TRV
Translation
King James Version
Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.
Complete Jewish Bible
"This is how things are in the homes of the wicked, and this is the place of those who don't know God."
Berean Standard Bible
Surely such is the dwelling of the wicked and the place of one who does not know God.”
American Standard Version
Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous, And this is the place of him that knoweth not God.
World English Bible Messianic
Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.”
Geneva Bible (1599)
Surely such are the habitations of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.
Young's Literal Translation
Only these are tabernacles of the perverse, And this the place God hath not known.
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In the KJVVerse 13,298 of 31,102
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Commentary on Job 18 verses 11–21
11 ¶ Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.
12 His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side.
13 It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.
14 His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.
15 It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.
16 His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.
17 His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.
18 He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
19 He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings.
20 They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.
21 Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.
Bildad here describes the destruction itself which wicked people are reserved for in the other world, and which, in some degree, often seizes them in this world. Come, and see what a miserable condition the sinner is in when his day comes to fall.
I. See him disheartened and weakened by continual terrors arising from the sense of his own guilt and the dread of God's wrath (Job 18:11, Job 18:12): Terror shall make him afraid on every side. The terrors of his own conscience shall haunt him, so that he shall never be easy. Wherever he goes, these shall follow him; which way soever he looks, these shall stare him in the face. It will make him tremble to see himself fought against by the whole creation, to see Heaven frowning on him, hell gaping for him, and earth sick of him. He that carries his own accuser, and his own tormentor, always in his bosom, cannot but be afraid on every side. This will drive him to his feet, like the malefactor, who, being conscious of his own guilt, takes to his heels and flees when none pursues, Pro 28:1. But his feet will do him no service; they are fast in the snare, Job 18:9. The sinner may as soon overpower the divine omnipotence as flee from the divine omniscience, Amo 9:2, Amo 9:3. No marvel that the sinner is dispirited and distracted with fear, for, 1. He sees his ruin approaching: Destruction shall be ready at his side, to seize him whenever justice gives the word, so that he is brought into desolation in a moment, Psa 73:19. 2. He feels himself utterly unable to grapple with it, either to escape it or to bear up under it. That which he relied upon as his strength (his wealth, power, pomp, friends, and the hardiness of his own spirit) shall fail him in the time of need, and be hunger-bitten, that is, it shall do him no more service than a famished man, pining away for hunger, would do in work or war. The case being thus with him, no marvel that he is a terror to himself. Note, The way of sin is a way of fear, and leads to everlasting confusion, of which the present terrors of an impure and unpacified conscience are earnests, as they were to Cain and Judas.
II. See him devoured and swallowed up by a miserable death; and miserable indeed a wicked man's death is, how secure and jovial soever his life was. 1. See him dying, arrested by the first-born of death (some disease, or some stroke that has in it a more than ordinary resemblance of death itself; so great a death, as it is called, Co2 1:10, a messenger of death that has in it an uncommon strength and terror), weakened by the harbingers of death, which devour the strength of his skin, that is, it shall bring rottenness into his bones and consume them. His confidence shall then be rooted out of his tabernacle (Job 18:14), that is, all that he trusted to for his support shall be taken from him, and he shall have nothing to rely upon, no, not his own tabernacle. His own soul was his confidence, but that shall be rooted out of the tabernacle of the body, as a tree that cumbered the ground. "Thy soul shall be required of thee." 2. See him dead, and see his case then with an eye of faith. (1.) He is then brought to the king of terrors. He was surrounded with terrors while he lived (Job 18:11), and death was the king of all those terrors; they fought against the sinner in death's name, for it is by reason of death that sinners are all their lifetime subject to bondage (Heb 2:15), and at length they will be brought to that which they so long feared, as a captive to the conqueror. Death is terrible to nature; our Saviour himself prayed, Father, save me from this hour. But to the wicked it is in a special manner the king of terrors, both as it is a period to that life in which they placed their happiness and a passage to that life where they will find their endless misery. How happy then are the saints, and how much indebted to the Lord Jesus, by whom death is so far abolished, and the property of it altered, that this king of terrors becomes a friend and servant! (2.) He is then driven from the light into darkness (Job 18:18), from the light of this world, and his prosperous condition in it, into darkness, the darkness of the grave, the darkness of hell, into utter darkness, never to see light (Psa 49:19), not the least gleam, nor any hopes of it. (3.) He is then chased out of the world, hurried and dragged away by the messengers of death, sorely against his will, chased as Adam out of paradise, for the world is his paradise. It intimates that he would fain stay here; he is loth to depart, but go he must; all the world is weary of him, and therefore chases him out, as glad to get rid of him. This is death to a wicked man.
