They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.
Parallel translations
- WEB Those who come after shall be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened.
- BSB Those in the west are appalled at his fate, while those in the east tremble in horror.
- NKJV Those in the west are astonished at his day, As those in the east are frightened.
- NASB “Those in the west are appalled at his fate, And those in the east are seized with horror.
- NLT People in the west are appalled at their fate; people in the east are horrified.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Bildad says people everywhere, both later and earlier generations, are appalled and horrified at the wicked man's fate. His ruin becomes a byword.
Overview
The downfall of the wicked man strikes dread into all who hear of it, west and east, or those after and before. Bildad portrays his judgment as a public spectacle of horror. The verse reflects the biblical theme that God's judgments are meant to instill the fear of the Lord, even as the gospel calls sinners to flee that judgment by trusting Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 37:13The LORD shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming.
- Jer 50:27Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe unto them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation.
- Ezek 21:25And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end,
- Luke 19:44And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
- Job 2:12–13And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.
- Ps 137:7Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.
- Luke 19:42Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
- Deut 29:23–24And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:
- 1 Kgs 9:8And at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house?
- Job 19:13–19He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.
- Jer 18:16To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
- Obad 1:11–15In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 18:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.