Job 8 Study Notes

8:1-2 Bildad acted like God’s “defense attorney.” He charged Job with speaking like an empty windbag.

8:3-4 Bildad’s rhetorical question (v. 3) expected a negative answer. God is always righteous in his actions (Dt 32:4). Bildad believed Job’s sinning children got what they deserved.

8:5-7 By implication Bildad suggested that Job had sinned, hence his condition. Because God had spared Job’s life, there was yet hope for a change in Job’s fortunes. Home more strictly denotes pasturage and by extension a dwelling place (5:3,24; see Jr 6:2; Zph 2:6).

8:8-10 Bildad appealed to traditional wisdom. Life is as short as a vanishing shadow (14:1-2; Ps 102:11; 109:23; 144:4; Ec 6:12).

8:11-13 As papyrus dies without water to nourish it, so the godless will perish. To succeed, man needs God, the “water of life.”

8:14-15 A man who places his hope in anything but God is like a man who leans against a spider’s web; it will not hold him up.

8:16-19 The godless are like a vine that appears firmly established among the rocks. Yet it is easily uprooted, leaving no trace.

8:20-22 Bildad summed up his case: If Job was truly righteous, God would sustain him.