Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Job 8:4

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Job 8:4. If thy children have sinned — I know thy children have been cut off by a terrible judgment; but was it not because by transgression they had filled up the measure of their iniquity?

And he have cast them away — Has sent them off, says the Targum, to the place of their transgression-to that punishment due to their sins.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Bildad speaks (8:1-22)

After rebuking Job for his wild words against God, Bildad tells him that God is always just. Completely lacking in sympathy, Bildad reminds Job that his children have died, and cruelly concludes that it must have been because of their sin (8:1-4). Job’s suffering must likewise be because of his sin. If, however, he is innocent, he need only pray humbly to God, and God will replace his suffering with greater blessing than he had before (5-7).
For Bildad the traditional teaching is of first importance, and this emphasis characterizes all his speeches. Job cannot, on the basis of his short experience, question what all the wisest people of previous ages have believed (8-10).
All disaster, in Bildad’s view, is the consequence of personal ungodliness. As flourishing plants wither and die when the water dries up, so the rich are brought to ruin when they forget God (11-13). They are as insecure as a spider’s web (14-15). They are like a fast-growing plant that is suddenly pulled up and replaced by others. Their joy is shortlived (16-19). According to Bildad, the reason for Job’s terrible losses and tormenting suffering can only be Job’s sin. Repentance will bring renewed strength, joy, victory and prosperity (20-22).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

BILDAD’S FIRST SPEECH:
BLUNT BLUSTERY BILDAD THINKS HE KNOWS THE ANSWER;
HIS BRUTAL, DISCOURTEOUS BEGINNING

“Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, How long wilt thou speak these things? And how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a mighty wind? Doth God pervert justice? Or doth the Almighty pervert righteousness? If thy children have sinned against him, And he hath delivered them into the hand of their transgression; If thou wouldest seek diligently unto God, And make thy supplication unto the Almighty; If thou wert pure and upright: Surely now he would awake for thee, And make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous. And though thy beginning was small, Yet thy latter end would greatly increase.”

To paraphrase Bildad’s words: “You old bag of wind, how wrong you are! Doesn’t God know enough to give you just what you deserve? Your children sinned, and look what happened to them; but if you will just repent and turn to God he will yet richly bless you!

“This speech of Bildad’s was inconsiderate, unfeeling and discourteous.”Preacher’s Homiletic Commentary, Vol. 10, p. 54. “He insists that God is just; and that Job’s troubles are evidence of his wickedness, and that if he would only turn to God, all would be well again.”Henry H. Halley’s Bible Handbook (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House), p. 228, As Matthew Henry observed, “Job’s friends, like the messengers of his disasters, followed each other in rapid succession, the messengers with evil tidings, and his friends with harsh censures, perhaps both the messengers and the friends being unaware of how effectively they fitted into the design of Satan. The messengers were calculated to drive Job from his integrity; and the friends, chosen by the evil one, sought to drive him from the comfort of that integrity.”Matthew Henry’s Commentary, Vol. III, p. 48.

A comparison of the speeches of Eliphaz and Bildad reveals that there was a progression. “Eliphaz, at first, was gentle and considerate, but Bildad was abrupt and harsh.”Layman’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 8, p. 76.

“Bildad’s conviction that righteous living inevitably leads to prosperity is by no means obsolete.”R. B. Sweet Publishing Company, No. 216, p. 23. This writer once attended the funeral of a well-known popular Sheriff in Burkburnet, Texas. He lost his life, trying to save the lives of others when, during a Red River flood, he crossed the threatened bridge to close the Oklahoma entrance. On the way back, he was swept away when 169’ feet of the bridge collapsed. In the conversations heard at the funeral, one said, “Well, I thought he was a good man; but evidently he was evil. Look what God did to him”!

Yes, as Bildad insisted in this speech, “This is the wisdom of the fathers” (Job 8:8); but how wrong it is! In our sin-cursed world, headed on a collision course with disaster, in outright rebellion against God, worshipping not the God of all grace, but the god of this world - Yes, in this world it is often, far too often, that it is the wicked who prosper, and the righteous who suffer. From the days of Abel who was slain because his deeds were righteous (1 John 3:12) to the Christian woman who lost her job this week because she refused to participate in the immorality and drunkenness of her contemporaries, the total experience of the human race denies the glib theology of Job’s friends.

This age-old error is today prevalent in our own country. Hesser explained why. In the days of the great English writer Chaucer, “The ideal man was presented as the poor man; and the rich religious leaders of Medieval times were severely attacked in Canterbury Tales; but John Calvin taught that God would not justify reprobates by giving them prosperity. Successful business men were therefore honored as God’s elect. When the Calvinistic Puritans settled America, they brought with them this evil doctrine, along with other Calvinistic errors.”Ibid. The near-universal habit of churches in choosing successful business men as their ruling committee reveals the influence of that old theology.

“If thy children have sinned against him (God)” Barnes wrote that the word “if,” as used here means “since”;Barnes’ Notes on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, a 1987 reprint of the 1878 edition),Job, p. 197. and James James Moffatt’s translation of the Bible, 1929, agreed with this, rendering the passage, “Though your children sinned against him.”Moffatt’s Translation of the Bible.

Pope identified this verse as an important witness to the unity of the Book of Job: “This verse connects the Dialogue and the Prologue, indicating that the two are not independent compositions.”The Anchor Bible (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1982), Job, p. 64.

Kelly properly noted that, “One purpose of the Book of Job is to challenge the mechanical view of life,”Layman’s Bible Commentary, op. cit., p. 77. represented by Bildad’s speech. In Bildad’s view, the rich and prosperous people are the saints of God, and the poor, distressed and suffering people are the wicked. The stupidity of that view is matched only by that of the people who accept it.

Of course, God blesses his children; but their sufferings are inevitable because our whole human family, in the greatest extent, are dominated and controlled by that Evil One whom our progenitors chose to obey, rather than the Lord. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”! Luke’s account of this beatitude is, “Blessed are ye poor”!

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

If thy children have sinned against him - Bildad here assumes that the children of Job had been wicked, and had been cut off in their sins. This must have cut him to the quick, for there was nothing which a bereaved father would feel more acutely than this. The meaning here is somewhat weakened by the word “if.” The Hebrew אם 'ı̂m is rather to be taken in the sense of “since” - assuming it as an indisputable point, or taking it for granted. It was not a supposition that if they should now do it, certain other consequences would follow; but the idea is, that since they had been cut off in their sins, if Job would even now seek God with a proper spirit, he might be restored to prosperity, though his beginning should be small; Job 8:7.

And he have cast them away - Bildad supposes that they had been disowned by God, and had been put to death.

For their transgression - Margin, in the hand of their. The Hebrew is, by the hand of their transgression; i. e, their sin has been the cause of it, or it has been by the instrumentality of their sin. What foundation Bildad had for this opinion, derived from the life and character of the sons of Job, we have no means of ascertaining. The probability is, however, that he had learned in general that they had been cut off; and that, on the general principle which he maintained, that God deals with men in this life according to their character, he inferred that they must have been distinguished for wickedness. Men not unfrequently argue in this way when sudden calamity comes upon others.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 8

So Bildad, the next friend, speaks up and he said,

How long will you speak these things? how long will your words of your mouth be like a [big, bag of] wind? Does God pervert judgment? or does the Almighty pervert justice? If your children have sinned against him, and he has cast them away for their transgression ( Job 8:2-4 );

And okay now, he's getting on my kids. They've sinned and God wiped them out. And now you going to blame God?

If you would seek unto God before, and make your supplication to the Almighty; If you were pure and upright; surely he would awake for thee ( Job 8:5-6 ),

He would take up your cause.

and he would make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous. Though your beginning was small, yet the latter end should be greatly increased. For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers: (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon the earth are like a shadow [on the sundial]:) Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart? Can the rush grow up without mire? ( Job 8:6-11 )

Now picture the rushes growing up beside the river there in the mud along the river.

can the flags grow without water? While it is yet in his greenness, it is cut down, it withers before any other herb ( Job 8:11-12 ).

So Job, you're like a reed that is growing up. But the mud dries up and while it is still green, you're being cut off. The hypocrites are this way, Job. You must be a hypocrite.

So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite's hope shall perish: Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web. He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure. He is green before the sun, but his branch shoots forth in his garden. His roots are wrapped about as the heap, and he seeth the place of stones. If he destroys him from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee. Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the earth shall others grow. Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evildoers: Till he fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing. They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame; and the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to nothing ( Job 8:13-22 ).

