16 He is green H7373 before H6440 the sun, H8121 and his branch H3127 shooteth forth H3318 in his garden. H1593
Wherefore do the wicked H7563 live, H2421 become old, H6275 yea, are mighty H1396 in power? H2428 Their seed H2233 is established H3559 in their sight H6440 with them, and their offspring H6631 before their eyes. H5869 Their houses H1004 are safe H7965 from fear, H6343 neither is the rod H7626 of God H433 upon them. Their bull H7794 gendereth, H5674 and faileth H1602 not; their cow H6510 calveth, H6403 and casteth not her calf. H7921 They send forth H7971 their little ones H5759 like a flock, H6629 and their children H3206 dance. H7540 They take H5375 the timbrel H8596 and harp, H3658 and rejoice H8055 at the sound H6963 of the organ. H5748 They spend H3615 H1086 their days H3117 in wealth, H2896 and in a moment H7281 go down H2865 H5181 to the grave. H7585 Therefore they say H559 unto God, H410 Depart H5493 from us; for we desire H2654 not the knowledge H1847 of thy ways. H1870 What is the Almighty, H7706 that we should serve H5647 him? and what profit H3276 should we have, if we pray H6293 unto him?
I have seen H7200 the wicked H7563 in great power, H6184 and spreading H6168 himself like a green H7488 bay tree. H249 Yet he passed away, H5674 and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought H1245 him, but he could not be found. H4672
For I was envious H7065 at the foolish, H1984 when I saw H7200 the prosperity H7965 of the wicked. H7563 For there are no bands H2784 in their death: H4194 but their strength H193 is firm. H1277 They are not in trouble H5999 as other men; H582 neither are they plagued H5060 like H5973 other men. H120 Therefore pride H1346 compasseth them about as a chain; H6059 violence H2555 covereth H5848 them as a garment. H7897 Their eyes H5869 stand out H3318 with fatness: H2459 they have more H5674 than heart H3824 could wish. H4906 They are corrupt, H4167 and speak H1696 wickedly H7451 concerning oppression: H6233 they speak H1696 loftily. H4791 They set H8371 their mouth H6310 against the heavens, H8064 and their tongue H3956 walketh H1980 through the earth. H776 Therefore his people H5971 return H7725 H7725 hither: H1988 and waters H4325 of a full H4392 cup are wrung out H4680 to them. And they say, H559 How doth God H410 know? H3045 and is there H3426 knowledge H1844 in the most High? H5945 Behold, these are the ungodly, H7563 who prosper H7961 in the world; H5769 they increase H7685 in riches. H2428
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.