Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 18:17

His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.

17. perish from the earth ] Rather, from the land.

in the street ] Rather, on the face of the earth. The word means the outlying places (marg. to ch. Job 5:10), as opposed to the cultivated land, and “earth” as a word expressing wideness and distance seems nearest here.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

His remembrance shall perish – His name – all recollection of him. Calamity shall follow him even after death; and that which every man desires, and every good man has, and honored name when he is dead, will be denied him. Men will hasten to forget him as fast as possible; compare Pro 10:7, The name of the wicked shall rot.

No name in the street – Men when they meet together in highways and places of concourse – when traveler meets traveler, and caravan caravan, shall not pause to speak of him and of the loss which society has substained by his death. It is one of the rewards of virtue that the good will speak of the upright man when he is dead; that they will pause in their journey, or in their business, to converse about him; and that the poor and the needy will dwell with affectionate interest upon their loss. This blessing, Bildad says, will be denied the wicked man. The world will not feel that they have any loss to deplore when he is dead. No great plan of benvolence has been arrested by his removal. The poor and the needy fare as well as they did before. The widow and the fatherless make no grateful remembrance of his name, and the world hastens to forget him as soon as possible. There is no man, except one who is lost to all virtue, who does not desire to be remembered when he is dead – by his children, his neighbors, his friends, and by the stranger who may read the record on the stone that marks his grave. Where this desire is wholly extinguished, man has reached the lowest possible point of degradation, and the last hold on him in favor of virtue has expired.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 17. His remembrance shall perish] He shall have none to survive him, to continue his name among men.

No name in the street.] He shall never be a man of reputation; after his demise, none shall talk of his fame.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Instead of that honour and renown which he designed to have, both whilst he lived, and after his death, he is not so much as remembered, unless it be with contempt and reproach.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

17. streetMen shall not speakof him in meeting in the highways; rather, “in the field”or “meadow”; the shepherds shall no more mention his nameapicture from nomadic life [UMBREIT].

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

His remembrance shall perish from the earth,…. Not only are the wicked forgotten of God in heaven, and are as the slain he remembers no more, unless it be to pour out his wrath upon them, and punish them for their sins, for which great Babylon will come up in remembrance before him; but of men on earth, and in the very places where they were born, and lived all their days, Ec 8:10; yea, those places, houses and palaces, towns and cities, which they have built to perpetuate their memory among men, perish and come to nought, and their memorial with them, Ps 9:5;

and he shall have no name in the street; much less in the house of God, still less in heaven, in the Lamb’s book of life; so far from it, that he shall have none on earth, no good name among men; if ever his name is mentioned after his death, it is with some brand of infamy upon him; he is not spoken of in public, in a court of judicature, nor in any place of commerce and trade, nor in any concourse of people, or public assembly of any note, especially with any credit or commendation; such is the difference between a good man and a wicked man, see Pr 11:7.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(17) His remembrance shall perish.This is the doom which above all others is dreaded by the modern roamers of the desert. (Comp. also Jer. 35:19.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

b. His name shall survive only to serve as a warning to subsequent generations, Job 18:17-21.

17. Earth Land. 1Sa 23:23.

In the street Literally, that which is outside, open country. Hitzig renders, “on the common.” There shall be an utter extinction of his name: neither in town nor in the wilderness nowhere shall it be spoken.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Job 18:17 His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.

Ver. 17. His remembrance shall perish from the earth ] As a tree, when root and branch is gone, is clean forgotten, and no man remembereth where it grew; so shall it be with the wicked, Non celebrabitur eius nomen et fama, nisi in malum, Ecc 8:10 (Mercer). It is reckoned as a great benefit to a wicked man to have his memory die with him, which, if it be preserved, stinks in keeping, and remains as a curse and perpetual disgrace.

And he shall have no name ] i.e. No honourable name, no renown. A good name only is a name, Ecc 7:1 , as a good wife only is a wife, Pro 18:22 . Every married woman is not a wife. Zillah, Lamech’s wife, was but the shadow of a wife, as her name also signifieth. In like sort, those only have a name in the streets or public places who are talked about for good; like the martyrs, who have left their names for a blessing, Isa 65:15 , when as their wretched persecutors have left a vile snuff behind, their lamps being put out in obscurity.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Job 13:12, Psa 34:16, Psa 83:4, Psa 109:13, Pro 2:22, Pro 10:7

Reciprocal: Exo 17:14 – the remembrance 2Sa 18:18 – I have no son Job 4:20 – without Job 15:32 – and his branch Job 24:20 – wickedness Psa 41:5 – his name Psa 109:15 – cut off Mar 11:20 – General

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge