The speech of Bildad Bildad passes over in complete silence both Job's defence of his despairing cry (ch. Job 6:1-13) and his assault upon the cruel behaviour of his friends (ch. Job 6:14-30), and comes directly to the main issue, viz. Job's plea against God. The first speaker who thinks it necessa... [ Continue Reading ]
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. J... [ Continue Reading ]
_doth God pervert_ Or, _will God pervert … will the Almighty, &c_.? This is what Bildad means by his reference to _these things_. Job's speech put briefly is an assertion that God perverts justice. God is referred to in his character of ruler of the world. By the question Bildad expresses his astoni... [ Continue Reading ]
The construction of the English version is possible, which makes the whole of Job 8:4 the supposition or protasis and begins the second member of the sentence with Job 8:5. But more probably Job 8:4 is complete in itself: _if thy children have sinned so_(or, then) _he hath, &c_. _cast them away for_... [ Continue Reading ]
In opposition to Job's impious principle Bildad brings forward his doctrine of the Divine rectitude on both its sides, the one illustrated in the fate of Job's children (Job 8:4), the other, as he hopes, to be illustrated in the history of Job himself (Job 8:5).... [ Continue Reading ]
Bildad saw in the fate of Job's children not only proof that they had sinned but that their sin was deadly. He saw in Job's afflictions proof equally decisive that he had sinned, but the fact that he was still spared, however severe his afflictions, gave a different complexion to his sin, and also s... [ Continue Reading ]
_if thou_wert _pure_ Or, _if thou be pure_, cf. subjunctive in ch. Job 11:15. _surely now he would awake_ Rather, SURELY NOW HE WILL AWAKE. The words, _if thou wilt seek, Job 8:5_, suggest the right point of view from which to look at the words, _if thou be pure, &c_. The whole passage refers to th... [ Continue Reading ]
_thy beginning_ i. e., thy former estate, before affliction; similarly "latter end" (read: thy latter end SHALL greatly increase) is said of his future condition of prosperity; see the same use of the words ch. Job 42:12. The verse means that his former estate shall seem small in comparison with the... [ Continue Reading ]
_prepare thyself to the search_ i. e., give heed to the research, or, to that which their fathers have searched out. By referring to a former age, and then to the fathers of that age or generation, Bildad intimates that his truth was recognised through all antiquity backwards till history loses itse... [ Continue Reading ]
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 cas... [ Continue Reading ]
_words out of their heart_ Words not the result of hasty and superficial generalizing, but of an experience which the lengthened lives of these men had enabled them to pass through, and the principles learned in which had sunk into their heart. The "heart" is in Heb. the deepest part of human nature... [ Continue Reading ]
The ancient wisdom itself. This wisdom is plainly not that of the Arabs or Idumeans, but is Egyptian. The _rush_is most probably the Papyrus, which is said to attain a growth twice the height of a man. The _flag_is the Nile-reed, or Nile-grass (only here and Genesis 41:2).... [ Continue Reading ]
_and not cut down_ lit. _and not to be cut down_(or, plucked, ch. Job 30:4), that is, in its full luxuriance, not ripe nor ready for cutting, and therefore with no trace of withering or decay in it. In this state of full freshness, when water is withdrawn from it, it sinks and collapses, withering s... [ Continue Reading ]
Application of the simile. When men forget God, and His sustaining grace is withdrawn from them, they sink down suddenly and perish like the luxuriant water-reed. _the hypocrite_ This word is difficult to translate, it means rather _thegodless_, or, _profane_, cf. Jeremiah 23:11; hypocrisy in the o... [ Continue Reading ]
_shall be cut off_ Perhaps rather, GOETH IN SUNDER, though the meaning is not quite certain. One would have expected a noun here parallel to "spider's web" in the second clause, but no efforts to find a noun have been successful. Saadia in his Arabic Translation rendered _gossamer_, the filmy thread... [ Continue Reading ]
_hold it fast_ i. e. _hold fast by it_. The meaning of course is not that he tries to uphold his house, but that he tries to support himself by holding on to it. This is true both of the spider and the man.... [ Continue Reading ]
A new figure of a spreading, luxuriant plant, suddenly destroyed, and leaving not a trace of itself behind. _before the sun_ This scarcely means _openly_, in broad day and in the face of the sun, but, under the fostering heat of the sun.... [ Continue Reading ]
_seeth the place of stones_ This translation can hardly mean that in his high growth he looks down upon the stone heap, or bends over it, but rather that he chooses it, fixes himself upon it. Others prefer the sense: _he pierces between the stones_, that is, with his roots, or, he pierces the place... [ Continue Reading ]
_if he destroy him_ The subject is God. The words might be rendered, _if he be_(when he is) _destroyed_. This is perhaps better, as the plant is spoken of. The point of the verse is not who destroys him, but that he is destroyed, and when destroyed utterly disappears, so that his place says, I never... [ Continue Reading ]
_joy of his way way_may be "fate," as often, and the words would be ironical; or "way" may be "course of life" so ends what was to him the joy of his course of life. _shall others grow_ Or, _do others grow_. Who the others are or what quality they are of is not the point, which is that his place is... [ Continue Reading ]
Finally Bildad repeats his general principle and augurs from the one side of it a happy and brilliant future for Job. _cast away a perfect man_ This word "perfect" is the title given to Job by the Author, and acknowledged due to him by God, see on ch. Job 1:1. The phrase, God will not cast off a "p... [ Continue Reading ]
_till he fill_ If this rendering be adopted, the word "till" is used somewhat generally to express what God's practical rectitude, as described on both its sides Job 8:20, will issue in. Others prefer to read, he will _yet_fill making a stop at the end of Job 8:20.... [ Continue Reading ]
In his concluding words Bildad puts himself and his friends right with Job, and desires to put Job right with himself and God. By referring to Job's haters he intimates that he and his friends are none of them; and by identifying these haters with the wicked (Job 8:22), he lets Job know that he rega... [ Continue Reading ]