8 For inquire, I pray thee, of the former generation, and attend to the researches of their fathers; 9 For we are [but] of yesterday, and know nothing, for our days upon earth are a shadow. 10 Shall not they teach thee, [and] tell thee, and utter words out of their heart? 11 Doth the papyrus shoot up without mire? doth the reed-grass grow without water? 12 Whilst it is yet in its greenness [and] not cut down, it withereth before any [other] grass. 13 So are the paths of all that forget God; and the profane man's hope shall perish, 14 Whose confidence shall be cut off, and his reliance is a spider's web. 15 He shall lean upon his house, and it shall not stand; he shall lay hold on it, but it shall not endure. 16 He is full of sap before the sun, and his sprout shooteth forth over his garden; 17 His roots are entwined about the stoneheap; he seeth the place of stones. 18 If he destroy him from his place, then it shall deny him: I have not seen thee! 19 Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the dust shall others grow.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 8:8-19
Commentary on Job 8:8-19
(Read Job 8:8-19)
Bildad discourses well of hypocrites and evil-doers, and the fatal end of all their hopes and joys. He proves this truth of the destruction of the hopes and joys of hypocrites, by an appeal to former times. Bildad refers to the testimony of the ancients. Those teach best that utter words out of their heart, that speak from an experience of spiritual and divine things. A rush growing in fenny ground, looking very green, but withering in dry weather, represents the hypocrite's profession, which is maintained only in times of prosperity. The spider's web, spun with great skill, but easily swept away, represents a man's pretensions to religion when without the grace of God in his heart. A formal professor flatters himself in his own eyes, doubts not of his salvation, is secure, and cheats the world with his vain confidences. The flourishing of the tree, planted in the garden, striking root to the rock, yet after a time cut down and thrown aside, represents wicked men, when most firmly established, suddenly thrown down and forgotten. This doctrine of the vanity of a hypocrite's confidence, or the prosperity of a wicked man, is sound; but it was not applicable to the case of Job, if confined to the present world.