Albert Barnes Commentary Job 8:4

"If thy children have sinned against him, And he hath delivered them into the hand of their transgression;" — Job 8:4 (ASV)

If thy children have sinned against him - Bildad here assumes that Job's children had been wicked and had been cut off in their sins. This must have cut Job to the quick, for there was nothing a bereaved father would feel more acutely than this.

The meaning here is somewhat weakened by the word “if.” The Hebrew אם 'ı̂m is rather to be taken in the sense of “since”—assuming it as an indisputable point, or taking it for granted.

This was not a supposition that if they were now to do it, certain other consequences would follow. Instead, the idea is that since they had been cut off in their sins, if Job would even now seek God with a proper spirit, he might be restored to prosperity, even though his beginning might be small (Job 8:7).

And he have cast them away - Bildad supposes that they had been disowned by God and had been put to death.

For their transgression - The margin note says, “in the hand of their.” The Hebrew is “by the hand of their transgression”; that is, their sin has been the cause of it, or it has been by the instrumentality of their sin.

What foundation Bildad had for this opinion, derived from the life and character of Job’s sons, we have no means of ascertaining.

The probability is, however, that he had learned in general that they had been cut off. Based on the general principle he maintained—that God deals with people in this life according to their character—he then inferred that they must have been distinguished for wickedness.

People often argue in this way when sudden calamity comes upon others.