III. See his family sunk and cut off, Job 18:15. The wrath and curse of God light and lie, not only upon his head and heart, but upon his house too, to consume it with the timber and stones thereof, Zac 5:4. Death itself shall dwell in his tabernacle, and, having expelled him, shall take possession of his house, to the terror and destruction of all that he leaves behind. Even the dwelling shall be ruined for the sake of its owner: Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation, rained upon it as upon Sodom, to the destruction of which this seems to have reference. Some think he here upbraids Job with the burning of his sheep and servants with fire from heaven. The reason is here given why his tabernacle is thus marked for ruin: Because it is none of his; that is, it was unjustly got, and kept, from the rightful owner, and therefore let him not expect either the comfort or the continuance of it. His children shall perish, either with him or after him, Job 18:16. So that, his roots being in his own person dried up beneath, above his branch (every child of his family) shall be cut off. Thus the houses of Jeroboam, Baasha, and Ahab, were cut off; none that descended from them were left alive. Those who take root in the earth may expect it will thus be dried up; but, if we be rooted in Christ, even our leaf shall not wither, much less shall our branch be cut off. Those who consult the true honour of their family, and the welfare of its branches, will be afraid of withering it by sin. The extirpation of the sinner's family is mentioned again (Job 18:19): He shall neither have son nor nephew, child nor grandchild, to enjoy his estate and bear up his name, nor shall there be any remaining in his dwelling akin to him. Sin entails a curse upon posterity, and the iniquity of the fathers is often visited upon the children. Herein, also, it is probable that Bildad reflects upon the death of Job's children and servants, as a further proof of his being a wicked man; whereas all that are written childless are not thereby written graceless; there is a name better than that of sons and daughters.
IV. See his memory buried with him, or made odious; he shall either be forgotten or spoken of with dishonour (Job 18:17): His remembrance shall perish from the earth; and, if it perish thence, it perishes wholly, for it was never written in heaven, as the names of the saints are, Luk 10:20. All his honour shall be laid and lost in the dust, or stained with perpetual infamy, so that he shall have no name in the street, departing without being desired. Thus the judgments of God follow him, after death, in this world, as an indication of the misery his soul is in after death, and an earnest of that everlasting shame and contempt to which he shall rise in the great day. The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot, Pro 10:7.
V. See a universal amazement at his fall, Job 18:20. Those that see it are affrighted, so sudden is the change, so dreadful the execution, so threatening to all about him: and those that come after, and hear the report of it, are astonished at it; their ears are made to tingle, and their hearts to tremble, and they cry out, Lord, how terrible art thou in thy judgments! A place or person utterly ruined is said to be made an astonishment, Deu 28:37; Ch2 7:21; Jer 25:9, Jer 25:18. Horrible sins bring strange punishments.
VI. See all this averred as the unanimous sense of the patriarchal age, grounded upon their knowledge of God and their many observations of his providence (Job 18:21): Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place (this the condition) of him that knows not God! See here what is the beginning, and what is the end, of the wickedness of this wicked world. 1. The beginning of it is ignorance of God, and it is a wilful ignorance, for there is that to be known of him which is sufficient to leave them for ever inexcusable. They know not God, and then they commit all iniquity. Pharaoh knows not the Lord, and therefore will not obey his voice. 2. The end of it, and that is utter destruction. Such, so miserable, are the dwellings of the wicked. Vengeance will be taken of those that know not God, Th2 1:8. For those whom he has not honour from he will get himself honour upon. Let us therefore stand in awe and not sin, for it will certainly be bitterness in the latter end.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 11–21. Public domain.
