Job 8

Then Bildad, a man from the country of Shuah, answered Job. He said:

1Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,

NoteBildad is the second of Job's three friends to speak, after Eliphaz in chapters 4–5. "The Shuhite" means he came from Shuah, a people or district somewhere east or southeast of Canaan; Shuah is named elsewhere as a son of Abraham by Keturah. The chapter is the opening of Bildad's first speech.

2How long are you going to keep talking like this? The words coming out of your mouth are like a blast of wind.

2How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?

Note"A strong wind" translates a Hebrew phrase for a mighty or blustering wind. The insult is that Job's words are loud, forceful and empty, noise moving air, not argument.

3Does God twist justice? Does the Almighty bend what is right?

3Doth God pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty pervert justice?

Note"Pervert judgment" is courtroom language: to bend a legal verdict, the way a corrupt judge does. "The Almighty" renders the Hebrew name Shaddai, an old title for God used far more often in Job than anywhere else in the Bible.

4If your children sinned against him, then he handed them over to the punishment their wrongdoing deserved.

4If thy children have sinned against him, and he have cast them away for their transgression;

NoteThis points back to Job 1, where all ten of Job's children were killed when the house they were feasting in collapsed. Bildad's sentence is conditional in form, but its logic assumes that if they died that way, they must have earned it.

5But if you would look hard for God, and beg the Almighty for mercy,

5If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty;

NoteThe KJV's "betimes" does not mean "sometimes." In 1611 English it meant early, or promptly, the Hebrew here has the sense of seeking God urgently or at first light.

6if you are clean and honest, then even now he would rouse himself for you and put your rightful home back in good order.

6If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.

Note"The habitation of thy righteousness" means the household you are rightly entitled to, house, land, livestock and family together, all of which Job has lost. "Awake for thee" pictures God as asleep and needing to stir; it is a stock image for God finally acting, not a claim about God's habits.

7Even though you started out small, your later years would grow to be very great.

7Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.

Note"Beginning" and "latter end" are the two ends of a life's fortunes. The picture is a man's wealth and standing measured early against late, a common way of summing up a whole life in this literature.

8Please, go ask the people who lived long ago. Give thought to what their fathers found out.

8For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:

NoteBildad is appealing to inherited wisdom. In the ancient Near East, knowledge worth having was what generations had accumulated and tested and passed down; an individual's own reasoning carried much less weight than the verdict of the ancestors. "The search of their fathers" means the findings their forefathers arrived at.

9We were only born yesterday, and we know nothing. Our days on earth are no more than a passing shadow.

9(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow:)

10Won't those older people teach you and tell you? Won't they speak out of what they have understood?

10Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart?

11Can a papyrus plant grow tall where there is no swamp? Can marsh reeds grow where there is no water?

11Can the rush grow up without mire? can the flag grow without water?

NoteThe KJV's "rush" is papyrus and "flag" is marsh reed, tall water plants that grow in swamp mud, familiar from the Nile delta. Both die fast the moment the water goes, which is the whole point of the comparison.

12While they are still green and nobody has cut them, they dry up faster than any grass.

12Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb.

13That is how it goes for everyone who forgets God. The hope of a person who lives without God dies out.

13So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish:

Note"Hypocrite" in 1611 English was broader than it is now. The Hebrew word means godless, irreligious or profane, someone with no regard for God at all, not specifically someone faking piety.

14What he trusts in snaps like a thread. What he leans on is a spider's web.

14Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider’s web.

NoteThe Hebrew calls the spider's web literally a "spider's house," which sets up the next verse: the man leans on his house and the house is only cobweb.

15He leans on his house, but it will not hold him up. He grabs hold of it, but it does not last.

15He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure.

Note"His house" continues the spider image from verse 14 and also means his household and estate, the two senses are deliberately held together.

16He is like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, sending its shoots out across the garden.

16He is green before the sun, and his branch shooteth forth in his garden.

17Its roots wrap around a pile of stones, and it looks for a place to hold among the rocks.

17His roots are wrapped about the heap, and seeth the place of stones.

NoteA plant rooting itself in a heap of stones has no soil to hold it. The Hebrew of the second half is difficult; it can be read as the plant seeing, or looking out for, a place among the stones, or as it gripping a house of stone.

18But if it is torn out of its place, that place will disown it and say, "I never saw you."

18If he destroy him from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.

Note"Deny" here means disown. The ground speaks like a witness in court refusing to acknowledge someone it once knew, the same legal register as verse 3.

19Look, that is the joy of his way. And out of the dirt, others will grow up in his place.

19Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the earth shall others grow.

Note"This is the joy of his way" is generally read as bitter irony: this withering is all the joy the man's course amounts to. Some read it straight instead, as the joy passing on to the others who spring up in his place. The Hebrew allows both.

20Look, God will not throw away a man who is blameless, and he will not lend his strength to those who do evil.

20Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evil doers:

Note"A perfect man" does not mean a flawless or sinless one. The Hebrew word means whole, sound, of undivided integrity, a man with nothing hidden in his dealings.

21He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouts of joy.

21Till he fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing.

22Those who hate you will be dressed in shame, and the tent of the wicked will be gone.

22They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame; and the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to nought.

NoteClothing stands for what a person visibly is in the eyes of others; to be clothed with shame is to have one's disgrace on public display. "Dwelling place" is literally a tent, the ordinary word for a household in a herding society, standing for the family and everything it owns.