Job 8
OGCTODAY’S ENGLISH VERSION
Bildad
1-2 Are you finally through with your windy speech? 3 God never twists justice;
he never fails to do what is right.
4 Your children must have sinned against God,
and so he punished them the way they deserved.
5 But now turn and plead with Almighty God; 6 if you are so pure and honest,
then God will come and help you and restore your household as your reward.
7 All the wealth you lost will be nothing
compared to what God will give you then.
8 Look for a moment at ancient wisdom;
consider the truths our fathers learned.
9 Our life is so short we know nothing at all;
we are only shadows on the face of the earth.
10 But let the ancient wise men teach you;
listen to what they had to say:
11 Reeds can-’t grow where there is no water;
they are never found outside a swamp.
12 If the water dries up they are the first to wither,
while still too small to be cut and used.
13 Godless men are like those reeds;
their hope is gone, once God is forgotten.
14 They trust a threada spider web. 15 If they lean on a web, will it hold them up?
If they grab for a thread, will it help them stand?
16 Evil men sprout like weeds in the sun,
like weeds that spread all through the garden.
17 Their roots wrap around the stones
and hold fast to every rock.
18 But then pull them up
no one will ever know they were there.
19 Yes, that’s all the joy evil men have;
others now come and take their places.
20 But God will never abandon the faithful,
or ever give help to evil men.
21 He will let you laugh and shout again, 22 but he will bring disgrace on those who hate you,
and the homes of the wicked will
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 8:1-22
Who is Bildad?
There are only two kinds of people in Bildad’s world. Who are they?
Someone is accused of being a bag of wind. Who is it?
Why do some commentators delete words from verse three?
Bildad knows why Job lost his children. What was the reason? Wasn-’t this cruel?
Job spoke of God seeking him. Bildad reverses the thought. How so?
The American dream turned to a nightmare is based on Bildad’s theology. Explain how this is true.
Bildad does promise Job restoration, but on what basis?
The wisdom of the ancients is in favor of Bildad logic. So what?
The longest life is but a brief flickering candle. How does this thought relate to learning from history?
How does the proverb in Job 8:11 apply to Job?
Job is withering away. Do we know the reason for it? What do the ancients teach us as a cause? (i.e., according to Bildad)
Job is accused of being Godless. Why?
Job 8:1-7
D. THE GREAT ABSENCE: EMPATHY AND SYMPATHYBILDAD Job 8:1-22
- God is just and has not been unrighteous. (Job 8:1-7) (A rebuke of Job.)
TEXT 8:1-7
8 **Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
2 How long wilt thou speak these things?
And **how long **shall the words of thy month be **like **a mighty wind?
3 Doth God pervert justice?
Or doth the Almighty pervert righteousness?
4 If thy children have sinned against him,
And he hath delivered them into the hand of their transgression;
5 If thou wouldst seek diligently unto God,
And make thy supplication to the Almighty;
6 If thou wert pure and upright:
Surely now he would awake for thee, And make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.
7 And though thy beginning was small,
Yet thy latter end would greatly increase.**
COMMENT 8:1-7
**Job 8:1**Job concludes that even if God does finally respond to his outcries, it will be too late. Enters Bildad,[107] the younger, less tactful comforter. He is scandalized by Job’s familiarity with God. A fundamental assumption in Bildad’s thought is that God can do no wrong. Concurring with Eliphaz, Bildad sets forth retributive justice as a solution to our dilemma. His world contains only two groups of peoplethe wicked and the righteous. Suffering is the evidence of sin; and Job’s only escape is repentance.
[107] V. A. Irwin, The First Speech of Bildad, Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 51, 1953, 205-16.
**Job 8:2**The verb say (A. V. speak) is an Aramaism and means a great wind full of sound and fury signifying nothing. Bildad continues to concentrate on God’s justice,[108] a question Job has never raised.
[108] See Schrenk, art. Dike, Kittel’s TWNT, Vol. II, 174-225.
