Fathers

Job 18

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Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, “How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and afterwards we will speak. Why are we counted as animals, which have become unclean in your sight? You who tear yourself in your anger, will the earth be forsaken for you? Or will the rock be removed out of its place? “Yes, the light of the wicked will be put out. The spark of his fire won’t shine. The light will be dark in his tent. His lamp above him will be put out. The steps of his strength will be shortened. His own counsel will cast him down. For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he wanders into its mesh. A snare will take him by the heel. A trap will catch him. A noose is hidden for him in the ground, a trap for him on the path. Terrors will make him afraid on every side, and will chase him at his heels. His strength will be famished. Calamity will be ready at his side. The members of his body will be devoured. The firstborn of death will devour his members. He will be rooted out of the security of his tent. He will be brought to the king of terrors. There will dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur will be scattered on his habitation. His roots will be dried up beneath. His branch will be cut off above. His memory will perish from the earth. He will have no name in the street. He will be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world. He will have neither son nor grandson among his people, nor any remaining where he lived. Those who come after will be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened. Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.”

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What the Fathers say

Job 18:11

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

Terrors shall make him afraid on every side. And, whereas all that the bad man does, he fears to undergo too, and reckons that to be doing by all others toward himself, which he himself prepares for all others, whom he is able, it rightly follows. For he imagines all men to be such toward himself, as he himself strives to be towards all. And what effect these same terrors have in his conduct, is brought in, when it is said; And shall entangle his feet. …

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XIV ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Third, harmful things like this are caused on the part of some men whose plots and attacks are feared, and so he then says, "From all sides dread will terrify him," since, as Scripture says, "When the evil man is timid, he has been given for the condemnation of everyone." (Wisdom 17:10) When however man is wary against everyone, it is necessary that his acts should be impeded in many things, and so he then says, "and they will wrap around his feet," so he cannot go forward freely in any direction.

Commentary on Job ↗