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Job 8

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Bildad Accuses Job and Defends God's Justice 1–7

1
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
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How long wilt thou speak these things? Andhow longshall the words of thy mouth be like a mighty wind? ​
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Doth God pervert justice? Or doth the Almighty pervert righteousness? ​
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If thy children have sinned against him, And he hath delivered them into the hand of their transgression; ​
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If thou wouldest seek diligently unto God, And make thy supplication to the Almighty; ​
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If thou wert pure and upright: Surely now he would awake for thee, And make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous. ​
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And though thy beginning was small, Yet thy latter end would greatly increase. ​

The Authority of Ancient Wisdom 8–10

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For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, And apply thyself to that which their fathers have searched out ​
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(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, Because our days upon earth are a shadow); ​
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Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, And utter words out of their heart?

The Fleeting Hope of the Wicked 11–19

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Can the rush grow up without mire? Can the flag grow without water? ​
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Whilst it is yet in its greenness, and not cut down, It withereth before any other herb. ​
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So are the paths of all that forget God; And the hope of the godless man shall perish: ​
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Whose confidence shall break in sunder, And whose trust is a spider’s web. ​
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He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: He shall hold fast thereby, but it shall not endure.
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He is green before the sun, And his shoots go forth over his garden.
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His roots are wrapped about the stone-heap, He beholdeth the place of stones.
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If he be destroyed from his place, Then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee. ​
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Behold, this is the joy of his way; And out of the earth shall others spring.

God Will Restore the Righteous 20–22

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Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, Neither will he uphold the evil-doers. ​
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He will yet fill thy mouth with laughter, And thy lips with shouting. ​
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They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame; And the tent of the wicked shall be no more.

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Job 8

Verse 2

like a strong wind — Bildad the Shuhite, the second of the three friends (Job 2:11), opens by calling Job's words wind. Job had said as much of his own speech: 'the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind' (6:26). 'Strong' is kabbir, mighty or vast; Eliphaz used the same figure, 'fill his belly with the east wind' (15:2).

Verse 3

Doth God pervert judgment? — 'Pervert' is avath, to make crooked, and stands twice in the verse. 'Judgment' (mishpat) and 'justice' (tsedeq, righteousness) are set beside God (El) and the Almighty (Shaddai). Abraham asked, 'Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?' (Gen 18:25); Elihu later says the same (34:12).

Verse 4

If thy children have sinned — The 'if' is Bildad's. Job's own care for his children is told in 1:5, 'It may be that my sons have sinned', and their death in 1:18–19. The Hebrew of 'for their transgression' is literally 'into the hand of' it. The LORD later says of the friends, 'ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath' (42:7).

Verse 5

seek unto God betimes — Shachar, to seek early, from the word for dawn; it is the 'early will I seek thee' of Ps 63:1 and 'those that seek me early shall find me' (Prov 8:17). 'Supplication' is chanan, to ask for favour, made to Shaddai. Zophar gives a like counsel in 11:13: 'If thou prepare thine heart'.

Verse 6

If thou wert pure and upright — 'Pure' is zak, the word of Job's own 'my prayer is pure' (16:17); 'upright' (yashar) is the word used of him in 1:1 and 1:8. 'Awake for thee' is the prayer of Ps 7:6, 'awake for me to the judgment'. 'Righteousness' is tsedeq, as 'justice' in v.3.

Verse 7

thy latter end should greatly increase — 'Beginning' (reshit) and 'latter end' (acharit) are the two words of the last chapter: 'the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning' (42:12). Bildad's promise comes true, but not on his terms: it follows the LORD's rebuke of the friends (42:7), and Job's prayer for them.

Verse 8

enquire, I pray thee, of the former age — Bildad sends Job to 'their fathers', as Moses told Israel, 'ask thy father, and he will shew thee' (Deut 32:7). Eliphaz does likewise in 15:18. 'Search' is cheqer, a searching out. Job's answer sends him instead to 'the beasts, and they shall teach thee' (12:7).

Verse 9

we are but of yesterday — Temol, yesterday: the speaker places himself and Job among those who know little. 'A shadow' (tsel) is the figure of 1 Chr 29:15, 'our days on the earth are as a shadow', and Job uses it of man in 14:2, 'he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not'.

Verse 11

Can the rush grow up without mire? — Gome is the papyrus, from which Moses' ark of 'bulrushes' was made (Ex 2:3); the 'flag' is achu, the marsh grass of the Nile where Pharaoh's cows 'fed in a meadow' (Gen 41:2). Both plants stand where water is; the figure begins what v.13 applies.

Verse 12

it withereth before any other herb — The papyrus is still in 'greenness' and 'not cut down', yet it 'withereth', yabesh, before any other plant. The same verb is in Ps 129:6, grass 'which withereth afore it groweth up'. Bildad's image of the quickly dried plant is applied in v.13 to 'all that forget God'.

Verse 13

the hypocrite's hope shall perish — 'Hypocrite' is chaneph, the godless; it is Job's word in 13:16, 'an hypocrite shall not come before him'. 'Forget' is shakach, as in Ps 50:22 (Ps 9:17 has the same root). 'Hope' (tiqvah) and 'perish' (abad) meet again in Prov 10:28, 'the expectation of the wicked shall perish'.

Verse 14

a spider's web — The Hebrew is 'a spider's house' (bayith), the same word as the 'house' of v.15 on which the man leans and finds it does not stand. Isaiah has the figure too: 'They… weave the spider's web… Their webs shall not become garments' (Isa 59:5–6). 'Trust' is mibtach, the thing relied on.

Verse 18

then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee — Kachash, to disown: the place itself disowns the man. Job had said the same of his own going, 'neither shall his place know him any more' (7:10), and Zophar says it of the wicked in 20:9. Ps 103:16 states the thing in general terms.

Verse 20

God will not cast away a perfect man — 'Perfect' is tam, the word the LORD uses of Job in 1:8 and 2:3. 'Help' is literally 'take by the hand' (chazaq and yad). Job answers this verse in 9:22: 'He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked'; the LORD's verdict on the friends is in 42:7.

Verse 21

Till he fill thy mouth with laughing — 'Laughing' is sechoq, as in Ps 126:2, 'Then was our mouth filled with laughter'. 'Rejoicing' is teru'ah, a shout or the alarm of trumpets (Num 10:5). Job's restoration is told in 42:10–12, after the LORD's verdict on the friends (42:7).