Terrors frighten him on every side, and chase him at his heels.
Bildad has been piling up hunting images — net, snare, trap, cord — and here the trap closes: fear itself does the chasing. The real question is not whether terror hunts the wicked, but whether Job was the man Bildad had in mind.
The Trap Closes
One writer walks through the images, then says what Bildad was doing with them:
Samuel RidoutHe declares that, without knowing it, the wicked man walked over a snare that would take him when he least expected it. Bildad repeats this painfully, assuring Job that his heel will be caught in a trap and a noose will close around him — following one translation of verse 9. The snare lies carefully hidden in the earth, ready for him. The net in his path is ready to close on him like a careless bird. No wonder terrors frightened him on every side and filled him with dread at every step. Bildad chose words rich in poetic imagery, to force on Job — what is untrue!
Terrors as Pursuers
Another writer follows the same man to the end. His own cleverness traps him, terrors keep pace with him, and the chase has a destination:
William KellyNo cleverness saves the man who trusts himself instead of God; it only traps him. So his own feet send him into the net, and he walks over the meshes, not noticing what is underneath. The trap, the snare, the cord meet him wherever he turns; terrors alarm him on every side, and dog his footsteps. His calamity is never satisfied; it is hungry for more. Destruction, or a heavy load of suffering, is at his side, ready to weigh him down. In short, everything that makes his tent bright, now or in the future, is torn out, and he has to march off to the king of terrors.
Why Bildad Thought It Fit Job
Bildad worked backwards from the disaster to the man:
Leslie M. GrantIn these verses Bildad tells Job that the wicked do not see danger, because they are ignorant, and so evil traps them easily. The snare may be a noose hidden on the ground, perhaps covered by leaves, but drawn when one walks into it. Bildad thought that because Job had not expected the evil that came to him, he had not guarded against the trap, and so had walked into it. Of course this was not the case with Job, though it is commonly true of the wicked.
True of the Wicked, False of Job
Nothing Bildad said about the fate of the wicked was untrue. That is what made it crushing:
Charles StanleyBildad again takes his place in the contest (Job 18). He means well, but his words are poisoned arrows. "The light of the wicked is put out." Yes, every word is perfectly true of the wicked; but how crushing to Job! Circumstances seemed to favour the charge.
A true statement can still do great harm when someone aims it at the wrong person:
William KellyTruth that is misunderstood and misapplied can do more harm than many a falsehood. Misapplied truth gives an error the apparent authority of God, and the error carries all the more weight because it comes as the truth. If someone says a foolish thing, or something plainly false, people despise it. But no believer can brush aside the truth of God. So when someone misuses the truth of God — when he uses it to crush a person God cares about intensely at that moment — how foreign and offensive that is to His mind!
The Missing Half of the Argument
Bildad held one fixed rule: what a man sows, he reaps. He left out half of it:
William KellyHowever restless Job may be, he will find this out in the end: Bildad and his friends are not stupid cattle, and the moral government of God is as immovable as the course of the earth, or the stubborn rock. What a man sows he reaps: if evil, ruin; if good, blessing. But of the latter Bildad has not a word to say. Did he know what grace works through faith? Faith can not only remove the rock, but cast a mountain into the sea.
Summary
- Snare — net, trap, cord, and now terror itself. Fear hunts the man from every side and follows his steps.
- Logic — Bildad reasoned backwards from Job's ruin to Job's guilt. He assumed that a man caught by surprise had failed to watch for evil.
- Accuracy — his words about the wicked were true. The error lay in who he aimed them at.
- Damage — misapplied truth can do more harm than plain falsehood. It borrows God's authority to crush someone God values.
- Omission — Bildad had sowing and reaping but no grace. His immovable rule left him nothing to say to a suffering man.