Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,
“How long will you speak these things? Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?
Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?
If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience.
If you want to seek God diligently, make your supplication to the Almighty.
If you were pure and upright, surely now he would awaken for you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.
Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would greatly increase.
“Please inquire of past generations. Find out about the learning of their fathers.
(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)
Shall they not teach you, tell you, and utter words out of their heart?
“Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the rushes grow without water?
While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, it withers before any other reed.
So are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man will perish,
Whose confidence will break apart, Whose trust is a spider’s web.
He will lean on his house, but it will not stand. He will cling to it, but it will not endure.
He is green before the sun. His shoots go out along his garden.
His roots are wrapped around the rock pile. He sees the place of stones.
If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’
Behold, this is the joy of his way: out of the earth, others will spring.
“Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, neither will he uphold the evildoers.
He will still fill your mouth with laughter, your lips with shouting.
Those who hate you will be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked will be no more.”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21 He declareth that their words which would diminish anything…
He declareth that their words which would diminish anything from the justice of God, is but as a puff of wind that vanisheth away.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–22 Job 8:1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
Job 8:1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
Ver. 1. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said] Bildad (who was of the posterity of Shuah, Abraham’s son by Keturah, Gen 24:1-2) interrupteth Job, and endeavours to maintain what Eliphaz had spoken; nevertheless, it appeareth by this chapter, Job 8:5-6; Job 8:20-21, that his opinion was not so rigid as that of Eliphaz: for he grants that a righteous man may be afflicted, but yet so, that if God restore him not speedily, he may be censured, cast, and condemned as unrighteous. He passeth (as they do all) some hard censures upon Job; and is paid in his own coin by him; who saith that he was, according to his name, a wicked kinsman; for בל is naught, and רוד an uncle. With what judgment men judge they shall be judged. Mat 7:2.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2–22 i.e. Boisterous and violent, swelling and furious, opposing all…
i.e. Boisterous and violent, swelling and furious, opposing all persons and things that stand in thy way, not sparing either God or men.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 20 Here, I. Bildad reproves Job for what he had…
Here, I. Bildad reproves Job for what he had said (Job 8:2), checks his passion, but perhaps (as is too common) with greater passion. We thought Job spoke a great deal of good sense and much to the purpose, and that he had reason and right on his side; but Bildad, like an eager angry disputant, turns it all off with this, How long wilt thou speak these things? taking it for granted that Eliphaz had said enough to silence him, and that therefore all he said was impertinent. Thus (as Caryl observes) reproofs are often grounded upon mistakes. Men's meaning is not taken aright, and then they are gravely rebuked as if they were evil-doers. Bildad compares Job's discourse to a strong wind. Job had excused himself with this, that his speeches were but as wind (Job 6:26), and therefore they should not make such ado about them: "Yea, but" (says Bildad) "they are as strong wind, blustering and threatening, boisterous and dangerous, and therefore we are concerned to fence against them."
II. He justifies God in what he had done. This he had no occasion to do at this time (for Job did not condemn God, as he would have it thought he did), or he might at least have done it without reflecting upon Job's children, as he does here. Could he not be an advocate for God but he must be an accuser of the brethren? 1. He is right in general, that God doth not pervert judgment, nor ever go contrary to any settled rule of justice, Job 8:3. Far be it from him that he should and from us that we should suspect him. He never oppresses the innocent, nor lays a greater load on the guilty than they deserve. He is God, the Judge; and shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Gen 18:25. If there should be unrighteousness with God, how should he judge the world? Rom 3:5, Rom 3:6. He is Almighty, Shaddai - all sufficient. Men pervert justice sometimes for fear of the power of others (but God is Almighty, and stands in awe of none), sometimes to obtain the favour of others; but God is all-sufficient, and cannot be benefited by the favour of any. It is man's weakness and impotency that he often is unjust; it is God's omnipotence that he cannot be so. 2. Yet he is not fair and candid in the application. He takes it for granted that Job's children (the death of whom was one of the greatest of his afflictions) had been guilty of some notorious wickedness, and that the unhappy circumstances of their death were sufficient evidence that they were sinners above all the children of the east, Job 8:4. Job readily owned that God did not pervert judgment; and yet it did not therefore follow either that his children were cast-aways or that they died for some great transgression. It is true that we and our children have sinned against God, and we ought to justify him in all he brings upon us and ours; but extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces; and, in our judgment of another's case (unless the contrary appears), we ought to take the more favourable side, as our Saviour directs, Luk 13:2-4. Here Bildad missed it.
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III. He put Job in hope that, if he were indeed upright, as he said he was, he should yet see a good issue of his present troubles: "Although thy children have sinned against him, and are cast away in their transgression (they have died in their own sin), yet if thou be pure and upright thyself, and as an evidence of that wilt now seek unto God and submit to him, all shall be well yet," Job 8:5-7. This may be taken two ways, either, 1. As designed to prove Job a hypocrite and a wicked man, though not by the greatness, yet the by the continuance, of his afflictions. "When thou wast impoverished, and thy children were killed, if thou hadst been pure and upright, and approved thyself so in the trial, God would before now have returned in mercy to thee and comforted thee according to the time of thy affliction; but, because he does not so, we have reason to conclude thou art not so pure and upright as thou pretendest to be. If thou hadst conducted thyself well under the former affliction, thou wouldst not have been struck with the latter." Herein Bildad was not in the right; for a good man may be afflicted for his trial, not only very sorely, but very long, and yet, if for life, it is in comparison with eternity but for a moment. But, since Bildad put it to this issue, God was pleased to join issue with him, and proved his servant Job an honest man by Bildad's own argument; for, soon after, he blessed his latter end more than his beginning. Or, 2. As designed to direct and encourage Job, that he might not thus run himself into despair, and give up all for gone; there might yet be hope if he would take the right course. I am apt to think Bildad here intended to condemn Job, yet would be thought to counsel and comfort him. (1.) He gives him good counsel, yet perhaps not expecting he would take it, the same that Eliphaz had given him (Job 5:8), to seek unto God, and that betimes (that is, speedily and seriously), and not to be dilatory and trifling in his return and repentance. He advises him not to complain, but to petition, to make his supplication to the Almighty with humility and faith, and to see that there was (what he feared had hitherto been wanting) sincerity in his heart ("thou must be pure and upright") and honesty in his house - "that must be the habitation of thy righteousness, and not filled with ill-gotten goods, else God will not hear thy prayers," Psa 66:18. It is only the prayer of the upright that is the acceptable and prevailing prayer, Pro 15:8. (2.) He gives him good hopes that he shall yet again see good days, secretly suspecting, however, that he was not qualified to see them. He assures him that, if he would be early in seeking God, God would awake for his relief, would remember him and return to him, though now he seemed to forget him and forsake him - that if his habitation were righteous it should be prosperity. When we return to God in a way of duty we have reason to hope that he will return to us in a way of mercy. Let not Job object that he had so little left to being the world with again that it was impossible he should ever prosper as he had done; no, "Though thy beginning should be ever so small, a little meal in the barrel and a little oil in the cruse, God's blessing shall multiply that to a great increase." This is God's way of enriching the souls of his people with graces and comforts, not per saltum - as by a bound, but per gradum - step by step. The beginning is small, but the progress is to perfection. Dawning light grows to noonday, a grain of mustard seed to a great tree. Let us not therefore despise the day of small things, but hope for the day of great things.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–20 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said. This was…
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said. This was the second of Job's friends that came to visit him, Job 2:11; and is mentioned next to Eliphaz there, and takes his turn in this controversy in the same side; which no doubt was agreed upon among themselves, as well as the part each should bear, and the general sentiment they should pursue, which was the same in them all. Some have observed, that Job's friends were like the messengers that brought him the tidings of his losses, before one had done speaking another came; and so as soon as one of his friends had delivered his discourse, and before Job could well finish his reply, up starts another to charge him afresh, as here Bildad did, who said as follows.
; and is mentioned next to Eliphaz there, and takes his turn in this controversy in the same side; which no doubt was agreed upon among themselves, as well as the part each should bear, and the general sentiment they should pursue, which was the same in them all. Some have observed, that Job's friends were like the messengers that brought him the tidings of his losses, before one had done speaking another came; and so as soon as one of his friends had delivered his discourse, and before Job could well finish his reply, up starts another to charge him afresh, as here Bildad did, who said as follows.
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Job 8:2
job 8:2
job 8:2
job 8:2How long wilt thou speak these things?.... Either what he had delivered in the "third" chapter in cursing the day of his birth, and wishing for death, in which sentiments he still continued, and resolutely defended; or those expressed in the "two" preceding chapters, in answer to Eliphaz; this he said, as wondering that he should be able to continue his discourse to such a length, and to express himself with such vehemence, when his spirits might be thought to be so greatly depressed by his afflictions, and his body enfeebled by diseases; or as angry with him for his blasphemy against God, as he was ready to term it, his bold and daring speeches of him, and charge of unrighteousness on him, and for his disregard to what Eliphaz had said, his contempt of in and opposition to it; or as impatient at his long reply, wanting him to cease speaking, that he might return an answer, and therefore breaks in upon him before he had well done, see Job 18:2; or as despising what he had said, representing it as idle talk, and as mere trifling; and so some render the words, "how long wilt thou trifle after this sort?" (g) or throw out such nonsense and fabulous stuff as this?
and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind? blustering, boisterous, and noisy, to which passionate words, expressed in a loud and sonorous manner, may be compared; and so we say of a man in a passion and rage, that he "storms". Bildad thought that his speeches were hard and rough, and stout against God, and very indecent and unbecoming a creature to his Maker, and not kind and civil to them his friends; and yet they were like wind, vain and empty, great swelling words, but words of vanity; they were spoken, and seemed big, but had nothing solid and substantial in them, as Bildad thought.
(g) "nugaberis haec", Cocceius; "talia", Tigurine version; "talk after this sort?" Broughton.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 Bildad affirms, that Job had spoken amiss, ver. 1-3.…
Bildad affirms, that Job had spoken amiss, ver. 1-3. That if he would sincerely seek to God, God would help him, ver. 4-7. That it is usual with God, to destroy the hypocrite, ver. 8-19. The joy of the upright, ver. 20-22.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21 Bildad answers, and reproves Job for his justifying himself,
CHAPTER VIII
Bildad answers, and reproves Job for his justifying himself,
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1, 2.
Shows that God is just, and never punishes but for iniquity;
and intimates that it was on account of their sins that his
children were cut off, 3, 4.
States that, if Job would humble himself to the Almighty,
provided he were innocent, his captivity would soon be turned,
and his latter end be abundantly prosperous, 5-7.
Appeals to the ancients for the truth of what he says; and
draws examples from the vegetable world, to show how soon the
wicked may be cut off, and the hope of the hypocrite perish,
8-19.
Asserts that God never did cast of a perfect man nor help the
wicked; and that, if Job be innocent, his end shall be crowned
with prosperity, 20-22.
NOTES ON CHAP. VIII
Verse 1. Bildad the Shuhite] Supposed to be a descendant of Shuah, one of the sons of Abraham, by Keturah, who dwelt in Arabia Deserta, called in Scripture the east country. See Ge 25:1-2; Ge 25:6.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 Job 8:1. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite — “Bildad,…
Job 8:1. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite — “Bildad, whose sentiments are the same with those of the preceding friend, now comes to the attack, and tells Job that his general asseverations of innocence are of no avail; that to deny his guilt was to charge the Almighty with injustice; that, if he would not yield to the arguments of Eliphaz, drawn from his experience, and strengthened by revelation, he would do well to pay respect to the general experience of mankind, as handed down by tradition; where he would find it established, as a certain truth, that misery was the infallible consequence of wickedness; that therefore they could not argue wrong who inferred from actual misery antecedent guilt: and though he might urge that these calamities were fallen upon him on account of his children’s wickedness, yet he only deceived himself; for in that case God might have indeed chastised them for their crimes, but he would, by no means, have destroyed the innocent with the guilty: he would rather have heaped his blessings on the innocent person, that the contrast might have vindicated his providence. He would have even wrought a miracle for the preservation or restoration of such a person; and he concludes that since, from the known attributes of God, it was impossible he should cut off the innocent, or suffer the guilty to go free; and, as no interposition of providence had happened in his behalf, he thought him in a likely way, by his utter destruction, to prove a terrible example of the truth of that principle which they had urged against him.” — Heath and Dodd.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–22 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite - ; see the…
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite - ; see the notes at Job 2:11.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 19, 21 Suhite, from Sue, the son of Abraham, who dwelt…
Suhite, from Sue, the son of Abraham, who dwelt in the desert Arabia; (Genesis xxv. 2.) though several suppose, without reason, (Calmet) that Baldad resided at Sueta, in Cœlosyria. (Menochius) --- He was the second in age and dignity. (Pineda)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 II. Bildad and Job: Chaps. 8–10
II. Bildad and Job: Chaps. 8–10
A.—Bildad’s rebuke: Man must not charge God with unrighteousness as Job has done, for God never does that which is unjust:
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Job 8
1. Censure of Job on account of his unjust accusation against God:
Job_8:2-7
1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said:
2 How long wilt thou speak these things?
and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?
3 Doth God pervert judgment?
or doth the Almighty pervert justice?
4 If thy children have sinned against Him,
and He have cast them away for their transgression;
5 If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes,
and make thy supplication to the Almighty;
6 if thou wert pure and upright,
surely now He would awake for thee,
and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.
7 Though thy beginning was small,
yet thy latter end should greatly increase.
2. Reference to the wise teachings of the ancients in respect to the merited end of those who forget God:
Job_8:8-19
8 For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age,
and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:
9 (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing,
because our days upon earth are a shadow):
10 Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee,
and utter words out of their heart?
11 “Can the rush grow up without mire?
can the flag grow without water?
12 Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down,
it withereth before any other herb.
13 So are the paths of all that forget God,
and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish:
14 Whose hope shall be cut off,
and whose trust shall be a spider’s web.
15 He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand;
he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure.
16 He is green before the sun,
and his branch shooteth forth in his garden.
17 His roots are wrapt about the heap,
and seeth the place of stones.
18 If He destroy him from his place,
then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.
19 Behold, this is the joy of his way,
and out of the earth shall others grow.”
3. A softened application of these teachings to the case of Job:
Job_8:20-22
20 Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man,
neither will He help the evil doers:
21 Till He fill thy mouth with laughing,
and thy lips with rejoicing.
