Albert Barnes Commentary Job 8:13

"So are the paths of all that forget God; And the hope of the godless man shall perish:" — Job 8:13 (ASV)

So are the paths of all that forget God — This is clearly a part of the quotation from the sayings of the ancients. The word “paths” here means ways, acts, doings. Those who forget God are like the paper-reed. They seem to flourish, but they have nothing that is firm and substantial. As the paper-reed soon dies, as the flag withers away before any other herb, so it will be with the wicked, though apparently prosperous.

And the hypocrite’s hope shall perish — This important sentiment, it seems, was known in the earliest periods of the world; and if the supposition above is correct, that this is a fragment of a poem which had come down from far distant times, it was probably known before the flood. The passage requires no particular philological explanation, but it is exceedingly important. We may remark on it:

1. There were hypocrites even in that early age of the world. They are confined to no period, or country, or religious denomination, or profession. There are hypocrites in religion—and so there are in politics, and in business, and in friendship, and in morals. There are pretended friends, and pretended patriots, and pretended lovers of virtue, whose hearts are false and hollow, just as there are pretended friends of religion. Wherever there is genuine coin, it will likely be counterfeited; and the fact of a counterfeit is always a tribute to the intrinsic worth of the coin—for who would go to the trouble of counterfeiting that which is worthless? The fact that there are hypocrites in the church is an involuntary tribute to the excellence of religion.

2. The hypocrite has a hope of eternal life. This hope is founded on various things. It may be on his own morality; it may be on the expectation that he will be able to practice a deception; it may be on some wholly false and unfounded view of the character and plans of God. Or, taking the word “hypocrite” in a larger sense to denote anyone who pretends to religion and has none, this hope may be founded on some change of feeling he has experienced, and which he mistook for religion; on some supposed vision which he had of the cross or of the Redeemer; or on the mere subsiding of the alarm which an awakened sinner experiences, and the comparative peace resulting from that. The mere cessation of fear produces a kind of peace—as the ocean is calm and beautiful after a storm—no matter what the cause, whether it is true religion or any other cause. Many a sinner, who has lost his convictions for sin in any way, mistakes the temporary calm that follows for true religion, and embraces the hope of the hypocrite.

3. That hope will perish. This may occur in various ways:

   1. It may die away imperceptibly, leaving the man to be a mere professor of religion—a formalist, without comfort, usefulness, or peace.

   2. It may be taken away in some calamity by which God tests the soul, and where the man will see that he has no religion to sustain him.

   3. It may occur under the preaching of the gospel, when the hypocrite may be convinced that he is destitute of vital piety and has no true love to God.

   4. It may be on a bed of death—when God comes to take away the soul, and when the judgment-seat appears in view.

   5. Or it will be at the bar of God. Then the hypocrite’s hope will certainly be destroyed. Then it will be seen that he had no true religion, and then he will be consigned to the awful doom of him who in the most solemn circumstances lived to deceive, and who assumed the appearance of that which he had the strongest reason to believe he never possessed. Oh! how important it is for every professor of religion to examine himself, that he may know what is the foundation of his hope of heaven!