Job 18:1 — Word Study
WLCוַ֭יַּעַן בִּלְדַּ֥ד הַשֻּׁחִ֗י וַיֹּאמַֽר׃
BSAThen BildadBildad [next, afterwards, one of Job's friends, meaning confusion] the ShuhiteShûwchîy [a descendant of Shuach, from the tribe of Shuach] repliedʻânâh▸ [answered, spoke up, and said, to dwell, to respond, or to make music]
| Greek | English | Parsing |
|---|---|---|
| וַ֭יַּעַן | and he answered | Verb, Qal, sequential imperfect third person masculine singular |
| בִּלְדַּ֥ד | Bildad | Noun proper masculine |
| הַשֻּׁחִ֗י | the Shuhite | Particle, noun gentilic masculine singular absolute |
| וַיֹּאמַֽר׃ | and he said | Verb, Qal, sequential imperfect third person masculine singular |
Every word in the verse. Click a row to open it in the panel on the left.
| BSB | Then Bildad the Shuhite replied: |
| KJV | Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, |
| ASV | Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, |
| YLT | And Bildad the Shuhite answereth and saith: — |
| WEB | Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, |
| BBE | Then Bildad the Shuhite made answer and said, |
The translations agree on the rendering of the Hebrew words, maintaining consistency in meaning.
The sentence is structured around a main clause followed by two verb phrases, indicating Bildad's actions.
7 commentators on this verse
Gill, Jamieson, Trapp, Ellicott & more — read them ›
clause
verbעָנָה
The sentence as the grammar sees it Open the tree ›
Every word here is used elsewhere in the Old Testament.
Bars are logarithmic — אֵת, the commonest word in the Hebrew Bible, stands about 11,000 times, so a linear scale would leave everything else invisible. Click a row to open that word.
Deep Study — Job 18:1
Sections marked generated are written from the data on this page rather than by a named author. Everything else — the lexicon entries, the cross references, the manuscript readings, the counts — is quoted from its source unchanged.
Context — The Dialogue of Job and His Friendsgenerated
Job 18:1 marks the moment when Bildad the Shuhite responds to Job's previous lament. This interaction is part of a larger discourse where Job's friends attempt to provide explanations for his suffering, reflecting the cultural and theological perspectives of their time. The dialogue continues through several chapters, illustrating the complexity of human suffering and divine justice.
Cross References
| Reference | Text (BSB) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Job 2:11 | Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had come upon him, each of them came from his home, and they met together to go and sympathize with Job and comfort him. |
| 2 | Job 8:1 | Then Bildad the Shuhite replied: |
| 3 | Job 25:1 | Then Bildad the Shuhite replied: |
| 4 | Job 42:7–9 | After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and your two friends. For you have not spoken about Me accurately, as My servant Job has. |
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — 4 references, hung on the phrase they belong to
The Key Word — עָנָה, Vai.ya.'angenerated
The Hebrew verb עָנָה (*ʻānāh*) is derived from a primitive root meaning to heed or pay attention. It encompasses a range of meanings including to answer, respond, testify, and even to sing. In this context, it indicates Bildad's action of responding to Job's situation.
The verb is in the Qal form, indicating a simple action, and is parsed as a sequential imperfect third person masculine singular, showing that Bildad is actively engaging in the conversation. This word choice implies a direct response to Job's previous statements, setting the tone for the ensuing dialogue.
How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated
The translations agree here, all rendering the Hebrew words consistently without significant variation in meaning.
Sentence Structuregenerated
The main verb וַיַּעַן (*vai.ya.'an*) governs the sentence, indicating Bildad's action of answering. This is followed by another verb וַיֹּאמַר (*vai.yo.Mar*), which introduces what he said.
The structure is straightforward, with Bildad's name and title preceding the verbs, establishing him as the subject who is responding and speaking.
Septuagint Backgroundgenerated
The Septuagint translates עָנָה with ὑπολαβὼν (*hypolabōn*), which means 'having taken up' or 'having answered.' This choice suggests an active engagement in the dialogue, emphasizing Bildad's role in the conversation.
This translation aligns with the Hebrew meaning but may imply a slightly different nuance in the response.
In plain words — the whole versegenerated
Job 18:1 shows Bildad the Shuhite responding to Job. He is one of Job's friends who speaks up after Job's lament. This verse begins a series of speeches where Job's friends try to explain his suffering.
Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated
Bildad is one of Job's friends who comes to comfort him during his suffering.
His name means 'confusing love,' suggesting a complex emotional state.
His response indicates the beginning of a dialogue where he attempts to address Job's situation.
Bildad's reply reflects the belief that suffering is often a result of sin or wrongdoing.
Reflection Questionsgenerated
- What can we learn from Bildad's approach to Job's suffering?
- How do the responses of Job's friends shape our understanding of his trials?
