Job 4:8

8 Certainly rather I saw them, that work wickedness, and sow sorrows, and reap those, (Rather, I saw those, who work wickedness, and sow sorrows, and reap them,)

Job 4:8 Meaning and Commentary

Job 4:8

Even as I have seen
Here he goes about to prove, by his own experience, the destruction of wicked men; and would intimate, that Job was such an one, because of the ruin he was fallen into:

they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same;
figurative expressions, denoting that such who devise iniquity in their hearts, form and plan schemes of it in their minds, signified by "plowing iniquity", and who were studious and diligent to put into practice what they devised; who took a great deal of pains to commit sin, and were constant at it, expressed by "sowing wickedness": these sooner or later eat the fruit of their doings, are punished in proportion to their crimes, even in this life, as well as hereafter, see ( Hosea 8:7 ) ( 10:13 ) ( Galatians 6:7 Galatians 6:8 ) ; though a Jewish commentator ^F2 observes, that the thought of sin is designed by the first phrase; the endeavour to bring it into action by the second; and the finishing of the work, or the actual commission of the evil, by the third; the punishment thereof being what is expressed in ( Job 4:9 ) ; the Targum applies this to the generation of the flood.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 R. Simeon Bar Tzemach.

Job 4:8 In-Context

6 Where is thy dread (Where is thy fear/Where is thy reverence), thy strength, and thy patience, and the perfection of thy ways?

7 I beseech thee, have thou mind, what innocent man perished ever, either when rightful men were done away? (I beseech thee, remember, did an innocent person ever perished, or were the upright ever done away with?)

8 Certainly rather I saw them, that work wickedness, and sow sorrows, and reap those, (Rather, I saw those, who work wickedness, and sow sorrows, and reap them,)

9 to have perished by God blowing, and to be wasted by the spirit of his ire. (to have perished by God blowing on them, and to be destroyed by the breath from his nostrils.)

10 The roaring of a lion, and the voice of a lioness, and the teeth of (the) whelps of lions, be all-broken.