22 They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame;
and the dwelling-place of the wicked shall come to nought.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The aspect which this first discourse of Bildad’s presents to us is far from being particularly controversial or violent, such as would correspond to the conjectural signification of the name בלדד, = “son of strife” (see on Job_2:11). It attaches itself to the conclusion of the preceding discourse of Job, in that it at once proceeds to show how entirely unjust is Job’s conduct in accusing God of a want of compassion, and of despotic harshness, whereas God in determining the lot of mankind never acts otherwise than justly (Job_8:2-7). He then illustrates and supports the proposition that God causes an evil and sudden end to overtake those who apostatize from him by certain wise proverbial sayings of the ancients (Job_8:8-19). He closes by prominently setting forth the twofold activity of the retributive justice of God (vers, 20–22), a conclusion which is so far conciliatory in its tendency in that it gives stronger expression to the hope that Job, through repenting of his sin, would experience the justice of God rewarding him, than to the fear of the opposite, or a warning of the consequences of his impenitence. [“It is to be specially noted in this connection B. makes no reply to the harsh personal reproaches of Job_6:14-27, but confines himself to the subject-matter.” Dillmann]. Of the three divisions of the discourse, which are somewhat unequal in length, the first comprises 2 strophes, the second 4, the third 1, each of three verses.
2. First Division: Rebuke of Job’s unjust accusation of God, as though He were unmerciful and unjust towards him, Job_8:2-7.
First Strophe: Job_8:2-4. [The certainty that retributive justice will punish the sinner].
Job_8:2. How long wilt thou speak such things?עַד־אָן, as elsewhere עַד־אָנָה (Job_18:2; Job_19:2): lit. until when, quousque tandem [“An exclamation of impatience.” Dav. “The friends had expected that after so thorough and unanswerable an argument as that which Eliphaz had delivered in their name, Job would at once acknowledge himself convinced, an expectation which Eliphaz himself had confidently announced at the close of his discourse.—The fact proves to be just the reverse: Job speaks more defiantly than at first. And so Bildad introduces his discourse with his exclamatory עד־אן, a veritable Quousque tandem abutere patientia nostra.” Schlottm.] אֵלֶּה, these things, i.e., such things as thou hast spoken. [Said contemptuously, as also רוּחַ in the next member]. And the words of thy mouth are a boisterous wind? Properly a continuation of the preceding interrogative construction: “how long shall the words of thy mouth be a boisterous wind?” i.e., like such a wind in respect of their emptiness [and bluster], as well as of their sweepingly destructive tendency (comp. Job_15:2; Job_16:3; 1Ki_19:11). For כַּבִּיר, poetic synonym of גָרוֹל (Job_1:19) comp. Job_15:10; Job_31:25; Job_34:17; Job_34:24; Isa_17:12. [The word is peculiar to the book of Job and Isaiah].
Job_8:3. Will God pervert the right, or the Almighty pervert justice?i.e., canst thou think for thy part that, etc.? Canst thou in sober earnest accuse God of injustice? “Observe the repetition of the verb יְעַוֵּת, on which there rests an emphasis which for Job was particularly stinging.” Umbreit. [Davidson, e.g., more correctly on the whole perhaps: “the repetition of pervert shows that it is not the emphatic word, while the variation of the divine names, as well as their position at the head of the clauses, throws the emphasis on the Divine Being—will God, etc.” The distinction between מִשְׁפָּט and צֶדֶךְ is substantially that already given by Schultens: the former designates the justice of God as embodied in act, actio judicandi; the latter as a principle or rule in the Divine mind.—E.].
Job_8:4. If thy children have sinned against him.—Only to spare Job’s feelings Bildad avoids saying: “because thy children have sinned,” and so leaves it apparently uncertain whether this formed the ground of the Divine decree concerning their fate—but only apparently, since he clearly regarded this decree as a punishment for their sins, as the conclusion proves. [Conant thinks this hypothetical use of אִם to be “not at all in the spirit of Bildad.” He takes it to be concessive—“though thy sons have sinned against Him, and He hath given them, etc., if thou thyself wouldest seek God, etc.” To which it may be objected: (1) This makes the protasis needlessly long. (2) It destroys the evident contrast between verses 4 and Job 5 : between the hypothetical proposition concerning the children’s sin in the former, and the conclusion therefrom, and the similar hypothetical proposition concerning Job’s repentance in the latter, and the conclusion therefrom in Job_8:6-7.—אִם is undoubtedly used in the same way in both propositions, and if conditional in the latter, is conditional also in the former. At the same time it does not seem that Bildad uses אִם in the former case out of any particular consideration for Job’s feelings. He uses it apparently in its purely logical sense, and this, too, with an assumption of the truth of the supposition which makes itself felt throughout the entire verse.—E.]—Then hath he given them over into the hand of their transgression. וַיְשַׁלְּחֵם, lit., “then hath He let them go into the hand, (i.e., into the power) of their transgression,” subjected them to the influence of their guilt. [“An expression of fearful energy” (Dav.) implying the self-retaliatory power of sin, the certainty that the moral order of the universe, enforced by the Divine will, will punish the transgressor.—E.] Comp. Job_9:24; Jdg_4:9; 1Sa_23:20.—Concerning the retrospective reference of the verse to Job_1:19, come. Introd., § 8, No. 3.
Second Strophe: Job_8:5-7. [The certainty that retributive justice will reward Job, if pure.]
Job_8:5. But if thou seekest earnestly unto God.—שִׁחַר אֶל־אֵל, constr. prægnans, as above Job_5:8 : דָּרַשׁ אֶל־אֵל, to sue God for anything, to turn oneself to Him with earnest entreaty. אַתָּה, thou, puts Job in emphatic contrast with his children (Job_8:4 a), as one who still has time to repent and to be reconciled, as the condition of the restoration of his prosperity. [And makest supplication to the Almighty.—Davidson calls attention to the “fine force of reflex Hithp., seek to make God gracious to oneself.” Observe also in this verse as in Job_8:3 the use in parallel clauses of El and Shaddai, the names most suggestive of God’s power to uphold the moral order of the universe, thus using the terror of the Lord to persuade Job.—E.]
Job_8:6. If thou art pure and upright.—This new conditional clause is not co-ordinate with the preceding, but subordinate to it: “provided, namely, thou art really pure and upright, if it be really the case that thou,” etc.Surely then He will awake for thee.—כִי עַתָּה, “surely then, verily then,” emphatic introduction of the conclusion, as in Job_13:18.—יָעִיר עָלֶיךָ, He will awake, arouse Himself for thee (comp. Psa_35:23), namely, for thy protection and deliverance; not: He will watch over thee, take thee under His care (Hirzel, Delitzsch [Dav., Renan, Merx] etc.), which would be altogether at variance, with the usual signification of the verb העיר. And restoreיְשַׁלֵּם, in integram restituet; the LXX. correctly: καὶ αποκαταστήσει) the habitation of thy righteousness, i.e., the habitation where thou, as a righteous man, dost dwell and enjoy the fruits of thy righteousness (Dillmann).—On נוה see on Job_5:3.
Job_8:7. And if thy beginning was small thy end shall be exceeding great.—In addition to the restoration of his former prosperity he promises him something new and yet more glorious, an unconscious prophecy of that which in the end actually came to pass (Job_42:12), exactly like the promise of prosperity in the latter part of Eliphaz’s discourse: Job_5:8 sq. וְאַחֲרִיתְךָ יִשְׂגֶה מְאֹד, lit., “and thy last end (thy latter estate, in contrast with רֵאשִׁיתְךָ, thy former estate, thy prosperity in the beginning) will flourish greatly.” אַחֲרִית is here exceptionally and ad sensum construed as masculine; hence the form יִשְׂגֶּה (comp. Ewald, § 174 e), instead of which Olshausen unnecessarily proposes to read יַשְׂגֶּה, with אֵל as subject.
3. Second Division: A reference to the wise teachings of the ancients touching the merited end of those who forget God. [“In respect of its artistic, flowery, and yet concise style” (as well as in respect of the searching practical character of its contents), “this passage forms the climax of the whole discourse.” Ewald.]
First Strophe: Job_8:8-10. Praise of the wisdom of the ancients, by way of introduction to the express testimonies of that wisdom which follows.
Job_8:8. Inquire, I pray, of the former generation.—As to the challenge in general, compare Deu_32:7. For שׁאל with לְ, see 2Ki_8:6; for the orthographical form רִישׁוֹן instead of רִאשׁוֹן, see below, Job_39:9 (רים instead of ראם). Whether the indefinite expression דּוֹר רִישׁוֹן be rendered by the singular, as above, or by the plural—“former generations”—is a matter of indifference. In any case no particular generation of the past is intended, as appears, also from the following expression—“their fathers,” (i.e., the fathers of those former generations).—And give heed to the research of their fathers:i.e., to that which their fathers had investigated and learned to the experimental wisdom therefore of the fathers reaching back into the remotest antiquity.—חֵקֶר, research (Job_5:9; Job_9:10; Job_34:24), here in the sense of the object, or the results of research, that which is searched out. With וְכוֹנֵן supply לִבְּךָ, which is elsewhere put in connection with the Hiphil. Olshausen’s emendation בּוֹנֵן, suggested by Deu_32:10, is unnecessary.
Job_8:9. For we are of yesterday, and know nothing.—This is the reason why we should hold to the tradition of the ancients. Lit., “we are yesterday,” i.e., of, or belonging to yesterday (אַנְשֵׁי תְמוֹל = תְּמוֹל, Ewald, § 296, d). The stress here laid on the ephemeral character of the present generation is then in the second member illustrated and strengthened by the figure of a shadow (צֵל); comp. Job_14:2; Psa_102:12 (11); Psa_109:23; Ecc_6:12; Ecc_8:13, also the Greek phrase σκιᾶς ὄνας ἄνθρωπος (Pindar, Pyth. 8, 99; comp. Sophocles, Aj. 126, 1236; Ant. 1155; Euripides, Med. 1224, etc.) This fact, that the life of men is so perishable and short is the reason for the demand here made that we should apply ourselves to the wisdom of the ancients, the term of a single human life being insufficient to fathom the eternal laws which rule the universe; to ascertain these we must consult the collective experience of humanity throughout the past. There is no specific proof that the author here had in mind the remote generations of the primeval world, to wit, the macrobiotic races of the ante-diluvian period.
Job_8:10. Will not they teach thee [הֵם emphatic], say to thee [אָמַר, “say,” rather than דבר “speak,” because their words are cited in the verses following], and bring forth words out of their heart?—The heart is mentioned here as the seat of understanding and reflection, in contrast with Job’s expressions, as the mere empty products of the lips (Job_8:2; Job_11:2; Job_15:3, etc.; comp. אִישׁ לֵבָב (Job_34:10; Job_34:34), “a man of heart,” i.e., of understanding. In regard to יוֹצִיאוּ, proment, proferent (Vulg.), comp. Mat_13:52.
Second Strophe: Job_8:11-13. First specimen, as reported by Bildad, of the wise teachings of the ancients, not indeed cited verbally, but still reproduced freely, and in exact accordance with the sense. [This introduction of the proverbial wisdom of antiquity in Bildad’s discourse is a masterly stroke of art, worthy of especial note (1) Because of the new and interesting element which it contributes to the rhetorical variety of the book. (2). Because of its significance as a feature in our author’s dramatic portraiture of character, Bildad being here presented to us as the disciple of tradition, the “proverbial philosopher,” in contrast with the more mystically inclined Eliphaz, and the more dogmatic and self-assertive Zophar. (3). Because of the contribution thus furnished to the material of the book, to the discussion of its great problem, Bildad here furnishing to this discussion the voice of tradition, even as Eliphaz had furnished the voice of the supernatural world. See below Doctrinal and Ethical Remarks, No. 1.—E.].
Job_8:11. Does the rush grow up without mire [or, except in the marsh]?—גֹמֶא, according to the Hebr. etymology from גמא, to swallow, absorb, fistula bibere (comp. Job_39:24; Gen_24:17), but also at the same time an Egyptian word (Copt, kam, cham, reed), denotes here, as in Exo_2:3; Isa_18:2; Isa_35:7, the Egyptian papyrus reed, which grows in the marshes of the Nile, but which, according to Theophrast, grows also in Palestine, the papyrus-shrub (Cyperus papyrus L.). The mention of this Egyptian product does not constitute a conclusive argument for the composition of the poem in Egypt, or by a poet of Egyptian origin, and all the less that Bildad is here only quoting the words of another and an older sage. Comp. Introd. § 7, c. [“Bildad likens the deceitful ground on which the prosperity of the godless stands to the dry ground on which, only for a time, the papyrus or reed finds water, and grows up rapidly; shooting up quickly, it withers as quickly; as the papyrus plant, if it has no perpetual water, though the finest of grasses, withers off when most luxuriantly green, before it attains maturity.” Delitzsch; see also Smith’s Bib. Dic., Art. “Reed”]. Does the reed-grass thrive without water?אָחוּ reads in the Egyptian Greek of the LXX. (Isa_19:7), and of the Book of Sirach (Job_40:16) ἄχι, and, as Jerome learned from the Egyptians, signifies in their language omne quod in palude virens nascitur, hence the grass of the Nile-marshes, seed-grass, Nile-grass (Copt. ake, oke = calamus, juncus). Instead of בְּלֹא of the first member, we have here בְּלִי, in the sense of “without;” for the former comp. Job_30:28; for the latter Job_24:10; Job_31:39; Job_33:9, etc. [בלי is properly constr. st. of noun, failure, lack.] Of the two synonymous verbs, יִגְאֶה in the first member signifies a “shooting up on high,” an expression suitable to the size of the papyrus, which grows to the height of ten feet; וִשְׂגֶא (another form of יִשְׂגֶּה, Job_8:7; comp. Gesen. § 75, Rem. 21 [§ 74, Rem. 22]), in the second member, a luxuriant out-spreading growth, an expression suitable to the nature of the marsh-grass.
Job_8:12. While yet (it is) in its greenness (Son_6:11) is not cut down: lit. “is not to be mowed down, not to be cut down,” a circumstantial clause [“a proper Imperf., in a state of not cut, un-cut.” Dav.] comp. Ewald. § 341, b.—Then, sooner than all grass must it dry up: because, namely, the condition of its existence, water, is all at once withdrawn, so that now it decays and withers sooner than common grass. As parallels in thought, comp. Job_5:3; Mat_6:30.
