Job 8:12

12 While still tender, uncut, it will wither before every other grass.

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 Won't they instruct you and tell you; will words not proceed from their hearts?

11 Does papyrus grow apart from a marsh? Does a reed flourish without water?

12 While still tender, uncut, it will wither before every other grass.

13 So are the paths of all who forget God. Hope perishes for the godless,

14 whose confidence is a fragile thing, their trust, a spider's web.