Commentary on the Old Testament Volume 2-4, Biblical commentary 2 · Job · Chapter 8
CHAP. VIII.
HOW long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall thy words be as Vers. 2.a strong winde? Now Bildad the second of the three friends of Job, that came to visit him, speaketh, being according to his name a wicked kinsman, for foreign from whence cometh foreign is wicked, and foreign is an uncle. He begineth with accusing Job for his using so many words, as he did in the two Chapters before going, to justify himself, as if he thought, that by his speech he were able, like a blustring strong wind, to bear down all others, that should speak against him,
Doth God pervert judgment? and doth the Almighty pervert justice? if thy Vers. 3.Children have sinned against him, &c,
He consenteth with Eliphaz, who spake first, in laying to Jobs charge and to his childrens, some great sin although to other men unknown, for which they being now cut off, he complained as if he were wronged, and for other plagues of God upon him; That which Bildad saith here is true; God will not pervert Judgment or justice, but constantly execute both, and although Job could not be found fault withall for his muttering out any thing against Gods just proceedings, yet many there are that may and ought to be reproved therefore, viz. All wicked men who although they be worthily plagued for their foul sinns, yet being smitten, murmur against God and cry out of his severity: Note. For Job is approved by God himself to have been a most just man, and therefore not one now judged for his sinns but only tryed in his patience, so that whatsoever he spake it is justifiable, as coming from one full of grace and virtue, but not in others who are wicked: Bildad then and his fellows erred in speaking thus to Job, all the things spoken by them are most true, and are written for our instruction. Touching Jobs children spoken of, Vers. Vers. 4.4. He mentioneth their example to them, that by it he might be stirred up to repent, and that speedily, which is a most pious admonition to wicked Note. men indeed, but misapplyed to Job; For by the example of the Galileans slain in sacrificing and of the men upon whom the Tower of Siloe fell, Christ, Luke 13.also admonisheth the Jewes, to repent speedily, threatning that otherwise they should all likewise perish: Jobs Children were eating and drinking, and thought little of dying when they did, yet by one blow of the house falling they were all slain; so it may be with others, and therefore to delay repentance is dangerous: And as for Job, he seemeth further to argue thus, they being taken away suddenly; thou hast been spared, and thy life heitherto saved, to what end is this: But that thou mightest be better prepared before thy death, and so much more every other man ought to Note. make this use of his life prolonged, when others are cut off suddenly, to fal presently to repenting and praying to God, for which he saith, (Betimes) thou wouldest seek to God betimes. And then shewing, what the life of the penitent now henceforth is, he addeth, If thou wert pure and upright, he Vers. 6.would awake for thee. For hereby it is shewed, that penitent persons live purely; after that they turn by true repentance, how soever they have formerly lived: And such as do so if they be in misery, as they have betimes turned unto God, so he will soon turn their miserie into prosperity again; which is set forth in his saying: Surely he would now awake for Note. thee, and make the habitation of the righteous prosperous. As thy habitation, whilst thou continuest in thy sin, was miserable; so being turned into righteousnesse, it shall be prosperous: Thou being blessed, both in thy house and in all that thou hast: Although thy beginning were smal; yet thy latter end shall greatly increase, Wherein he speaketh as it were, prophetically, Vers. 7.touching Jobs future great prosperity, for so it is shewed to have fallen out to him, at the end of this book. As was noted before upon the speech of Eliphaz, the spirit guiding their tongues to speak thus truely, as afterwards the tongue of Caiaphas, to speak of Christs death.
