Job 8

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 ).

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 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 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" ( Psalms 103:16 ). 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 ). 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 , Isaiah 41:13 , 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 , Psalms 35:26 , 109:29 ), at the failure of their hope that Job would utterly perish, and because they, instead of him, come to naught.