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Gregory the DialogistAD 604
MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 14.26-28
That these words are to be understood as speaking of the antichrist is shown when it is added, “In his days the last shall be astonished, and horror shall seize on the first.” He will then let himself loose against the righteous with such a measure of iniquity that even the hearts of the very elect shall be struck with no small consternation. Hence it is written, “Insomuch that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect,” which clearly isn’t said because the elect shall fall but because they shall tremble with terrible alarms. Now, at that time, both the latest elect and the first elect are described as maintaining the conflict for righteousness against him. They that shall be found among the elect at the end of the world are destined to be laid low in the death of the flesh. And they too who proceeded from the former times of the world, that is, Enoch and Elijah, shall be brought back among humankind and shall be exposed to the savageness of his cruelty while still in their mortal flesh. This one’s forces will be let loose with such terrible power that “the latest are astonished at, and the first do dread.” … Then he adds, “Surely such are the dwellings of the ungodly, such is the place of those who do not know God,” in that he who is now lifted up from ignorance of God is then brought to his own “dwellings” where his own wickedness plunges him into woes. One day he finds “darkness his place,” who while he made himself glad here in the counterfeit light of righteousness, was occupying the place of another. For bad people act deceitfully, striving to possess for themselves the righteous person’s good name, as of another place. But they are then brought to their own place, when they are tormented with everlasting fire, as the deserved punishment of their iniquity.
Gregory the DialogistAD 604
28. For he had said above; He shall drive him from fight into darkness, and translate him out of the world; and upon subjoining his miseries, he added; Surely, such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God. In that he who is now lifted up from not knowing God, is then brought to his own ‘dwellings,’ when his own wickedness plunges him into woes; and one day he finds ‘darkness his place,’ who, while he made himself glad here in the counterfeit light of righteousness, was occupying the place of another. For bad men in all that they do in dissimulation, are striving to possess themselves of the righteous man’s name of credit, as of another’s place. But they are then brought to their own place, when they are tormented with everlasting fire, as the desert of their iniquity. For here in all that they do they are ministering to their desire of winning praise, and by the semblance of good works, they are opening wider the bosom of the mind to avarice. So let the wicked man go now, and full blown with complete equipments, let him build his habitations here below, let him spread a name of glory, let him multiply estates, and delight himself in abundant stores, but when he shall be brought to everlasting punishments, then surely he shall know that ‘such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.’ Now Bildad said this rightly, but he did not know who it was that he was saying it to. But the heart of a good man is seriously afflicted, when sentences are pronounced against him upon an unfair estimate.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Bildad the Shuhite concludes his second discourse in Job 18:21 with a stark, unwavering declaration concerning the inevitable and complete ruin awaiting the wicked. This verse encapsulates his rigid theology of immediate retributive justice, asserting that the desolate state he has meticulously described throughout his address is the undeniable dwelling and ultimate destiny of those who are estranged from God, lacking a true, relational knowledge of Him. It serves as a definitive, albeit simplistic, pronouncement of divine judgment against the unrighteous, implicitly accusing Job of wickedness due to his profound suffering.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Bildad's concluding statement in Job 18:21 employs several potent literary devices to convey his rigid theological conviction. Parallelism is evident in the two clauses, where "the dwellings of the wicked" are equated with "the place of him that knoweth not God." This synonymous parallelism reinforces the idea that wickedness is fundamentally synonymous with a lack of true, relational knowledge of God, creating a sense of definitive and inescapable judgment. Irony is subtly present, as Bildad, in his attempt to "comfort" Job by explaining his suffering, instead delivers a harsh condemnation, ironically misapplying the very wisdom he purports to uphold. Furthermore, the verse uses powerful Imagery of desolation and lack, contrasting sharply with the typical ancient Near Eastern desire for security, legacy, and a flourishing household. The phrase "knoweth not God" functions as a form of Metonymy, where the absence of intimate, relational knowledge stands in for a life of active rebellion, spiritual indifference, or practical atheism towards God, leading directly to the described consequences.