Job 8:12

12 If the water dries up, they are the first to wither, while still too small to be cut and used.

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 But let the ancient wise people teach you; listen to what they had to say:

11 "Reeds can't grow where there is no water; they are never found outside a swamp.

12 If the water dries up, they are the first to wither, while still too small to be cut and used.

13 Godless people are like those reeds; their hope is gone, once God is forgotten.

14 They trust a thread - a spider's web.