It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.
The verse belongs to the debate between Job and his three friends about Job's afflictions, which runs from chapters 4 to 31 and consists of three circles of speeches. It stands in chapters 17-19 among the constant accusations, implied and otherwise, with which Job's friends trouble Job and Job's replies to them, before the friends cease and Job's last reply continues through chapter 27. It is part of Bildad's second speech, which describes the final doom and destruction of the wicked.
As part of one of the friends' speeches, its statements about Job and God are not reliable unless they are supported by inspired teaching elsewhere in Scripture. As part of Bildad's speech, it does not establish that suffering proves a person is wicked or under God's displeasure, because Job's friends generally spoke what was true but wrongly applied it to Job. The phrase firstborn of death is used figuratively for the most fatal and cruel death.
The verse pictures death as a devouring power that devours and eats away a person's strength. Together with the next verse, it names death the king of terrors. It shows death is a foe, an enemy and dreaded power that is terrible and to be dreaded, instead of a friend and a good thing.
It contradicts the teaching that death is a pleasant prospect and that no one can really be buried or be held by grave or coffin. It contradicts the teaching that death is a royal friend that brings believers at once into the immediate presence of the Lord. The words come from Job, a perfect and upright man who feared God and eschewed evil and who knew that his Redeemer lives, yet still described death with terror.
The verse belongs to the debate between Job and his three friends about Job's afflictions, which runs from chapters 4 to 31 and consists of three circles of speeches. It stands in chapters 17-19 among the constant accusations, implied and otherwise, with which Job's friends trouble Job and Job's replies to them, before the friends cease and Job's last reply continues through chapter 27. It is part of Bildad's second speech, which describes the final doom and destruction of the wicked.
As part of one of the friends' speeches, its statements about Job and God are not reliable unless they are supported by inspired teaching elsewhere in Scripture. As part of Bildad's speech, it does not establish that suffering proves a person is wicked or under God's displeasure, because Job's friends generally spoke what was true but wrongly applied it to Job. The phrase firstborn of death is used figuratively for the most fatal and cruel death.
The verse pictures death as a devouring power that devours and eats away a person's strength. Together with the next verse, it names death the king of terrors. It shows death is a foe, an enemy and dreaded power that is terrible and to be dreaded, instead of a friend and a good thing.
It contradicts the teaching that death is a pleasant prospect and that no one can really be buried or be held by grave or coffin. It contradicts the teaching that death is a royal friend that brings believers at once into the immediate presence of the Lord. The words come from Job, a perfect and upright man who feared God and eschewed evil and who knew that his Redeemer lives, yet still described death with terror.