Job · Chapter 8

Verse 1. Bildad the Shuhite] Supposed to be a descendant of Shuah, one of the sons of Abraham, by Keturah, who dwelt in Arabia Deserta, called in Scripture the east country. See Genesis 25:1, 2, 6.

Verse 1. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite — “Bildad, whose sentiments are the same with those of the preceding friend, now comes to the attack, and tells Job that his general asseverations of innocence are of no avail; that to deny his guilt was to charge the Almighty with injustice; that, if he would not yield to the arguments of Eliphaz, drawn from his experience, and strengthened by revelation, he would do well to pay respect to the general experience of mankind, as handed down by tradition; where he would find it established, as a certain truth, that misery was the infallible consequence of wickedness; that therefore they could not argue wrong who inferred from actual misery antecedent guilt: and though he might urge that these calamities were fallen upon him on account of his children’s wickedness, yet he only deceived himself; for in that case God might have indeed chastised them for their crimes, but he would, by no means, have destroyed the innocent with the guilty: he would rather have heaped his blessings on the innocent person, that the contrast might have vindicated his providence. He would have even wrought a miracle for the preservation or restoration of such a person; and he concludes that since, from the known attributes of God, it was impossible he should cut off the innocent, or suffer the guilty to go free; and, as no interposition of providence had happened in his behalf, he thought him in a likely way, by his utter destruction, to prove a terrible example of the truth of that principle which they had urged against him.” — Heath and Dodd.

1. Answered Bildad — The structure of his address and the doctrine he maintains do not differ essentially from those of Eliphaz. He, too, sees in affliction the stern features of retribution. The first speaker had assailed Job from an intrenchment in the universal sinfulness of our race. Bildad now renews the assault from an older and more impregnable position — the inexorable justice of God. From his point of view he sees but one side of the divine nature — justice. He coolly insinuates that Job’s children must have been wicked because they were killed. In this he was sustained by the convictions of antiquity, since “sudden death, to the ancient mind, bore the aspect of a judgment — a work of the divine wrath.” — Kitto. In like manner if the parent suffer he must also be a sinner. His discourse, therefore, like that of Eliphaz, closes with an earnest exhortation to repentance. Fortunately for us, Bildad is a stickler for antiquity, since he rescues from oblivion an ancient and most precious relic, combining in symmetrical beauty a threefold simile. Verses 11-19. This ancient poem sings the fate of all those who forget God. The spirit of this entire discourse sets Bildad before us in an unfavourable light. Like Saul of Tarsus before his conversion, he is zealously affected for God. Bildad also would seemingly have been ready to carry out his convictions, even at the point of the sword.

The first strophe — THE COURSE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE DISPLAYS THE JUSTICE OF GOD, 2-7.

a. Since God cannot pervert the right, the death of Job’s children shows that they must have sinned, 2-4.

V. 2. Strong wind-Boisterous and violent.

Verse 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 which the Syriac agrees, is [Syriac] rucholazomati, the spirit of pride. Wilt thou continue to breathe forth a tempest of words? This is more literal.

Verse 2. How long wilt thou speak these things? &c. — Why dost thou persist to talk in this manner? and why are thy words thus vehement? As a strong wind which overturns all things without any moderation, and suffers nothing else to be heard, so thy boisterous and violent words will not permit the voice of truth and wisdom to be heard.

2. A strong wind — Omit like. A common figure with poets. The irony of Aristophanes furnishes a good comment: “A whirlwind of words is preparing to burst forth.” Job’s words are also boisterous, but none the less empty.

V. 3. Doth God-Heb. The mighty God, as this word signifies, the Almighty, or All-sufficient God, as the next name of God implies. These names are emphatically used, to prove that God cannot deal unjustly or falsely with men, because he hath no need of it, nor temptation to it, being self-sufficient for his own happiness, and being able by his own invincible power to do whatsoever pleaseth him. Pervert-Judge unrighteously? No, this is inconsistent with God’s nature, and with his office of governor of the world.

Verse 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.

Verse 3. Doth God — Hebrew, la, Eel, the mighty God, as this word signifies; pervert judgment? — Judge unrighteously? No: this is inconsistent with God’s nature, Which is essentially and necessarily just, and with his office of governor of the world. Or doth the Almighty pervert justice? — Hebrew, ydv, Shaddai, a word that sets forth God’s omnipotence and all-sufficiency. These names are emphatically used to prove that God cannot deal unjustly or falsely with men: because he hath no need so to do, nor temptation to it, being self-sufficient for his own happiness, and being able, by his own invincible power, to do whatsoever pleaseth him.

3. God… the Almighty — la, el, and ydv, shaddai. Though differing in form, the root idea of both is that of power. These, perhaps, were world-wide titles of God, while the name Jehovah was confined to the chosen people. Balaam (as well as the Gentile Job and his friends) uses the terms el and shaddai, (Numbers 24:4, 16,) and in a juxtaposition similar to that of our text. The latter name rarely appears in the later books of the Bible. it occurs nine times in the Pentateuch, twice in Ruth, thirty-one times in Job, and six times in all the other poets. The word shaddai is a plural of pre-eminence, probably from shadhadh, “to be strong.” Shaddai is the God who makes good his covenants, (Genesis 17:1, see note,) who everywhere enforces his will, punishes the wicked, and protects the just. Here for the first time appears the favourite thought of Job’s co-reasoners, that an almighty being cannot do wrong. Bildad, the apostle of inexorable law, contemplated God only through the attribute of his almightiness, from which justice is inseparable.

