8 "Please inquire of past generations , And consider the things searched out by their fathers . 9 "For we are only of yesterday and know nothing , Because our days on earth are as a shadow . 10 "Will they not teach you and tell you, And bring forth words from their minds ? 11 "Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh ? Can the rushes grow without water ? 12 "While it is still green and not cut down , Yet it withers before any other plant . 13 "So are the paths of all who forget God ; And the hope of the godless will perish , 14 Whose confidence is fragile , And whose trust a spider's web . 15 "He trusts in his house , but it does not stand ; He holds fast to it, but it does not endure . 16 "He thrives before the sun , And his shoots spread out over his garden . 17 "His roots wrap around a rock pile , He grasps a house of stones . 18 "If he is removed from his place , Then it will deny him, saying, ' I never saw you.' 19 "Behold , this is the joy of His way ; And out of the dust others will spring .
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.