Job_8:13. So are the ways of all who forget God.—A closing application of the comparison precisely similar to that in Pro_1:19, where also the expression “ways” is used of what happens to men, their fate (comp. also Psa_1:6; Job_23:10; Wis_5:7, and often). For שֹׁכְחֵי אֵל as a synonym of רשעים, the ungodly, comp. e.g.Psa_9:18 (17); Psa_50:22. And the hope of the ungodly perisheth: comp. Pro_10:28. חָנֵף as in Job_13:16; Job_15:34; Job_20:5, and often. [In all these passages, and whereever the word occurs, the Eng. Ver. renders חָנֵף “hypocrite,” which is altogether incorrect, the idea of dissimulation not, belonging to the word at all. This rendering is the more strange, seeing that the cognate verb is always correctly rendered to be polluted, profane, corrupt, etc.—E.] Dillmann correctly calls attention to the fact that the figure of the reeds and grass of the marshes perishing by the sudden drying up of the water is intended to illustrate, not the judgment which will visit those who have always been ungodly, but only those who were at one time righteous, and therefore prosperous, but who afterwards fall away from God. In so far the description conveys a somewhat different thought from that in Job_5:3.
Third and Fourth Strophes: Job_8:14-19. A further description of the judgment of God upon the wicked, founded on the proverbial wisdom of the ancients.
Job_8:14. He whose confidence is cut asunder.—אֲשֶׁר as in Job_5:5, an independent rel. pron., connecting the verse with what goes before; not a causal particle: quippe, quoniam (Del.). יָקוֹט is hardly a substantive, either of the signification “gourd” (Reiske, Hahn) or “gossamer” (Saadia, in Ewald-Dukes, Beiträge zur Gesch. der ält. Auslegung, I., 89). [Fürst and Hengstenberg prefer regarding it as a noun, meaning “that which is to be rejected.”] Both as to the form and substance of the word, the only justifiable construction of it is as a Kal Imperf., deriving it either from קוץ=קוט,fastidire (Vulg. and many of the ancients, also Schultens), or with the Pesh., Chald., Kimchi, Rosenm., Gesen., and most of the moderns, from a verb קצץ=) קטט), “to cut oft” (he, whose hope is cut off, cujus spes succiditur); or, which may be still more correct, from קוט, not elsewhere to be met with, and meaning “to cut, to be brittle, to break asunder,” and so treating it as an intransitive verb, rather than as Kal Imperf. with a passive signification [comp. Ewald, § 138, b].—And his trust is a spider’s house:i.e. that in which he trusts (מִבְטָחוּ, sensu obj., of the object of the trust), proves itself to be as perishable as a spider’s web, which the slightest touch, or a mere puff of wind can destroy. For this figure comp. Isa_59:5, also the Koran, Sur. 29. 40, and the Arabic proverb quoted by Schultens, Umbreit, etc.: “Time destroys the wall of the skillfully built castle, even as the house of the spider is destroyed.”
Job_8:15. More specific expansion of Job_8:14 b.He leaneth on his house—as the object of his confidence, like the man spoken of in Schiller’s Bell: “Fest wie der Erde Grund,” etc. Comp. on Dan_4:26. [But it stands not; he holds fast to it, but it endures not. There is a certain gradation of thought in the verse. The ungodly first leans, stays himself on his house, but it gives way beneath him; finding this to be the case, feeling his trust giving way beneath him, he strengthens his hold on it (יַחְזִיק), grasps it with all his might, as a sinking man seizes violently on anything within his reach; but in vain! He and his hope all tumble to ruin together.—E.]
Job_8:16 sq. After thus dwelling briefly (Job_8:14-15) on the comparison of a falling house, the description now returns to the previous figure derived from the vegetable kingdom. For the marsh-reed, however, there is substituted the climbing plant, with its high and luxuriant growth; and the comparison is so presented that between the figure and the thing figured there is no sharp line of distinction observed, but each blends with the other.
Job_8:16. Green is he (the חָנֵף of Job_8:13, who is here conceived of as a climbing plant) in the sunshine: in the same heat which causes other plants to wither.—And his sprouts run over his garden (יוֹנַקְתּוֹ [“his suckers”] as in Job_14:7; Job_15:30): i.e. the whole garden in which he, this luxuriantly growing, creeping plant, is placed, is filled and over-run with his root-sprouts which cling to all about them.
Job_8:17. His roots entwine themselves (lit. are entwined) over heaps of stone; he looks upon a house of stone: in the sense, that is, that having grown up on it, he eagerly clings to it, as to a firm support. [“On יחזה Cocceius remarks: non timet locum lapidosum, sed imperterritus videt. He gazes on it boldly and confidently, with the purpose of making his home in it.” Hengst.] By this is naturally to be understood a real stone house, its walls being of this material (comp. Gen_49:22, according to the correct explanation of modern commentators), not anything figurative: e.g. the solid structure of his fortune, as Delitzsch explains it. Several modern commentators (Böttcher, Ewald, Stickel, Fürst, Dillmann) take בֵּין=בֵּית (as in Pro_8:2), hence in the sense of “between, in the midst of,” and חזה, according to its primary signification, in the sense of: “to pierce through, to split between;” hence: “to pierce through between the stones,” viz. with its roots. Possible, but perhaps too artificial. [The LXX. translate: ἐν μέσῳ χαλίκων ζήσεται, taking בית in the sense of בין, and evidently reading or substituting יחיה for יחזה. Gesenius regards חזה here as a bold metaphor, seeing the stones, for feeling them with the roots. Noyes and Renan regard the expression as describing the depth at which the plant takes root. The latter’s rendering is: “His roots are intertwined at the rock; he touches the region of the granite.” Wordsworth’s comment is interesting: “He surveyeth a house of stones; he is like a tree which seems firmly rooted in a heap of stones, and looks down, as it were, with a domineering aspect, and a proud consciousness of strength on a house of stone, in which he appears to be firmly built, as in a marble palace; and yet he will soon be withered and rooted up, and vanish from the face of the earth.—Observe the order of the comparison. The sinner had been first likened to a plant of papyrus or reed-grass, with its tall green stem and flowery tuft flourishing in the watery slime, but suddenly withered, when the soil in which it is set is dried up: he is next compared to a shrub sprouting with fresh leaves, and shooting forth its luxuriant branches, mantling over the wall of the garden; and lastly he is likened to something still more robust, to a tree striking its roots downwards into a cairn of stones, and looking down with proud confidence on its house of rock, and seeming to defy the storm.” We scarcely seem justified, however, in assuming a different plant or tree to be intended in Job_8:17 from that described in Job_8:16.—Conant thinks that “the explanation long ago given by Olympiodorus is the true one; viz. that the wicked is here likened to a plant springing up in a stony soil, and perishing for lack of depth of earth:” to which Davidson justly replies that “the stones assist, not impede the growth of this kind of plants, and Job_8:17 is still occupied with the detail of the luxuriance of the plant.”—We are thus led back to the view of Zöckler, Schlottm., Hengst., etc., as on the whole the simplest and best; that both verses describe the same plant, Job_8:16 as overrunning the garden with its creepers, Job_8:17 as clinging stoutly to its house of stone.—E.]
Job_8:18. If He destroys it from its place.—The subj. in יְבַלְּעֶנּוּ (comp. the same verb in Job_2:3) is either to be left indefinite: “if one destroys him from his place [as if he is destroyed],” Umbreit, etc.; or, which is better suited to the poet’s whole style and mode of thought, God is to be understood as the subject. On the contrary, in the second member: It shall deny him: I have never seen thee], the subject to be supplied with the verb is unquestionably: “his place” (מְקוֹמו). It is a highly poetical conception which is here presented: the native ground, or the place of growth of an uprooted tree, i.e. of a transgressor cast down from the height of his prosperity, being, as it were, ashamed of him, denying him and refusing to know anything more of him.
Job_8:19. Behold this is the joy [ironically said] of his way:i.e. so does it end, his pretended joyful way of living (comp. on Job_8:13); so sudden, calamitous is the end of his course. And out of the dust shall others sprout up.—“Others” (אַחֵר collect., comp. Ewald, § 319, a), i.e. other men blessed with external prosperity, whose happiness will either prove more enduring, or, in case’ they too fall away from God, will as surely crumble away as his.
Third Division and Fifth Strophe: Application of the wisdom of the ancients, as just cited, to the case of Job: Job_8:20-22. [The picture just given suggested a solemn warning to Job to beware of incurring such a fate. Bildad, however, instead of giving to the application this minatory turn, uses a milder and more conciliatory tone, encouraging Job to repentance, by promises of the divine favor.—E.]
Job_8:20. Behold, God despiseth not the pious man, and grasps not the hand of evil-doers:i.e. in order to help and support them; comp. Isa_41:13; Isa_42:6; Psa_73:23; as also the figurative expansion of this truth just given Job_8:12 sq.
Job_8:21. [Expanding, with personal application, the thought of Job_8:20 a].—While He will fill thy mouth with laughter, and thy lips with rejoicing.—Delitzsch (referring to Job_1:18; Psa_141:10) rightly interprets עַד at the beginning of this verse in the sense of “while,” and takes the whole verse as the protasis of which Job_8:22 is the apodosis. Others take עַד in the less suitable sense of “yea even” (Umbreit), or amend to עֹד, “yet,” comparing the passage with Psa_42:6 (Cocceius, Honbigant, Böttcher, Ewald, Stickel, Dillmann). For the expression: “to fill any one’s mouth with laughter,” comp. Psa_126:2; for the text יְמַלֵּה, instead of יְמַלֵּא (the case being accordingly the reverse of that in Job_8:11, b), comp. Gesenius, § 75 [§ 74], 21, b.
Job_8:22. [Expansion of 20b, with personal application to Job’s enemies.]—They that hate thee shall be clothed in shame: the same comparison in Psa_35:26; Psa_109:29; Psa_132:18. Observe how persuasive and conciliatory in this conclusion of Bildad’s discourse, in that he wishes for the “haters” of Job the worst fate, the portion of the ungodly; thus unmistakably separating himself and his friends from that class, and placing himself decidedly on the side of Job.—And the tent of the wicked—it is no more.—For the use of the term “tent” as a concrete expression for the totality of well-being, comp. Job_5:24. Altogether too artificial is the explanation of Dillmann and others, denying the identity of the “wicked” with the “haters” in the first member, thus rendering the ו at the beginning of this member adversatively: “but the tent of the wicked is no more,” as though Psa_1:6 were a parallel passage, and the whole discourse of Bildad, notwithstanding the milder tone assumed in the last strophe, should still close with a warning or a threat. That this is in truth the case, only indirectly (i.e. in so far as the whole of Job_8:22 dwells on the miserable lot of the wicked, without recurring to the description of Job’s prosperity, and closing with that), see in the Doctrinal and Ethical Remarks, No. 3.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
The similarity of this first discourse of Bildad to that of Eliphaz is so marked that it can almost be termed an abbreviated repetition, differing considerably in the application of several particulars, of that with which Eliphaz had already charged Job. The same censorious introduction and the same mitigating and conciliatory close! And in the body of the discourse the same exhortation to betake himself to God in penitence and in prayer for help, with the accompanying promise of salvation (comp. Job_8:5 seq. with Job_5:8 seq.); the same figurative vesture frequently for one and the same truth, as, in particular, the description, twice occurring (Job_8:12 and Job_8:18), of the sudden withering and perishing of a plant of luxuriant growth, an unmistakable copy of the description first given by Eliphaz in Job_5:3 seq. Another noteworthy point of similarity between the two discourses is that Eliphaz, in order more vividly to set forth and more forcibly to emphasize the central thought which he inculcates, presents the same in the form of a divine revelation brought to him mysteriously by night, while Bildad seeks to accomplish the same result by introducing the ancient teachers of wisdom as speaking, in place of himself (comp. Job_8:8 seq. with Job_4:12 seq.). In this citation from the traditional Chokmah he gives a free reproduction of the same, in like manner as Eliphaz in his account of the vision had furnished an ideal, poetic picture. [“It was a hard stroke on Job to see not only his friends of the present, but all good and wise men of the past, marshalled against him; and tremendous must have been his force of conscience to resist and drive from the field such outnumbering odds.” Davidson. “It is a very important point which Bildad here makes. There is no surer way of falling into error than for one individual or one age wilfully and proudly to cut loose from its connection with the whole, and to resolve to be wise independently and alone. That is historical rationalism, of which that which is commonly called rationalism is but one species. The witness of tradition indeed is to be received cum grano salis—and at this point the friends are at fault. Something more is required than a correct understanding; the truth transmitted by historic tradition always has aspects which have not yet been completely developed; it is not enough to bring forward the whole—we must also, when new problems present themselves, be prepared to build up the New on the basis of the Old. That was the point where Elihu had the advantage over the friends.” Hengstenberg.] It seems accordingly as though the poet had purposed to put Bildad forward as simply an imitator of Eliphaz, destitute of independence, and to present his continuation of the discussion of the latter as a weaker reproduction of the same, his object being thus to cast into the shade and to subordinate the spiritual significance of the friends and their position as compared with that of Job.
2. At the same time, however, this discourse is not wanting in new thoughts, which show that it aims to attack Job from another side than that chosen by his former critic. Eliphaz had argued against Job from the doctrine, derived from experience, of the absolute universality of human sinfulness. Bildad strenuously maintains against him the inexorable justice of God, who does not let the sinner go unpunished, nor the righteous unrewarded. His fundamental thought is presented in Job_8:3 : “Will God pervert the right, or the Almighty pervert justice?” or, as it is somewhat differently conceived, and with a particular application to Job’s case in Job_8:20 : “Behold, God does not spurn the godly, nor take fast hold of (lend support to) the hand of evil-doers.” The entire discourse is devoted to the discussion of this proposition, that the immutability of God’s justice (His justitia judicialis, tam remuneratoria quam punitiva) is demonstrated alike in its treatment of the evil and of the godly. Every part of the discourse aims to establish this—the admonitory reference to the punishment inflicted on Job’s children (Job_8:4), the exhortation to him to beseech God for help and reconciliation (Job_8:5 seq.), the striking illustrations given of the perishableness of the prosperity of him who forgets God (Job_8:11 seq.), and the concluding promise of happiness to him, if (as Bildad hopefully assumes he will do) he will repent and return to God (Job_8:21 seq.). Like Eliphaz, or indeed in still higher measure than he, Bildad seems, in all that he says on these points, to establish himself entirely on the truth. There seems to be scarcely any thing in his words unscriptural, partial, or at all censurable. On the objective side, that which relates to the righteousness of God’s treatment, his words seem as Little liable to the charge of a one-sided narrowness, as on the subjective side, or that which sums up the case for Job, they are liable to that of inconsiderateness or unloving harshness.
