Job 8:16

He [is] green before the sun,.... Which some understand of the rush or flag, of which a further account is given, as setting forth more fully the case of wicked men and hypocrites; but to either of

He is green before the sun, and his branch shooteth forth in his garden. Before the sun , [ lipneey (H6440) shemesh (H8121)] - i:e., He (the godless) is green only before the sun rises; but he cannot bear its heat, and withers.

He; either, 1. The perfect man, here understood out of , where it is expressed; or rather, 2. The hypocrite, of whom he hath hitherto treated, to whom this and the following verses very well agree; whom he before compared to a rush, and then to a spider’ s web, and now to a tree, which is of a more solid substance, and more durable; as if he said, As some wicked men are quickly cut off in the very beginnings of their prosperity, so there are others who seem to be more firmly grounded, and yet they also at last come to ruin. Is green, i.e. flourisheth in the world. Before the sun; either, 1. Publicly, and in the view of all men, who observe it with admiration, and applause, and envy: compare . Or rather, 2. Notwithstanding all the scorching heat of the sun, which quickly withers the rushes and herbs, of which he spake before, but doth only cherish and refresh the tree. And so doth many a wicked man secure himself, and thrive and prosper even in times of great danger and trouble, and in spite of all opposition. His branch; or, his branches; the singular number for the plural; either, 1. Properly, and so this belongs to the description of a flourishing tree, by the spreading of its branches here, as by the depth of its root, . Or, 2. Metaphorically, to wit, his children, which 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 from men and beasts, and where, besides the natural advantages common to all trees, it hath peculiar helps from the art and industry of men, by whom it is watered and assisted as need requires. So he supposeth this man to be placed in the most desirable circumstances.

Job 8:16 He [is] green before the sun, and his branch shooteth forth in his garden.Ver. 16. He is green before the sun] Succosus est, saith Tremellius, he is sappy and juicy, having a confluence of all kind of comforts and contentments, even more than heart could wish, as David expresseth it, Psalms 73:7. The hypocrite is all this; the height of whose happiness is here set forth by a third similitude, lest any should think that the two former did not reach home to the thing intended. Look how, saith Bildad, a great and tall tree, having many roots and branches, may be so cut up and thrown down, that no footstep, or sign of it, may any more appear; so may it fare with a wicked man: though he be as a tree green or juiceful before the sun, or when the sun shineth hottest upon him, the rush may then wither, but not the tree. See Psalms 37:35. A hypocrite may abound exceedingly in outward prosperity; yea, he may be green for a while before the sun of persecution, as was Alexander the coppersmith, Acts 19:32 2 Timothy 4:14. The thorny ground stood out the heat of the sunbeams, and shrank not in the wetting. And his branch shooteth forth in his garden] Mr Broughton translates, His suckers sprout out over his orchard, that is, he grows luxuriously eminent in the place where he liveth, which he hath made to become a kind of a paradise, or garden of delight. By garden here we are to understand, saith Mercer, all those ways and means whereby a wicked man fenceth and increaseth his own greatness. Some of the Jewish doctors, and others also after them, think that Bildad here beginneth to speak of the godly man’ s happiness; and they read the text thus, But the perfect man (so they supply the text out of Job 8:20) is green before the sun, and his branches, &c. His roots are wrapped near the fountain, and he windeth himself about the stony building (that is, it spreadeth and twisteth its boughs round about the fountain vault, being strongly built with stone); shall he be taken out of his place, which may deny, saying, I have not seen thee? No, that cannot be, Lo, this shall be that joy of his way, even out of his mould shall others grow, i.e. his very dust shall live and grow up after him. Thus Beza, and after him Diodati; he is like an exquisite tree set in a pleasant garden in sight of his master’ s palace, sucking the sweet moistness of the quick springs, without ever fading or withering, Psalms 1:3 Jeremiah 17:8. That is to say, he shall have a lively root of faith, continually nourished by God’ s grace; under his safeguard and favour he shall be strong in all assays, abundant in good works, and all manner of blessings.

(16) 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 even before the sun.” There is not the same promise of verdure, but a greater realisation of it.

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.

8–19. 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.

He is green before the sun - Vulgate, “antequam veniat sol - before the sun comes.” So the Chaldee, “before the rising of the sun.” So Eichhorn renders it.

16. Before the sun — “In the glow of the sun, where other plants wither, it thrives and remains fresh.” — Hirtzel.