V. 4. If-If thou wast innocent, thy children, upon whom a great part of these calamities fell, might be guilty; and therefore God is not unrighteous in these proceedings.

Verse 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.

Verse 4. If thy children have sinned against him — If thou wast innocent, thy children, upon whom a great part of these calamities fell, might be guilty; and therefore God is not unrighteous in these proceedings. And he have cast them away — Hebrew, hath expelled, or cast them out; (namely, out of the world, or out of his favour; as a man gives his wife a bill of divorce, of which the same word is used;) for their transgression — Hebrew, by the hand, that is, by means of, their wickedness. Bildad argued in this way according to the maxim which he had entertained: but it does not appear that he had any foundation for judging thus of them.

4. If — The hypothetical way of putting the case by no means deadens the stroke dealt by the following word, thy children. Compare the delicate and impersonal allusion of Eliphaz in 5:4. And — Better, then. Thus the verse is complete in itself. For their transgression — Then hath he given them into the hand of their transgression, as in margin. Divine wisdom has ordained that wickedness should be its own punishment. The law is as unerring as that of gravitation. The retributive sting may be concealed, but it is none the less the endowment of evil. From the moment of transgression the elements of evil bestir themselves to punish, though the stroke be delayed.

b. Divine Providence, that punishes the wicked, will as certainly reward the man who conciliates his God, 5-7.

V. 5. Betimes-Heb. rise early to seek him, if thou wouldest seek him speedily, early and diligently.

Verse 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 a proof that he waits to be gracious to thee.

Verse 5. If thou wouldest seek unto God, &c. — God hath spared thee, whom he might justly have destroyed with thy children, and thou art yet capable of obtaining his favour if thou wilt seek it. And, therefore, cease from thy causeless and unthankful complaints. Seek unto God betimes — Hebrew, rjvt µa, im teshacher, if thou wouldst rise early to seek him; if thou wouldst seek him speedily, early, and diligently, Job 5:8; and 7:18-21. And make thy supplication to the Almighty — Instead of complaining, implore his grace and favour with humble supplication.

5. Thou — Emphatic. While the dead children cannot, thou mayest repent.

V. 6. Habitation-The concerns of thy house and family; which thou hast got and managed with righteousness.

Verse 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, punished thy enemies, and restored thee to affluence?

The habitation of thy righteousness] Strongly ironical. If thy house had been as a temple of God, in which his worship had been performed, and his commandments obeyed, would it now be in a state of ruin and desolation?

Verse 6. If thou wert pure and upright — That is, of a sincere heart and blameless life toward God and men; surely now he would awake for thee — ry[y, jagnir, excitarit se, he would raise, or stir up himself. Thus David prays, using the same word, Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment. And make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous — He would certainly have a regard to thee, and restore the concerns of thy house and family to their former splendour. He says the habitation of thy righteousness, to signify that if it were such, and he would manage his affairs with righteousness and not wrongfully, God would prosper him accordingly; and perhaps also to intimate, that because he had not prospered they had cause to suspect that he had acquired his property by fraud and oppression.

6. Awake corresponds to the “seeking early,” (betimes,) rjvt, a verb whose root signifies “the early light,” or “dawn.” Underlying the figure is the thought that what burdens the heart leads to early action. In response to earnest (early) supplication God arouses himself — awakes. Habitation of thy righteousness — The abode where thou, when righteous, shalt dwell. Bildad insinuates, according to Schultens, that the home of Job had been one of wickedness.

Verse 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 multiplied thy former prosperity, so that thou shouldest now have vastly more than thou didst ever before possess.

Verse 7. Though thy beginning was small — The sense is either, 1st, Though thou hadst possessed but very little at first, yet God would have wonderfully blessed and increased thy estate: whereas, now he hath brought thee down from a great estate almost to nothing; which is an evidence of his displeasure and of thy hypocrisy. Or, 2d, Though what thou hast left be now very little, yet if thou repent and seek God it shall vastly increase.

Verse 7. Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should be great. Many great patriarchs, like Jacob, had once but a small beginning.

7. Though — And if. An unconscious prophecy of what actually took place.

Second long strophe — THE WISE TEACHINGS OF THE ANCIENTS AS RESPECTS THE

V. 8. Search-Seriously and industriously search the ancient records.

Verse 8. Inquire—of the former age] רישונ לדור 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 high antiquity. Bildad most evidently refers to an antiquity exceedingly remote.

Verse 8. For inquire, &c., of the former age — That is, of our predecessors, who had the advantage of longer life and more experience, besides more frequent revelations from God than we have. They also will be more impartial judges of this cause than we may be thought to be. Inform thyself by the instructions which they have left, either in word or writing, what their opinion was about the manner of God’s dealing with men. And prepare thyself to the search, &c. — Do not slightly, but seriously and industriously, search the ancient records.

