1 Then Bildad the Shuhite made answer and said,
2 How long will you say these things, and how long will the words of your mouth be like a strong wind?
3 Does God give wrong decisions? or is the Ruler of all not upright in his judging?
4 If your children have done evil against him, then their punishment is from his hand.
5 If you will make search for God with care, and put your request before the Ruler of all;
6 If you are clean and upright; then he will certainly be moved to take up your cause, and will make clear your righteousness by building up your house again.
7 And though your start was small, your end will be very great.
8 Put the question now to the past generations, and give attention to what has been searched out by their fathers:
9 (For we are but of yesterday, and have no knowledge, because our days on earth are gone like a shade:)
10 Will they not give you teaching, and say words of wisdom to you?
11 Will the river-plant come up in its pride without wet earth? will the grass get tall without water?
12 When it is still green, without being cut down, it becomes dry and dead before any other plant.
13 So is the end of all who do not keep God in mind; and the hope of the evil-doer comes to nothing:
14 Whose support is cut off, and whose hope is no stronger than a spider's thread.
15 He is looking to his family for support, but it is not there; he puts his hope in it, but it comes to nothing.
16 He is full of strength before the sun, and his branches go out over his garden.
17 His roots are twisted round the stones, forcing their way in between them.
18 If he is taken away from his place, then it will say, I have not seen you.
19 Such is the joy of his way, and out of the dust another comes up to take his place.
20 Truly, God will not give up him who is without sin, and will not take evil-doers by the hand.
21 The time will come when your mouth will be full of laughing, and cries of joy will come from your lips.
22 Your haters will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the sinner will not be seen again.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Job 8
Commentary on Job 8 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 8
FIRST SERIES—FIRST SPEECH OF BILDAD, MORE SEVERE
AND COARSE THAN THAT OF ELIPHAZ.
Job 8:1-22. The Address of Bildad.
2. like a … wind?—disregarding restraints, and daring against God.
3. The repetition of "pervert" gives an emphasis galling to Job (Job 34:12). "Wouldst thou have God," as thy words imply, "pervert judgment," by letting thy sins go unpunished? He assumes Job's guilt from his sufferings.
4. If—Rather, "Since thy children have sinned against Him, and (since) He has cast them away (Hebrew, by the hand of) for their transgressions, (yet) if thou wouldst seek unto God, &c., if thou wert pure, &c., surely [even] now He would awake for thee." Umbreit makes the apodosis to, "since thy children," &c., begin at "He has cast them away." Also, instead of "for," "He gave them up to (literally, into the hand of) their own guilt." Bildad expresses the justice of God, which Job had arraigned. Thy children have sinned; God leaves them to the consequence of their sin; most cutting to the heart of the bereaved father.
5. seek unto God betimes—early. Make it the first and chief anxiety (Ps 78:34; Ho 5:15; Isa 26:9; Pr 8:17; 13:24).
6. He would awake for thee—that is, arise to thy help. God seemed to be asleep toward the sufferer (Ps 35:23; 7:6; Isa 51:9).
make … prosperous—restore to prosperity thy (their) righteous habitation. Bildad assumes it to have been heretofore the habitation of guilt.
7. thy beginning—the beginning of thy new happiness after restoration.
latter end—(Job 42:12; Pr 23:18).
8, 9. The sages of the olden time reached an age beyond those of Job's time (see on Job 42:16), and therefore could give the testimony of a fuller experience.
9. of yesterday—that is, a recent race. We know nothing as compared with them because of the brevity of our lives; so even Jacob (Ge 47:9). Knowledge consisted then in the results of observation, embodied in poetical proverbs, and handed down by tradition. Longevity gave the opportunity of wider observation.
a shadow—(Ps 144:4; 1Ch 29:15).
10. teach thee—Job 6:24 had said, "Teach me." Bildad, therefore, says, "Since you want teaching, inquire of the fathers. They will teach thee."
utter words—more than mere speaking; "put forth well-considered words."
out of their heart—from observation and reflection; not merely, from their mouth: such, as Bildad insinuates, were Job's words. Job 8:11-13 embody in poetic and sententious form (probably the fragment of an old poem) the observation of the elders. The double point of comparison between the ungodly and the paper-reed is: 1. the luxuriant prosperity at first; and, 2. the sudden destruction.
11. rush—rather, "paper-reed": The papyrus of Egypt, which was used to make garments, shoes, baskets, boats, and paper (a word derived from it). It and the flag, or bulrush, grow only in marshy places (such as are along the Nile). So the godless thrives only in external prosperity; there is in the hypocrite no inward stability; his prosperity is like the rapid growth of water plants.
12. not cut down—Before it has ripened for the scythe, it withers more suddenly than any herb, having no self-sustaining power, once that the moisture is gone, which other herbs do not need in the same degree. So ruin seizes on the godless in the zenith of prosperity, more suddenly than on others who appear less firmly seated in their possessions [Umbreit] (Ps 112:10).
13. paths—so "ways" (Pr 1:19).
all that forget God—the distinguishing trait of the godless (Ps 9:17; 50:22).
14. cut off—so Gesenius; or, to accord with the metaphor of the spider's "house," "The confidence (on which he builds) shall be laid in ruins" (Isa 59:5, 6).
15. he shall hold it fast—implying his eager grasp, when the storm of trial comes: as the spider "holds fast" by its web; but with this difference: the light spider is sustained by that on which it rests; the godless is not by the thin web on which he rests. The expression, "Hold fast," properly applies to the spider holding his web, but is transferred to the man. Hypocrisy, like the spider's web, is fine-spun, flimsy, and woven out of its own inventions, as the spider's web out of its own bowels. An Arab proverb says, "Time destroys the well-built house, as well as the spider's web."
16. before the sun—that is, he (the godless) is green only before the sun rises; but he cannot bear its heat, and withers. So succulent plants like the gourd (Jon 4:7, 8). But the widespreading in the garden does not quite accord with this. Better, "in sunshine"; the sun representing the smiling fortune of the hypocrite, during which he wondrously progresses [Umbreit]. The image is that of weeds growing in rank luxuriance and spreading over even heaps of stones and walls, and then being speedily torn away.
17. seeth the place of stones—Hebrew, "the house of stones"; that is, the wall surrounding the garden. The parasite plant, in creeping towards and over the wall—the utmost bound of the garden—is said figuratively to "see" or regard it.
18. If He (God) tear him away (properly, "to tear away rapidly and violently") from his place, "then it [the place personified] shall deny him" (Ps 103:16). The very soil is ashamed of the weeds lying withered on its surface, as though it never had been connected with them. So, when the godless falls from prosperity, his nearest friends disown him.
19. Bitter irony. The hypocrite boasts of joy. This then is his "joy" at the last.
and out of the earth—others immediately, who take the place of the man thus punished; not godly men (Mt 3:9). For the place of the weeds is among stones, where the gardener wishes no plants. But, ungodly; a fresh crop of weeds always springs up in the place of those torn up: there is no end of hypocrites on earth [Umbreit].
20. Bildad regards Job as a righteous man, who has fallen into sin.
God will not cast away a perfect man—(or godly man, such as Job was), if he will only repent. Those alone who persevere in sin God will not help (Hebrew, "take by the hand," Ps 73:23; Isa 41:13; 42:6) when fallen.
21. Till—literally, "to the point that"; God's blessing on thee, when repentant, will go on increasing to the point that, or until, &c.
22. The haters of Job are the wicked. They shall be clothed with shame (Jer 3:25; Ps 35:26; 109:29), at the failure of their hope that Job would utterly perish, and because they, instead of him, come to naught.