Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 18:4
He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?
4. The first clause must be rendered in English,
Thou who tearest thyself in thine anger.
The Heb. uses in preference the objective form, One who teareth himself in his anger, shall the earth be forsaken for thee? See on ch. Job 12:4. The words refer to ch. Job 16:9 it is not God who tears him, it is Job who tears himself in his insensate passion, cf. ch. Job 5:2.
shall the earth be forsaken ] i. e. depopulated and made a wilderness, where no man dwells; Lev 26:43; Isa 6:12; Isa 7:16. The desolation of the earth, which God has not created a waste but made to be inhabited (Isa 45:18), and the removal of the fixed rock from its place, are figures which mean, overturning the fixed moral order of the universe established by God. Bildad asks if the current of the moral order of the world is to be interrupted or turned back for Job’s sake, that he may escape the imputation of wickedness, or the penalty of it, and that his principles may be accepted? cf. ch. Job 16:18.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He teareth himself – More correctly, thou that tearest thyself in anger! It is not an affirmation about Job, but it is a direct address to him. The meaning is, that he was in the paryoxysms of a violent rage; he acted like a madman.
Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? – A reproof of his pride and arrogance. Shall everything be made to give way for you? Are you the only man in the world and of so much importance, that the earth is to be made vacant for you to dwell in? Are the interests of all others to be sacrificed for you, and is everything else to give place for you? Are all the laws of Gods government to be made to yield rather than that you should be punished? Similar modes of expression to denote the insignificance of anyone who is proud and arrogant, are still used among the Arabs. Since Muhammed died, the Imams govern. The world will not suffer loss on your account. The world is not dependent on anyone man. T. Hunt, in Lowths Lectures on Hebrew Poetry. Rosenmullers Morgenland, in lec.
And shall the rock be removed out of his place? – Shall the most firm and immutable things give way for your special accommodation? Shall the most important and settled principles of the divine administration be made to bend on your account? These were not the principles and feelings of Job; and great injustice was done to him by this supposition. He was disposed to be submissive in the main to the divine arrangement. But this will describe the feelings of many a man of pride, who supposes that the divine arrangements should be made to bend for his special accommodation, and that the great, eternal principles of justice and right should give way rather than that he should be dealt with as common sinners are, and rather than that he should be cast into hell. Such people wish a special place of salvation for themselves. They are too proud to be saved as others are. They complain in their hearts that they are made to suffer, to lose their property, to be sick, to die – as others do. They would wish to be treated with special mercy, and to have special enactments in their favor, and would have the eternal laws of right made to bend for their special accommodation Such is the pride of the human heart!
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 18:4
Shall the earth be forsaken for thee?
The folly of discontent
Some of Jobs friends said to him, Shall the earth be forsaken for thee, and shall the rock be removed out of its place? So I may say to every discontented, impatient heart, What! shall the providence of God change its course for thee? Dost thou think it such a weak thing that, because it does not please thee, it must alter its course? Be thou content, or not content, the providence of God will go on. When you are in a ship at sea that has all her sails spread with a full gale of wind, and swiftly sailing, can you make it still by running up and down in the ship? No more can you make the providence of God change its course with your fretting; it will go on with power, do what thou canst. (J. Burroughs.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 4. He teareth himself in his anger] Literally, Rending his own soul in his anger; as if he had said, Thou art a madman: thy fury has such a sway over thee that thou eatest thy own flesh. While thou treatest us as beasts, we see thee to be a furious maniac, destroying thy own life.
Shall the earth be forsaken for thee?] To say the least, afflictions are the common lot of men. Must God work a miracle in providence, in order to exempt thee from the operation of natural causes? Dost thou wish to engross all the attention and care of providence to thyself alone? What pride and insolence!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He teareth himself, i.e. Job, of whom he speaks in the third person for the second, as Job 12:4; 16:7; Oba 1:3. Or, O thou that tearest thyself! Thou complainest of us for vexing thee with our speeches, when in truth thou art thy own greatest tormenter by thy own impatience and rage.