MERITED END OF THOSE WHO FORGET GOD, 8-19.

a. Introductory — Praise of the collective wisdom of the ancients, “the oldest patriarchs,” (Dr. Clarke and Ewald,) whose vastly longer lives afforded a vastly wider range of experience and observation than that enjoyed by Job and his brother ephemera, 8-10.

8. Search — Rather, the results of searching — deep wisdom, that which comes from profound investigation.

V. 9. We, &c.-But lately born, and therefore have but little knowledge and experience. We live not so long as they did, to make observations on the methods of Divine Providence.

Verse 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 many observations, and treasuring up a vast fund of knowledge and experience. In comparison with them, he considers that age as nothing, and that generation as being only of yesterday, not having had opportunity of laying up knowledge: nor could they expect it, as their days upon earth would be but a shadow, compared with that substantial time in which the fathers had lived. Perhaps there may be an allusion here to the shadow projected by the gnomon of a dial, during the time the sun is above the horizon. As is a single solar day, so is our life. The following beautiful motto I have seen on a sundial: UMBRÆ SUMUS! “We are shadows!” referring to the different shadows by which the gnomon marked the hours, during the course of the day; and all intended to convey this moral lesson to the passengers: Your life is composed of time, marked out by such shadows as these. Such as time is, such are you; as fleeting, as transitory, as unsubstantial. These shadows lost, time is lost; time lost, soul lost! Reader take heed! The writer of this book probably had before his eyes these words of David, in his last prayer, 1 Chronicles 29:15: “For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as all our fathers were; our days upon earth are as a SHADOW, and there is no expectation. There is no reason to hope that they shall be prolonged; for our lives are limited down to threescore years and ten, as the average of the life even of old men.

Verse 9. We are but of yesterday, &c. — But lately born, and therefore have but little knowledge and experience. We live not so long as they did to make observations on the methods of Divine Providence. “There are three things in this passage,” says Dr. Dodd, from Peters, “well worthy of our observation. As, first, his referring Job to their ancestors of former times as the best instructers in wisdom; then urging the comparative ignorance of the generation that then was, and the reason of it, namely, the shortness of men’s lives; We are but of yesterday, &c., human life being at this time in a swift decline, and reduced, in a few generations, from eight or nine hundred years to one hundred and fifty, or thereabouts: for, what is most to our purpose is, in the next place, his representing these long-lived ancestors of theirs, from whom they derived their wisdom, as living but an age or two before them: they were the men of the former age, or perhaps the fathers and grand-fathers of these. And it appears from the Scripture history, that Shem, the son of Noah, who lived five hundred years after the flood, might well have been a cotemporary with the grandfathers, or great-grand-fathers, of Job and his friends; and with what authority would such a one teach them! and with what attention would his instructions be received! Indeed, the fame of these restorers of the human race was so great for many ages after, that when mankind fell into the superstition of worshipping men-deities, there is little doubt to be made, but that these were the first mortals that were deified. The last thing I shall observe from the passage, is the style or manner in which the precepts of their ancestors were transmitted to them; and that is, by some apt simile or comparison, drawn from nature; and like a picture fitted to engage the attention, and by agreeably entertaining the imagination, to leave a strong impression on the memory. Such is that natural and beautiful comparison we have here; and which, by the way of introducing it, appears plainly to have been a proverbial saying delivered down from their forefathers; perhaps taught them from their cradles. Have not they then, says he, transmitted to thee this wise lesson? That, as the rush cannot grow up without mire, nor the flag without water, so neither can any thing flourish or prosper long without the blessing of Almighty God? and how should the ungodly, or the hypocrite, expect his blessing! One scarcely knows which to admire most, the piety of the sentiment, or the elegance and justness of the comparison.”

9. For we (are…) yesterday — Such is the terse original, as may be seen in the English version. The life of an individual is too short to comprehend the purposes of God. The astronomer gathers up the observations of all who have preceded him for a basis of reasoning. A like appeal Bildad makes to the moral observations of the past. Or he may intimate that the effusion he is about to cite contains the wisdom of one of the most aged patriarchs, whose opportunities for ripened knowledge far surpassed those of the short lives he and Job had thus far lived.

Touching the painful brevity of human life, the classics have nothing that vies with the abrupt expression of Bildad. By Sophocles man is called “the shadow of smoke,” and by AEschylus “the image of a shade.” Nor is the more extended moralizing of Saadi, the Persian poet, more impressive: “Surely the world is like a fading shadow, or like a guest who remains a night and then departs; or like a dream which a sleeping man has seen, which, when the night is gone, has vanished.” Compare 1 Chronicles 29:15.

V. 10. Utter-Not partially, but sincerely, speaking their inward thoughts; not rashly, but from deep consideration; not by hearsay, but their own knowledge.

Verse 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.

Verse 10. Shall not they teach thee? — Assuredly they will inform thee that it is as we say. And utter words out of their heart — Not partially, but sincerely, speaking their inward thoughts; not rashly, but from deep consideration; not by hearsay from others, but their own knowledge and experience.

