Bible Commentaries
Job 18

Verse 2

Understand ye. Teach this man to comprehend what we say. He deigns not to address Job in person: but repeats most of his former remarks respecting the wicked, as if they were unquestionably applicable to Job, chap. viii. (Calmet) --- Hebrew, "mark ye." Septuagint, "do thou attend." (Haydock) --- Baldad speaks to many who might be of Job’s opinion, as he was a figure of the Church, defending the common cause; while his friends, like heretics, speak both true and false things. (St. Gregory xiv. 1.) (Worthington)

Verse 3

Reputed. Septuagint, "silent as four-footed animals before thee? (Haydock) without discipline or understanding," chap. xvii. 4. (Menochius)

Verse 4

Thou. Hebrew, "He teareth his soul in his fury!" (Haydock) --- This is spoken with an air of contempt, as if Job were mad, chap. xiii. 14. (Calmet) --- Place. We should expect to see such effects, as soon as we would allow that God punishes thee, without thy being guilty. Hitherto he has treated the wicked only with such rigour. Still thou wouldst assert that thou art a singular example of an innocent man under oppression! (Calmet)

Verse 6

Light; prosperity, (Menochius) offspring, &c. (Calmet)

Verse 7

Step. He shall be greatly embarrassed, (Menochius) like a man in a narrow pass, (Calmet) beset with thorns. (Haydock) (Proverbs iv. 12.) --- Septuagint, "the weakest have made a prey of his possessions.["] (Haydock)

Verse 8

Meshes, (maculis) or holes of the net. (Menochius) --- The more he strives to get out, the more he gets entangled. (Calmet)

Verse 9

Thirst: the greedy hunter. (Calmet) --- Hebrew, "the robber." (Haydock)

Verse 11

Fears. Hunters used to place loose feathers round the wood, except where the gin was laid, in order to frighten the prey into it. Puniceæque agitant formidine pennæ. (Georg. iii.)

(Jeremias xlviii. 44.) "Like timid stags, while you avoid the moving feathers, you are entrapped in the strongest nets." (St. Jerome, contra Lucif.) --- Every thing tends to fill the poor beast with alarm. So the devil, conscience, and enemies on all sides, best the wicked. (Calmet)

Verse 13

First-born denotes the best, or the worst. (Haydock) --- Death. Hebrew, "of death," the devil, or a premature death, and most cruel enemy. (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "But death devours his most beautiful things." (Haydock)

Verse 14

Confidence. Septuagint, "health." --- Let. Protestants, "and it shall bring him to the king of terrors;" (Haydock) or, "thou (O God) shalt," &c. Septuagint, "let him be in the greatest (Calmet) want, on account of a royal accusation," (Haydock) of high treason. (Calmet)

Verse 15

Tent, when he is gone to purify it. Et veniat quæ lustret anus lectumque locumque,

Præferat et tremula sulphur et ova manu. (Ovid, Art.)

--- Yet Moses does not mention sulphur as a thing proper for purifications. Some think that Baldad hints that his house will be destroyed with lightning, or rendered uninhabitable by a loathsome smell.

Verse 16

CHAPTER XVIII.

Harvest. Hebrew also, "branch;" (Calmet) his family, (Menochius) and all on which he trusted. (Calmet) --- All must be destroyed, root and branch.

Verse 20

Them. Literally, "the first," who were witnesses of his misery. (Haydock)