3. That this, however, is only on the surface is evident from the painful venomous dart which at the very beginning almost of his discourse he aims at the heart of Job in the harsh judgment which he pronounces on his children, in the assertion, hypothetic indeed in form, but direct in its application, that their sudden death was the consequence of their sin, the merited punishment of their crime. At the bottom of this assertion there lies unquestionably a one-sidedly harsh, gross and external representation of the nature and operations of God’s retributive justice. He is evidently entangled in the short-sighted doctrine of retribution which prevailed in antiquity, both within the theocracy, and in general in the monotheistic oriental world. He imagines that he is able, by means of the common-places formally stated in Job_8:2; Job_8:20 to solve all the riddles of life. Hence the self-righteous, Pharisaic condition to which he subjects the saving efficacy of Job’s penitent supplication to God: “if thou (i.e., provided thou) art pure and righteous” (Job_8:6)—back of which we see clearly enough the implied thought: if thou art not righteous, all thy praying and beseeching is of no avail! Hence still further the malicious indirect attack on Job which is conveyed by the wise teachings of the ancients (Job_8:11 seq.) respecting the sudden destruction of the man who forgets God! It would seem as though by these descriptions of the sudden withering and perishing of the Nile-reed, and of the destruction and uprooting of the thriving climbing-plant, Job’s fall from the height of his former prosperity was pictured. We can imagine that it is in Bildad’s thought to exclaim to his friend, like Daniel to king Nebuchadnezzar, “The tree … it is thou, O king!” (Dan_4:17 [20] seq.). Even the practical application at the close of the discourse, with its prediction of prosperity, has imparted to it by all this a flavor of bitterness to him who is addressed, especially seeing that the last words of the speaker dwell on the certain destruction, and the inevitable punishment, which the wicked incur, as though the stern moralizer must perforce repeatedly relapse out of the tone of promise into that of censure and menace (comp. on Job_8:22). The fundamental error in Bildad’s argument lies in a rigidly legal interpretation of the idea of. justice, unmodified by a single softening ray from an evangelical experience of Salvation and of the merciful love of God as Father—a representation of the nature of divine justice which is directly opposed to the proper sense of צְדָקָה ,צֶדֶק (terms which denote the divine activity only as conditioned and ruled by God’s holiness, or holy love). It is by this error that all that is harsh and one-sided in his discourse is to be explained. He knows nothing of a God disciplining and proving men in love, as a father his children. All human suffering he regards as simply and solely an infliction of God’s retributive justice, which begins to punish when man turns away from God, and abates the suffering only when he returns to him again. “If Bildad had represented Job’s suffering as a chastisement of divine love, which was to humble him in order the more to exalt him, Job would then have been constrained to humble himself, although Bildad might not have been altogether in the right. But Bildad, still further than Eliphaz from weakening the erroneous supposition of a hostile God which had taken possession of Job’s mind, represents God’s justice, to which he attributes the death of his children, instead of His love, as the hand under which Job is to humble himself. Thereby the comfort which Job’s friend offers to him becomes a torture, and his trial is made still greater; for his conscience does not accuse him of any sins for which he should now have an angry instead of a gracious God.” (Del.)
4. Notwithstanding these one-sided and erroneous characteristics, the present discourse furnishes to the practical expositors something more than material for criticism from the stand-point of the New Testament faith and religious consciousness. What it says in vindication of the righteous dealings of God, is in itself considered, and especially in contrast with Job’s unseemly and passionate complaints, well grounded and unassailable. We might just as well find a difficulty with descriptions of the righteous administration of the world similar to this, such as are found in the Psalms (Psalms 1; Psalms 7; Psa_18:21 [20] seq.; Psa_34:13 [12] seq.), and find in them nothing but expressions of religious perversity, and of an unevangelical way of thinking and acting; and yet such a view of those expressions, occurring as they do in quite another connection, would be entirely without foundation. The poetic beauty, moreover, of the illustrations of the miserable lot of the wicked in Job_8:11 seq. would lose all value if we were to apply this one-sided critical standard to the discourse, and to consider it only as the expression of a disposition of hypocritical work-righteousness. This the homiletic expositor is evidently not bound to do. Besides those one-sided and harsh features of the discourse, he may and should give prominence also to that which is eternally true and beautiful in it, as an inspired eulogy of the righteous intervention of the Godhead in the destinies of mankind. And—a point which in particular is not to be overlooked—he must bear in mind that, as is shown by the wise sayings of the ancients, quoted by Bildad from a gray antiquity, the knowledge which experience brings of God’s retributive justice as visibly exercised in this world was possessed by the pious of our race even in the earliest times; and still further—that for this knowledge of God’s holy and righteous ordering of the world—a knowledge which is deeply impressed on the universal consciousness of mankind, and which is kept fresh and vivid by great historical examples, such as the histories of Noah and his contemporaries, of Abraham and Lot, of Joseph, Moses, Korah, Balaam, etc.—the only foundation which can be assumed as underlying all else is a positive original revelation in the beginning of humanity’s history.—And this is what determines the value and applicability of the following selections from practical exegetes of the past, which are here given as
Homiletic and Practical Remarks on Single Passages
Job_8:3; Job_8:8. Brentius: Such as do not understand the glory of God’s Gospel, but are unwisely carried away by zeal for the Law, say: the way of the Lord is not just, because He forgets the wickedness of him who repents, and the goodness of him who relapses into sin—whereas, according to what is decreed in the Law, evil is to be punished and good rewarded. But they hear it said again: I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, saith the Lord God; return ye, and live, and all your sins shall be forgotten.—Zeltner: Nothing is easier or more common with the world than by a precipitate judgment to sin against one’s neighbor in respect to his misfortunes, especially when believers are concerned.… Although God visits the iniquity of fathers on their children, the calamities which befall pious children are nevertheless no proof that they or their parents have sinned (Joh_9:3).
Job_8:8 seq. Cocceius: There is no doubt but that fathers ought to transmit the revelations which they have received from God to their children and to other men; and that, moreover, through God’s blessing, the truth has been preserved for a time among some through such tradition; although the conjecture is not improbable that our fathers (from the time of Moses on) delivered much to writing.—Brentius: Our life, as its origin was most recent, so is its end most swift; so that some one has well said: Man is a bubble, which having suddenly arisen on the face of the water, soon perishes. Seeing then that our life is most short, prudence in the management of affairs should be learned from those who are older, and from our ancestors; for the authority of the aged is sacred and venerable.
Job_8:11-19. Starke (according to the Weim. Bib.): The hope of hypocrites is perishable; for it is founded not on God, but only on that which is temporal and perishable (Psa_37:35 seq.; Psa_49:12; 1Co_7:31; 1Jn_2:17).—Wohlfarth: The prosperity of the ungodly is only apparent: so teaches the wisdom of the ancients, so preaches the Holy Scripture, so testifies experience, so proves the nature of things. For the happiness of sin is neither real, nor satisfactory, nor enduring. The peace which makes us truly happy is not dependent on external possessions.—Vict. Andreae: The wise proverbs of antiquity, to which Bildad (with affected humility) refers Job, are intended to teach the latter that as there are no reeds without a marsh, so also Job’s calamity in strict propriety could proceed only out of his great wickedness; wherefore Job must not wonder at it; nay, his confidence in his good conscience would be a treacherous support, as he will soon enough find to his cost.
Job_8:20 seq. Brentius: Although the ungodly may seem to flourish and to be blessed in this world, they are nevertheless exposed to the curse, which in its own time is revealed. And as the ungodly now behold the afflictions of the godly in this world with the greatest rejoicing of soul, so again in God’s judgment day they will be the laughing-stock of all creatures, and will be confounded before them: Isaiah 66—Cocceius (on Job_8:20): From hence it is apparent that it happens to the ungodly as to the papyrus and sedge; to the godly as to an herb that is transplanted. The justice of God cannot therefore be accused, as though it would not reward each one according to his way of living. For although the papyrus and the grass are attached to the water, they do nevertheless dry up. And although a good herb may be dug out, it is nevertheless planted anew elsewhere with a great increase of fertility and utility. A measure of happiness for the ungodly does not dishonor God’s justice; trusting in their happiness they are brought to shame and confusion; neither is it dishonored by the affliction of the righteous, which is for their good.—Zeltner: Just as the suffering of the godly is no proof that they have been rejected by God, so also the brilliant prosperity of the ungodly is no proof that they are in God’s favor. But God permits such things to happen in order to test His people’s patience, faith and hope, and, at the right time, to save them and make them happy forever. Therefore, my Christian brother, continue pious, and keep in the right (Psa_37:37).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3–22 The repetition of "pervert" gives an emphasis galling to…
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.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22 1. Answered Bildad — The structure of his address…
BILDAD’S FIRST ADDRESS.
1. Answered Bildad — The structure of his address and the doctrine he maintains do not differ essentially from those of Eliphaz. He, too, sees in affliction the stern features of retribution. The first speaker had assailed Job from an intrenchment in the universal sinfulness of our race. Bildad now renews the assault from an older and more impregnable position — the inexorable justice of God. From his point of view he sees but one side of the divine nature — justice. He coolly insinuates that Job’s children must have been wicked because they were killed. In this he was sustained by the convictions of antiquity, since “sudden death, to the ancient mind, bore the aspect of a judgment — a work of the divine wrath.” — Kitto. In like manner if the parent suffer he must also be a sinner. His discourse, therefore, like that of Eliphaz, closes with an earnest exhortation to repentance. Fortunately for us, Bildad is a stickler for antiquity, since he rescues from oblivion an ancient and most precious relic, combining in symmetrical beauty a threefold simile. Job_8:11-19. This ancient poem sings the fate of all those who forget God. The spirit of this entire discourse sets Bildad before us in an unfavourable light. Like Saul of Tarsus before his conversion, he is zealously affected for God. Bildad also would seemingly have been ready to carry out his convictions, even at the point of the sword.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 1–7. The discriminating rectitude of God
1–7. The discriminating rectitude of God
2. Before coming to his principle and by way of introducing it Bildad expresses his wonder that Job should allow himself to speak such things as his discourse contained. These things are such things as ch. Job_6:29, Job_7:1-2; Job_7:12-21, and perhaps even ch. Job_6:10. He refers to the general drift of Job’s speech, which appears to him to be an assertion that God was unjust (Job_8:3).
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a strong wind] Violent, and empty, cf. ch. Job_15:2, Job_16:3.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv4, 6, 11, 15, 16, 17, 21 (4) And he have cast them away.—Literally, then he…
(4) And he have cast them away.—Literally, then he sent them away. By means of their transgression; it became their destruction.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–22 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said. Bildad the…
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said. Bildad the Shuhite has the second place in the passage where Job"s friends are first mentioned, (Job_2:11) and occupies the same relative position in the dialogue. We may suppose him to have been younger than Eliphaz and older than Zophar. He does little more than repeat the arguments of Eliphaz, stating them, however, more bluntly, and with less of tact and consideration. The chief novelties of his discourse are an appeal to the teaching of past ages (vers. 8-10), and the employment of new and forcible metaphors (vers. 11-19).
Vers. 1-7. Bildad to Job: 1. A bundle of mistakes.
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I UNJUSTIFIABLE REBUKE. "Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said." Even if on Job"s part wholly deserved the admonition of Bildad was in itself worthy of censure, as being:
1. Impatient. "How long wilt thou speak these things?" It is due to every man who speaks in his defense, as Job did, to hear him patiently; (Act_26:3) much more if he speaks in affliction. Nay, patience towards all men is an eminent token of sincere religion. (1Th_5:14 1Ti_6:11 2Ti_2:24 Tit_3:2) Besides, they who rebuke others for impatience should not themselves be guilty of the same. (Rom_2:21)
2. Unsympathetic. Throughout its entire length not a word indicates that Bildad cherished kindly feeling towards Job or pity for his deep distress. On the contrary, there is an amount of brutal plainness of speech that is hard to account for in a good man. Into whatever faults men may fall by their words or acts, their sufferings and sorrows should never fail to elicit our compassion. (Job_6:14 Rom_12:15 Heb_13:3) Least of all should they rebuke other"s sins who cannot feel for others". (Gal 6:1Ti Gal_3:2, Gal_3:3)
3. Uncharitable. Bildad made no allowance for the anguish of spirit which had impelled Job to speak, but, like Eliphaz, (Job_6:26) putting the worst passible construction on his words, contemptuously designated them as "these things," and characterized them as boisterous winds, vehement nothings, meaningless, but tempestuous, defying all restraints, overleaping all barriers, destroying all law and order in their course. "If sound speech that cannot be condemned" (Tit_2:8) be excellent in all, "speech always with grace, seasoned with salt"; (Col_4:6) is a special ornament of Christians; and "if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body"; (Jam_3:2) yet, equally on the other, hand, a charity that never faileth, that is not easily provoked, that "beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things", (1Co_13:4-8) becometh them that hear.
II DOUBTFUL THEOLOGY. "Doth God (El) pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty (Shaddai) pervert justice?
1. Absolutely, no! It is impossible to conceive that the Divine Being, in his moral government of the universe, could even by a hair"s breadth transgress the bounds of rectitude.
(1) If he did, he could not be El-Shaddai, the All-powerful and All-sufficient Deity; since sin is essentially weakness and imperfection, and Omnipotence inconceivable except in alliance with immaculate purity and absolute integrity. Hence
(2) because of being El-Shaddai, not only has he no temptation to resort to inequitable dealings with his creatures, but the bare idea of "perverting justice" is impossible, is wholly unthinkable in connection with him, and even the faintest insinuation thereof infinitely false. (In this sense it is not clear that Job" as Bildad suggests, had charged God with perversion.) Only the equity of God"s dealings is not always discernible by man. Though the Judge of all the earth cannot do otherwise than right, (Gen_18:25) the judged do not always perceive the justness of his decisions. Hereafter the entire course of the Divine procedure on earth will be vindicated in the presence of an assembled universe. Meantime that it is in perfect harmony with the eternal principles of truth and right is an article of faith and a fundamental axiom of reason.
