Job 18:2

How long [will it be] ere ye make an end of words?.... Because these words are expressed the plural number, some think more persons than one are addressed, either Eliphaz and Job together, who are

How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.

Ere ye; either, 1. You my brethren. Why do you not give over discoursing with Job, who is wholly transported with rage, and not fit to be discoursed with, at least until both you and he have better considered what to say? Or rather, 2. Thou, O Job, of whom he speaks here, as also , in the plural number; either because there were some other person or persons present at this debate, who by their words or gestures showed themselves favourers of Job’ s cause; or because it was a common idiom of the Eastern language to speak thus of one person, especially where he was one of eminency or authority. Job’ s speeches were generally longer than his friends’ , and they seemed very tedious to them. Mark; consider the matter and our words better. Or, inform us, Heb. make us to understand. Seeing thou lookest upon us as ignorant and brutish men, as it follows, do thou instruct and inform us. Cease cavilling and railing, and produce thy strong reasons, that we may consider and answer them, or yield to them.

Job 18:2 How long [will it be ere] ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.Ver. 2. How long will it be ere you make an end of words?] First he taxeth Job with being talkative, when he himself talked much, but said little, save only what he had spoken before, Job 8:1-22, though Job had sufficiently refuted him. But as nothing in the world is more unreasonable than an ignorant person, who thinketh nothing well done but that which he doth himself; so those that bear themselves overly bold upon their own knowledge, and overween their own abilities, account it a great injury if any dissent from them in opinion and judgment, Lαλειναριστοςλεγεινδεαδυνατωτατος (De Alcibiade, Plutarch). And such a one here Bildad showeth himself to be by his exordium ex abrupto, as Junius phraseth it, his abrupt beginning, as if he could bear no longer with Job’ s prittle prattle; who, if he were more prolix than his friends, he had greater reason, as being heavily afflicted and falsely accused, Quando tandem finem loquendi seu nugandi potius facies? (Lay.) Among the Romans the plaintiff was allowed only three hours, the defendant six. But why doth Bildad speak of Job here in the plural number? Was it for honour’ s sake (as Cajetan holdeth)? I scarcely can agree. Was it because he thought Job to be possessed by an evil spirit (as Philip after Bede)? No. But this he seemeth to do, either by bending his speech to the bystanders, who seemed to favour Job, and sometimes to put in a word for him; whom therefore Bildad looked upon as his fellow hypocrites; or else, by an irony, he speaks unto Job as unto many (Vos, o Calliope, precor. Virg.), because he seemed to set up his opinion above all others, and would needs have his counter to stand for a thousand pounds. Mark, and afterwards we will speak] Let thy words be henceforth dipped and dyed in thy heart before they be uttered; let our words also be duly weighed, that some end may be put to these altercations and disputes.

Verse 2. How long will it be ere ye make an end] It is difficult to say to whom this address is made: being in the plural number, it can hardly be supposed to mean Job only. It probably means all present; as if he had said, It is vain to talk with this man, and follow him through all his quibbles: take notice of this, and then let us all deliver our sentiments fully to him, without paying any regard to his self-vindications. It must be owned that this is the plan which Bildad followed; and he amply unburdens a mind that was labouring under the spirit of rancour and abuse. Instead of How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? Mr. Good translates: "How long will ye plant thorns (irritating, lacerating, wounding invectives) among words?" translating the unusual term קנצי kintsey, thorns, instead of bounds or limits. The word קנצי kintsey may be the Chaldee form for קצי kitsey, the נ nun being inserted by the Chaldeans for the sake of euphony, as is frequently done; and it may be considered as the contracted plural from קץ kats, a thorn, from קץ kats, to lacerate, rather than קץ kets, an end, from קצה katsah, to cut off. Schultens and others have contended that קנץ kanats, is an Arabic word, used also in Hebrew; that [Arabic] kanasa, signifies to hunt, to lay snares; and hence [Arabic] maknas, a snare: and that the words should be translated, "How long will you put captious snares in words?" But I prefer קנצי kintsey, as being the Chaldee form for קצי kitsey, whether it be considered as expressing limits or thorns; as the whole instance is formed after the Chaldee model, as is evident, not only in the word in question, but also in lemillin, to words, the Chaldee plural instead of lemillim, the Hebrew plural.

2. Then he spoke impiously of God, saying that He tore him in His anger (ch. Job 16:9), and appealed to the earth and nature to rise up on his side (ch. Job 16:18). Such things provoke the personal and moral indignation of Bildad alike. It seems to him that Job holds his brethren and him little higher than the beasts (although it was Job himself that was destitute of understanding), and that in his extravagant self-righteousness he flings them away from him as belonging to the class of the “unclean” (Job 18:2-3). And it is not God that tears him in His anger; rather in his outrageous fury he is tearing himself. And does he suppose, as his appeal to the earth might suggest, that the eternal flow of law and order in the universe is to be interrupted for his sake—that he may be reputed innocent, or that being guilty he may not suffer the penalty of his evil, and that his principles may prevail? (Job 18:4). This question naturally leads over to the principal theme of the discourse, the certainty of the destruction of the wicked through the operation of the fixed order of the world and the moral instincts of mankind (Job 18:5-21). ere you make an end of words] Rather, how long will ye hunt for words, lit. set snares for words. Bildad begins with the same exclamation of impatient astonishment that he used on a former occasion, ch. Job 8:2, how long? quousque tandem abutere patientia nostra? By “hunting for words” he means making subtle and artificial attempts at finding arguments—which were only words. He probably refers to the distinctions which Job, in wrestling with his great problem, drew between God and God, and his appeals to the one against the other. Such things seem subtleties to Bildad and but the theme of speakers; man’s destiny in the world of God is a thing of more solid stuff, and its principles not so intangible. mark, and afterwards] Rather, understand. Bildad gives back Job’s words, Thou hast hid their heart from understanding, ch. Job 17:4. It was not they but he that was without wisdom, and until he came to some admission of first principles talking was of little avail. In answering Job Bildad uses here the plur. ye, with reference no doubt to Job’s identifying himself with the class of righteous sufferers persecuted by the wicked, ch. Job 17:6 seq. The circumstances of the Author’s time perhaps shine out through these allusions—the collision of classes, the conflicting claims of parties to represent the true people of God, and the diverse solutions which various minds sought for the hard problem of the national affliction, which turned the servant of the Lord over into the hands of the wicked (ch. Job 16:11) and made him the servant of rulers (Isaiah 49:7).

How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? - It has been made a question to whom this is addressed. It is in the plural number, and it is not usual in Hebrew when addressing an individual to make use of the plural form.

Introduction. Bildad retorts Job’s charges of folly by comparing him to a self-devouring brute, who in his madness would unsettle the eternal principles of God’s moral government, Job 18:2-4. 2.