Inquire I pray thee of former ages, &c. here and V. 9. 10. Bildad appealeth to the experience of Gods doings in most ancient times, for if this be looked Vers. 8.unto, we shall finde that God, with whom there is never any variableness or shadow of change, alwaies blessed and shewed mercy to such, as sought Jam. 1. 17.unto him, being pure and righteous, and therefore it is certainly to be hoped, that towards all penitent persons, he will do so still. Ferus upon these and the words before going, saith very well; Bildad reasoneth from worldly Ferus.prosperity, to purity and righteousness of life, and contrarywise from adversity to wickedness and sinfulness, as if there were no true godly man that is in misery here, or wicked man in prosperity, and of this he seekes to bring proofe from the experience of all most ancient times: As if he had said, beleive it Iob, no righteous man ever suffered, as thou dost; and if thou wilt not believe it for our sayings, yet believe it for the testimony of all Antiquity, wherein he well ascribeth authority to them ancient, for God commandeth to honour the anci…nts, and provoketh his people oftentimes to attend to the doings of their fathers, and the experience that they had of Gods goodness towards them, that is, such of them as feared him, as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Noah and Enoch. He doth not yet hereby so commend the authority of ancientest or oldest of men unto us, as if their sayings were authenticall alwaies, for some old men are not so wise, as even children, witness the Preacher, who sayth, A poor wise child is better then a foolish old King. But where antiquity and wisdome concur, such are to Eccles. 4. 13.be preferred before child-hood, or men of few years, although wise also: But in appealing to the ancientest, he meaneth not so much those, that were of times more ancient then our selves, although many hundreds of Note. years, but the first of the Church of God, that were in the world: For Quod primum verum. And the Roman Catholickes of these times glory much in the Church of Rome, that was when Saint Peter sate Bishop there; upon this bearing themselves, as the only Catholick Church, and they alledge, as a reason of the authority of their Church, the antiquity of it, pretending it to be as ancient as Peter, and the rest of the Apostles; and the very same that then it was, but when they come to prove it, they go no higher then to about a thousand years agoe, the teachers of which antiquity are not of sufficient authority to confirm any thing, but only of tohse that were first, sent out to preach the Gospel: For Bildads reasoning from the prosperity of the godly, and contrariwise, to righteousnesse or wickednesse, it is a deceitful reasoning: For many times the wicked are in prosperity here, and the righteous in adversity; and adversity is good for them, and continual prosperity evil: But whereas he saith upon these words, If thou wouldst seek God betimes, and he would awake for thee, he noteth, That a man whilst he liveth in sin is a sleep; and then he must not expect, Note. but that God should be asleep to him; that is, not protect him from judgments and miseries: But when he awakes, from this sleep, according to that of the Apostle, Awake thou that sleepest. God will awake to him, to protect and Ephes. 5. 14.save him, from misery and to advance him to felicity.
Can the rush grow up without mire? or the flag without water? Whilst it is yet Vers. 11. Vers. 12. Vers. 13.in his greeness and is not cut down, it withereth, &c. So are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrites hope shall perish. After an argument from the experience of antiquity, Bildad here addeth another argument from a similitude taken from rushes and flags; to prove that wicked men shall not constantly injoy prosperity, but soon fade away: And Jerome saith, Hieron.That it was a thing, to which the Syrians and Phylistims were naturally much addicted, from natural things to illustrate the truth touching others, like unto them concerning men: The scope of this similitude is to shew, that hypocrites, who cover over wickedness with an outward shew of holiness; may for a time flourish in worldly prosperity, above and before others: But as the rush or flag being grown to a certain height, without ever yeilding any fruit, wither again; so it is to be expected, that hypocrites should do; who forgetting God, and not out of conscience toward Note. him, practise piety, but for their own worldly ends, they wanting all solydity of grace, and shooting forth thus only as it were by meanes of mire and water, the base and transitory things of this life, their own nature and not grace putting them on herein. Ferus will have the force of the Ferus.reason to lye in this: That as the rush and flag, grow not but in watery and miry places, in dry and firme Grounds, if they should be set therein, they would wither; so the wicked hypocrite, in prosperity, makes a great shew of piety, but in adversity, or being hardly intreated therefore, he hath no courage, so much as to make a shew any more: But contrariwise by his impatience and murmuring against God, he breaketh our, making the hollownesse of his heart to appeare to all men; and herein he aimed at the making of Iobs case odious, whom he thought now to be such: And he saith further, Whose hope shall be cut off, and his trust as a spiders web: he shall Vers. 14. Vers. 15.leane upon his house but it shall not stand, &c. For the spider makes his web in great and high houses, and that very curiously and artificially, but it is soon swept down, so the wicked working very subtlely, all their works, both their wealth and piety soon vanisheth.
