Job 8

Job 8:1-22 . THE ADDRESS OF BILDAD.

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

3. The repetition of "pervert" gives an emphasis galling to Job ( Job 34:12 ). "Wouldst thou have God," as thy words imply, "pervert judgment," by letting thy sins go unpunished? He assumes Job's guilt from his sufferings.

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

5. seek unto God betimes--early. Make it the first and chief anxiety ( Psalms 78:34 , Hosea 5:15 , Isaiah 26:9 , Proverbs 8:17 , 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 , 7:6 , 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 , Proverbs 23:18 ).

8, 9. The sages of the olden time reached an age beyond those of Job's time 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 ( Genesis 47:9 ). Knowledge consisted then in the results of observation, embodied in poetical proverbs, and handed down by tradition. Longevity gave the opportunity of wider observation.
a shadow--( Psalms 144:4 , 1 Chronicles 29:15 ).

10. teach thee-- Job 6:24 had said, "Teach me." Bildad, therefore, says, "Since you want teaching, inquire of the fathers. They will teach thee."
utter words--more than mere speaking; "put forth well-considered words."
out of their heart--from observation and reflection; not merely, from their mouth: such, as Bildad insinuates, were Job's words. Job 8:11-13 embody in poetic and sententious form (probably the fragment of an old poem) the observation of the elders. The double point of comparison between the ungodly and the paper-reed is: 1. the luxuriant prosperity at first; and, 2. the sudden destruction.

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

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

13. paths--so "ways" ( Proverbs 1:19 ).
all that forget God--the distinguishing trait of the godless ( Psalms 9:17 , 50:22 ).