Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 8

And he has cast them away. —Literally, then he sent them away. By means of their transgression, it became their destruction.

If thou wert pure and upright. —Of course, then, there is only one inference: you are not pure and upright. These are truly the wounds of a friend who is not faithful.

Bildad brings the experience of former generations to support his point. He wishes to be very orthodox in his assertions and to base his statements on authority. He appeals to the experience of past ages and calls them to testify to the truth of what he says.

He also, like Eliphaz, uses figures and resorts to metaphor; however, his figures are highly obscure and open to various explanations.

We offer the interpretation that seems most convincing to us. It appears, then, that Bildad contemplates two representative characters—the two that are so prominent throughout this book: namely, the righteous and the wicked.

He depicts the latter first, describing him using the image of the paper-reed, or rush that grows in the mire of Egyptian swamps. This plant, though surrounded by moisture, is nevertheless, as a matter of fact, prone to wither quickly.

So too is the wicked man, according to this moralist and philosopher. He is surrounded by mercies and blessings, but they do him no good; he withers in the midst of abundance.

The flag is the plant of Genesis 41:2, which the cattle feed upon. This figure is reinforced by a second, namely, that of the spider’s web, the most fragile and transient of tenements.

It shall not endure. —The description of the wicked man ends here.

He is green. —Here begins, as we understand it, another and an opposite picture, which fact is marked in the Hebrew by an emphatic pronoun. “Green is he before the sun , etc., quite unlike the watery paper-plant. This man is verdant and luxuriant, not in the midst of moisture, but even before the sun.” There is not the same promise of verdure, but a greater realisation of it.