Job 8:19

_BEHOLD, THIS IS THE JOY OF HIS WAY, AND OUT OF THE EARTH SHALL OTHERS GROW._ Behold, is the joy of his way. Bitter irony. The hypocrite boasts of joy. This then is his "joy" at the last. AND OUT OF THE EARTH, х_ `AAPAAR_ (H6083), 'the dust']. "Others" immediately [Hebrew singular, 'always another,' _ 'ACHEER_ (H312)], who take the place of the man thus punished. Not godly men. "God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham" (Matthew 3:9). For "the place" of the weeds is among stones, where the gardener would have no plants. But ungodly: a fresh crop of weeds always springs up in the room of those torn up: there is no end of hypocrites on earth (Umbreit). Or, simply, others spring up in his place, and he is not in the least missed....

8-19 Bildad discourses well of hypocrites and evil-doers, and the fatal end of all their hopes and joys. He proves this truth of the destruction of the hopes and joys of hypocrites, by an appeal to former times. Bildad refers to the testimony of the ancients. Those teach best that utter words out of their heart, that speak from an experience of spiritual and divine things. A rush growing in fenny ground, looking very green, but withering in dry weather, represents the hypocrite's profession, which is maintained only in times of prosperity. The spider's web, spun with great skill, but easily swept away, represents a man's pretensions to religion when without the grace of God in his heart. A formal professor flatters himself in his own eyes, doubts not of his salvation, is secure, and cheats the world with his vain confidences. The flourishing of the tree, planted in the garden, striking...

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 through his debaucheries, cringing for a morsel of bread, or ingloriously ending his days in that bane of any well-ordered and civilized state, a _parish workhouse_. This also I have most literally witnessed. _OUT OF THE EARTH SHALL OTHERS GROSS._] As in the preceding case, when _one_ plant or tree is blasted or cut down, _another_ may be planted in the same place; so, when a spendthrift has run through his property, another possesses his inheritance, and grows up from that soil in which he himself might have continued to flourish, had it not b

BEHOLD, THIS IS THE JOY OF HIS WAY - This is evidently sarcastic. “Lo! such is the joy of his course! He boasts of joy, as all hypocrites do, but his joy endures only for a little time. This is the end of it. He is cut down and removed, and the earth and the heavens disown him!” AND OUT OF THE EARTH SHALL OTHERS GROW - This image is still derived from the tree or plant. The meaning is, that such a plant would be taken away, and that others would spring up in its place which the earth would not be ashamed of. So the hypocrite is removed to make way for others who will be sincere, and who will be useful. Hypocrites and useless people in the church are removed to make way for others who will be active and devoted to the cause of the Redeemer. A similar sentiment occurs in Job 27:16. This closes, as I suppose, the quotation w

EXPOSITION JOB 8:1 THEN ANSWERED BILDAD THE SHUHITE, AND SAID. Bildad the Shuhite has the second place in the passage where Job's friends are first mentioned (Job 2:11), and occupies the same relative position in the dialogue. We may suppose him to have been younger than Eliphaz and older than Zophar. He does little more than repeat the arguments of Eliphaz, stating them, however, more bluntly, and with less of tact and consideration. The chief novelties of his discourse are an appeal to the teaching of past ages (verses 8-10), and the employment of new and forcible metaphors (verses 11-19). JOB 8:2 HOW LONG WILT THOU SPEAK THESE THINGS? An exclamation li

BEHOLD, THIS [IS] THE JOY OF HIS WAY,.... Of the state and condition of the hypocrite, who, while he is in outward prosperity, exults and rejoices, but his joy is but short, it is but for a moment, Job 20:5; and this is what it comes to at last, and issues in, even entire destruction from his place; which, because it may seem strange and wonderful, and is worthy of notice and consideration, as well as to express a certainty of it, the word "behold" is prefixed; though this also is understood, by some, of good men who have much spiritual joy in their present state and condition, be it what it will; they have joy and peace in believing, even joy unspeakable, and full of glory; they have joy in the Lord, and in his ways in which they walk, when they have trouble in the world; they rejoice and even glory in tribulation, and are cheerful be they where they will, though removed from their nat...

CHAPTER 8 BILDAD'S ADDRESS _ 1. How long, Job? (Job 8:1)_ 2. Enquire of the former age (Job 8:8) 3. God's dealing with the wicked and the righteous (Job 8:11) Job 8:1. Bildad the Shuhite now speaks to Job. He is less dogmatic than Eliphaz, and less courteous, but more outspoken. He must have lost his patience listening to Job's reply. Especially does he resent what Job had said about God, the insinuations which had fallen from his lips. But we shall see he too follows the logic of Eliphaz, that God punishes Job for his sins. He starts in at once to rebuke Job for what he had said. “How long, Job, wilt thou speak these things? How long shall t

THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. Bildad recalls Job to tradition as enshrined in the proverbs of the fathers (Job 8:8). Authority belongs to the voice of the past (Job 8:9). The respect which our age has for books, each of which is collected from a hundred older ones, a non-literary civilisation has for tradition and usage. Bildad is conscious of his limitation, but ascribes the same also to all others, whom, as mediocrity is wont to do, he holds without hesitation as his equals: a common combination of modesty and unconscious shamelessness (Duhm). With Job 8:11 begin the wise sayings of the ancients. These maxims of the ancient world are clothed in rich and gorgeous similes drawn from the luxuriant plant life of the sultry East (Davidson). It is notewor

BEHOLD. Figure of speech _Asterismos._ IS. Supply "ends" instead of "is"....

The moral wisdom of the ancients Bildad, having laid down his moral principle, invites Job to reflect that it is a principle resting on the research and the generalized experience of men of generations long past, whose long lives enabled them to weigh and balance and infer from the multitude of cases the general truth. It is no new theory of his or of the short-lived men of to-day, who are but of yesterday and know nothing. These maxims of the ancient world are clothed in rich and gorgeous similes drawn from the luxuriant plant-life of the sultry East....