2. Seeminglyyes. As understood by Bildad, it is doubtful if justice can be claimed for all God"s dealings with his intelligent creatures on earth. By justice Bildad meant the principle of rewarding good men with good things, and bad men with evil things, upon the earth and in time. He contended that God could by no possible consideration be induced to depart from administering mundane affairs on this plain and simple principle. Accordingly, he argued that, if men sinned, God was shut up by the aforesaid principle to punish them in time; and, vice versa, that if men were seen to be afflicted, the inference was irresistible that they had transgressed otherwise God would be guilty of perverting justice in visiting them with tribulation. Similarly, he reasoned that God was bound to crown righteous men with prosperity; and that they who enjoyed good things in this life were only reaping the reward of virtue; although he likewise contended that if a good man relapsed into wickedness, he could not escape retribution in the shape of temporal calamity, while, if he repented, he would as surely be conducted back to his former prosperity. Now not one of these dogmatic positions of the ancient sage was correct; and against them all Job vehemently protested. The theory that connects all suffering with sin, though popular, (Joh_9:2 Luk_13:1-5) is fallacious. The doctrine that good things are invariably a reward of goodness will not stand the test of facts. (Luk_16:25)
III INAPT ILLUSTRATIONS.
1. The case of Job"s children.
(1) The assumption. "If thy children have sinned against him." Outrageously unfeeling was it, even if it had been true, so to lacerate the heart of a bereaved parent. "The words of the wise may be as goads", (Ecc_12:11) but the words of the good should be as "an honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones". (Pro_16:24) "The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright", (Pro_15:2) and "a prudent man covereth shame". (Pro_12:16) Entirely unwarranted, it was likewise atrociously cruel. Bildad had no reason whatever to assume that Job"s children had been guilty (in his sense) of wickedness against God. Job"s "it may be" (Job_1:5) was not proof that "it was." In the general sense in which "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God", (Rom_3:23) they had doubtless transgressed; in the particular sense that they had perpetrated positive offence against God evidence was completely a wanting. Hence, because un-warrented, it was also heinously sinful. Bildad"s imputation was an offence against the dead, against the living, against God.
(2) The inference. "So hath he cast them away for or, "delivered them over into the hand of their transgression." Superficially correct to the extent that all sin has a tendency to autonemesis sooner or later it will avenge itself upon the perpetrator thereof, (cf. Job_5:2) and that Job"s children had been suddenly cut off by God; (Job_1:19) but radically vicious in attempting to connect these two the principle and the fact as cause and effect, since the history explicitly discovers (Job_1:12) that the wickedness of Job"s children was not the occasion of their destruction. They were cut off in pursuance of a divinely formed purpose to try Job. Yet this was no contravention of God"s absolute justice, though on Bildad"s principles it was quite inexplicable.
2. The case of Job himself.
(1) The underlying hypothesis, which was false, viz. that Job was not pure and upright, even in the sense meant by Bildad (ver. 6), which Job was, having, like St. Paul, a conscience void of offence both toward God and toward men, (Act_24:16) and like St. Peter the answer of a good conscience toward God. (1Pe_3:21)
(2) The proffered counsel, which was good. What, To seek unto God; i.e. to make supplication unto him, to address him in prayer. Why? To make God gracious unto him, this beautiful idea being conveyed by the force of the reflex, hithpael of the verb (Davidson). When? Betimes; the verb signifying "to seek early," i.e. first in time and first in importance. (cf. Pro_7:15 Pro_8:17 Job_24:5) How? Earnestly; this also beingimplied in the verb "to seek.
(3) The promised blessing, which was doubtful. This was:
(a) Protection. The cause: "He will watch over thee," instead of" watching against thee". (Job_7:12) The effect: "And make thy habitation secure;" salute it with peace, and preserve it in safety (cf. Eliphaz"s picture of the good man"s house, Job_5:24; and contrast his cursing of the wicked man"s abode. (Job_5:8) The condition: "thy righteous habitation;" i.e. when thy habitation became the abode of a righteous man, God would pronounce it blessed and preserve it in peace.
(b) Prosperity. "Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase." Bildad had no guarantee beyond his own theory for the prediction that a return on Job"s part to piety would be followed by a restoration to material prosperity.
LESSONS.
"A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger". (Pro_15:1) Bildad"s success would have been greater had his language been milder.
1. Those who undertake the work of teaching others should both see that what they teach is true, and study to speak the truth in love. (Eph_4:15) Bildad was wanting in both of these respects.
2. A half-truth is sometimes as dangerous as a whole lie. Bildad"s theology was of this sort.
3. Saints who are vehemently jealous for the Divine honour are often intensely unkind as well as unfair to their fellow-men. Bildad was as cruel towards Job as he was courageous in behalf of God.
4. Beware of sentencing those to perdition concerning whom God has not declared his mind. Bildad manifestly had no doubt as to the fate of Job"s children.
5. It is man"s duty to seek God betimes, whether the habitation of their righteousness prosper or no. Bildad"s prediction must not be accepted as equivalent to God"s promise.
6. The latter end of pens men, if not on earth, at least in heaven, will be one of greatness and glory combined. In this sense alone is Bildad"s statement certainly correct.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-22. "Shall not the Judge of all... do right?
The supposed attack of Job"by implication, upon the justice of God gives an opening for renewed admonitions and rebukes on the part of his friends. Bildad now comes forward and delivers a discourse full of noble faith, however its principles may be in this case misapplied. Rebuking the grievous complaints of Job as a wind, full of noise and emptiness (ver. 2), he proceeds
I TO INSIST ON THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD. This is an axiom of his faith. God cannot do unrighteousness. It, is impious to admit the thought for a single moment into the mind. He insists on the inflexibility of God"s rectitude. He will not bend right and duty (ver. 3). There can be no twisting, deviation, compromise, with God. His path is ever a straight line. Bildad will therefore rather draw an unfavorable conclusion about his friend than allow the slightest shadow to be cast on the splendour of the Supreme. Job may be guilty, nay, probably is so; but there can be no probability of any failure of right in God. The principle may appear somewhat harshly and rigidly stated; and yet from the sincere, even if narrow and limited, point of view of Bildad no doubt he is in the right. Rather seek any explanation of suffering, or leave it in mystery, than bring a charge against the unbending righteousness of God.
1. Application to the past and present. Following out this reasoning, the fate of Job"s sons would seem to point to the fact that they had committed a deadly sin. And so, too, Job"s present sufferings lead to the inference that he is very far from pure. The terrible example of his sons should be his warning. Yet this is expressed with some kindliness and forbearance. It is put hypothetically: "if thy sons" (ver. 4). Bildad, though rigid in doctrine, is not untender at heart a kind of character we often see exemplified in life. But we have the lesson again and again from the conduct of these friends that friendship demands intelligence as well as heart. There is a missing link in Bildad"s reasoning, which destroys its power in the present case.
2. Application to the future. There is hope for the sufferer if he will but betake himself in humility and repentance to God.
(1) There must be the seeking, striving, straining, agonizing effort of the whole soul to recover its lost treasure peace with him.
(2) There must be prayer, the sincere expression of this desire (ver. 5). In life and in thought there must be conversion from evil and towards him, the Good and the Holy, the Gracious, and the Forgiving. The result will be the recovery of the lost happiness.
(a) Innocence will be restored (ver. 6); grand hope and promise of the eternal gospel the crimson stain may be removed from the heart and the hand, past sins and iniquities may be remembered no more. The possibility of a renovation of which men are tempted in themselves to despair.
(b) Divine protection will be felt. God will watch over him (ver. 6) or "awake for him." The Shepherd of Israel, who slumbers not, will guard him from evil by night and by day, in his going out and his coming in.
(c) Peace will be in his homestead the peace which dwells with right and innocence. Over garden and orchard, on fields and barns, and around the hearth, will be felt brooding the nameless presence of the favour of God.
(d) There will be increase of prosperity (ver. 7). The little one will become a thousand. The seed of right, germinating and producing, will grow to waving harvests of internal joy. of external good. Such are the cheering deductions from Bildad"s high principles, the suggestions of his profound faith. The righteous God will be true to the righteous man. Sin is the only root of sorrow, virtue and godliness the only secret of abiding and eternal bliss.
II APPEAL TO ANCIENT TRADITION.
1. The wisdom of the primeval fathers the guide of to-day. Bildad founds this upon the fact that:
(1) They lived to a greater age"according to the accepted tradition, than present men. They therefore knew better the abiding laws of life than we of lesser insight, who are of yesterday and brief-lived like shadows (vers. 8, 9).
(2) Their wisdom was that of ripe conviction (ver. 10). They did not speak at second-hand nor repeat by rote what they had learnt. Theirs was the wisdom of the heart. Contempt is expressed in several places in this book for mere lip-wisdom, the froth of the mouth as opposed to the genuine utterances of the mind. (Job_11:2 Job_15:3 Job_18:2)
(3) There was therefore the stamp of.sincerity on their wisdom. It came from men who had seen through life"s illusions and cheats, and who had touched the foundation of things.
2. Specimens of ancient wisdom. (Ver, 11, seq. ) Here Bildad passes into citation of some old sayings, which condense the truths of life.
(1) The papyrus and the grass of the Nile (vers. 11, 12). They cannot live without their proper element and nutriment of water; they quickly wither in its absence. So must it be with man where he is devoid of Divine grace (ver. 13). A new figure is introduced in the "paths" of the forgetters of God they are lost like a wind-swept tract in the desert (comp. Psalm 1); and the hope of the unholy "goes under," disappears like the sun below the horizon"s verge, to be seen no more.
(2) The spider"s web (ver. 14). He who trusts in his own strength or resources, without God, will have his confidence rent from him as the spider"s web gives way at a slight touch or at the breath of the wind. The habitation which he thinks secure is but a gossamer thing; it cannot stand (ver. 15).
(3) The creeping plant in its pride (vers. 16, 17). Before the burning glow of the sun, full of sap, it spreads over the garden, fixing itself firmly among the stones, and proudly lording it, as it were, over them. But when God withdraws the water, it perishes, unpitied by the home which it adorned. The wicked is thus denied and forsaken by his own connections, when he would rely upon them. Such is the pleasure of his way, turned into the deepest misery. Others spring from his remains, like suckers from the overthrown tree; let them take warning by his fate (vers. 18, 19). What powerful images of the nonentity of evil! It never really was and, its semblance passing away, not a trace is left behind.
III RECAPITULATION. (Vers. 20-22)
1. In the way of solace. God does not despise the innocent. This is a meiosis"a saying leas than is meant. He regards, he tends, he loves them, feeds them with water in the desert, keeps them as the apple of his eye. His will is to make them happy to bring smiles to the dejected lines of the mouth, and to fill it with the fruits of praise.
2. In the way of warning. He holds not fast the evil-doers" hand," and therefore when they stumble they are helpless. The enemies of the good man will see with shame that he is raised up from every fall (ver. 22); and once more, in final reverberation of the thunder of menace, the tent of the wicked shall vanish and be no more!
LESSONS.
1. The distinction between seeming and real prosperity that which is for a time and that which is for ever.
2. Life by Divine grace, and recovery from seeming ruin. Death without Divine grace, and overthrow of seeming prosperity. J.
HOMILIES BY R. GREEN Vers. 1-7. The Divine justice.
The words of Bildad, as of Job"s other friends, are often marked by great beauty, and often embody principles of the highest practical value; but they frequently err in their application. The judgment of the friends upon Job is based upon an error which the entire course of the book is designed to expose. Here a true principle is enunciated respecting the Divine justice; which is shown to manifest itself
I IS A STRICT INTEGRITY. (Ver. 3) "Doth God pervert judgment?
II IS A VIGOROUS PUNISHMENT OF INIQUITY. God gives the sinful up to the fruits of their wickedness (ver. 4). But he shows both mercy and judgment.
III IS A COMPASSIONATE FORGIVENESS OF THE PENITENT. And he exalts his just judgment
IV BY A GRACIOUS INTERPOSITION ON BEHALF OF THE PURE. (Vers. 6, 7) So that no cause of complaint could remain. The Divine justice is
(1) unimpeachable;
(2) it is displayed in the punishment of vice; and
(3) in the certain reward of virtue, even if long delayed
(4) therefore may men without hesitation commit themselves
(a) to its present treatment, and
(b) to its final decisions. R.G.
Vers. 1-7. The unimpeachable character of the Divine judgment.
He rendereth to every man according to his works. His ways are equal.
I HE THAT SINNETH IS PUNISHED. (Ver. 4)
II HE MERCIFULLY HEARETH THE PRAYER OF THE CONTRITE. (Ver. 5)
III HE BLESSETH THE RIGHTEOUS. (Ver. 6)
IV THOUGH HE CHASTISE, HE FINALLY REWARDETH THE UPRIGHT. (Ver. 7)
To this all the former ages bear testimony, as the recorded or traditional sayings of the ancients bear witness. R.G.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY Ver. 1. Bildad the pedant.
Job"s second friend appears as a pedant, quoting the authority of antiquity, and relying on the tradition of the ancients. His character is not extinct, and the mischief of his blunders is with us to-day.
I THE POWER OF THE PEDANT. This man bases his influence on certain good qualities.
1. Experience. It is to be supposed that this is of some value. The garnered wealth of experience should be a great test of truth. The rule that has stood the strain of time appears to be confirmed in value. Ideas may be very captivating when they first flash out in their novelty, but some hidden flaw may make them utterly worthless. But the mellow maxim, ripened by years, and enriched with the juices of manifold experiences, comes to us with great claims on our confidence.
2. Humility. It seems to be more humble to trust to those who are older than ourselves, than to set up our own wisdom as a rival of theirs. Who are we that we should pretend to question the wisdom of the ages?
3. Reverence. On the other hand, the associations of antiquity command our reverence. We show respect to grey hairs, and we are moved to similar feelings in view of all signs of age. Coming out of a dim past, hoary with the years, ancient things acquire a certain sanctity. The grand minster, the ruined castle, the worm-eaten cabinet, the rare old book, these things stifle our impertinent modern presumptions by the silent weight of their years. "I love everything that"s old," says Goldsmith; "old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.
II THE FOLLY OF THE PEDANT. This reverence for antiquity may be abused, and it is abused by the pedant, who assumes that all modern requirements are to be settled by some musty rule of the ancients. There are many errors in such a position
1. Lack of discrimination. Pope writes"With sharpen"d sight pale antiquaries pore; Th" inscriptions value, but the rust adore: This the blue varnish, that the green endears The sacred rust of twice ten hundred years.
Time has brought down loads of rubbish on its stream as welt as some precious cargoes of ancient experience. Pedants mistake scum for cream.
2. Misinterpretation of the value of antiquity. The earlier times, as Bacon tells us, were really the childhood of our race, and we are the true ancients. It is absurd to bind the practice of the adult age by the tentative ideas of infancy. What has been tried through the centuries, and being in frequent use has stood the test of time, has thereby acquired a certain value. But mere antiquity only means an origin in more primitive and less advanced times.