- In what ways can we offer support to those who are suffering?
- What does Bildad's name suggest about the nature of his counsel?
The early church on this verse — how the Fathers read it
Early commentators reference this verse to discuss the dynamics of Job's dialogues with his friends, highlighting the complexities of their interactions.
It seems that Bildad ignores Job when he draws his resolutions, or when the logic of his words comes to him or when the power of his words comes to him, and where his will leads him, because the fighter “continues” to fight.Early Church Fathers on Job 18 →
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, Unto what end will ye cast abroad words? understand first, and so let us speak.Early Church Fathers on Job 18 →
Commentators on this verse — 7 expositors, verse by verse
Each of these wrote on Job 18:1 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.
John Gill1697–1771Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleThen answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said. Who, next to Eliphaz, spoke before, and now in his turn attacks Job a second time, and more roughly and severely than before; now he gives him no advice or
Read John Gill on Job 18 →Robert Jamieson1802–1880Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's CommentaryThen answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, No JFB commentary on this verse.
Read Robert Jamieson on Job 18 →John Trapp1601–1669Trapp's Complete Commentary on the Old and New TestamentsJob 18:1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,Ver. 1. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said] Not so much disputing as inveighing against Job in a sharp and angry oration, wherein he elegantly describeth the woe of a wicked man, but wrongfully wresteth the same against good Job, who might well say with him in Tacitus, Tu linguae, ego aurium dominus, If I cannot command thy tongue, yet I can command mine own ears; or with another, Didicit ille maledicere, et ego contemnere, This man hath learned to reproach, and I to slight his contempts and contumelies; unless I should yield, that wicked men only are grievously afflicted in this life present; that they are not to be reckoned…
Read John Trapp on Job 18 →Charles John Ellicott1819–1905Ellicott's Commentary for English ReadersXVIII.(1) How long?—Bildad begins very much as Job himself had done (Job 16).
Read Charles John Ellicott on Job 18 →AdamClarkeAdam Clarke's Commentary on the BibleCHAPTER XVIII Bildad, in a speech of passionate invective, accuses Job of impatience and impiety, 1-4; shows the fearful end of the wicked and their posterity; and apparently applies the whole to Job, whom he threatens with the most ruinous end, 5-21. NOTES ON CHAP. XVIII Verse 1. Then answered Bildad] The following analysis of this speech, by Mr. Heath, is judicious: "Bildad, irritated to the last degree that Job should treat their advice with so much contempt, is no longer able to keep his passions within the bounds of decency. He proceeds to downright abuse; and finding little attention given by Job to his arguments, he tries to terrify him into a compliance. To that end he draws a yet…
Read AdamClarke on Job 18 →CambridgeThe Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1. Job had used very hard words regarding his friends; he had called them annoying comforters (ch. Job 16:2) and scorners (ch. Job 16:20), and complained of being beset by their illusory mockeries (ch. Job 17:2); and said that God had sent blindness and want of understanding upon them, and that there was not one wise man among them (ch. Job 17:4-10). But he had gone further. He had appeared to regard himself and them in their treatment of him as types of two classes—himself as the type of the “upright” and “innocent” and “clean of hands” (ch. Job 17:8-9), exposed to the contumely and spitting of the “peoples,” the “godless” (ch. Job 17:6-8) and the ruthless (ch. Job 17:5).
Read Cambridge on Job 18 →Daniel Denison Whedon1808–1885Whedon's Commentary on the BibleBILDAD’S SECOND REPLY.1. Then answered Bildad — The wicked man, inflated with vanity, may rage like a wild beast, but nature will keep on in her course.
Read Daniel Denison Whedon on Job 18 →The verse in English, compared — 17 translations, and where they part company
Every translation on this page is a decision someone had to make and commit to. Read down a column and you see one translator's judgement; read across a row and you see the range the Greek actually allows. The BSB is the wording the rest of this page is measured against, so it is listed first.
Modern formal
Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,
Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
Tyndale line
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
Strictly literal
And Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,
And Bildad the Shuhite answereth and saith: —
And Bildad the Shuhite answers and says:
Then answered Bildad the Shuchite, and said,
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,
From the Latin
Then Baldad the Suhite answered, and said:
Simplified
Then Bildad the Shuhite spoke up and said,
Then Bildad the Shuhite made answer and said,
Counted from the translations carried on this site, not from a survey of every English Bible. A rendering shared by many versions is usually inherited rather than independently arrived at — the Tyndale line in particular runs through most of them.
The sentence as the grammar sees it — from the MACULA Hebrew treebank
This is not our own analysis: it is the scholarly syntax tree for the verse, showing how the clause actually holds together.
Boxes are the grammarian's groupings — clause, noun phrase, prepositional phrase.
