---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Job 8"
description: "CHAPTER 8   FIRST
SERIES—FIRST SPEECH OF BILDAD, MORE SEVERE AND
COARSE THAN THAT OF ELIPHAZ.   :-. THE ADDRESS
OF BILDAD. 2. like a . . . wind?—disregard"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/job/8"
---

CHAPTER 8

FIRST
SERIES—FIRST SPEECH OF BILDAD, MORE SEVERE
AND
COARSE THAN THAT OF ELIPHAZ.

. THE ADDRESS
OF BILDAD.

**2. like a . . . wind?**—disregarding
restraints, and daring against God.

**3.** The repetition of "pervert"
gives an emphasis galling to Job (). "Wouldst thou have God," as thy words imply,
"pervert judgment," by letting thy sins go unpunished? He
assumes Job's guilt from his sufferings.

**4. If**—Rather, "*Since*
thy children have sinned against Him, and (*since*) He has cast
them away (*Hebrew, by the* hand of) for their transgressions,
(yet) if thou wouldst seek unto God, c., if thou wert pure, &c.,
surely [even] now He would awake for thee." UMBREIT
makes the apodosis to, "since thy children," &c., begin
at "He has cast them away." Also, instead of "*for,*"
"He gave them up to (literally, *into* the hand of) their
own guilt." Bildad expresses the justice of God, which Job had
arraigned. Thy children have sinned God leaves them to the
consequence of their sin; most cutting to the heart of the bereaved
father.

**5. seek unto God betimes**—early.
Make it the first and chief anxiety ([Psalms 78:34](../../../kjv/psalms/78/34);
[Hosea 5:15](../../../kjv/hosea/5/15); [Isaiah 26:9](../../../kjv/isaiah/26/9);
[Proverbs 8:17](../../../kjv/proverbs/8/17); [Proverbs 13:24](../../../kjv/proverbs/13/24)).

**6. He would awake for thee**—that
is, arise to thy help. God seemed to be asleep toward the sufferer
([Psalms 35:23](../../../kjv/psalms/35/23); [Psalms 7:6](../../../kjv/psalms/7/6);
[Isaiah 51:9](../../../kjv/isaiah/51/9)).
**make . . . prosperous**—restore
to prosperity thy (their) righteous habitation. Bildad assumes it to
have been heretofore the habitation of guilt.

**7. thy beginning**—the beginning
of thy new happiness after restoration.
**latter end**— ([Job 42:12](../../../kjv/job/42/12);
[Proverbs 23:18](../../../kjv/proverbs/23/18)).

**8, 9.** The sages of the olden
time reached an age beyond those of Job's time (see on ), and therefore could give the testimony of a fuller
experience.

**9. of yesterday**—that is, a
recent race. We know nothing as compared with them because of the
brevity of our lives; so even Jacob (). Knowledge consisted then in the results of observation,
embodied in poetical proverbs, and handed down by tradition.
Longevity gave the opportunity of wider observation.
**a shadow**— ([Psalms 144:4](../../../kjv/psalms/144/4);
[1 Chronicles 29:15](../../../kjv/1-chronicles/29/15)).

**10. teach thee**— had said, "Teach me." Bildad, therefore, says,
"Since you want *teaching,* inquire of the fathers. They
will teach thee."
**utter words**—more than
mere speaking; "put forth well-considered words."
**out of their heart**—from
observation and reflection; not merely, from their mouth: such, as
Bildad insinuates, were Job's words. embody in poetic and sententious form (probably the
fragment of an old poem) the observation of the elders. The double
point of comparison between the ungodly and the paper-reed is: 1. the
luxuriant prosperity at first; and, 2. the sudden destruction.

**11. rush**—rather, "paper-reed":
The papyrus of Egypt, which was used to make garments, shoes,
baskets, boats, and paper (a word derived from it). It and the flag,
or bulrush, grow only in marshy places (such as are along the Nile).
So the godless thrives only in external prosperity; there is in the
hypocrite no inward stability; his prosperity is like the rapid
growth of water plants.

