Job 8:12

12 "While it is still green and not cut down, Yet it withers before any other plant.

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 "Will they not teach you and tell you, And bring forth words from their minds?

11 "Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh? Can the rushes grow without water?

12 "While it is still green and not cut down, Yet it withers before any other plant.

13 "So are the paths of all who forget God; And the hope of the godless will perish,

14 Whose confidence is fragile, And whose trust a spider's web.

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "reed"