VIII. The burden of Bildad’s speech is very much what that of Eliphaz was: the justice of God, and the impossibility of one who is not a wicked man being forsaken of God and punished. This, which is emphatically the problem of the Book of Job, was the great practical problem of the Old World, as we... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE HAVE CAST THEM AWAY. — Literally, _then he sent them away._ By means of their transgression; it became their destruction.... [ Continue Reading ]
IF THOU WERT PURE AND UPRIGHT. — Of course, then, there is but one inference: thou art not pure and upright. These are verily the wounds of a friend which are not faithful. Bildad brings to the maintenance of his point the experience of former generations. He wishes to be very orthodox in his assert... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FLAG is the plant of Genesis 41:2, which the cattle feed upon. This figure is enforced by a second, that, namely, of the spider’s web, the most fragile and transient of tenements.... [ Continue Reading ]
IT SHALL NOT ENDURE. — The description of the wicked man ends here.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE IS GREEN. — Here begins, as we understand it, another and an opposite picture, which fact is marked in the Hebrew by an emphatic pronoun. “Green is _he_ (see Job 8:6) before the sun, &c., quite unlike the watery paper-plant. This man is verdant and luxuriant, not in the midst of moisture, but eve... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS ROOTS ARE WRAPPED ABOUT. — This is the cause of his continual luxuriance, that his roots receive moisture from below, where they are wrapped about the spring which fertilises them underneath; they are planted near to a perennial fountain, and therefore (see Job 8:6) “he is green before the sun.”... [ Continue Reading ]
TILL HE FILL THY MOUTH WITH LAUGHING. — Rather, _he will yet fill thy mouth with laughter_ — _afflicted though thou hast been, thou shalt again rejoice._ The attitude of Bildad is one of unsympathetic selfishness. He wishes to think well of his friend because he is _his_ friend, but he cannot reconc... [ Continue Reading ]