Shall the earth be forsaken, to wit, by God? Shall God give over the government of the earth, and men, and things in it, and suffer all things to fall out by chance, and promiscuously to good and bad men, without any regard to his truth, or wisdom, or justice? Shall God forbear to rule the world righteously, as he hath hitherto done, in favouring good men, and destroying the wicked?
For thee, i.e. for thy sake; or to prevent thy complaints and clamours.
Shall the rock be removed out of his place? shall the counsels of God, which are more firm and unmovable than rocks, and the whole course of his providence, be altered to comply with thy fancies or humours?
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. Rather, turning to Job, “thouthat tearest thyself in anger” (Job5:2).
be forsaken?becomedesolate. He alludes here to Job’s words as to the “rock,”crumbling away (Job 14:18;Job 14:19); but in a differentapplication. He says bitterly “for thee.” Wert thou notpunished as thou art, and as thou art unwilling to bear, the eternalorder of the universe would be disturbed and the earth becomedesolate through unavenged wickedness [UMBREIT].Bildad takes it for granted Job is a great sinner (Job 8:3-6;Isa 24:5; Isa 24:6).”Shall that which stands fast as a rock be removed for yourspecial accommodation?”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He teareth himself in his anger,…. Or “his soul” l, meaning Job, and referring to what he had said in Job 16:9; Now, says Bildad, it is neither God nor man that tears you, it is you yourself; representing Job as a madman, rending his clothes, tearing his flesh, and even his very soul; for by his passion which he expressed, whether to God or his friends, it did himself the most hurt, he broke his peace, and spoiled his comfort, and ruined his health, and made himself the most unhappy of mankind, by giving vent to his passion, to his wrath and anger, which slays and a man, Job 5:2; here a charge of impatience is suggested, contrary to the character even of Job, Jas 5:11;
shall the earth be forsaken for thee? through fear of thee, because of thy rage and fury; dost thou think that the inhabitants of the earth will flee before thee, at thy storming, rage, and wrath? before God none can stand when he is angry: there is no abiding his indignation when his fury is poured out like fire, and persons of the greatest rank will flee to the rocks and mountains to hide them from his face and fury; but what dost thou think, or make thyself to be, to be as Deity, that the inhabitants of the earth should flee fore thee, and forsake it? or when thou diest, dost thou think that all the inhabitants of the earth will die with thee, and so it will be forsaken for thy sake? taking the hint from what Job had said, Job 17:16; or dost thou think thyself a man of so much importance and consequence in the earth that when thou diest there will not be a man left of any worth and notice, that all might as well die with thee? or will God drop the government of the world on thy account? will he no more employ his care and providence in concerning himself in the affairs of the world, but let all things go as they will, and so the earth, as to his providential regards to it, be forsaken for thy sake? will God neither do good to good men, nor punish bad men? which must be the case according to thy doctrine; but will God counteract this method of his providence, he has always taken in the earth, that thou mayest appear not to be an evil man, as might be concluded from thine afflictions, but a good man notwithstanding them?
and shall the rock be removed out of his place? which is not usual, nor can it be done by man; it may be done by God, who touches the mountains, and they smoke, and at whose presence they drop and move, as Sinai did, and as the mountains and hills will flee away at the presence of the Judge of all the earth, when he appears; but no such phenomenon can be expected upon the presence and sight of a man; much less can God himself, who is often called a Rock, and is immovable, unalterable, and unchangeable in his nature, perfections, purposes, and the counsels of his will, be made to act contrary to either of them,
De 32:4; nor will he do it for the sake of any man; he does all things after the counsel of his own will; he takes a constant course in Providence, in the government of the world, canst thou think that he will go out of his usual way for thy sake, in punishing wicked men, and rewarding good men? you may as soon imagine that a rock will be removed out of its place as the ordinary course of Providence will be altered on thy account; to suppose this is presumption, pride, and arrogance, which is what Bildad means to fasten upon Job.
l “animam suam”, Pagninus, Montanus, &c.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
4 Thou art he who teareth himself in his anger:
Shall the earth become desolate for thy sake,
And a rock remove from its place?