Basically, Job is saying, "Look." I mean, Bibdad is saying to Job, "God is fair, God is just. Plead your cause before God. Get right with God, Job, and everything is going to be okay. That's your problem. You're a hypocrite and what you need to do is just get right with God. Things will straighten out. You'll be blessed and all again. But something's wrong, Job. Can't happen, you know, unless there's something seriously wrong." "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The justice of God 8:1-7

Bildad’s initial words contrast with Eliphaz’s. Whereas Eliphaz was gentle and indirect, Bildad was impatient and insensitive. He accused Job of being a blow-hard (Job 8:2).

"Bildad is objective and analytical in his speech about God and man. As a result he is a neat but superficial thinker. He is a moralist, and in his simple theology everything can be explained in terms of two kinds of men-the blameless (tam, Job 8:20 a; used of Job in Job 1:1) and the secretly wicked (hanep, Job 8:13 b). Outwardly the same, God distinguishes them by prospering the one and destroying the other." [Note: Andersen, p. 140.]

Bildad’s callous reference to the death of Job’s children (Job 8:4) amounts to: "They got just what they deserved!" His point was that if Job was not sinning, God would be unjust in allowing him to suffer calamities. He asserted that God does not punish righteousness (Job 8:6; Job 8:20). He erroneously assumed his basic premise that all suffering is punishment for sin, the retributive dogma.

"Obviously the friends’ theology was far more important than Job." [Note: Bullock, p. 34.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

3. Bildad’s first speech ch. 8

Bildad agreed with Eliphaz that God was paying Job back for some sin he had committed, and he believed God would show Job mercy if he confessed that sin. However, Bildad built his conclusions on a slightly different foundation. Eliphaz argued from his own personal experience and observations (Job 4:8; Job 4:12-21). Bildad cited a more reliable authority: the experience of past generations that had come down through years of tradition (Job 8:8-10). He was a traditionalist whereas Eliphaz was an existentialist.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

If thy children have sinned against him,.... As no doubt they had, and, as Bildad thought, in a very notorious manner, and therefore were righteously punished for them; this instance is produced as a proof of God's not perverting, but doing justice, and the rather, because it was on account of this that it was supposed that Job charged, or was ready to charge, God with injustice; this was so far from it, that it was a righteous thing to do it, "if" or "seeing" his children had sinned; or "because" they have sinned, or "though" they have sinned, as the words h are by some differently rendered; and either way shows that God did not pervert justice, but acted agreeably to it. Mr. Broughton renders them, "as thy children have sinned against him, so hath he sent them into the hand of their trespass"; as a righteous retaliation for it: that Job's children had sinned, there is no question to be made of it; they were born in sin, though born of godly parents; and though they had a religious education, yet no doubt were guilty of sin in their younger years, as well as when grown up; and even though good men, as there may be reason to conclude they were, yet daily sinning, for there are none without sin; and also it is true, that all sin is against God, contrary to his nature and will, a breach and transgression of his law, and an act of hostility against himself, and a trampling under foot, or at least a neglect, of his legislative power and authority, which is an aggravation of it; yet it does not appear that Job's children were guilty of any notorious sins or atrocious crimes, or lived a sinful course of life, for which the judgments of God came upon them; nor is it a clear case that they were taken away by death in the manner they were on account of their sins, but rather purely for the trial of Job's integrity, faith, and patience:

and he have cast them away for their transgression; or "by the hand of it" i; by means of it, because of it, being provoked with it. Bildad represents them as abandoned sinners, as castaways and reprobates, rejected of God with abhorrence, and utterly ruined. Some render it, "hath sent them into the hand of their transgression" k, or trespass; that is, delivered them up to the power and dominion of sin, gave them up to their hearts' lusts, and to vile affections, to do things not convenient, and which they pursued to their ruin; the Targum is,

"he sent them into the place of their transgression l;''

into hell, which their transgressions deserved, and for which they were fitted by them. Some a little more mildly render the words, "he sent them away" m; that is, dismissed them out of the world, took them out of it by death; which dismission is sometimes in peace, as good old Simeon prayed for, and sometimes in wrath, as Saul was taken away, see Luke 2:29; the latter is the meaning here.