3. The superstition of forms. The pedant delights in forms and rules and exact precedents. But there are no true precedents for scores of things. Indeed, no two occasions are exactly alike. Therefore no human maxims can be large enough to embrace all circumstances. Life cannot be bound by formal rules. We must learn to look facts in the face, and dare to discard ancient maxims when they are proved to be false. Antiquity is venerable, but truth is more venerable. God has given us consciences, and he has promised us the help of his Spirit. Our best guide is not an ancient rule, but the living Christ, who is ever in the midst of his people. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 20 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite.
Job_8:1-3
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite.
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Bildads unsympathetic speech
Bildad grasps at once, as we say, the nettle. He is quite sure that he has the key to the secret of the distribution among mankind of misery and happiness. It is a very simple solution. It is the doctrine that untimely death, sickness, adversity in every form, are alike signs of Gods anger; that they visit mankind with unerring discrimination; are all what we call judgments; are penalties, i.e., or chastisements, meant either simply to vindicate the broken law, or else to warn and reclaim the sinner. And so, in what we feel to be harsh and unfeeling terms, he applies at once this principle, like unsparing cautery, to the wounds of his friend. Bildad tries to overwhelm the restless and presumptuous audacity of Job with a hoard of maxims and metaphors drawn from the storehouse of the wisdom of the ancients. He puts them forward in a form that may remind us for a moment of the Book of Proverbs. As the tall bulrush or the soaring reed grass dies down faster than it shot up, when water is withdrawn, so falls and withers the short-lived prosperity of the forgetters of God. The spiders web, frailest of tenements, is the world-old type of the hopes which the ungodly builds. The second friend is emphasising what the first had hinted. There are no mysteries at all, no puzzles in human life, the friends say. Suffering is, in each and every case, the consequence of ill-doing. Gods righteousness is absolute. It is to be seen at every turn in the experience of life. All this impatient, fretful, writhing under, or at the sight of pain and loss, is a sign of something morally wrong, of want of faith in Divine justice. Believe this, Job; act on it, and all thy troubles will be over; God will be once more thy friend--till then He cannot be. (Dean Bradley.)
Bildads first speech
I. A reproof that is severe. How long wilt thou speak these things? Job had poured forth language that seemed as wild and tempestuous as the language of a man in a passion. But such language ought to have been considered in relation to his physical anguish and mental distress. Great suffering destroys the mental equilibrium.
II. A doctrine what is unquestionable. Doth God pervert judgment? The interrogatory is a strong way of putting the affirmative; namely, that God is absolutely just, and that He never deviates from the right.
III. An implication that is unkind. If thy children have sinned against Him, and He have cast them away for their transgression. Surely it was excessively heartless even to hint such things to the broken-hearted father.
IV. A policy that is Divine. If thou wouldst seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication unto the Almighty. Bildad recommends that this policy should be attended to at once, and in a proper spirit. He affirms that if this policy be thus attended to, the Almighty would mercifully interpose.
V. An authority not to be trusted. Inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers. He appeals to antiquity to confirm what he has advanced. Two things should be considered.
1. There is nothing in past times infallible but the Divinely-inspired.
2. There is always more of the inspired in the present than in the past.
VI. A consideration that is solemn. We are but of yesterday, and know nothing. This fact, which is introduced parenthetically, is of solemn moment to us all. (Homilist.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Job 8
XIX.
VENTURESOME THEOLOGY
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Job 8
BILDAD SPEAKS
THE first attempt to meet Job has been made by one who relies on his own experience and takes pleasure in recounting the things which he has seen. Bildad of Shuach, on the other hand, is a man who holds to the wisdom of the fathers and supports himself at all times with their answers to the questions of life. Vain to him is the reasoning of one who sees all as through coloured glass, everything of this tint or that, according to his state or notions for the time being. The personal impression counts for nothing with Bildad. He finds no authority there. In him we have the Catholic theologian opposing individualism. Unfortunately he fails in the power most needed, of distinguishing chaff from grain. Back to antiquity, back to the fathers, say some; but, although they profess the excellent temper of reverence, there is no guarantee that they will not select the follies of the past instead of its wisdom to admire. Everything depends upon the man, the individual, after all, whether he has an open mind, a preference if not a passion for great ideas. There are those who go back to the apostles and find only dogmatism, instead of the glorious breadth of Divine poetry and hope. Yea, some go to the Light of the World, and report as their discovery some pragmatical scheme, some weak arrangement of details, a bondage or a futility. Bildad is not one of these. He is intelligent and well-informed, an able man, as we say; but he has no sympathy with new ideas that burst the old wine skins of tradition, no sympathy with daring words that throw doubt on old orthodoxies. You can fancy his pious horror when the rude hand of Job seemed to rend the sacred garments of established truth. It would have been like him to turn away and leave to fate and judgment a man so venturesome.
With the instinct of the highest and noblest thought, utterly removed from all impiety, the writer has shown his inspiration in leading Job to a climax of impassioned inquiry as one who wrestles in the swellings of Jordan with the angel of Jehovah. Now he brings forward Bildad speaking cold words from a mind quite unable to understand the crisis. This is a man who firmly believed himself possessed of authority and insight. When Job added entreaty to entreaty, demand to demand, Bildad would feel as if his ears were deceiving him, for what he heard seemed to be an impious assault on the justice of the Most High, an attempt to convict the Infinitely Righteous of unrighteousness. He burns to speak; and Job has no sooner sunk down exhausted than he begins:-
How long wilt thou speak these things?
A mighty wind, forsooth, are the words of thy mouth.
God:-will He pervert judgment?
Almighty God:-will He pervert righteousness?
If thy children sinned against Him,
And He cast them away into the hand of their rebellion;
If thou wilt seek unto God,
And unto the Almighty wilt make entreaty;
If spotless and upright thou art,
Surely now He would awake for thee
And make prosperous thy righteous habitation.
So that thy beginning shall prove small
And thy latter end exceedingly great.
How far wrong Bildad is may be seen in this, that he dangles before Job the hope of greater worldly prosperity. The children must have sinned, for they have perished. Yet Job himself may possibly be innocent. If he is, then a simple entreaty to God will insure His renewed favour and help. Job is required to seek wealth and greatness again as a pledge of his own uprightness. But the whole difficulty lies in the fact that, being upright, he has been plunged into poverty, desolation, and a living death. He desires to know the reason of what has occurred. Apart altogether from the restoration of his prosperity and health, he would know what God means. Bildad does not see this in the least. Himself a prosperous man, devoted to the doctrine that opulence is the proof of religious acceptance and security, he has nothing for Job but the advice to get God to prove him righteous by giving him back his goods. There is a taunt in Bildads speech. He privately believes that there has been sin, and that only by way of repentance good can come again. Since his friend is so obstinate let him try to regain his prosperity and fail. Bildad is lavish in promises, extravagant indeed. He can only be acquitted of a sinister meaning in his large prediction if we judge that he reckons God to be under a debt to a faithful servant whom He had unwittingly, while He was not observing, allowed to be overtaken by disaster.
Next the speaker parades his learning, the wisdom he had gathered from the past:-
"Inquire, I pray thee, of the bygone age,
And attend to the research of their fathers.
(For we are but of yesterday and know nothing;
A shadow indeed, are our days upon the earth)-
Shall not they teach thee and tell thee,
Bring forth words from their heart?"
The man of today is nothing, a poor creature. Only by the proved wisdom of the long ages can end come to controversy. Let Job listen, then, and be convinced.
Now it must be owned there is not simply an air of truth but truth itself in what Bildad proceeds to say in the very picturesque passage that follows. Truths, however, may be taken hold of in a wrong way to establish false conclusions; and in this way Jobs interlocutor errs with not a few of his painstaking successors. The rush or papyrus of the riverside cannot grow without mire; the reed grass needs moisture. If the water fails they wither. So are the paths of all that forget God. Yes: if you take it aright, what can be more impressively certain? The hope of a godless man perishes. His confidence is cut off; it is as if he trusted in a spiders web. Even his house, however strongly built, shall not support him. The man who has abandoned God must come to this-that every earthly stay shall snap asunder, every expectation fade. There shall be nothing between him and despair. His strength, his wisdom, his inheritance, his possessions piled together in abundance, how can they avail when the demand is urged by Divine justice - What hast thou done with thy life? This, however, is not at all in Bildads mind. He is not thinking of the prosperity of the soul and exultation in God, but of outward success, that a man should spread his visible existence like a green bay tree. Beyond that visible existence he cannot stretch thought or reasoning. His school, generally, believed in God much after the manner of English eighteenth-century deists, standing on the earth, looking over the life of man here, and demanding in the present world the vindication of providence. The position is realistic, the good of life solely mundane. If one is brought low who flourished in luxuriance and sent forth his shoots over the garden and was rooted near the spring, his poverty is his destruction; he is destroyed because somehow the law of life, that is of prosperity, has been transgressed, and the God of success punishes the fault. We are made to feel that beneath the promise of returning honour and joy with which Bildad closes there is an if. "God will not cast away a perfect man." Is Job perfect? Then his mouth will be filled with laughter, and his haters shall be clothed with shame. That issue is problematical. And yet, on the whole, doubt is kept well in the background, and the final word of cheer is made as generous and hopeful as circumstances will allow. Bildad means to leave the impression on Jobs mind that the wisdom of the ancients as applied to his case is reassuring.
But one sentence of his speech, that in which (Job_8:4) he implies the belief that Jobs children had sinned and been "cast away into the hand of their rebellion," shows the cold, relentless side of his orthodoxy, the logic, not unknown still, which presses to its point over the whole human race. Bildad meant, it appears, to shift from Job the burden of his childrens fate. The catastrophe which overtook them might have seemed to be one of the arrows of judgment aimed at the father. Job himself may have had great perplexity as well as keen distress whenever he thought of his sons and daughters. Now Bildad is throwing on them the guilt which he believes to have been so terribly punished, even to the extremity of irremediable death. But there is no enlightenment in the suggestion. Rather does it add to the difficulties of the case. The sons and daughters whom Job loved, over whom he watched with such religious care lest they should renounce God in their hearts-were they condemned by the Most High? A man of the old world, accustomed to think of himself as standing in Gods stead to his household, Job cannot receive this. Thought having been once stirred to its depths, he is resentful now against a doctrine that may never before have been questioned. Is there, then no fatherhood in the Almighty, no magnanimity such as Job himself would have shown? If so, then the spirit would fail before Him, and the souls which He has made. {Isa_57:16} The dogmatist with his wisdom of the ages drops in the by-going one of his commonplaces of theological thought. It is a coal of fire in the heart of the sufferer.
Those who attempt to explain Gods ways for edification and comfort need to be very simple and genuine in their feeling with men, their effort on behalf of God. Everyone who believes and thinks has something in his spiritual experience worth recounting, and may help an afflicted brother by retracing his own history. But to make a creed learned by rote the basis of consolation is perilous. The aspect it takes to those under trial will often surprise the best meaning consoler. A point is emphasised by the keen mind of sorrow, and, like Elijahs cloud, it soon sweeps over the whole sky, a storm of doubt and dismay.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Bildad less courteous and considerate of Job’s feelings than…
BILDAD’S FIRST SPEECH
Bildad less courteous and considerate of Job’s feelings than even Eliphaz. Commences with an unfeeling reflection on his speech. Pursues the same line of argument and address as his predecessor—
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(1) God is righteous—punishing the bad, and rewarding those who seek and serve Him;
(2) Job exhorted to prove the latter by sincere repentance and prayer;
(3) The prosperity of the wicked short-lived, and sure to end in ruin: the end of the righteous certain joy and triumph.
I. Bildad’s Introduction (Job_8:2).
A harsh censure on Job’s speech—
(1) For its length. “How long wilt thou speak,” &c. Had listened to Job with impatience. Due to every man to hear him patiently, especially a man in affliction;
(2) For its matter. “How long wilt thou speak these things?” Uttered with contempt—these worthless and wicked sentiments;
(3) For its vehemence. “And the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind”—recklessly bearing down all before thee, human and Divine. Intensely unfeeling thus to attack the words of a man in such deep distress. Faultiness in another’s speech no excuse for unfeelingness in our own. Job’s speech not more destitute of sobriety than Bildad’s is of sympathy. Difficult even under the Gospel to have our “speech always with grace, seasoned with salt.” Christians so to speak as to “minister grace to the hearer,” and bring glory to God. Bildad’s censure not without use to preachers. Suggests care as to—
(1) The length;
(2) The matter;
(3) The manner of their discourses. Preachers to avoid—
(1) Prolixity;
(2) Unsound or unprofitable matter;
(3) A vehement and boisterous delivery.
II. Bildad strongly asserts the Divine righteousness (Job_8:3).
“Doth God pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty pervert justice?” This apparently implied in Job’s complaints. God essentially righteous. Incapable of injustice towards His creatures. As “the Almighty,” He is beyond any temptation to act unjustly. The Judge of all the earth cannot but do right (Gen_18:25). Severe complaints like Job’s, a reflection on God’s justice. God is righteous.
1. In punishing sin. The reference in Bildad’s mind both to Job’s affliction and his children’s death. Cruelly treats the latter as a probable, if not certain, instance of Divine justice (Job_8:4).—“If (or, ‘since’) thy children have sinned against Him, and He have cast them away for (margin, ‘in the hand of) their transgression,” making their sin in immoderate feasting to be its own punishment, &c. An erroneous as well as unfeeling application of the general truth.
(1) Job’s children had sinned, out not above all men that dwelt in the land of Uz;
(2) Their sin was not the occasion of their death. No injustice on God’s part, however, either to Job or his children, in allowing the calamity. Sufficient sin in each to merit more than any earthly affliction (Lam_3:39). Death, in the case of believers’ children, their removal to a better state. To the parents, overruled for their elevation to a higher spiritual life. Bildad’s error in regarding earth as the sphere of God’s retributive justice. General tendency to view calamity as the righteous punishment of sinful conduct. The tower in Siloam. The error reproved by Jesus (Luk_13:1-5). The unjust reserved to the day of judgment to be punished (2Pe_2:9). The present life rather the time of forbearance and mercy (2Pe_3:9; 2Pe_3:15). Many apparent anomalies in the Divine procedure. Examples: Abel’s murder, and Cain’s long and prosperous life. A future state necessary to clear up these anomalies, and fully display the righteousness of God.
2. In rewarding those who seek and serve Him (Job_8:5).—“If thou” (emphatic, thou who art still spared) “wouldst seek unto God betimes (repair to Him earnestly and at once), and make, &c., if thou wert pure [in thy heart and motive] and upright I in thy profession and practice while so doing]; surely now [even in thy extreme misery] He would awake for thee” (and come quickly to thy help). The error and sting in all this, the supposition that Job had been a wicked man and a hypocrite. The sentiment in itself true and profitable.
