Job 18:1 opens the answer of Bildad the Shuhite, marking his second speech in the exchange of accusations and replies between Job and his friends. That second speech sets out the final doom of the wicked. It is one of the arguments in the debate over Job's afflictions and over the cause and purpose of human suffering carried on in chapters 4 to 31. That debate proceeds in three circles of speeches by each speaker.
The verse stands in the poetical center of the book of Job, the oldest poetical book. That poetical center lies between the prose prologue in chapters 1 and 2 and the epilogue in chapter 42:7-17, the speeches of Elihu in chapters 32 to 37, and the speeches of the Lord out of the storm-cloud. In that setting Bildad responds in the dialogue about Job's suffering. The friends wrongly insist that Job's afflictions are punishment for sin, while God is disciplining him through suffering.
Their reasoning was generally true but misapplied to Job. They relied on their own wisdom and observation and assumed that a thoroughly good man could not be so afflicted. Hence the words that follow must not be treated as reliable teaching about God or Job when they contradict inspired Scripture. They must be tested against the rest of the Bible, since some statements may be true yet require confirmation.
Job 18:1 opens the answer of Bildad the Shuhite, marking his second speech in the exchange of accusations and replies between Job and his friends. That second speech sets out the final doom of the wicked. It is one of the arguments in the debate over Job's afflictions and over the cause and purpose of human suffering carried on in chapters 4 to 31. That debate proceeds in three circles of speeches by each speaker.
The verse stands in the poetical center of the book of Job, the oldest poetical book. That poetical center lies between the prose prologue in chapters 1 and 2 and the epilogue in chapter 42:7-17, the speeches of Elihu in chapters 32 to 37, and the speeches of the Lord out of the storm-cloud. In that setting Bildad responds in the dialogue about Job's suffering. The friends wrongly insist that Job's afflictions are punishment for sin, while God is disciplining him through suffering.
Their reasoning was generally true but misapplied to Job. They relied on their own wisdom and observation and assumed that a thoroughly good man could not be so afflicted. Hence the words that follow must not be treated as reliable teaching about God or Job when they contradict inspired Scripture. They must be tested against the rest of the Bible, since some statements may be true yet require confirmation.