Albert Barnes Commentary Job 8:16

"He is green before the sun, And his shoots go forth over his garden." — Job 8:16 (ASV)

He is green before the sun - The Vulgate reads, “antequam veniat sol - before the sun comes.” So too, the Chaldee: “before the rising of the sun.” Eichhorn also renders it this way. According to this interpretation, which is probably the correct one, the passage means that the person described is green and flourishing before the sun rises, but cannot bear its heat and withers away.

A new illustration is introduced here. The object is to compare the hypocrite with a vigorous plant that grows up quickly and sends its branches far, but which has no depth of root. When the intense heat of the sun comes upon it, this plant withers away.

The comparison is not with a tree, which would bear the heat of the sun, but rather with those succulent plants that have a large growth of leaves and branches, like a gourd or vine, but which will not bear a drought or endure the intense heat of the sun. “This comparison of the transitory nature of human hope and prosperity to the sudden blight which overthrows the glory of the forest and of the garden,” says the Editor of the Pictorial Bible , “is at once so beautiful and so natural, as to have been employed by poets of every age.” One such comparison of exquisite finish occurs in Shakespeare:

This is the state of man! Today he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope; tomorrow blossoms,
And hears his blushing honours thick upon him:
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,
And, when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a ripening, nips his shoot,
And then he falls, as I do.

And his branch shooteth forth ... - A comparison of a prosperous person or nation with a vine that spreads in this manner is common in the Scriptures. See Psalm 80:11:

She sent out her boughs unto the sea,
And her branches unto the river.

Compare the note at Isaiah 16:8. A similar figure occurs in Psalm 37:35:

I have seen the wicked in great power,
And spreading himself like a green bay tree.