He is thrust from light into darkness, and driven out of the world.
Bildad ends his second speech with a picture of a man shoved out of the daylight and hounded off the earth. No name survives him, and no family. Every line sounds like settled truth about the wicked. That raises two questions: is the picture true, and is it about Job?
The Picture in the Words
These closing lines widen the ruin step by step: no memorial, no name, no descendant. One writer traces how far it reaches:
William KellyNor does the blast of God stop with the evil-doer; but, reaching far and long beyond himself, it hangs over his memory and pursues his descendants... Everything above ground withers, and everything underneath dries away. His memorial does not stand in the settled parts of the earth, and he has no name in the wilderness. He is an outlaw from the inhabited world, sent from light into darkness. No sprout or shoot is left among his people, and not one escaped in his dwellings.
The man is not merely unlucky. He is driven out, and the ruin outlives him — it hangs over his memory and follows his children.
True Words, Cruel Aim
Bildad is not inventing doctrine. The difficulty is where he points it.
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.
The appearances were on Bildad's side. Job had lost everything, and Bildad read the losses backwards into the man's character.
The Wound About the Children
Bildad's words land on the one loss Job could not bear to hear named:
Samuel RidoutContinuing his theme, Bildad declares that name and remembrance will fail the evil man — "the memory of the wicked shall rot." He is driven off into darkness, and none of his relatives escape the disaster. Here is a sharp thrust at the bereaved parent, which must have made him wince with pain, though not in guilt.
Why Misused Truth Does More Harm Than Error
If the statements are sound, where is the harm? A true word aimed at the wrong person carries God's authority into a false charge.
William KellyMore harm may be done by things that are true but misunderstood and misapplied than by many a thing that is false. Misapplied truth gives the apparent authority of God to an error, and that error carries all the more weight because it comes as the truth. If a foolish thing is said, or one plainly false, people despise it; but no believer can treat the truth of God lightly. So if someone uses the truth of God wrongly, and applies it to crush a man who at that moment is an object of intense interest to God, how foreign and offensive to His mind!
And sincerity is no defence. Bildad believed what he said:
William KellyIs it not humbling and solemn that we may be ever so sincere in what we believe, and yet completely wrong? We are just as responsible for what our convictions are as for what we do or say.
What Actually Happened to Job
Bildad spoke as though the story were finished. It was not — and the later chapters answer him point by point.
Leslie M. GrantNothing is left, and no name among those who are renowned. In effect he is driven from light to darkness and chased out of the world, with no children to carry on his name. How desolate a picture! It is true of the wicked... At the time, of course, Job had no children to carry on his name. But later on he did have as many children as he had before! (Ch. 42:13). Bildad also implied that Job would have no name among those who are renowned. Yet the name of Job has been one of remarkable renown for centuries since that time... Bildad did not consider that the whole picture might change completely, as it did before long.
Summary
- True. Every line of Bildad's portrait fits the end of the wicked: light out, memory gone, no descendant left, the man an outlaw from the inhabited world.
- Aimed. True words became poisoned arrows when Bildad fired them at a sufferer whose losses only looked like guilt.
- Cruel. A vanished name, no surviving family: Bildad aimed this at a father who had just buried his children. Pain without guilt.
- Dangerous. Misapplied truth does more damage than plain error, because it lends God's authority to a false charge. Sincerity is no excuse. We answer for what we believe as much as for what we say.
- Reversed. Bildad closed the book too early. Job received children again, and his name has been renowned for centuries — the opposite of what Bildad predicted.