**12. not cut down**—Before it has
ripened for the scythe, it withers more suddenly than any herb,
having no self-sustaining power, once that the moisture is gone,
which other herbs do not need in the same degree. So ruin seizes on
the godless in the zenith of prosperity, more suddenly than on others
who appear less firmly seated in their possessions [UMBREIT]
([Psalms 112:10](../../../kjv/psalms/112/10)).

**13. paths**—so "ways"
([Proverbs 1:19](../../../kjv/proverbs/1/19)).
**all that forget God**—the
distinguishing trait of the godless ([Psalms 9:17](../../../kjv/psalms/9/17);
[Psalms 50:22](../../../kjv/psalms/50/22)).

**14. cut off**—so GESENIUS;
or, to accord with the metaphor of the spider's "house,"
"The confidence (on which he builds) shall be laid in ruins"
([Isaiah 59:5](../../../kjv/isaiah/59/5); [Isaiah 59:6](../../../kjv/isaiah/59/6)).

**15. he shall hold it fast**—implying
his eager grasp, when the storm of trial comes: as the spider "holds
fast" by its web; but with this difference: the light spider is
sustained by that on which it rests; the godless is not by the thin
web on which he rests. The expression, "Hold fast,"
properly applies to the spider holding his web, but is transferred to
the man. Hypocrisy, like the spider's web, is fine-spun, flimsy, and
woven out of its own inventions, as the spider's web out of its own
bowels. An Arab proverb says, "Time destroys the well-built
house, as well as the spider's web."

**16. before the sun**—that is, he
(the godless) is green only before the sun rises; but he cannot bear
its heat, and withers. So succulent plants like the gourd ([Jonah 4:7](../../../kjv/jonah/4/7);
[Jonah 4:8](../../../kjv/jonah/4/8)). But the widespreading
in the garden does not quite accord with this. Better, "in
sunshine"; the sun representing the smiling fortune of the
hypocrite, during which he wondrously progresses [UMBREIT].
The image is that of weeds growing in rank luxuriance and spreading
over even heaps of stones and walls, and then being speedily torn
away.

**17. seeth the place of
stones**—*Hebrew,* "the house of stones"; that is,
the wall surrounding the garden. The parasite plant, in creeping
towards and over the wall—the utmost bound of the garden—is said
figuratively to "see" or regard it.

**18.** If He (God) tear him away
(properly, "to tear away rapidly and violently") from his
place, "then it [the place personified] shall deny him" (). The very soil is ashamed of the weeds lying withered on
its surface, as though it never had been connected with them. So,
when the godless falls from prosperity, his nearest friends disown
him.

**19.** Bitter irony. The hypocrite
boasts of joy. This then is his "joy" at the last.
**and out of the earth**—others
immediately, who take the place of the man thus punished; not *godly
men* ([Matthew 3:9](../../../kjv/matthew/3/9)). For the place
of the weeds is among stones, where the gardener wishes no plants.
But, *ungodly;* a fresh crop of weeds always springs up in the
place of those torn up: there is no end of hypocrites on earth
[UMBREIT].

**20.** Bildad regards Job as a
righteous man, who has fallen into sin.
**God will not cast away a
perfect man**—(or godly man, such as Job was), if he will only
repent. Those alone who persevere in sin God will not help (*Hebrew,*
"take by the hand," [Psalms 73:23](../../../kjv/psalms/73/23);
[Isaiah 41:13](../../../kjv/isaiah/41/13); [Isaiah 42:6](../../../kjv/isaiah/42/6))
when fallen.

**21. Till**—literally, "to
the point that"; God's blessing on thee, when repentant, will go
on increasing to the point that, or until, &c.

**22.** The haters of Job are the
wicked. They shall be clothed with shame ([Jeremiah 3:25](../../../kjv/jeremiah/3/25);
[Psalms 35:26](../../../kjv/psalms/35/26); [Psalms 109:29](../../../kjv/psalms/109/29)),
at the failure of their hope that Job would utterly perish, and
because they, instead of him, come to naught.

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