to pluck off or pull to pieces · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
himself
נַפְשׁ֗וֹnaf.Sho
H5315
properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
anger
בְּאַ֫פּ֥וֹbe.'A.Po
H639
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
earth
אָ֑רֶץ'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular absolute
forsaken
תֵּעָ֣זַבte.'A.zav
H5800
to loosen · verb, niphal jussive, 3rd person feminine singular
rock
צ֝֗וּרTzur
H6697
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
removed
וְיֶעְתַּקve.ye'.tak-
H6275
to remove (intransitive or transitive) figuratively · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine singular
place
מִמְּקֹמֽוֹmi.me.ko.Mo
H4725
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 14:18 And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place.
Job 16:9 He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
Job 5:2 For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one.
Job 13:14 Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?
Job 40:8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
Isaiah 54:10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace…
Ezekiel 9:9 Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of…
Jonah 4:9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 18:1-4
Bildad here shoots his arrows, even bitter words, against poor Job, little thinking that, though he was a wise and good man, in this instance he was serving Satan's design in adding to Job's affliction.
I. He charges him with idle endless talk, as Eliphaz had done (Job 15:2, Job 15:3): How long will it be ere you make an end of words? Job 18:2. Here he reflects, not only upon Job himself, but either upon all the managers of the conference (thinking perhaps that Eliphaz and Zophar did not speak so closely to the purpose as they might have done) or upon some that were present, who possibly took part with Job, and put in a word now and then in his favour, though it be not recorded. Bildad was w…
Rather, turning to Job, "thou that tearest thyself in anger" (Job 5:2).
be forsaken?--become desolate. He alludes here to Job's words as to the "rock," crumbling away (Job 14:18-19); but in a different application. He says bitterly "for thee." Wert thou not punished as thou art, and as thou art unwilling to bear, the eternal order of the universe would be disturbed and the earth become desolate through unavenged wickedness [UMBREIT]. Bildad takes it for granted Job is a great sinner (Job 8:3-6; Isa 24:5-6). "Shall that which stands fast as a rock be removed for your special accommodation?"
John Gill on Job 18:4
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, James 5:11;
shall the earth…
Bildad speaks these words because Job did not refrain from complaining by saying that he wanted to die. What sort of consolation is this? How could he have disheartened him in another way? He said, in fact, that the "stretches under heaven would be desolate," or did he mention his death as if it brought a great contribution to this life that is common to us? Actually Bildad says the opposite: a man is nothing and deserves no mention. Why do you say that? Then he also foolishly and haphazardly accuses the impious, in order to support his present argument. They cannot put the blame on [Job] for any evil action. But notice their perversity; by saying that great misfortunes will befall the impious, they mention those afflictions suffered by Job, naming his miseries in their words, as if they wanted to show that they alluded to him. Notice and observe that their remarks about others are addressed to him.
Why dost thou ruin thy soul in thy fury? Heretics esteem whether a strong feeling for the rule of right, or the spiritual grace of holy preaching, not as good weight of virtue, but as the madness of fury. By which same fury they believe that 'the souls of the faithful are ruined,' in that they imagine that the life of the Church is destroyed by the very same means whereby they see she is made to kindle against themselves. It goes on; Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? For they think that they themselves worship God every where, that they themselves have occupied the whole world. What is it then to say, Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? but what they often say to the faithful, viz. 'that if this thing which you say be true, all the earth is forsaken by God, which we ourselves already occupy from the multitude of us.' Now the holy Church universal proclaims that God cannot be truly worshipped saving within herself, asserting that all they that are without her shall never be saved. But conversely heretics, who are confident that it is possible for them to be saved even without her pale, maintain that the Divine aid is rendered to them in every place. Whence they say; Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? i.e. 'is it so, that whosoever is out of thee cannot be saved?' Whence it is added further; And shall the rocks be moved out of their place? Heretics call those persons 'rocks' who in their views by the sublimity of their thoughts stand out in the human race, which same they glory that they have for teachers. But when Holy Church addresses herself to the task of gathering together the different erring preachers within the bosom of the right faith, what else is this but that she 'removes the rocks from their places,' that having a right view of things, they may lie down in humility within her, who aforetime were standing stiff in their own wrong notions? But heretics altogether make against the doing of this, and withstand the 'rocks being moved out of their places' on account of her voice, because they are averse that they, who among themselves, being lifted up in their thoughts, were embued with false doctrine, by coming to her should think what is true in a humble spirit. Now, it very often happens that heretics, when they see any persons within the bosom of Holy Church travailing whether with want or calamities, lift themselves up directly in the…
Dictionary and topics
Self-Righteousness · 2:9; — 2:9;
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Keil & Delitzsch on Job 18:4-7
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 th…
How long before you stop talking? Bildad addressed Job in the plural, perhaps meaning “people like you.”
Rashi on Job 18:4
One who destroys his soul He turns to Job, “To you I say, the one who destroys his soul in his anger and in his wrath.”
for your sake For the sake of your innocence shall the earth be abandoned by its standard of justice?
and shall the Rock be removed The Creator. from His place From His knowledge and from His nature.