**Job 8:3**God (Shaddai) and injustice are incompatible terms. Does God pervert (Heb. ye-‘awwetdistort) justice? The verb is repeated for strong emphasis (pervertpervert) on the magnitude of Job’s sin. There is no need either to use different words, as does the LXX and Vulgate, etc., or to delete one, as do some commentators.
**Job 8:4**Bildad does not hesitate to emphasize an obvious conclusion, that Job’s children were punished for their sinfulness. They received what they deserved. This verse strongly connects the Dialogue with the Prologue. The A. V. renders the verse so as to connect Job 8:4-6 (compare with the R. S. V.). Sin carries its own punishment. This is expressed in the translation into the hand of their transgression.[109] Bildad’s inexcusable cruelty is apparent in his suggestion regarding Job’s children, i.e., they brought their deaths on themselves. Even though the Hebrew grammar expresses a conditional form, Bildad’s deadly apriori concept of God’s justice could only more intensely aggravate Job’s troubled spirit. (Eliphaz had already hinted at the same legalistic doctrinaire solutionJob 5:4).
[109] Svi Rin, Biblische Zeitschrift, N. F., VII, 1963, 32ff, for suggestions based on Ugaritic evidence.
**Job 8:5**Bildad employs the same word used by Job 7:21, seek, (Heb. sihor). But Job had spoken of God seeking him, Bildad suggests that it is imperative that Job seek God, if he desires healing.
**Job 8:6**The interrelationship between prosperity and piety is again emphasized (cf. American dream turned to nightmare is based on Bildad’s theology). Bildad uses anthro-pomorphismA. V. he would awake for thee.[110] Is the creator of the universe asleep or insensitive to Job’s tragedy? Bildad promises Job that God willlit. restore the habitation of thy righteousness, if he will but follow his advice.
[110] For discussion of this matter, see H. N. Richardson, Journal of Biblical Literature, LXVI, 1947, 322; H. L. Ginsberg, Bulletin of the American Society of Oriental Research, 72,1938, 10; and I. Reider, Yetus Testamentum, II, 1952, 126.
**Job 8:7**Bildad unconsciously prophesies of Job’s future restoration (chp. 42), though not for the reason suggested by Job’s comforter. Bildad is correct in asserting that the wisdom of the ancients is in harmony with his claimsJob 15:8; Deuteronomy 4:32; and Ecclesiastes 8:9.[111]
[111] W. G. Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature (Oxford, 1960), pp. 10-20.
Job 8:8-19
- The wisdom of the ages teaches that it is the godless who perish. (Job 8:8-19)
TEXT 8:8-19
**8 For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age,
And apply thyself to that which their fathers have searched out
9 (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing,
Because our days upon earth are a shadow);
10 Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee,
And utter words out of their heart?
11 Can the rush grow up without mire?
Can the flag grow without water?
12 Whilst it is yet in its greenness, **and **not cut down,
It withereth before any **other **herb.
13 So are the paths of all that forget God;
And the hope of the godless man shall perish:
14 Whose confidence shall break in sunder,
And whose trust is a spider’s web.
15 He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand:
He shall hold fast thereby, but it shall not endure.
16 He is green before the son,
And his shoots go forth over his garden.
17 His roots are wrapped about the stone-heap,
He beholdeth the place of stones.
18 If he be destroyed from his place,
Then it shall deny him, **saying, **I have not seen thee.
19 Behold, this is the joy of his way;
And out of the earth shall others spring.**
COMMENT 8:8-19
**Job 8:8**For inquire[112] of the wisdom of the ancients, see that I am right. The ancients searched out lit. searching out, i.e., the results of investigation. Note that it is deduction based on past experience of human correlation between rich-righteousness, and poverty and the power of sin, not revelation from God.[113]
[112] For discussion concerning the reading bonen for M. T. konen, see M. Dahood, Biblica, 46, 1965, 329.
[113] See W. F. Albright, Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan (Doubleday, pb.), p. 142, n. 85.