10. Shall not they teach thee — Job had confidently said, (Job 6:24,) Teach me, and Bildad adduces a most remarkable passage out of the heart of ancient times. He summons the fathers, that they may deal Job a crushing blow. In the early history of most nations knowledge was preserved in the form of proverbs, maxims, and apothegms. Lacking the advantage of circulated books for the transmission of thought, they compressed it into as small a compass as possible, that it might be more easily remembered, and thus preserved for the generations to come. We have before us fragments of a poem (verses 11-19) that probably came to Bildad from a very remote age. Some have conjectured that they may be relics of some primeval revelation. The imagery employed, as well as the Egyptian words gome, (Coptic, kam,) reed, (papyrus,) and ahhou, (flag,) satisfy Carey and others that this ancient lay was composed in Egypt. b. The luxuriant water-reeds that tower above the marshes of the Nile, and quickly wither when its waters are suddenly withdrawn, image forth the short-lived prosperity of the wicked, whose roots take hold upon worldly slime and mire rather than upon God, 11-13.

V. 11. Can, &c.-The hypocrite cannot build his hope, without some false, rotten ground or other, any more than the rush can grow without mire, or the flag without water.

Verse 11. Can the rush grow] The word amg 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 it,) and knew well the import of each word in both languages, render amg gome by papurov papyrus, thus: Mh qallei papurov aneu udatov; Can the PAPYRUS flourish without water? Their translation leaves no doubt concerning the meaning of the original. They were probably writing on the very substance in question, while making their translation. The technical language of no science is so thoroughly barbarous as that of botany: the description of this plant by Linnæus, shall be a proof. The plant he calls “Cyperus Papyrus; CLASS Triandria; ORDER Monogynia; Culm

three-sided, naked; umbel longer than the involucres; involucels three-leaved, setaceous, longer; spikelets in threes.—Egypt, &c. Involucre eight-leaved; general umbel copious, the rays sheathing at the base; partial on very short peduncles; spikelets alternate, sessile; culm leafy at the base; leaves hollow, ensiform.”

Hear our plain countryman John Gerarde, who describes the same plant: “Papyrus Nilotica, Paper Reed, hath many large flaggie leaves, somewhat triangular and smooth, not much unlike those of cats-taile, rising immediately from a tuft of roots, compact of many strings; amongst the which it shooteth up two or three naked stalkes, square, and rising some six or seven cubits high above the water; at the top whereof there stands a tuft or bundle off chaffie threds, set in comely order, resembling a tuft of floures, but barren and void of seed;” GERARDE’S Herbal, p. 40. Which of the two descriptions is easiest to be understood by common sense, either with or without a knowledge of the Latin language? This plant grows in the muddy banks of the Nile, as it requires an abundance of water for its nourishment.

Can the flag grow without water?] Parkhurst supposes that the word wja achu, which we render flag, is the same with that species of reed which Mr. Hasselquist found growing near the river Nile. He describes it (p. 97) as “having scarcely any branches, but numerous leaves, which are narrow, smooth, channelled on the upper surface; and the plant about eleven feet high. The Egyptians make ropes of the leaves. They lay the plant in water, like hemp, and then make good and strong cables of them.” As ja ach signifies to join, connect, associate, hence yja achi, a brother, wja achu may come from the same root, and have its name from its usefulness in making ropes, cables, &c., which are composed of associated threads, and serve to tie, bind together, &c.

Verses 11, 12. Can the rush grow without mire, &c. — This, and what follows, he speaks as from those ancients, to whom he had referred him, and concerning whom he says, that they would give him such instructions as these. While it is yet in its greenness — Whereby it promises long continuance: and not cut down — Though no man cut it down it withers of itself, and saves a man the labour of cutting or plucking it up. Before any other herb — Sooner than other herbs, or, as ynpl, liphnee, means, in their presence, or they surviving; in which sense it is said, that Ishmael died in the presence of his brethren; the rest of the herbs, as it were, looking upon it, and admiring the sudden change.

Ver. 11. Can the rush grow. The LXX read, “the papyrus,” the leaf of which was used as paper among the Egyptians; and the tallipot leaf is used in a similar manner in India.

11. The rush — amg, gome, unquestionably the papyrus; thus in the Septuagint. This plant flourishes in pools of still water, reaching from ten to fifteen feet above, and descending two or three feet beneath, the surface. The plant had a diameter at the bottom of about three inches, tapered upward, was without leaves, and was crowned with a graceful tuft, not unlike the broom. The ark in which the infant Moses was placed was made of this plant. Exodus 2:3. See Isaiah 18:2; 35:7, where the word rush is also used. The papyrus (hence our word paper) was of great renown, because it furnished the material from which the ancients made their paper. The process was so simple that it may be briefly described. The stalk, having been pared, was split lengthwise into thin slices, two courses of which were laid one above the other, crosswise and at right angles, and glued together, probably by the juice of the plant. The plant formerly abounded along the Nile, springing up from its mire, but now is wholly extinct in Egypt. It is still found in two places in Palestine. It grows luxuriously in a swamp at the north end of the plain of Gennesaret; it also covers many acres in the inaccessible marshes of the Huleh, the ancient Merom. Tristram thus describes his experiences in the papyrus marsh of the Huleh: “A false step off its roots will take the intruder over head in suffocating peat mud… In fact, the whole is simply a floating bog of several miles square — a very thin crust of vegetation over an unknown depth of water; and if the weight of the explorer breaks through this, suffocation is imminent. Some of the Arabs, who were tilling the plain for cotton, assured us that even a wild boar never got through it. We shot two bitterns, but, in endeavouring to retrieve them, I slipped from the root on which I was standing, and was drawn down in a moment, only saving myself from drowning by my gun, which had providentially caught across a papyrus stem.” — Land of Israel, p. 587. Flag — wja, (ahhu,) including reeds, grass, particularly Nile grass. (Furst.) The use of the word in Genesis 41:2, where it is translated “meadow,” points to some specific plant eaten by cattle. But little more is known about the word now than in the times of Jerome, who, having inquired of the learned as to what it signified, “heard from the Egyptians that it meant every green herb which grew in a marsh.” Peyron, in his Coptic Lexicon, defines the word in the exact language of Jerome. “The edible rush, and the beautiful flowering rush, would either meet the requirements of the sacred text.” — TRISTRAM, Nat. History of the Bible, p. 435. Without water — What mire is to the papyrus, and water to the Nile grass, such is the grace of God to the soul. For want of oil the lamps of the five foolish virgins went out.

