Job 18

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

2 “How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and afterwards we will speak.

3 Why are we counted as animals, which have become unclean in your sight?

4 You who tear yourself in your anger, will the earth be forsaken for you? Or will the rock be removed out of its place?

5 “Yes, the light of the wicked will be put out. The spark of his fire won’t shine.

6 The light will be dark in his tent. His lamp above him will be put out.

7 The steps of his strength will be shortened. His own counsel will cast him down.

8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he wanders into its mesh.

9 A snare will take him by the heel. A trap will catch him.

10 A noose is hidden for him in the ground, a trap for him on the path.

11 Terrors will make him afraid on every side, and will chase him at his heels.

12 His strength will be famished. Calamity will be ready at his side.

13 The members of his body will be devoured. The firstborn of death will devour his members.

14 He will be rooted out of the security of his tent. He will be brought to the king of terrors.

15 There will dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur will be scattered on his habitation.

16 His roots will be dried up beneath. His branch will be cut off above.

17 His memory will perish from the earth. He will have no name in the street.

18 He will be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.

19 He will have neither son nor grandson among his people, nor any remaining where he lived.

20 Those who come after will be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened.

21 Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.”

Around Job 18

Context

Context for this book is being written. A note appears here only once it names its sources.

AI explanation

About Job as a whole · Written by an AI model · Not reviewed by a theological reader

This explanation was written by an AI model to help you get started. It names no sources and can contain mistakes. Scripture comes first, and context with sources is shown separately on this page.

What this book is about

The storm comes at last. After chapters of grief, argument and silence from heaven, the LORD answers Job “out of the whirlwind”. He does not explain. He asks: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”

How Job got there is the rest of the book. He is a good man who loses his children, his wealth and his health. Three friends come to comfort him and end up arguing that he must have sinned to suffer so much. Job insists he has not, and demands an answer from God.

A younger man, Elihu, adds his view. Then God speaks, not with an explanation but with questions about the making and running of the world. Job is humbled. God says that Job spoke rightly and the friends did not, and Job is restored.

Background

The story is set in the land of Uz, outside Israel, in a time that resembles the age of Abraham. Its author and date are unknown. The opening and closing are prose; everything between is poetry, some of the most demanding in the Bible.

How Christians read it

The book rejects the idea that suffering is always punishment for sin, without offering a full account of why people suffer. Readers differ on what God's answer means: a rebuke, a comfort, or an invitation to trust a wisdom larger than our own. The accuser in the opening chapters is understood by most Christian tradition as Satan; the Hebrew uses the word as a title. James 5:11 holds up Job as an example of endurance.

About this explanation

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, on 19 October 2026. It draws on the WEB text and general knowledge and was not checked against sources by a person. Every quotation from Scripture is checked automatically against the WEB text.

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World English Bible. Public-domain source and edition notes