He builds his house like a moth's, like a booth that a watchman makes.
Job turns his friends' argument back on them and describes the end of the godless man. Verse 18 asks what such a man builds, and the answer is a moth's shell and a hut a watchman leaves behind.
What Job Is Describing
This is not Job's own life under review. One commentator reads the close of the chapter as a lesson Job gives his friends. He could raise the subject only because his conscience was clear. He traces the godless man's losses down to the house he built.
William KellyIn the latter part of the chapter Job speaks with great force about a case they had before their eyes just as much as he did. He has to explain it for them, since they had completely failed to set it before him. It is the end of the godless — a theme he would have avoided if his conscience were not good. … His children, however many, meet the sword and hunger. His treasures go to strangers who deserve them. The house he built turns out as frail as a moth, like a shed the watchman puts up by the roadside.
A House as Frail as a Moth's
The image pairs two flimsy shelters. One is the frail dwelling of a moth. The other is a hut the watchman puts up for a season and then leaves. Nobody expects either to last.
Samuel RidoutThe grand houses of the ungodly are like the frail dwelling of the moth. They will crumble into nothing. Or they will be like the watchman's passing booth, "like a lodge in a cucumber field."
A Bible dictionary defines that kind of booth:
Morrish Bible DictionaryA temporary booth or lodge, without stability.
The Morning That Never Comes
The picture does not stop at the house. The next verses follow the man to bed.
Samuel RidoutHe follows in his solemn description the course of the wicked to the end. The rich man lies down without realising it is for the last time. He lies down in his usual comfort. He opens his eyes on a new day, but not to take up the old work and pleasures again. He opens his eyes only to pass away. For so long his eyes had shut out everything God has testified. At last they open on another world — "and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes."
Another writer notes that Job stops short of the detail the Lord Jesus later gave:
Leslie M. GrantSo the rich unbeliever lies down. Then he opens his eyes to find himself in torment. Terrors overtake him like a flood, and the tempest of God's judgment carries him away (vv.19-20). This is graphic language. But Job is not as specific as the Lord Jesus was in Luke 16:23, about the rich man who died.
Why Job Could Say It Without Flinching
His friends had been hinting that this description fit Job himself. He answers with an oath, and sends the charge straight back.
William KellyHe still holds that all their imagining was false. He now says more solemnly than ever — it was a kind of oath — as God lives, this is true. "Far be it from me to say that you are right." Now he turns on them; he says, 'You are the guilty ones, not I.'
A Better and More Lasting Substance
Job had lost his own children and his own wealth. So why can he describe crumbling houses without fear?
Samuel RidoutJob dwells here on a sorrow in some ways like his own, and yet how different. He too had lost his children — but was that under the punishing wrath of God? … Job can speak this way about the perishing things of this world's greatness. That shows he was conscious of a very different heritage for himself. Let moth and rust destroy — he seems to say that he knows he has a better and more enduring substance.
Summary
- Builds. The godless man does build — but only a moth's shell and a watchman's hut, shelters with no stability.
- Sleeps. He lies down in his usual comfort, not realising it is the last time.
- Wakes. He opens his eyes, not to the old pleasures, but on another world — the language points toward the rich man in Luke 16:23.
- Speaks. Job can raise the subject only because his conscience is clear. He turns the charge back: his accusers are the guilty ones.
- Holds. Job can watch the grandest houses crumble without fear. He knows he has a better and more enduring substance.