**Job 8:9-10**The longest life is but a brief flickering candle, so we need to consider the experience of humanity, not merely that of an individual. The brevity of life is a common theme in Wisdom LiteratureJob 14:2; Psalms 90:9-10; Psalms 102:3-4; Psalms 144:4; Ecclesiastes 6:12; Ecclesiastes 8:13. Every individual needs recourse to total experience of mankind. Bildad claims that the instruction comes from the depth of their understanding (Heb. heart), and not from their lips as mere verbal advice.
**Job 8:11**Bildad now recites some proverbial sayings which might have Egyptian background.[114] Could the papyrus and reeds (Heb. gome and -ahu) grow without a proper environment? Can Job prosper without environmental righteousness? The law of retribution is as sure as physical law. The unrighteous will perish in the midst of their prosperity, just as plants die when they are deprived of waterJob 15:32.
[114] In Ugaritic a cognate word is applied to the marshlands of Lake Samak, revealing that the terms above could have Palestinian origin.
**Job 8:12**When deprived of its life-sustaining environment, it withers before all, i.e., quicker than everything else. This symbolizes Job’s condition.
**Job 8:13**The paths (Heb. orhot), i.e., the fate[115] of all who forget God is suffering. The word translated godless occurs eight times in the book. The verb means to be profane, irreligious, or worldly person.
[115] Dhorme retains the M. T. over the LXX, and adduces support from Proverbs 1:19 where paths mean fate; see also discussion in B. S. Childe, Isaiah and the Assyrian Crisis, 1967, pp. 28ff.
**Job 8:14**Though there are technical problems in this verse, its basic meaning is clear. Job’s confidence is not in God’s justice, so his life will break like a spider’s web.[116]
[116] See Dhorme, pp. 120ff, and Pope, pp. 66-7, for discussion; J. Reider, Vetus Testamentum, IV, 1954, 288ff.
**Job 8:15**The confidence of the wicked is no more substantial than the proverbial flimsy spider’s webJob 27:18. Verily, frailest of all houses is the house of the spider, Qoran, 29:40.
**Job 8:16**Here we observe a radical shift in imagery, that of a flourishing tree suddenly cut down. The tree thrives (lit. is sappysee also Job 24:8) in a garden,[117] Job 15:30-33; Job 18:16-19; Eccl. 40:15; Matthew 13:4-9.
[117] See Jean Leveque, Job et Son Dieu, Tome II, 400-408.
**Job 8:17**The tree even grows in the midst of a stone-heap. Though they may appear secure, the wicked live in the midst of stones. The R. S. V. follows the LXX rather than the M. T. Though there are several problems with the translation of the A. V., the general sense is communicated, i.e., the tree strengthens its hold on the earth (even grows within context of stones).[118]
[118] Hebrew text readsyehezehhe sees, LXX reads zesetaihe lives.
**Job 8:18**There is no vestige of the tree left; it must be removed from among the stones, which is the final sign of its former state and presence. He shall deny him or disown himJob 31:28; reveals its final uprootedness of the treePsa 103:16.
**Job 8:19**Here joy can only be ironic. The grammar shows incongruity between the singular subject and plural verb, though the sense is that others will soon replace him, and he will not even be remembered.
Job 8:20-22
- If Job is upright, God will restore him. (Job 8:20-22)
TEXT 8:20-22
**20 Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man,
Neither will he uphold the evil-doers.
21 He will yet fill thy mouth with laughter,
And thy lips with shouting.
22 They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame;
And the tent of the wicked shall be no more.**
COMMENT 8:20-22
**Job 8:20**Bildad now uses the very term by which God described JobJob 1:8; see also Job 1:1blameless. The A. V. has uphold and in Hebrew it means to grasp the hand or take the handIsa 42:6; Isaiah 51:18. Bildad’s conclusion ends on an optimistic note. He has surely consoled Job.
**Job 8:21**God will redeem you, i.e., cause you to laugh, shout of jubilation, at your pain, once it has departed and wholeness returns.
**Job 8:22**Shame is conceived as the garment which the wicked wearPsa 35:26; Psalms 109:29; Psalms 132:18. The last word in this verse, -enennu, is no more, echoes Job’s last word, Job 7:21 -enenniam no more.