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Job 18:21, though spoken from a perspective the book of Job ultimately critiques as simplistic and incomplete, nonetheless touches upon profound biblical truths regarding humanity's relationship with God and the consequences of spiritual alienation. Bildad's assertion that the wicked's ruin stems from their not "knowing God" resonates with the broader biblical emphasis on the vital importance of a true, relational knowledge of the Creator as the foundation for life, wisdom, and blessing. While the book challenges the direct, immediate, and simplistic cause-and-effect retribution theology of Job's friends, it does not negate the ultimate reality of divine judgment or the inherent futility of a life lived apart from God. The verse highlights the stark contrast between those who acknowledge God's sovereignty and those who live in rebellion or indifference, foreshadowing the ultimate eschatological divide between the righteous and the unrighteous. It underscores that true security and flourishing are found not in worldly possessions or status, but in a right relationship with the Almighty.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
While we must approach Bildad's words with the understanding that the book of Job ultimately refutes his simplistic application of retributive justice to Job's suffering, Job 18:21 still offers a profound truth for our reflection: a life alienated from God is fundamentally devoid of lasting security, true blessing, and ultimate meaning. The "dwellings" of those who do not truly "know" God, in the deep, experiential sense, are ultimately characterized by spiritual emptiness, insecurity, and a lack of divine favor, regardless of outward appearances. This verse serves as a powerful, albeit stark, reminder of the paramount importance of cultivating an authentic, intimate, and obedient relationship with the Creator. For believers, it underscores the value of clinging to God's wisdom and His revealed truth rather than pursuing worldly paths, understanding that true peace, security, and purpose come from genuinely knowing Him and walking in His ways, regardless of immediate circumstances. It prompts us to examine whether our lives reflect a genuine, relational knowledge of God or merely a superficial, intellectual acknowledgment, urging us towards deeper communion and submission to His will.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Does "knoweth not God" imply intellectual ignorance or something deeper?
Answer: The phrase "knoweth not God" (Hebrew: yada' elohim) in Job 18:21 implies far more than mere intellectual ignorance. In biblical Hebrew, the verb yada' (יָדַע) signifies a deep, intimate, experiential, and relational knowledge, often implying a covenantal relationship. Therefore, "he that knoweth not God" refers not simply to someone who is unaware of God's existence, but to one who lacks a personal, transformative relationship with Him, and thus lives without acknowledging His sovereignty, obeying His commands, or revering His person. It speaks to a profound spiritual alienation and a life lived in practical disregard of God's claims. This is a common theme in the Old Testament, where "knowing the Lord" is synonymous with obedience and faithfulness, as seen in Jeremiah 9:24.
How does Bildad's view of the wicked's fate compare to the overall message of the book of Job?
Answer: Bildad's view in Job 18:21, which posits a direct and immediate correlation between wickedness and suffering, represents a traditional "retribution theology" prevalent in the ancient Near East. He believes that Job's calamities are proof of his wickedness, and that the wicked inevitably face utter desolation in this life. However, the overall message of the book of Job profoundly challenges and refines this simplistic view. The book demonstrates that suffering is not always a direct consequence of sin, and that God's ways are often inscrutable to human understanding. While the book affirms God's ultimate justice and the eventual judgment of the wicked, it critiques the friends' rigid and uncompassionate application of retribution theology to Job's innocent suffering. The book ultimately points to God's sovereignty and wisdom, which transcend human categories of justice, as revealed in God's speeches to Job in chapters 38-41.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
While Job 18:21, spoken by Bildad, presents a rigid and ultimately incomplete view of divine justice, its core assertion about the fate of those who "know not God" finds its ultimate and perfect fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one who perfectly "knows" God the Father, not merely intellectually, but in an eternal, intimate, and relational union, as declared in John 1:18 and John 10:15. He is the one through whom true knowledge of God is revealed and made possible for humanity. The "place" and "dwellings" of the wicked, characterized by desolation and separation, stand in stark contrast to the eternal "dwellings" Jesus prepares for those who believe in Him, promising to take them to be with Him in His Father's house. Furthermore, the "knowing God" that Bildad speaks of as absent in the wicked is precisely what Jesus defines as eternal life: "And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3). Ultimately, the judgment prophesied for those who reject God is fulfilled in Christ's role as the righteous judge, who will separate the sheep from the goats, consigning those who do not "know" Him (in the sense of a saving relationship) to eternal separation, as described in Matthew 25:41. Thus, Job 18:21, through a Christ-centered lens, points to the profound necessity of a saving relationship with God through Jesus, the only way to escape the ultimate desolation of a life lived apart from the Creator and to find true and lasting dwelling with God.