Job 8:12

12 When it is yet on the root, and it has not been cut down, does not any herb wither before it has received moisture?

Job 8:12 Meaning and Commentary

Job 8:12

Whilst it [is] yet in its greenness
Before it is come to its full height, or to a proper ripeness; when as yet it has not flowered, or is about it; before the time usual for it to turn and change; it being without moisture, water, or watery clay, will change;

[and] not cut down;
by the scythe, or cropped by the hand of man,

it withereth before any [other] herb;
of itself; rather sooner than such that do not require so much moisture; or in the sight and presence of them, they looking on as it were, and deriding it; a poetical representation, as Schultens observes: next follows the accommodation of these similes to wicked and hypocritical men.

Job 8:12 In-Context

10 shall not these teach thee, and report , and bring out words from heart?
11 Does the rush flourish without water, or shall the flag grow up without moisture?
12 When it is yet on the root, and it has not been cut down, does not any herb wither before it has received moisture?
13 Thus then shall be the end of all that forget the Lord: for the hope of the ungodly shall perish.
14 For his house shall be without inhabitants, and his tent shall prove a spider's web.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.