presence of all his brothers (Genesis 16:12; Genesis 25:18). He says, first, that safety is given to them, as though they had special protection from God’s providence, and it is surprising that they escape so many dangers. Second, they trust that safety as if it proved their violence was fine. Because judgment on evil is not carried out quickly, they think their sin is not very serious, and that God will not call them to account. Their success makes them feel secure.

Third, they are lifted up for a time. They seem to be heaven’s favorites, and they think they stand above danger. They are honored, raised up in their own eyes, and filled with pride. Fourth, they are carried out of the world quietly and gently, without any striking shame or terror. Bishop Patrick says of Job 24:19 that they go down to the grave as easily as snow-water sinks into dry ground after the sun melts it. On Job 24:20, he says the womb forgets him, meaning God does not mark him so clearly with judgment that even his mother must remember his disgrace. He is not hung on a tree for birds to feed on, but buried like other men, to become food for worms. There he lies, and neither he nor his wickedness is remembered any more than a broken tree.

He says the same of Job 24:24. They are taken out of the way like everyone else. They are shut up in their graves like all other men, and some die as quickly as a head of grain is cut off. Compare this with Solomon’s words, “I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten” (Ecclesiastes 8:10).

Still, Job sees their fall ahead. Even if they die in comfort and honor, their death will be their ruin. God’s eyes are on their ways (Job 24:23). Though he seems silent and lets them go on, he is keeping careful account of all their sin. Soon it will be clear that their secret sins, which they thought no eye had seen (Job 24:15), were all under his eye and will be brought to light again.

Job does not speak here in direct detail about punishment in the next world, but he hints at it through what happens after death. The body’s decay in the grave, though it happens to everyone, is a judgment in their case because of their sin. The grave will consume those who have sinned, and the land of darkness will belong to those who loved darkness rather than light. Their pampered bodies will become food for worms, which will feed on them as gladly as they once fed on the pleasures and profits of sin.

They hoped to build a great name through wealth, power, and mighty deeds, but their memory dies with them (Psalm 9:6). The man who made himself so famous will be no more honored after death, and his name will rot (Proverbs 10:7). People who were afraid to speak plainly while he lived will not spare him after he is dead. So the womb that bore him, his own mother, will forget him, meaning she will avoid speaking his name because nothing good can be said of him. Honor won by sin soon turns into shame.

The evil they tried to fix in their families will be broken like a tree. Their wicked plans will fail, and their evil hopes will be buried with them. Their pride will be brought low and laid in the dust (Job 24:24). For the good of the world, they will be taken out of the way, and all their power and success will stop. If you look for them, they will not be found.

Job admits that wicked people will be miserable in the end, beyond death. But he firmly denies what his friends had claimed, that they are usually miserable in this life.

He ends with a bold challenge to everyone present to prove him wrong, if they could (Job 24:25). If what he has said is not true, and if it does not follow that he has been wrongly judged and criticized, then let anyone show that his speech is either false in itself, which would make him a liar, or irrelevant and beside the point, which would make his words empty and worthless.

Anything false is indeed worthless. Without truth, how can anything be good? But those who speak what is true and sensible do not need to fear close examination. They can gladly submit their words to a fair test, just as Job does here.