8 For, ask I pray thee of a former generation, And prepare to a search of their fathers, 9 (For of yesterday we 'are', and we know not, For a shadow 'are' our days on earth.) 10 Do they not shew thee—speak to thee, And from their heart bring forth words? 11 'Doth a rush wise without mire? A reed increase without water? 12 While it 'is' in its budding—uncropt, Even before any herb it withereth. 13 So 'are' the paths of all forgetting God, And the hope of the profane doth perish, 14 Whose confidence is loathsome, And the house of a spider his trust. 15 He leaneth on his house—and it standeth not: He taketh hold on it—and it abideth not. 16 Green he 'is' before the sun, And over his garden his branch goeth out. 17 By a heap his roots are wrapped, A house of stones he looketh for. 18 If 'one' doth destroy him from his place, Then it hath feigned concerning him, I have not seen thee! 19 Lo, this 'is' the joy of his way, And from the dust others spring up.'
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.