Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.
Job 18:21 is the closing conclusion of Bildad's second speech, whose subject is the final doom of the wicked. It declares that the dwellings of the wicked and the place of the one who does not know God are marked by dwelling apart from God. Their dwelling is ultimately brought to ruin.
The verse belongs to the debate over whether Job's afflictions prove that he is wicked. It stands within the extended exchange in Job 8 through Job 27, in which Job's friends trouble him with constant accusations, implied and otherwise, and Job answers them, with his last reply still unfinished at Job 27. It is one of the declamations of Job's misguided friends found in chapters 4, 5, 8, 11, 15, 18, 20, 22, and 25. It falls with Job 17 and Job 19 among those accusations and responses that are best brought together to be understood.
The verse states a general truth about evil's final punishment, but Job's friends applied that truth wrongly when they treated his suffering as proof that he was wicked or under God's displeasure. Affliction alone does not show that a person is under God's displeasure. Those who held the stricter view taught that the verse did not speak the truth about God or about Job and is not correct and reliable in itself. They further taught that even where such sayings contain good things, they must be compared with other portions of the Bible to see if they are sustained by inspired declarations given through God's servants, and are to be accepted only where so sustained.
Job 18:21 is the closing conclusion of Bildad's second speech, whose subject is the final doom of the wicked. It declares that the dwellings of the wicked and the place of the one who does not know God are marked by dwelling apart from God. Their dwelling is ultimately brought to ruin.
The verse belongs to the debate over whether Job's afflictions prove that he is wicked. It stands within the extended exchange in Job 8 through Job 27, in which Job's friends trouble him with constant accusations, implied and otherwise, and Job answers them, with his last reply still unfinished at Job 27. It is one of the declamations of Job's misguided friends found in chapters 4, 5, 8, 11, 15, 18, 20, 22, and 25. It falls with Job 17 and Job 19 among those accusations and responses that are best brought together to be understood.
The verse states a general truth about evil's final punishment, but Job's friends applied that truth wrongly when they treated his suffering as proof that he was wicked or under God's displeasure. Affliction alone does not show that a person is under God's displeasure. Those who held the stricter view taught that the verse did not speak the truth about God or about Job and is not correct and reliable in itself. They further taught that even where such sayings contain good things, they must be compared with other portions of the Bible to see if they are sustained by inspired declarations given through God's servants, and are to be accepted only where so sustained.