The four witnesses to this verse — Masoretic, Septuagint, Samaritan, Qumran
The Masoretic Text and the Septuagint agree closely in this verse, with all four words matched in the Hebrew and Greek texts. There are no significant variations between these witnesses.
וַ֭יַּעַן בִּלְדַּ֥ד הַשֻּׁחִ֗י וַיֹּאמַֽר׃
4 of the 4 words are matched. This is the word-by-word correspondence, not the Septuagint's own sentence — its word order and its articles are its own.
Four traditions, not one. “On the leather” means the letters physically survive on the scroll, as against letters an editor has supplied to fill a hole in it — a restoration is a scholar’s reading, not a reading of the manuscript. Words in [square brackets] are supplied; the notes count them apart from what survives.
The map of this verse — what each word keeps company with
This is a map of two things, both counted rather than judged. Company kept: which words stand within three words of each of these, anywhere in the Hebrew Bible — the thicker the line, the more often the pair meet compared with chance. Built from: the words a word is made out of, taken from its own Strong’s entry. It is not a map of meaning: nothing here claims two words mean the same thing. Click any circle to see the numbers behind it.
Lexicons — every word in Job 18:1
One dossier per word, with every reference work grouped by kind — Hebrew lexicons, morphology, Bible dictionaries, topical chains and the English of the translators themselves. The verse sits at the head of each block with the word under study lit, so you never lose your place. The panel above gives the short answer; this is the long one, and it is the part of the page worth indexing.
Every entry below is the lexicographer's own text. On the Hebrew: Brown-Driver-Briggs entire and its gloss set, Strong's Hebrew Dictionary, and Tyndale House's Translators Brief lexicon. Where a cell says a work has no entry, that work genuinely has none for this word.
The Hebrew word עָנָה (*anah*) is built from a primitive root meaning to heed or pay attention, covering a range of meanings including to answer, respond, testify, and sing. It appears in contexts where one responds to speech or circumstances, and can also refer to singing. The lexicons indicate that it can imply both verbal responses and musical expression.
[עוּן] vb. dwell
base
עָנָה 316 vb. answer, respond
Qal
answer, respond to sthg. said, actual or implied
respond to an occasion, speak in view of circumstances
money meets all demands
specif. respond as a witness, testify
less oft. make response as one accused (respondent)
Niph.
make answer
be answered
Hiph. wholly dub.; causes all things to respond in the joy of his heart
base
עָנָה vb. sing
Qal sing, utter tunefully
Pi. sing sweetly of it
base
H6030a עוּן dwell H6030b עָנָה answer, respond .. answer, respond to sthg. said, actual or implied
. . respond to an occasion, speak in view of circumstances
. money meets all demands
. . specif. respond as a witness, testify
. less oft. make response as one accused (respondent)
. . make answer
. be answered
. wholly dub.; causes all things to respond in the joy of his heart
H6030c עָנָה sing
6030 `anah aw-naw'
a primitive root; properly, to eye or (generally) to heed,
i.e. pay attention; by implication, to respond; by extens. to
begin to speak; specifically to sing, shout, testify,
announce:--give account, afflict (by mistake for 6031),
(cause to, give) answer, bring low (by mistake for 6031), cry,
hear, Leannoth, lift up, say, X scholar, (give a) shout, sing
(together by course), speak, testify, utter, (bear) witness.
See also 1042, 1043.
see HEBREW for 06031
see HEBREW for 06031
see HEBREW for 01042
see HEBREW for 01043
עוּן (un) — to dwell.
(Qal) to dwell
עָנָה (a.nah) — to answer.
1) to answer, respond, testify, speak, shout
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to answer, respond to
1a2) to testify, respond as a witness
1b) (Niphal)
1b1) to make answer
1b2) to be answered, receive answer
Aramaic equivalent: a.nah (עֲנָה "to answer" H6032)
עָנָה (a.nah) — to sing.
(Qal) to sing, utter tunefully
Conj | V-Qal-ConsecImperf-3ms — Verb · Qal · sequential imperfect third person masculine singularHc/Vqw3ms
בִּלְדַּד (bil-dad) refers to Bildad, one of Job's friends in the Old Testament, specifically mentioned in Job 2:11. The name is associated with the idea of 'confusing love' and is noted as having an uncertain derivation. He is recognized as the second friend who engages with Job during his trials.
בִּלְדַּד n.pr.m. 2nd friend of Job
base
H1085 בִּלְדַּד
1085 Bildad bil-dad'
of uncertain derivation; Bildad, one of Job's
friends:--Bildad.
בִּלְדַּד (bil.dad) — Bildad.