V. 12. Greenness-Whereby it promises long continuance. Tho’ no man cut it down, it withers of itself, sooner than other herbs.

Verse 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 withers; and this we may suppose to be in the dry season, or on the retreat of the waters of the Nile. However, Soon RIPE, soon ROTTEN, is a maxim in horticulture.

Verses 11, 12. Can the rush grow without mire, &c. — This, and what follows, he speaks as from those ancients, to whom he had referred him, and concerning whom he says, that they would give him such instructions as these. While it is yet in its greenness — Whereby it promises long continuance: and not cut down — Though no man cut it down it withers of itself, and saves a man the labour of cutting or plucking it up. Before any other herb — Sooner than other herbs, or, as ynpl, liphnee, means, in their presence, or they surviving; in which sense it is said, that Ishmael died in the presence of his brethren; the rest of the herbs, as it were, looking upon it, and admiring the sudden change.

12. It withereth — Our translators have disregarded the (in this case) important w: while yet it is in its greenness, it is uncut, (and) THEN, sooner than all (other) grass, it drieth up. The passage strikingly illustrates the estate of the hypocrite — the man who forgets God. The tall and graceful plant need not be cut down that it may suddenly die. Take from it the moisture of the marsh, and it withers. Thus with one who assumes to be what he is not. False and characterless he stands. He has no life of God in the soul. Withdraw the grace of God, and his nakedness stands self-confessed. He withers before he dies. Few are the exceptions to the law that the character of men is known to their fellows before they are cut down. The scene of the first three verses of this poem is evidently the Nile. The hot sun dries up the marsh water, and the plants perish. Still not far away rolls the majestic river, sometimes, as we have seen, called the ocean. In like manner the sinner perishes in the morass, not far from the river of life.

V. 13. Paths-Of wicked men. By their paths he doth not understand their manner of living, but the events which befall them, God’s manner of dealing with them.

Verse 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 appear to be in the beginning. Thou also, O thou enemy of God, hast flourished for a time; but the blast of God is come upon thee, and now thou art dried up from the very roots.

The hypocrite’s hope shall perish] A hypocrite, or rather profligate, has no inward religion, for his heart is not right with God; he has only hope, and that perishes when he gives up the ghost.

This is the first place in which the word hypocrite occurs, or the noun ãnj chaneph, which rather conveys the idea of pollution and defilement than of hypocrisy. A hypocrite is one who only carries the mask of godliness, to serve secular purposes; who wishes to be taken for a religionist, though he is conscious he has no religion. Such a person cannot have hope of any good, because he knows he is insincere: but the person in the text has hope; therefore hypocrite cannot be the meaning of the original word. But all the vile, the polluted, and the profligate have hope; they hope to end their iniquities before they end life; and they hope to get at last to the kingdom of heaven. Hypocrite is a very improper translation of the Hebrew.

Verse 13. So are the paths of all that forget God — Of wicked men, who are often described by this character; see Psalm 9:17, and 50:22; or, of hypocrites, as the next words explain it, whose first and fundamental error is, that they forget, that is, neglect, forsake, and despise God, his presence, commands, worship, and providence; and, therefore, break out into manifold sins. But, by their paths, he does not intend their manner of living, but the events which befall them, God’s manner of dealing with them. Now this may be accommodated to the foregoing similitude in this manner, namely, Such is the prosperity of wicked men; because it wants the solid foundation of piety, and of God’s promise and blessing consequent thereupon, it quickly vanishes into nothing. The hypocrite’s hope shall perish — That is, the object of his hope, his riches, his friends, his honours, and other such like things, on which he founded his expectations; for, when these are lost, hope may be said to perish, because that from which it arose is no more.

13. Forget God — Ingratitude is a burning wind that dries up the fountains of piety and the streams of love. (St. Bernard.) The hypocrite — ãnj. At the root of this word, occurring so often in this book, unquestionably lies the idea of veiling or concealing. The word also signifies the ungodly, which is the meaning that Gesenius and most interpreters of Job give it. Hitzig, however, renders as in the text. Our English word in its Greek original explains itself. A hypocrite is one who acts a part, like a stageplayer. (See on our text two sermons by Dr. South.) b. Such a man can build on nothing securely; (Hirtzel;) supports, apparently the firmest, fail him, 14-19.

