CHAPTER VIII _Bildad answers, and reproves Job for his justifying himself_, 1, 2. _Shows that God is just, and never punishes but for iniquity;_ _and intimates that it was on account of their sins that his_ _children were cut off_, 3, 4. _States that, if Job would humble himself to the Almight... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 8:2. _HOW LONG WILT THOU SPEAK THESE THINGS?_] Wilt thou still go on to charge God foolishly? Thy heavy affliction proves that thou art under his wrath; and his wrath, thus manifested, proves that it is for thy sins that he punisheth thee. BE LIKE _A STRONG WIND?_] The _Arabic_, with whic... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 8:3. _DOTH GOD PERVERT JUDGMENT!_] God afflicts thee; can he afflict thee for naught? As he is just, his judgment is just; and he could not inflict punishment unless there be a cause.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 8:4. _IF THY CHILDREN HAVE SINNED_] I know thy children have been cut off by a terrible judgment; but was it not because by transgression they had filled up the measure of their iniquity? _AND HE HAVE CAST THEM AWAY_] _Has sent them off_, says the _Targum,_ _to the place of their transgre... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 8:5. _IF THOU WOULDEST SEEK UNTO GOD_] Though God has so severely afflicted thee, and removed thy children by a terrible judgment; yet if thou wilt now humble thyself before him, and implore his mercy, thou shalt be saved. He cut _them_ off in their sins, but he spares _thee_; and this is... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 8:6. _IF THOU WERT PURE AND UPRIGHT_] Concerning thy guilt there can be no doubt; for if thou hadst been a holy man, and these calamities had occurred through accident, or merely by the malice of thy enemies, would not God, long ere this, have manifested his power and justice in thy behalf... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 8:7. _THOUGH THY BEGINNING WAS SMALL_] Thy _former state_, compared to that into which God would have brought thee, would be small; for to show his respect for thy piety, because thou hadst, through thy faithful attachment to him, suffered the loss of all things, he would have greatly mult... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 8:8. _INQUIRE - OF THE FORMER AGE_] לדור רישון _ledor rishon_, of the _first age_; of the _patriarchs_; the first generation of men that dwelt upon the earth: not of the _age that was just past_, as Mr. _Peters_ and several others have imagined, in order to keep up the presumption of Job's... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 8:9. _FOR WE_ ARE BUT OF _YESTERDAY, AND KNOW NOTHING_] It is evident that Bildad refers to those times in which human life was protracted to a much _longer date_ than that in which Job lived; when men, from the long period of _eight_ or _nine hundred years_, had the opportunity of making... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 8:10. _SHALL NOT THEY TEACH THEE_] Wilt thou not treat their maxims with the utmost deference and respect? They _utter words_ _from their heart _- what they say is the fruit of long and careful experience.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 8:11. _CAN THE RUSH GROW_] The word גמא _gome_, which we translate _rush_, is, without doubt, the Egyptian flag _papyrus_, on which the ancients _wrote_, and from which our _paper_ derives its name. The _Septuagint_, who made their Greek translation in Egypt, (if this book made a part of... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 8:12. _WHILST IT_ IS _YET IN HIS GREENNESS_] We do not know enough of the natural history of this plant to be able to discern the strength of this allusion; but we learn from it that, although this plant be very succulent, and grow to a great size, yet it is short-lived, and speedily withe... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 8:13. _SO_ ARE _THE PATHS_] The _papyrus_ and the _rush_ flourish while they have a plentiful supply of _ooze_ and _water_; but take these away, and their prosperity is speedily at an end; so it is with the _wicked_ and profane; their prosperity is of short duration, however great it may a... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 8:14. _WHOSE HOPE SHALL BE CUT OFF_] Such persons, subdued by the strong habits of sin, hope on fruitlessly, till the last thread of the web of life is cut off from the beam; and then they find no more strength in their hope than is in the threads of the spider's web. Mr. _Good_ renders,... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 8:15. _HE SHALL LEAN UPON HIS HOUSE_] This is all allusion to the spider. When he suspects his web, here called his _house_, to be frail or unsure, he leans upon it in different parts, propping himself on his hinder legs, and pulling with his fore claws, to see if all be safe. If he find... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 8:16. _HE_ IS _GREEN BEFORE THE SUN_] This is another metaphor. The wicked is represented as a luxuriant plant, in a good soil, with all the advantages of a good situation; well exposed to the sun; the roots intervolving themselves with stones, so as to render the tree more stable; but sud... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 8:18. _IF HE DESTROY HIM FROM HIS PLACE_] Is not this a plain reference to the _alienation of his inheritance_? God destroys him from it; it becomes the property of another; and on his revisiting it, the place, by a striking _prosopopoeia_, says, "I know thee not; I have never seen thee.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 8:19. _BEHOLD THIS_ IS _THE JOY OF HIS WAY_] A strong irony. Here is the issue of all his mirth, of his sports, games, and pastimes! See the unfeeling, domineering, polluting and polluted scape-grace, levelled with those whom he had despised, a servant of servants, or unable to work throug... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 8:20. _BEHOLD, GOD WILL NOT CAST AWAY A PERFECT_ MAN] This is another of the _maxims_ of the _ancients_, which Bildad produces: "As sure as he will punish and root out the wicked, so surely will he defend and save the righteous.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 8:21. _TILL HE FILL THY MOUTH WITH LAUGHING_] Perhaps it may be well to translate after Mr. _Good_ "_Even yet_ may he fill thy mouth with laughter!" The two verses may be read as a _prayer_; and probably they were thus expressed by Bildad, who speaks with less virulence than his predecesso... [ Continue Reading ]