Job 8:4

_IF THY CHILDREN HAVE SINNED AGAINST HIM, AND HE HAVE CAST THEM AWAY FOR THEIR TRANSGRESSION;_ If - rather, "Since THY CHILDREN HAVE SINNED AGAINST HIM, and (since) He have cast them away for (Hebrew, by the hand of) their transgression; (Yet) if thou wouldest seek unto God, etc.; if thou wert (shalt be) pure, etc. (for even with this supplication you must join a new and pure life, if you would have God to hear your prayer); surely (even) now He would awake for thee." Umbreit, better, makes the apodosis to "since thy children," etc., begin at "He [consequently] has cast them away." Also, instead of for, 'He gave them up to (literally, into the hand of) their own guilt.' Bildad expresses the justice of God, which Job had arraigned. Thy children have sinned, God leaves them to the consequence of their sin. He has left sin to exert its necessary power, and have its inevitable consequence i...

1-7 Job spake much to the purpose; but Bildad, like an eager, angry disputant, turns it all off with this, How long wilt thou speak these things? Men's meaning is not taken aright, and then they are rebuked, as if they were evil-doers. Even in disputes on religion, it is too common to treat others with sharpness, and their arguments with contempt. Bildad's discourse shows that he had not a favourable opinion of Job's character. Job owned that God did not pervert judgment; yet it did not therefore follow that his children were cast-aways, or that they did for some great transgression. Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, sometimes they are the trials of extraordinary graces: in judging of another's case, we ought to take the favorable side. Bildad puts Job in hope, that if he were indeed upright, he should yet see a good end of his present troubl...

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 transgression_-to that punishment due to their sins....

IF THY CHILDREN HAVE SINNED AGAINST HIM - Bildad here assumes that the children of Job had been wicked, and had been cut off in their sins. This must have cut him to the quick, for there was nothing which a bereaved father would feel more acutely than this. The meaning here is somewhat weakened by the word “if.” The Hebrew אם _'ı̂m_ is rather to be taken in the sense of “since” - assuming it as an indisputable point, or taking it for granted. It was not a supposition that if they should now do it, certain other consequences would follow; but the idea is, that since they had been cut off in their sins, if Job would even now seek God with a proper spirit, he might be restored to prosperity, though his beginning should be small; Job 8:7. AND HE HAVE CAST THEM AWAY - Bildad supposes that they had been

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

IF THY CHILDREN HAVE SINNED AGAINST HIM,.... As no doubt they had, and, as Bildad thought, in a very notorious manner, and therefore were righteously punished for them; this instance is produced as a proof of God's not perverting, but doing justice, and the rather, because it was on account of this that it was supposed that Job charged, or was ready to charge, God with injustice; this was so far from it, that it was a righteous thing to do it, "if" or "seeing" his children had sinned; or "because" they have sinned, or "though" they have sinned, as the words h are by some differently rendered; and either way shows that God did not pervert justice, but acted agreeably to it. Mr. Broughton renders them, "as thy children have sinned against him, so hath he sent them into the hand of their trespass"; as a righteous retaliation for it: that Job's children had sinned, there is no question to be...

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

OPENING OF BILDAD'S FIRST SPEECH. The two younger friends, says Duhm, make a less favourable impression than Eliphaz. Bildad's great point is the discriminating rectitude of God, who unfailingly rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. His whole idea of fortune and misfortune is even more mechanical than that of Eliphaz. The idea that God remains an unchangeable factor, and the relation of man to Him only changes, comes out if possible even more clearly in opposition to Job's idea of a God who has changed and may again change his relation to him. The other point of importance in Bildad's speech is that he supports his doctrine, not like Eliphaz from revelation, but from the wisdom of the ancients. Bildad, in beginning his speech, passes over in complete silence all that Job has said as to the lack of sympathy evinced by the friends. He expresses the dislike, natural to the sober ma...

CHILDREN. sons. FOR. by the hand of; by their own act. TRANSGRESSION. rebellion. Hebrew. _pash'a._ App-44....

The discriminating rectitude of God 2. Before coming to his principle and by way of introducing it Bildad expresses his wonder that Job should allow himself to speak such things as his discourse contained. _These things_are such things as ch. Job 6:29; Job 7:1-2; Job 7:12-21, and perhaps even ch. Job 6:10. He refers to the general drift of Job's speech, which appears to him to be an assertion that God was unjust (Job 8:3). _a strong wind_ Violent, and empty, cf. ch. Job 15:2;...