5 Notwithstanding, the light of the wicked shall be put out,
And the glow of his fire shineth not;
6 The light becometh dark in his tent,
And his lamp above him is extinguished;
7 His vigorous steps are straitened,
And his own counsel casteth him down.
The meaning of the strophe is this: Dost thou imagine that, by thy vehement conduct, by which thou art become enraged against thyself, thou canst effect any change in the established divine order of the world? It is a divine law, that sufferings are the punishment of sin; thou canst no more alter this, than that at thy command, or for thy sake, the earth, which is appointed to be the habitation of man (Isa 45:18), will become desolate ( teazab with the tone drawn back, according to Ges. 29, 3, b, Arab. with similar signification in intrans. Kal tazibu ), or a rock remove from its place (on , vid., Job 14:18). Bildad here lays to Job’s charge what Job, in Job 16:9, has said of God’s anger, that it tears him: he himself tears himself in his rage at the inevitable lot under which he ought penitently to bow. The address, Job 18:4, as apud Arabes ubique fere (Schult.), is put objectively (not: Oh thou, who); comp. what is said on , Job 17:10, which is influenced by the same syntactic custom. The lxx transl. Job 18:4: Why! will Hades be tenantless if thou diest ( )? after which Rosenm. explains: tu caus h. e. te cadente . But that ought to be . The peopling of the earth is only an example of the arrangements of divine omnipotence and wisdom, the continuance of which is exalted over the human power of volition, and does not in the least yield to human self-will, as ( Job 18:4) the rock is an example, and at the same time an emblem, of what God has fixed and rendered immoveable. That of which he here treats as fixed by God is the law of retribution. However much Job may rage, this law is and remains the unavoidable power that rules over the evil-doer.
Job 18:5 is here equivalent to nevertheless, or prop. even, , as e.g., Psa 129:2 (Ew. 354, a). The light of the evil-doer goes out, and the comfortable brightness and warmth which the blaze ( , only here as a Hebr. word; according to Raschi and others, tincelle, a spark; but according to lxx, Theod., Syr., Jer., a flame; Targ. the brightness of light) of his fire in his dwelling throws out, comes to an end. In one word, as the praet. implies, the light in his tent is changed into darkness; and his lamp above him, i.e., the lamp hanging from the covering of his tent (Job 29:3, comp. Job 21:17), goes out. When misfortune breaks in upon him, the Arab says: ed – dahru attfaa es – siragi , fate has put out my lamp; this figure of the decline of prosperity receives here a fourfold application. The figure of straitening one’s steps is just as Arabic as it is biblical; , the steps of his strength ( synon. of , Job 40:16) become narrow (comp. Pro 4:12, Arab. takassarat ), by the wide space which he could pass over with a self-confident feeling of power becoming more and more contracted; and the purpose formed selfishly and without any recognition of God, the success of which he considered infallible, becomes his overthrow.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(4) He teareth himself in his anger.As Eliphaz had charged Job (Job. 15:4) with the evil tendencies of his speeches, so Bildad here compares him to a maniac, and assumes that the effect of his teaching will be to banish God from the earth, and remove the strength and hope of man. The last clause is a direct quotation from Job in Job. 14:18; it looks, therefore, very much like a wilful perversion of Jobs words, for it is clear that he used them very differently. Even if there were no intentional misrepresentation Bildad applies Jobs words to his own purposes. The drift of his question is, Can you expect the course of Gods providence to be altered for you? On the contrary, the retribution that awaits the wicked is sure and swift; for verily (Job. 18:5) the light of the wicked shall be put out.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. He (meaning Job) teareth himself Of a terrible nondescript wild beast, “the strongest of all others,” Diodorus Siculus, (iii, ch. 2,) says, “if he fall into a pit, or be taken any other way by snares or gins laid for him, he chokes and stifles himself with his unruly rage.”