(1) God the only help and refuge in trouble (Psa_46:1.)
(2) The duty and interest of all in trouble to betake themselves to Him.
(3) This to be attended to “betimes,” at once, and with all earnestness.
(4) Supplication to be made to Him for pardon, deliverance, and grace (Lam_3:41).
(5) This to be done in sincerity and uprightness, with a renouncing of all sin (Psa_66:18).
(6) The result a certain and speedy interposition in our behalf.
A twofold promise held out:
1. A peaceful and prosperous habitation;
2. A large increase in worldly possessions (Job_8:7). “He would make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous,” (or, “would restore thy then righteous habitation, and endow it with perfect felicity”). Temporal blessing promised as the expression of the Divine favour. An insinuation that Job’s dwelling had not formerly been a righteous one. Two great mercies indicated m this promise.
(1) A pious home; a home where—(i.) God is daily and duly acknowledged and worshipped; (ii.). The members of the family live in love towards each other; (iii.) All the duties of morality and religion are carefully attended to. Such a dwelling contrasted with the “tents of wickedness” (Psa_84:11).
(2) A peaceful and prosperous home; where—(i.) The inmates are at peace with God and with one another; (ii.) God prospers their honest endeavours to obtain a competent livelihood; (iii.) They are preserved from domestic troubles; (iv.) All the inmates are the pardoned and accepted children of God. A pious home usually a peaceful and prosperous one. There God commands his blessing (Psa_133:3). The ark brought a blessing with it into Obededom’s house (2Sa_6:10-11). The voice of rejoicing and salvation in the tabernacles of the righteous (Psa_118:15). A peaceful habitation a new covenant blessing (Isa_32:18). The dove of Divine peace hovers over the altar of domestic worship.
III. Bildad refers Job to the Fathers for instruction (Job_8:8).
“Enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers,”—to the examination of the records of those still further distant, as Noah, Shem, &c. The reason given: “For we (the present generation as compared with the past, or viewed as single individuals) are but of yesterday and know nothing” (—have comparatively little knowledge and experience of God’s dealings with men); “because our days upon earth (as mere individuals, or as compared with those of our ancestors), are a shadow. Shall they not teach thee and tell thee [how God acts towards men in this world], and utter words out of their heart,”—well-pondered sayings as the result of their careful observation and reflection? Knowledge in the earlier period of the world rather the results of observation. These embodied in poetical and proverbial sayings. Such sayings existed either as written records or as traditional poetry. Especially valued by the Arabs, and still esteemed by them as the strongest testimonies. Mostly, however, the productions only of human wisdom, and to be distinguished from Divine revelation. Amongst them were the utterances of inspired men, as that of Enoch (Jud_1:14.).
Tradition
Such traditions to be received with deference and respect, but not as of binding authority. Their authority that of the arguments which support them. Men always fallible, except as inspired by God to deliver truth. The fathers of the race and the fathers of the Church in the same category. Their wisdom and experience neither to be disregarded nor implicitly received. Increased light obtained with the advance of ages and the increase of experience. The wisdom and experience of each generation to be valued as a contribution to that of its successors. Opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making [Milton]. It is only the weak who, at each epoch, believe mankind to have arrived at the culminating point of their progressive march [Humboldt]. The famous test of ecclesiastical tradition a safe one, if it could be found,—what has been taught by all, taught always, and taught everywhere. The longevity of the earlier ages favourable for wider observation. In the time of Job, human life reduced to about 200 years. Noah lived to be 950; Arphaxad, his grandson, only 438; Peleg, the great-grandson of Arphaxad, 239; Serug, Peleg’s grandson, probably about the time of Job, 230; Terah, Serug’s grandson and the father of Abraham, 205. The change apparent and striking to those living at the time. Hence Bildad’s acknowledgment—
Human Life a Shadow
Time measured at that time by the shadow projected by the index of a dial, a spear stuck in the ground, &c. Man’s life but a solar day,—as the shadow fleeting along the dial-plate. Life mercifully reduced in consequence of sin. A long, vigorous life-time more favourable to the development of human depravity. “The heart never grows better by age: I fear, worse,—always harder” [Lord Chesterfield]. Great longevity only gives occasion to the godly for David’s lament (Psa_120:5-6). The present extent of human life long enough for a child of God to be kept from home (2Co_5:6; 2Co_5:8). Life, as a “shadow,” calls for—
(1) Diligence in the improvement of it. Momentous issues hang on the fleeting shadow. Eternal interests demand despatch.
(2) A loose hold of things of time. Like life itself, “all here is shadow, all beyond is substance.” Foolish to set the heart on a shadow. “He builds too low who builds beneath the skies.”
(3) A proper estimate to be made of the troubles and joys, the possessions and pursuits, of the present life.
(4) Earnestness in securing a solid And lasting happiness beyond the grave.
IV. Quotation from the ancients (Job_8:11-19). Exhibits:
1. The temporary prosperity of the ungodly. Compared—
(1) To the paper-reed of Egypt, and the flag of the marsh or grass of the meadow (Job_8:11). “Can the rush (or ‘papyrus’) grow up without mire? Can the flag (‘marsh-plant,’ or ‘grass of the meadow,’—same word wrongly translated ‘meadow’ in Gen_41:2.) grow without water?” The papyrus of the Nile formerly used in the manufacture of garments, shoes, baskets, boats, and paper, whence our English word. The papyrus probably employed by the Jews of Alexandria for writing on while translating the Old Testament into Greek, having used this very word in the place of our “rush.” Now only found in marshes of the White Nile in Nubia, and in one or two spots in Palestine. Such plants capable of receiving a large supply of water which they require for their nourishment. Grow tall and luxuriant while the water is supplied; but speedily die when that supply is withdrawn. Picture of worldly men who have no living principle of enduring prosperity within themselves, either in the love of God in them, or the blessing of God on them. Their prosperity only from favourable circumstances, which may at any time come to an end. Contrast Human with Joseph, both attaining to the highest prosperity.
(2) To a spider’s web, constructed with the greatest care, and expected to prove a lasting support to its possessor, but which the slightest accident may disturb and destroy (Job_8:14). “Whose trust (his riches, &c. in which he trusts) shall be a spider’s web”—as unsubstantial and as certain speedily to perish. “The spider’s most attenuated thread is cord, is cable,” compared to such prosperity and trust.
(3) To a luxuriant garden-tree, growing near a fountain and striking its numerous roots into the rocky bed on which it stands, open to the sun, and with every advantage of soil and situation (Job_8:16-17). “He is green (or moist) before the sun (enjoying the warm and genial influence of its rays), and his branch shooteth forth in his garden: his roots are wrapped about the heap (or fountain), and seeth the place of stones” (enjoys the benefit of rocky strata for its support). A still more striking picture of the prosperous ungodly than the tall and luxuriant marsh-plant. Compare Psa_37:35.
2. The certain and speedy termination of that prosperity.
(1) The papyrus or marsh-plant suddenly withers from want of the required supply of water (Job_8:12). “Whilst it is yet in its greenness (promising long continuance), and not cut down (—without any hand applied to pluck or cut it down), it withereth before any other herb” (suddenly decays without giving notice of the approaching change, while other plants less dependent on a large supply of moisture continue to live). Soon ripe, soon rotten. The prosperity of the ungodly a Jonah’s gourd.
(2) The spider’s web, on which he depends for his support, speedily perishes by accident or the broom (Job_8:15). “He (the spider, or the ungodly whom he represents) shall lean on his house (on his web, or the riches, family, &c, of the worldly figured by it), but it shall not stand; he shall hold it fast (or, lay hold of it—for its preservation, or rather for his own support), but it shall not endure.” “Time destroys the well-built house as well as the spider’s web” [Arab Proverb]. The prosperity and bliss of the worldly man perishes like that flimsy web. It is well if, like that web also, it does not bury its possessor in its ruins.
(3) The luxuriant tree, spreading abroad its roots and branches, is suddenly struck by lightning or whirlwind, and at once becomes a leafless skeleton, or is laid prostrate on its native soil (Job_8:18). “If he destroy him (or, ‘if he [or it] be destroyed’—Heb. ‘swallowed up’) from his place, then it shall deny him, saying: I have not seen thee”—the place where it stood is forgotten. The application given by the Psalmist: “He (the wicked) passed away, and lo, he was not; yea, I sought him, but he could not be found” (Psa_37:36). History full of such instances. Haman, instead of parading on the monarch’s horse, is left hanging on a felon’s gallows. When the Messenians saw the renowned Philopœmon stripped and dragged along with his hands ignominiously bound behind his back, “they wept, and contemned all human greatness as a faithless support, as vanity and nothing” [Plutarch]. The Emperor Vitellius was driven through the streets of Rome naked, and then thrown into the Tiber.
“O mighty Cæsar! dost thou lie so low!
Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,
Shrunk to this little measure?”
3. The application (Job_8:13). “So are life paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish.”
Forgetfulness of God
Those “who forget God” placed in the same class with the “hypocrite,” or rather the “profane,” or “wicked.” Enough to characterize a man as wicked, that he “forgets God” (So Psa_9:17; Psa_10:4). To forget God is—
(1) Not to think of Him;
(2) Not to thank Him;
(3) Not to serve and obey Him. It is to forget—
(1) His presence;
(2) His Providence;
(3) His precepts. Forgetfulness of another implies—
(1) Want of love;
(2) Want of respect. Men feel wounded on being forgotten by those whom they love, and on whose love they have a claim. Observe—
1. Forgetfulness of God is the root and essence of all sin. It is to ignore, and, as far as we are able, to annihilate, Him from His own universe. It is to treat Him as though there were no such Being. The fool hath said in his heart, “No God” (Psa_14:1). To “remember” God equivalent to loving and serving Him (Ecc_12:1; Isa_64:5).
2. To forget God is to forget Him who possesses all claims to our remembrance;—
(1) From what He is in Himself;
(2) From what He is and has been to us. God is—
(1) The Being who is the Source and Centre of all possible excellence and loveliness;
(2) Our Creator and Father;
(3) Our Preserver from moment to moment;
(4) Our Provider;
(5) Our Protector;
(6) Our Deliverer from trouble and danger;
(7) Our Benefactor and best Friend;
(8) In Christ our Redeemer and Saviour from sin and all its direful consequences.
3. In forgetting God we give our thoughts and hearts to the world, which has no attraction but what it derives from Him, and which can neither satisfy nor sace us. To forget God, therefore, is both ingratitude, robbery, and idolatry. It is to rob Him of His honour as well as ourselves of peace.
4. To remember God is to elevate, ennoble, and purify ourselves.
V. Conclusion of Bildad’s Speech (Job_8:20-22). Perhaps another of the sayings of the ancients. Same general subject—God’s dealings with the righteous and the wicked. Intended, like parts of the speech of Eliphaz, either for consolation or conviction, or perhaps both. Contains—
1. Comfort for the godly under trial (Job_8:20). “Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man” (see chap. Job_1:1). Hence, comfort for Job, if such. This, however, still to be proved. A. righteous man may be cast down, but not cast away (Psa_94:14; 2Co_6:9). Hence the difficulty to Job’s friends in judging of his character. For the present, to all appearance, he was cast away. Himself, his family, and his fortunes, apparently a total wreck. The question therefore natural—Has Job been what he appeared? Or has he at length in his prosperity turned his back upon God? The Divine rule—“If thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off for ever” (1Ch_28:9). Job himself conscious this was not his case: but this uncertain to the others. A truly good man proved lo be such by continuing good. Care to be taken not only to begin, but to persevere in well-doing. Not to prove a castaway, Paul kept his body under (1Co_9:27). (Job_8:21). “Till (or, ‘while’—connecting with Job_8:22) he shall fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing” (margin, “shouting for joy.”) “Till,” &c., implies continuance in well doing and well-suffering. In due time we reap, if we faint not. Sowing in tears, we reap in joy. The “shouting” of victory crowns the well-fought battle. That “shouting” one—
(1) of joy. “The ransomed of the Lord return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy on their heads” (Isa_35:10).
(2) Of praise. “Salvation to our God that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb” (Rev_7:10). “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to thy name, give glory” (Psa_115:1).
2. Warning to the ungodly (Job_8:20). “Neither will he help the evil-doers.”—Margin, “take the ungodly by the hand,” or, “take hold of their hand,”—i.e., with the view of helping and countenancing them. An unkind out for poor Job, who seemed far enough from Divine help. So little can man know either love or hatred from that which s before him (Ecc_9:1). Now men see not the bright light which is in the clouds (ch. Job_37:21). “Judge not the Lord by feeble sense.” A solemn truth in the words of Bildad. The help which the ungodly receive is not God’s help. Divine help the privilege of the godly (Psa_63:7; Act_26:22). To enjoy God’s help we must employ ourselves in God’s service (Job_8:22).—“They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame (as Psa_35:26; Psa_109:29; Psa_132:18). The ungodly, however prosperous for a time, condemned to shame. Shame the natural fruit of sin (Rom_6:21). Shame and contempt the characteristic and doom of the risen ungodly (Dan_12:2). “Shame” experienced—
(1) That they madly threw away their souls for the pleasures of sin;
(2) That those whom they hated and despised they now see crowned with joy and victory;
(3) That they so basely fought against the God that made them.—“And the dwelling-place (Heb. ‘tent,’ as Psa_84:11) of the wicked shall come to nought,”—as a tent when struck leaves no trace of it behind. The “tent” of the ungodly may be a rich pavilion, but its doom is written. Sin brings families as well as individuals to certain ruin.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Little beginnings in your hearts will lead to great…
Job 8:7
Little beginnings in your hearts will lead to great ends.
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I. The first thing I should mention is the little feeling that people have in their own hearts about their sin. Josiah was a very good boy. What is said about him? "Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God" (2Ch 34:27). That was a sure beginning.
II. Sometimes we feel a battle in our hearts, a struggle, something good and something naughty. They seem to fight. At last we get the victory over something. That is a sure beginning when boys or girls begin to feel a struggle in their own hearts, because by nature people feel no struggle. So God said to Adam and Eve, "I will put enmity"—a struggle. It is a sign for good.
III. Notice another thing—beginning to feel an interest in good things. Some children do not like going to church, reading their Bibles they think stupid and dull, and they only do it because they must. When a boy or girl finds a pleasure in these things, then there is a good beginning.
