What is the meaning of Job 18:19? He has no offspring “Children are a heritage from the LORD” (Psalm 127:3), yet Bildad declares the wicked man’s heritage gone. • Immediate, literal sense: no sons or daughters will carry his name forward (cf. Deuteronomy 28:18; 1 Samuel 2:31-33). • Moral lesson: sin’s harvest reaches even the most intimate circle (see Exodus 20:5; Psalm 109:13). • Comfort for the righteous: God promises, “The offspring of the righteous will be delivered” (Proverbs 11:21). or posterity among his people Posterity reaches beyond children to clan and community memory. • Public extinction: “The memory of the wicked will perish” (Proverbs 10:7). • National picture: God wiped out proud Edom, leaving no “remnant” (Obadiah v.18). • Corporate warning: a community that embraces evil jeopardizes its future (cf. Jeremiah 11:19-23). no survivor where he once lived Even the place that once buzzed with his activity lies silent. • Total erasure mirrors God’s verdict on Amalek: “Blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven” (Deuteronomy 25:19). • Solemn echo: Babylon, “no one will dwell there, nor will a son of man reside in it” (Jeremiah 50:39). • For believers the contrast is striking—“The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever” (Psalm 37:29). summary Job 18:19 paints a three-fold picture of the wicked man’s fate: no children, no extended family line, and not even a lingering footprint where he lived. Bildad applies the principle clumsily to Job, yet the verse still stands as a sober, literal warning that rebellion against God can end in complete extinction, while faithfulness secures an eternal legacy. |
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