Shall the earth, etc. When the Orientals would reprove the pride or arrogance of any person, it is common to taunt him with such apothegms as, “What though Mohammed were dead! his imaums (ministers) conducted the affairs of the nation; the universe shall not fall for his sake. The world does not subsist for one man alone.” LOWTH, Lec. 34.
Forsaken for thee In the sense of being depopulated. Lev 26:43.
The rock be removed, etc. A literal citation from Job 14:18. Art thou of so much consequence that the most stable things of nature shall move because of thee? Or, for love of thee shall the foundations of the moral world be upheaved? Such must be Job’s expectations if he deny the unfailing connexion of sin and retribution. If so, Job must be one of heaven’s fondlings. The sneer of Pope as to “the loose mountain,” etc., is a reproduction of Bildad.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 18:4. He teareth himself in his anger Thou sayest, he collects all his fury against me. But shall the earth be forsaken, &c.? Houbigant. See the introductory note on the first verse, and ch. Job 16:9.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
(4) He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place? (5) Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.
What an unnecessary question or two, doth the Shuhite make use of here. Surely Job in desiring quietness and a deliverance from trouble and pain, had never intimated that he wished miracles to be wrought, in the accomplishment of the mercy he implored. But Reader! we shall lose the whole design and drift of what those three visitors of poor Job upon his dunghill, were intended for, if we lose sight of the LORD’S grace towards Job in the permission of those exercises, and the discomfiture of Satan, as was all along determined to be accomplished, in the issue of the attack. This the Reader should continue to recollect, as he passeth through the perusal of Job’s history. The very outset of the business, from the charge of Satan, was to prove Job an hypocrite. And when the enemy’s more immediate attack upon Job, on account of his substance and children was over; through the means of those mistaken friends, the enemy assaults him in those afflictions.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 18:4 He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?
Ver. 4. He teareth himself in his anger ] Here he chargeth Job with desperate madness, as if through extreme impatience he fell foul upon his own flesh, as did that demoniac in the Gospel, Bajazet, the Great Turk, in his iron cage, Pope Boniface VIII, when clapped up close prisoner in St Angelo; and as they say the tiger doth, when he heareth a drum struck up, he teareth his own flesh with his teeth; or as all ravenous beasts tear in pieces the prey which they have taken. Many read the text thus, O the man which teareth his soul in his anger; or, O thou which tearest thyself, &c. The moralist describeth an angry man forcibly held by his friends, biting his own lips, rending his clothes, and dashing himself against the pillars, Labia mordet, caput quassat, vestimenta scindit, et se in columnas impingit (Senec.). Such a one Bildad maketh Job to be, horn-mad, or mankind, as we say; and he takes occasion, likely, from those words of his, Job 13:14 . But love would have thought no evil. Bildad herein sinned against the law of love, as likewise he doth much more in the following vehement interrogation, charging Job with insolent boldness against God.
Shall the earth be forsaken for thee?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
himself = his soul. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13.
shall. ? Figure of speech Erotesis.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
teareth: Job 5:2, Job 13:14, Job 16:9, Jon 4:9, Mar 9:18, Luk 9:39
himself: Heb. his soul
shall the: Job 40:8, Eze 9:9
the rock: Job 14:18, Isa 54:10, Mat 24:35
Reciprocal: Est 5:13 – Yet all this Job 19:3 – ye reproached Job 34:33 – Should Psa 37:8 – Cease
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
18:4 {c} He teareth himself in his anger: shall the {d} earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?
(c) That is, like a madman.
(d) Shall God change the order of nature for your sake, by dealing with you otherwise than he does with all man?