IV. When you try to be useful, when you begin to be religious, you will want to do good things. Your small things will become great things; that is, your soft heart will get softer, till it becomes quite soft enough to take the impression of God’s image. The struggle with sin will go on till you get a victory over your own sins and over Satan, and you will come forth more than conquerors. Your pleasure in good things will increase; you will go on and on in usefulness while you live, till finally you will go to that place where "His servants shall serve Him" throughout eternity.
J. Vaughan, Children’s Sermons, 1875, p. 82.
Reference: Job 8:7.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi., p. 311.
Job 8:9
One only appears in the centuries of human existence who speaks of immortality as One who knows He is the most lowly of the sons of men. Yet He talks of providence, of immortality, as God might talk, could His voice come down to us from the eternal silence. He does not reason, but declares truths beyond the range, above the scope, of reasoning. He came forth alive from His own sepulchre, thus attesting the non-reality of death, the continuity of life through the death-slumber.
I. If God is our Father, if He exercises a loving providence over us, if He hears our prayers, if He has ordained for us a life beyond death, how shall we know it? Nature is voiceless. Revelation alone can meet these desires of ours, can answer these questions which every awakened consciousness must ask. Jesus Himself is the best proof of the Divinity of the revelation which He gave, or rather which He was and is. His is the most potent spirit that ever dwelt on the earth; His is the mightiest force at work in our world.
II. Here then, in Him "who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light," we have our sure resort and remedy under the depressing consciousness of which our text gives us the formula. Taught by Jesus, we can say, I am not lost; I am not forgotten in the crowd of beings, in the crush of worlds. Thou who art the life of all that live hast made me, in my littleness and lowliness, the partaker of Thine own immortality.
A. P. Peabody, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 273.
References: Job 8:11-13.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi., No. 651. Job 8:13.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 62. Job 8—Expositor, 1st series, vol. v., p. 26. Job 9:13.—Ibid., 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 286. Job 9:21.—Ibid., vol. iv., p. 286. Job 9:25, Job 9:26.—J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, p. 102. Job 9:30-35.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. v., p. 192.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v14 Job 8:14. - Rom 5:5.
Job
TWO KINDS OF HOPE
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Job 8:14. - Rom 5:5.
These two texts take opposite sides. Bildad was not the wisest of Job’s friends, and he gives utterance to solemn commonplaces with partial truth in them. In the rough it is true that the hope of the ungodly perishes, and the limits of the truth are concealed by the splendour of the imagery and the perfection of artistic form in which the well-worn platitude is draped. The spider’s web stretched glittering in the dewy morning on the plants, shaking its threaded tears in the wind, the flag in the dry bed of a nullah withering while yet green, the wall on which leaning a man will fall, are vivid illustrations of hopes that collapse and fail. But my other text has to do with hopes that do not fail. Paul thinks that he knows of hope that maketh not ashamed, that is, which never disappoints. Bildad was right if he was thinking, as he was, of hopes fixed on earth; the Apostle was right, for he was thinking of hopes set on God. It is a commonplace that ‘hope springs immortal in the human breast’; it is equally a commonplace that hopes are disappointed. What is the conclusion from these two universal experiences? Is it the cynical one that it is all illusion, or is it that somewhere there must be an object on which hope may twine its tendrils without fear? God has given the faculty, and we may be sure that it is not given to be for ever balked. We must hope. Our hope may be our worst enemy; it may and should be our purest joy.
Let us then simply consider these two sorts of hope, the earthly and the heavenly, in their working in the three great realms of life, death, and eternity.
I. In life.
The faculty is inseparable from man’s consciousness of immortality and of an indefinitely expansible nature which ever makes him discontented with the present. It has great purposes to perform in strengthening him for work, in helping him over sorrows, in making him buoyant and elastic, in painting for him the walls of the dungeon, and hiding for him the weight of the fetters.
But for what did he receive this great gift? Mainly that he might pass beyond the temporal and hold converse with the skies. Its true sphere is the unseen future which is at God’s right hand.
We may run a series of antitheses, e.g.-
Earthly hope is so uncertain that its larger part is often fear.
Heavenly hope is fixed and sure. It is as certain as history.
Earthly hope realised is always less blessed than we expected. How universal the experience that there is little to choose between a gratified and a frustrated hope! The wonders inside the caravan are never so wonderful as the canvas pictures outside.
Heavenly hopes ever surpass the most rapturous anticipation. ‘The half hath not been told.’
Earthly hopes are necessarily short-winged. They are settled one way or another, and sink hull down below our horizon.
Heavenly hope sets its object far off, and because a lifetime only attains it in part, it blesses a lifetime and outlasts it.
II. Hope in death.
That last hour ends for us all alike our earthly joys and relations. The slow years slip away, and each bears with it hopes that have been outlived, whether fulfilled or disappointed. One by one the lights that we kindle in our hall flicker out, and death quenches the last of them. But there is one light that burns on clear through the article of death, like the lamp in the magician’s tomb. ‘The righteous hath hope in his death.’ We can each settle for ourselves whether we shall carry that radiant angel with her white wings into the great darkness, or shall sadly part with her before we part with life. To the earthly soul that last earthly hour is a black wall beyond which it cannot look. To the God-trusting soul the darkness is peopled with bright-faced hopes.
III. Hope in eternity.
It is not for our tongues to speak of what must, in the natural working out of consequences, be the ultimate condition of a soul which has not set its hopes on the God who alone is the right Object of the blessed but yet awful capacity of hoping, when all the fleeting objects which it sought as solace and mask of its own true poverty are clean gone from its grasp. Dante’s tremendous words are more than enough to move wholesome horror in any thinking soul: ‘Leave hope behind, all ye who enter here.’ They are said to be unfeeling, grim, and mediaeval, incredible in this enlightened age; but is there any way out of them, if we take into account what our nature is moulded to need and cling to, and what ‘godless’ men have done with it?
But let us turn to the brighter of these texts. ‘Hope maketh not ashamed.’ There will be an internal increase of blessedness, power, purity in that future, a fuller possession of God, a reaching out after completer likeness to Him. So if we can think of days in that calm state where time will be no more, ‘to-morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant,’ and the angel Hope, who kept us company through all the weary marches of earth, will attend on us still, only having laid aside the uncertainty that sometime veiled her smiles, but retaining all the buoyant eagerness for the ever unfolding wonders which gave us courage and cheer in the days of our flesh.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The First Speech of Bildad
The First Speech of Bildad
Holding the same doctrine about sin and suffering as Eliphaz, Bildad supports the views of his friend by an appeal to the teaching of antiquity. He shows less sympathy and more narrowness of mind than Eliphaz.
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1-7. Bildad maintains the justice of God's actions. Since Job's children have perished it must have been for their sins. As for Job, if he would but repent he would be restored to prosperity.
2. Like a strong wind] violent, headstrong.
3. Can there be injustice with God as Job seems to think is possible? Bildad thinks the All-powerful must in the nature of things be righteous. Job does not deny the omnipotence, but he questions the righteousness.
4. And he have cast, etc.] RV 'he delivered them into the hand of their transgression,' i.e. abandoned them to the consequences of their sins. This conclusion about the death of Job's sons was quite unjustifiable (cp. Luk_13:4; Joh_9:2-3), but is in accordance with the general views about retribution. The catastrophe had fallen on the very day on which their father had offered the sacrifice: see on Job_1:13.
6. Awake for thee] LXX reads 'hearken unto thee.'
8-22. Bildad appeals to the experience of antiquity to show that God uproots the wicked, though they seem firmly established, and does not cast away the upright.
8. To the search of their fathers] RV 'to that which their fathers have searched out.'
9. We] the men of his own day.
11-15. As surely as a water-plant perishes without water so surely will the sinner perish when God turns from him.
11. The rush] RM 'the papyrus,' a reed from which the Egyptians made paper, light boats, etc.
13. Hope] of prosperity.
15. Hold it fast] RV 'hold fast thereby.'
16-18. The sinner is compared to a fastgrowing weed which flourishes under the heat of the sun, and whose roots plant themselves firmly in the earth (seeth the place of stones), but when destroyed it passes at once into oblivion. A slight correction of the Heb. would give for 17b, 'It lives in a house of stones.'
17. Heap] The Heb. also means 'fountain,' and possibly the sense may be that the plant lives in the stone erection over the fountain in the garden.
19. The joy of his way] the short-lived prosperity of the sinner. Others grow] who fill his place.
21. Till he] RV 'He will yet.' Bildad, sharing the view of Eliphaz that while Job must have fallen into some heinous sin he was nevertheless a pious and upright man at heart, bases on this his prophecy that God will restore him. He must be chastened, but he cannot be cast away.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1, 14 Bildad is a religious dogmatist of the superficial kind,…
Bildad
Bildad is a religious dogmatist of the superficial kind, whose dogmatism rests upon tradition (e.g.) Job 8:8-10 and upon proverbial wisdom and approved pious phrases. These abound in all his discourses. His platitudes are true enough, but then every one knows them.; Job 9:1; Job 9:2; Job 13:2 nor do they shed any light on such a problem as Job’s.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 CHAPTER 8 Bildad’s Address
CHAPTER 8 Bildad’s Address
1. How long, Job? (Job 8:1-7)
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2. Enquire of the former age (Job 8:8-10)
3. God’s dealing with the wicked and the righteous (Job 8:11-22)
Job 8:1-7. Bildad the Shuhite now speaks to Job. He is less dogmatic than Eliphaz, and less courteous, but more outspoken. He must have lost his patience listening to Job’s reply. Especially does he resent what Job had said about God, the insinuations which had fallen from his lips. But we shall see he too follows the logic of Eliphaz, that God punishes Job for his sins. He starts in at once to rebuke Job for what he had said. “How long, Job, wilt thou speak these things? How long shall the words of thy mouth be like a mighty wind?” By the latter expression he insinuates that Job’s speech was tempestuous like the wind, and as empty as the wind. He declares, what certainly is the truth, that God cannot be unrighteous. In this way Bildad called a decisive halt to the dangerous utterances Job had made, forced to it by Eliphaz’s cold and dogmatic assertions. Job, inasmuch as he repudiated the accusation of being a sinner, and being punished for his sins, was rapidly approaching the verge of charging God with being unjust. Then Bildad deals a cruel blow to the man upon the ash-heap. He tries to illustrate the principle he defends, that God only punishes sinners, by the children of Job, that they sinned and were wicked and therefore God dealt with them in His righteousness. It has been freely rendered in this wise:
It may be thy sons ‘gainst Him have sinned
And He, through their rebellion, cut them off.
How that must have pained Job! Then he exhorts Job to seek God diligently and it would not be in vain. He has his “ifs.” “if thou wouldest seek unto God”--and--”If thou wert pure and upright.”
Job 8:8-10. But he is a traditionalist. He appeals to the past. “For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and apply thyself to that which their fathers have searched out.” We, in our generation, are but of yesterday, and know nothing. Zophar also appealed to the fathers.
Job 8:11-22. And here we have the wisdom of Bildad as he learned it from the past. It is all true and sublimely stated; the wicked cannot prosper; their doom is certain. On the other hand God will not cast off the perfect man. But Job is in the place of one who is cast off, therefore he must belong to the wicked who do not prosper. This is hidden beneath Bildad’s rhetoric. Yet beautiful are the closing sentences of his first address, the truth of which was fully acknowledged by Job in his reply.
But perfect men God never casts away
Nor takes He evil-doers by the hand.
Wait! Then one day He fills thy mouth
With laughter and thy lips with joyous shouts.
And they who hate thee shall be clothed with shame,
And tents of wicked men exist no more.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 8 An Admonition to Job to Repent of his Sin
An Admonition to Job to Repent of his Sin
v. 1. Then answered Bildad, the Shuhite, 2:11, and said,
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v. 2. How long wilt thou speak these things? An exclamation of impatience over the blasphemous impertinence which he read in Job’s words. And how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind? He made this comparison both on account of the emptiness and bluster of the wind and on account of its destructive tendency.
v. 3. Doth God pervert judgment? Or doth the Almighty pervert justice? Would Job in his sober mind accuse God of injustice, either in principle or in act?
v. 4. If thy children have sinned against him, namely, in celebrating their feasts and banquets, 1:5-18, and he have cast them away for their transgression, abandoning them to the destructive hand of their own guilt, for sin will invariably punish the transgressor;
v. 5. if thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, turning to Him with earnest, humble entreaty, and make thy supplication to the Almighty, with the object of rendering God gracious to himself;
v. 6. if thou wert pure and upright, Bildad’s inference being that this could not be the case in the circumstances, surely now He would awake for thee, arousing Himself for Job’s protection and deliverance. and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous, He would restore to Job the home and the possession which he had had as a righteous man, He would let him once more enjoy the fruits of his righteousness in peace.
v. 7. Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase, his prosperity would certainly be very great, he would once more flourish greatly. All this God would surely send upon Job if he were the righteous, pure, and upright man which he represented himself to be. Bildad’s statement was an unconscious prophecy of that which afterwards really came to pass, 42:12.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 8, 11, 13, 16, 19, 21 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
In this chapter, Bildad begins to speak about Job's complaints.
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General Information:
Verses 2 and 3 each consist of two different questions that have the same meaning. Bildad uses these questions to rebuke Job. (See: Rhetorical Question and Parallelism)
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered
"Bildad" is the name of a man who is a member of the tribe of Shuah. (See: How to Translate Names)
How long will the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?
Bildad speaks of Job's words as if they are as empty and insubstantial as the wind. This can be translated as a statement. AT: "The words of your mouth are as insignificant as a mighty wind." (See: Metaphor and Rhetorical Question)
Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert righteousness?
Here "God" and "the Almighty" both refer to Yahweh. These questions can be translated as statements. AT: "God does not pervert justice; the Almighty does not pervert righteousness." (See: Rhetorical Question)
pervert justice? ... pervert righteousness?
"approve of and do what is not just? ... approve of and do what is not righteous?"
translationWords
word
might
God
just
Almighty
righteous
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 16 8:1 Like Eliphaz, Bildad the Shuhite (see study note…
8:1 Like Eliphaz, Bildad the Shuhite (see study note on 2:11) believed that Job’s sufferings were God’s retribution (8:3-6, 13; cp. 4:7-8; 5:2-3). This counselor revered the wisdom of the past (8:8-10; cp. 4:7) and addressed Job with a mixture of instruction (8:3-6, 8-10; cp. 4:12-21; 5:9-16) and encouragement (8:5-7, 20-22; cp. 4:6; 5:19-26). His point was that Job should quit blustering. He advised Job to repent and allow God’s justice to bring about restoration (8:1-7).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.