The preceding image parts asunder into similes: the one of “a spider’s house,” confessedly frail, and the other of a succulent garden plant, whose “house of stones” is more enduring — yet destruction in either case is certain. The same word house, in verses 14, 15, 17, is pivotal in the entire comparison. Job’s home had been swept away, but the prospective habitation of righteousness (verse 6) shall endure.

V. 14. Hope-Whose wealth and outward glory, the matter of his hope, and trust, shall be cut off suddenly and violently taken away from him. Web-Which tho’ it be formed with great art and industry, is easily swept down, or pulled in pieces.

Verse 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, Thus shall their support rot away. The foundation on which they trust is rotten, and by and by the whole superstructure of their confidence shall tumble into ruin.

Verse 14. Whose hope shall be cut off — That is, whose wealth and outward glory, which is the foundation and matter of his hope, shall be suddenly and violently taken away from him; or, as the Hebrew cwqy, jacot, may be translated, whose hope shall be irksome or tedious to him, by the succession of earliest expectations and great disappointments. Whose trust shall be a spider’s web — Which though it be formed with great art and industry, and may do much mischief to others, yet is most slender and feeble, and easily swept down, or pulled in pieces, and unable to defend the spider that made it. The application is obvious.

14. A spider’s web — Rather, house. Comp. Isaiah 59:5. A favourite Oriental figure. Thus Mohammed: “The likeness of those who take other patrons besides God is as the likeness of the spider which maketh herself a house; but the weakest of all houses surely is the house of the spider; if they knew this.” — Sura 29:40, entitled The Spider. The Arabs have a proverb that “time destroys the wall of the well-built house as well as the web of the spider.” The Chinese call the spider the wise insect, a view which agrees with that of Solomon, who classes it among creatures exceedingly wise. Proverbs 30:24-28. Frail as is the spider’s house, it is the best and strongest she can build; but not thus with the godless man.

V. 15. House-He shall trust to the multitude of his children and servants, and to his wealth, all which come under the name of a man’s house in scripture. Hold it-To uphold himself by it. But his web, that refuge of lies, will be swept away, and he crushed in it.

Verse 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 any part of it injured, he immediately adds new cordage to that part, and attaches it strongly to the wall. When he finds all safe and strong, he retires into his hole at one corner, supposing himself to be in a state of complete security, when in a moment the brush or the besom sweeps away both himself, his house, and his confidence. This I have several times observed; and it is in this that the strength and point of the comparison consist. The wicked, whose hope is in his temporal possessions strengthens and keeps his house in repair; and thus leans on his earthly supports; in a moment, as in the case of the spider, his house is overwhelmed by the blast of God’s judgments, and himself probably buried in its ruins. This is a very fine and expressive metaphor, which not one of the commentators that I have seen has ever discovered.

Verse 15. He shall lean upon his house — He shall trust to the multitude and strength of his children and servants, and to his wealth, all which come under the name of a man’s house in Scripture. But it shall not stand — That is, not be able to uphold itself, nor him that trusted to it. He shall hold it fast — Or, he shall take fast hold of it to strengthen and uphold himself by it. But his web, that refuge of lies, will be swept away, and he crushed in it. Or, by holding it fast, may be meant, that he shall endeavour to support his house by strong alliances, but it will be to no purpose, for it shall not endure.

Ver. 15. He shall lean upon his house. The LXX, “Though he moat his house; i.e. with a ditch or drain, and parapet; yet it shall not stand.” This reading relieves the text of the idea of leaning on his house. Schultens vaguely quotes here an Arabian proverb, that those who trust to any thing but God, build their house like that of a spider, and the spider’s house is a weak one.

MERITED END OF THOSE WHO FORGET GOD, 8-19.

a. Introductory — Praise of the collective wisdom of the ancients, “the oldest patriarchs,” (Dr. Clarke and Ewald,) whose vastly longer lives afforded a vastly wider range of experience and observation than that enjoyed by Job and his brother ephemera, 8-10.

8. Search — Rather, the results of searching — deep wisdom, that which comes from profound investigation.

V. 16. He-The secure and prosperous sinner may think himself wronged, when he is compared to a rush or flag. Compare him then to a flourishing and well-rooted tree. Yet even then shall he be suddenly cut off. Green-Flourisheth in the world. Before the sun-Publickly and in the view of all men. Branch-His children, who are here mentioned as additions not only to his comfort, but also to his strength and safety. Garden-A place where it is defended from those injuries to which the trees of the field are subject, and where, besides the advantages common to all trees, it hath peculiar helps from the art and industry of men. So he supposes this man to be placed in the most desirable circumstances.

Verse 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 suddenly a blast comes, and the tree begins to die. The sudden fading of its leaves, &c., shows that its root is become as rottenness, and its vegetable life destroyed. I have often observed sound and healthy trees, which were flourishing in all the pride of vegetative health, suddenly struck by some unknown and incomprehensible blast, begin to die away, and perish from the roots. I have seen also the prosperous wicked, in the inscrutable dispensations of the Divine providence, blasted, stripped, made bare, and despoiled, in the same way.