A man living at the time of the Patriarchs, first mentioned at Job.2.11
§ Bildad = "confusing (by mingling) love"
the second friend of Job
N-proper — Noun proper masculineHNpm
bil'-dad (bildadh, "Bel has loved"): The second of the three friends of Job who, coming from distant regions, make an appointment together to condole with and comfort him in his affliction (Job 2:11). He is from Shuah, an unknown place somewhere in the countries East and Southeast of Palestine (or the designation Shuhite may be intended to refer to his ancestor Shuah, one of Abraham's sons by Keturah, Ge 25:2), and from his name (compounded with Bel, the name of a Babylonian deity) would seem to represent the wisdom of the distant East. His three speeches are contained in Job 8; 18; For substance they are largely an echo of what Eliphaz has maintained, but charged with somewhat increased vehemence (compare Job 8:2; 18:3,4)…
Bildad
Son of contention, one of Job’s friends. He is called “the Shuhite,” probably as belonging to Shuah, a district in Arabia, in which Shuah, the sixth son of Abraham by Keturah, settled (Gen. 25:2). He took part in each of the three controversies into which Job’s friends entered with him (Job 8:1; 18:1; 25:1), and delivered three speeches, very severe and stern in their tone, although less violent than those of Zophar, but more so than those of Eliphaz.
(son of contention), the second of Job’s three friends. He is called "the Shuhite," which implies both his family and nation. (Job 2:11) (B.C. about 2000.)
A descendant of Abraham by Keturah, Ge 25:1,2. Shuah and his brethren were located in Arabia Petraea; and thus Bildad the Shuhite was a neighbor and friend of Job, and came to condole with him in his affliction, Job 2:11; 8:1-22; 18:1-21; 25:1-6. His chief topics are the suddenness, swiftness, and terribleness of God’s wrath upon hypocrites and oppressors.
שׁוּחִי (Shuchiy) refers to a Shuhite, a descendant of Shuach, and is primarily associated with Bildad, a character in the Book of Job. The term is derived from the root word for Shuach, which means 'wealth.' It is used as an ethnic designation in the context of Job 2:1.
שׁוּחִי, שֻׁחִי adj.gent.
base
H7747 שׁוּחִי, שֻׁחִי
7747 Shuchiy shoo-khee'
patronymic from 7744; a Shuchite or descendant of
Shuach:--Shuhite.
see HEBREW for 07744
שׁוּחִי (shu.chi) — Shuhite.
Someone descended from Shuh(?), first mentioned at Job.2.1
§ Shuhite, of Shua "wealth"
an ethnic appellative applied only to Bildad, the friend of Job
Art | Ngmsa — Particle · noun gentilic masculine singular absoluteHTd/Ngmsa
shoo'-hit (shuchi): Cognomen of Bildad, one of Job's friends (Job 2:11; 8:1; 18:1; 25:1; 42:9). The place referred to cannot be definitely located.
See BILDAD; SHUAH.
Shuhite
A designation of Bildad (Job 2:11), probably because he was a descendant of Shuah.
(decendant of Shuah). This ethnic appellative "Shuhite" is frequent in the book of Job, but only as the apithet of one person, Bildad The local indications of this book point to a region on the western side of Chaldea, bordering on Arabia; and exactly in this locality, above Hit and on both sides of the Euphrates, are found, in the Assyrian inscriptions, the Tsahi , a powerful people. It is probable that these were the Shuhites.
אָמַר (amar) is a Hebrew verb meaning 'to say' or 'to utter,' with a broad range of uses including to promise, command, or even boast. It appears in various forms, such as in the Qal (to say), Niphal (to be told), and Hiphil (to avow). The entries highlight its versatility in both spoken and internal contexts, though no specific verse is noted.
אָמַר 5287 vb. utter, say
Qal
Say
Say in the heart (= think)
Promise
Command (esp. late)
Niph. be said, told
Hiph. avow, avouch (lit. cause to declare)
Hithp. act proudly, boast
base
H559 אָמַר utter, say .. Say
. Say in the heart (= think)
. Promise
. Command (esp. late)
. be said, told
. avow, avouch (lit. cause to declare)
. act proudly, boast
559 'amar aw-mar'
a primitive root; to say (used with great
latitude):--answer, appoint, avouch, bid, boast self, call,
certify, challenge, charge, + (at the, give) command(-ment),
commune, consider, declare, demand, X desire, determine, X
expressly, X indeed, X intend, name, X plainly, promise,
publish, report, require, say, speak (against, of), X still, X
suppose, talk, tell, term, X that is, X think, use (speech),
utter, X verily, X yet.
אָמַר (a.mar) — to say.
1) to say, speak, utter
1a) (Qal) to say, to answer, to say in one's heart, to think, to command, to promise, to intend
1b) (Niphal) to be told, to be said, to be called
1c) (Hithpael) to boast, to act proudly
1d) (Hiphil) to avow, to avouch
Aramaic equivalent: a.mar (אֲמַר "to say" H0560)
Hc/Vqw3ms — Verb · Qal · sequential imperfect third person masculine singularHc/Vqw3ms