He is green before the sun, and his branch shooteth forth in his Garden. In expounding this, and V. 17. 18. 19. There is great difference amongst Expositors; Vers. 16.the ancients following the vulg. Lat. which hath Ortus for Hortus, rising for garden. Expound all of the wicked hitherto spoken of, thus: Gregory. Tho: Aquinas. Beda. Philip.He is green and flourishing before the sun, with his burning and drying heat cometh; but this is only in his springing up at the first, as was touched before, V. 12. But now it is more at large declared, how being thus green as it were, by prosperity: He withereth, V. 17. His roots are wrapped about the heap, and he seeth the place of stones. Hereby he is made to wither; the Vers. 17.mire or water wherein he grew, being dryed up, towards the end of summer, and made hard as stony ground; he begineth to wither for want of moysture at his roots, V. 18. If he destroy him from his place, it shall deny him, Vers. 18.saying, I have not seen thee; that is, The sun having thus made the flag to wither, shall bring it to that passe; that for the total making of it to dye, and wither away: It saith, as it were, (speech by a Prosopopeia being ascribed to it) I have not seen thee any more; the old rushes or flags come to be green no more, but others grow up in the roome thereof: One generation passing and another succeeding; and this is the joy, that these natural things of so short a continuance have, as is said, V. 19. And so one wicked generation being cut off, yet another springeth up to the worlds end. Others that keep to the original, wherein it is a Garden, V. 16. Expound Vatablus. Clarius. Isidorus. Cajetan.it of the righteous, as if Bildad having done speaking of the wicked hypocrite; came now to the true hearted just man, to make good either way his assertion, as touching the momentany prosperity of the wicked, so of the constant and induring prosperity of the righteous: He groweth not as it were, in the mire or water of marrish ground, but as in a garden, in a fruitful soyl, standing pleasantly in the sun, and by reason thereof prospering the better, and shooting forth his branches; his children that live and grow up with him, to his greater comfort, V. 17. His roots are wrapped about the heap, and he seeth the place of stones. that is, He is deeply rooted, as it were, his roots being multiplyed into an heap, one infolded in another; a discription of a tree that stands most firmly; then in saying, He seeth the place of stones. It is meant, seeing hardship to be indured, such a man is not hereby terrified, but patiently beareth it: And whereas V. 18. it is said. If he destroy him from his place, he shall say, I have not seen thee. It is meant, that the just may be as it were destroyed, either by having his boughs cut off, as it is done to a tree, or vine being pruned, or cut off by the, roots, yet in a short time, as a tree shooteth …ut branches again, from the body or root thereof, and groweth again; so shall he have children, and come to a prosperous estate again, as if he had never seen or felt any such stroakes cutting him down, V. 19. This is the joy of his way, & out of the earth shall others grow, that is, Thus the just in his way, hath joy of prosperity Vers. 19.restored again; and out of him thus cut down to the ground, by losses of goods and children, shall other children come; and of them more to make him flourish from Generation to Generation: A very apt exposition, and such, as then which, we shall need to seek none other; And so the next words agree very well, V. 20. Behold, God will not cast away the perfect man, neither will he help the evill doers; as if he had said, Hereby it appeareth, Vers. 20.that although the righteous man may fal into adversity, as Iob did; yet he if he be just may have hope of being restored, but the wicked being so proceeded against; are without all hope of ever being restored again, V. 21. Till he fill thy lips with laughing, &c. He will not cast away the perfect, but Vers. 21.give him by his final prospering again, after affliction, cause of joy and gladnesse again for ever: And then shame and confusion shall come to the wicked that hated, and spake despitefully against him in his misery: And his Vers. 22.dwelling place or house shall come to naught. Wherein it is worth the considerring, how truly all this fel out, touching Iob and these his friends; he was restored, and they by Gods reproving them: Confounded and put to shame. As it appeareth, Chap. 42. 7.