Verse 16. He, &c. — The hypocrite, or the secure and prosperous sinner, may think himself degraded when he is compared to a rush or flag. Compare him, then, to a flourishing and well-rooted tree, which spreads its branches in a fair garden. Yet, even then, shall he suddenly wither and come to nothing. Is green before the sun — Flourisheth in the world publicly, and in the view of all men. And his branch shooteth forth — His children, who are here mentioned as additions, not only to his comfort, but also to his strength and safety. In his garden — A place where it is defended from those injuries to which the trees of the field are subject, and where, besides the advantages common to all trees, it hath peculiar helps from the art and industry of men. So he supposes this man to be placed in the most desirable circumstances.

16. Before the sun — “In the glow of the sun, where other plants wither, it thrives and remains fresh.” — Hirtzel. The poem has spoken of marsh plants; it now suddenly introduces a climbing plant of the garden, probably parasitical. This was more familiar, and would better illustrate Bildad’s theme.

V. 17. Heap-Of stones. This circumstance is added, to signify its firmness and strength, that it was not in loose and sandy ground, which a violent wind might overthrow, but in solid ground, within which were many stones, which its numerous and spreading roots embrace, folding and interweaving themselves about them. Seeth-The tree reacheth thither, takes the advantage of that place for the strengthening of itself.

Verse 17. His roots are wrapped about the heap — Heath renders this, He windeth his roots about a spring; he twisteth himself about a heap of stones: and he approves a slight alteration of the text made by Houbigant; who, rather more elegantly, reads, He has his roots involved, or, fixed, in a hill; he adheres to the midst of stones. This circumstance is added to signify the tree’s firmness and strength; that it was not fixed in loose and sandy ground, which a violent wind might overthrow, but in solid ground, within which were many stones, which its numerous and spreading roots embraced, folding and interweaving themselves about them. He seeth the place of stones — The tree reacheth thither, takes the advantage of that place for the strengthening of itself. By this the writer seems to express the apparent firmness and worldly dependance of the hypocrite.

17. About the heap — Literally, Over a heap (of stones) are his roots intertwined: he seeth a house of stones. A stone heap (lg) sometimes served for a memorial of honour. Genesis 31:46-48. Joseph, (also of Egypt,) on the contrary, was a fruitful bough, whose branches ran over the wall. Genesis 49:22. Seeth the place of stones — Rather, A house of stones. “He is like a tree which seems firmly rooted in a heap of stones, and looks down, as it were, with a domineering aspect and a proud consciousness of strength on a house of stone, in which he appears to be firmly built as in a marble palace; yet he will soon be withered and rooted up, and vanish from the face of the earth.” — Wordsworth. Comp. Matthew 13:5, 6.

V. 18. He-God, who is the saviour of good men, and the destroyer of the wicked. It-The place; to which denying him, and seeing him, are here ascribed figuratively. Not seen-He shall be so utterly extirpated and destroyed, that there shall be no memorial of him left.

Verse 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 prosopopœia, says, “I know thee not; I have never seen thee.” This also have I witnessed; I looked on it, felt regret, received instruction, and hasted away.

Verse 18. If he, &c. — Namely, God, who is the saviour of good men and the destroyer of the wicked; destroy him from his place — When God blasts him and plucks him up; then it shall deny him — That is, the place shall deny him; saying, I have not seen thee — The reader will easily observe, that denying him and seeing him are here ascribed to the place figuratively, and the meaning is, that he shall be so utterly extirpated and destroyed, that there shall be no memorial of him left, nor any remembrance that such a man ever lived in that place. He shall no more recover himself than a tree which is plucked out of the ground, and left to wither.

18. If he (God) destroy — Or the subject of the verb may be indefinite. The plant was apparently a useless growth, which any one would do well to destroy, Him — Or, It. The interweaving of the image and its object throughout this entire citation is a sign, not only of its great antiquity, but also of its foreign origin. The Hebrew mind wielded an imagination which was always clear and distinct. Deny him — The earth that had given the plant its life is moved with such a sense of shame as to deny that it had seen him, (or it.) A powerful personification. For nature’s abhorrence of human fungi, see Job 27:21-23.

V. 19. Behold-This is the issue of the flourishing state. This all his joy comes to. And, &c.-Out of the same earth or place shall another tree grow.

Verse 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 been for his extravagance and folly.

This verse Mr. Good applies to GOD himself, with no advantage to the argument, nor elucidation of the sense, that I can see. I shall give his translation, and refer to his learned notes for his vindication of the version he has given:—

“Behold the Eternal (awh

awh) exulting in his course;

Even over his dust shall raise up another.”

In this way none of the ancient versions have understood the passage. I believe it to be a strong irony, similar to that which some think flowed from the pen of the same writer: Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth; and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes. But know thou, that for all these God will bring thee into judgment; Ecclesiastes 11:9. These two places illustrate each other.

