Job 18:1-2 - Exposition

Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? (So Rosenmuller, Gesenius, Welte, Merx, Lee, and Canon Cook.) Others render, "How long will ye lay snares for words?" which is a possible translation, but does not give a very good sense. Bildad, a tolerably concise speaker himself (see Job 8:2-22 ; Job 25:2-6 ), is impatient at the length of Job's replies. He had already, in his former speech ( Job 8:2 ), reproached Job with his prolixity; now he repeats the charge. The employment of the second person plural in this and the following verses is not very easily accounted for. Bildad can scarcely mean to blame his friend Eliphaz. Perhaps he regards Job as having supporters among the lookers-on, of whom there may have been several besides Elihu ( Job 32:2 ). Mark; rather, consider ; i.e. think a little, instead of talking. And afterwards we will speak . Then, calmly and without hurry, we will proceed to reply to what you have said.