Verse 19. Behold, this is the joy of his way — Or, rather, This is the way of his joy: it all ends in this: this is the issue of his flourishing state. He falls into heavy calamities, from which he can never deliver himself again. And out of the earth shall others grow — Out of the same earth or place shall other trees arise. Heath reads the verse, Behold him now; destruction is his path; and strangers out of the dust shall spring up in his room. In other words, The wicked come speedily to an end, and strangers with whom they had no affinity come in to possess what they had gathered up, in expectation of making their name and family endure a long time.

19. The joy of his way — Deeply ironical. With a touch the poet discloses hidden deeps of misery and of doom. Shall others grow — rja, another, used collectively. One crop of weeds is followed by another. The law of nature in the moral world is not the boasted law of science — “the selection of the best;” for, without the hand of the tiller, the worse overpowers the better. The wheat soon succumbs before the tares. One generation of evil doers is followed by “another and another.” In the protracted struggle between good and evil, evil alone has power to perpetuate itself. It may never come to pass that a generation of the godly shall bring forth a like godly generation. Of the hundred generations that have already lived, each one has been evil. Dark is the mystery. The labourer for God, like the sower in the parable, must toil on against fearful odds, knowing that with each generation be must begin anew. The concluding short strophe gives an application of the wisdom of the ancients to the case of Job, 20-22.

Hirtzel substantially reads the moral thus: “The same law of cause and effect holds in the moral as in the physical world. The drying up of the waters is the cause of the quick withering of the plant; so alienation from God is the cause of quickly decaying earthly bliss.” This substantiates the doctrine of justice taught in the succeeding strophe, 20-22.

V. 20. Behold-God who will not help the evildoer, will not cast away a good man, tho he may be cast down. Yet it may be, he will not be lifted up in this world: and therefore Bildad could not infer, that if Job was not restored to temporal prosperity, he was not a good man. Let us judge nothing before the time, but wait ‘till the secrets of all hearts are revealed, and the present difficulties of providence solved, to universal and everlasting satisfaction.

Verse 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.”

Verse 20. Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man — God, who will not help the evil doer, will not cast away a good man, though he may be cast down: yet it may be he will not be lifted up in this world; and therefore Bildad could not infer, that if Job was not restored to temporal prosperity he was not a good man. Let us judge nothing before the time, but wait till the secrets of all hearts are revealed, and the present difficulties of providence solved, to universal and everlasting satisfaction.

20. Help — Literally, Grasp the hand; that is, to protect evil doers against the consequences of their actions. The sentiment negatively expressed is that of verse 4.

V. 21. ‘Till, &c.-And what I have said in general of good men, shall be made good to thee, if thou art such: God will not forsake thee, nor desist from doing thee good, ‘till he give thee abundant matter of rejoicing.

Verse 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 predecessor, though with equal positiveness in respect to the grand charge, viz., If thou wert not a sinner of no mean magnitude, God would not have inflicted such unprecedented calamities upon thee.

This most exceptionable position, which is so contrary to matter of fact, was founded upon maxims which they derived from the ancients. Surely observation must have, in numberless instances, corrected this mistake. They must have seen many worthless men in high prosperity, and many of the excellent of the earth in deep adversity and affliction; but the opposite was an article of their creed, and all appearances and facts must take its colouring.

Job’s friends must have been acquainted, at least, with the history of the ancient patriarchs; and most certainly they contained facts of an opposite nature. Righteous Abel was persecuted and murdered by his wicked brother, Cain. Abram was obliged to leave his own country on account of worshipping the true God; so all tradition has said. Jacob was persecuted by his brother Esau; Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers; Moses was obliged to flee from Egypt, and was variously tried and afflicted, even by his own brethren. Not to mention David, and almost all the prophets. All these were proofs that the best of men were frequently exposed to sore afflictions and heavy calamities; and it is not by the prosperity or adversity of men in this world, that we are to judge of the approbation or disapprobation of God towards them. In every case our Lord’s rule is infallible: By their fruits ye shall know them.

JOB

Verse 21. Till he fill thy mouth with laughing — What I have said in general of good men shall be made good to thee if thou art such: God will not forsake thee, nor desist from doing thee good, till he give thee abundant matter of rejoicing.

Verse 22. They that hate thee — That rejoice in thy calamities; shall be clothed with shame — That is, shall be wholly covered with it, shall be utterly confounded, when they shall observe thee, whom they have despised and insulted over, to be wonderfully restored to thy former or greater felicity. And the dwelling-place of the wicked — Either, particularly, of thy enemies, who acted so unworthily and wickedly toward thee; or, more generally, of all wicked men; shall come to naught — Having showed what good God would do to the perfect, or good man, he now declares what would be the portion of the wicked. And, as he said, verse 20, that God would not help them; so here he adds, that God would bring not only them, but their house, that is, their family and estate, to utter ruin.

22. Clothed with shame — vbl clothe, when employed metaphorically is for the most part used of righteousness, (Job 29:14;) also of the divine Spirit, light, glory, etc.; here, (also Psalm 35:26,) with concealed sarcasm, the signification is, their best attire is shame. Dwelling-place — In the place of tyb, house, three times appearing in the ancient poem, we now have lha, ohel, tent, happily chosen to set forth the transitoriness of the home of the wicked in comparison with that of the spider, and even the running vine.