h אם "quandoquidem", Michaelis; "quia", Vatablus; "etiamsi", V. L. i ביד פשעם "in manu iniquitatis suae", V. L. so Montanus, Cocceius. k "In manum transgressionis ipsorum", Piscator, Beza, Schmidt, Michaelis, Schultens; "in potestatem defectionis ipsorum", Junius Tremellius. l So Munster m וישלחמ "et dimisit eos", Drusius "e mundo", Pagninus, Vatablus; so Gersom.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,   2 How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?   3 Doth God pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty pervert justice?   4 If thy children have sinned against him, and he have cast them away for their transgression;   5 If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty;   6 If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.   7 Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.

      Here, I. Bildad reproves Job for what he had said (Job 8:2; Job 8:2), checks his passion, but perhaps (as is too common) with greater passion. We thought Job spoke a great deal of good sense and much to the purpose, and that he had reason and right on his side; but Bildad, like an eager angry disputant, turns it all off with this, How long wilt thou speak these things? taking it for granted that Eliphaz had said enough to silence him, and that therefore all he said was impertinent. Thus (as Caryl observes) reproofs are often grounded upon mistakes. Men's meaning is not taken aright, and then they are gravely rebuked as if they were evil-doers. Bildad compares Job's discourse to a strong wind. Job had excused himself with this, that his speeches were but as wind (Job 6:26; Job 6:26), and therefore they should not make such ado about them: "Yea, but" (says Bildad) "they are as strong wind, blustering and threatening, boisterous and dangerous, and therefore we are concerned to fence against them."

      II. He justifies God in what he had done. This he had no occasion to do at this time (for Job did not condemn God, as he would have it thought he did), or he might at least have done it without reflecting upon Job's children, as he does here. Could he not be an advocate for God but he must be an accuser of the brethren? 1. He is right in general, that God doth not pervert judgment, nor ever go contrary to any settled rule of justice, Job 8:3; Job 8:3. Far be it from him that he should and from us that we should suspect him. He never oppresses the innocent, nor lays a greater load on the guilty than they deserve. He is God, the Judge; and shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Genesis 18:25. If there should be unrighteousness with God, how should he judge the world?Romans 3:5; Romans 3:6. He is Almighty, Shaddai--all sufficient. Men pervert justice sometimes for fear of the power of others (but God is Almighty, and stands in awe of none), sometimes to obtain the favour of others; but God is all-sufficient, and cannot be benefited by the favour of any. It is man's weakness and impotency that he often is unjust; it is God's omnipotence that he cannot be so. 2. Yet he is not fair and candid in the application. He takes it for granted that Job's children (the death of whom was one of the greatest of his afflictions) had been guilty of some notorious wickedness, and that the unhappy circumstances of their death were sufficient evidence that they were sinners above all the children of the east, Job 8:4; Job 8:4. Job readily owned that God did not pervert judgment; and yet it did not therefore follow either that his children were cast-aways or that they died for some great transgression. It is true that we and our children have sinned against God, and we ought to justify him in all he brings upon us and ours; but extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces; and, in our judgment of another's case (unless the contrary appears), we ought to take the more favourable side, as our Saviour directs, Luke 13:2-4. Here Bildad missed it.

      III. He put Job in hope that, if he were indeed upright, as he said he was, he should yet see a good issue of his present troubles: "Although thy children have sinned against him, and are cast away in their transgression (they have died in their own sin), yet if thou be pure and upright thyself, and as an evidence of that wilt now seek unto God and submit to him, all shall be well yet," Job 8:5-7; Job 8:5-7. This may be taken two ways, either, 1. As designed to prove Job a hypocrite and a wicked man, though not by the greatness, yet the by the continuance, of his afflictions. "When thou wast impoverished, and thy children were killed, if thou hadst been pure and upright, and approved thyself so in the trial, God would before now have returned in mercy to thee and comforted thee according to the time of thy affliction; but, because he does not so, we have reason to conclude thou art not so pure and upright as thou pretendest to be. If thou hadst conducted thyself well under the former affliction, thou wouldst not have been struck with the latter." Herein Bildad was not in the right; for a good man may be afflicted for his trial, not only very sorely, but very long, and yet, if for life, it is in comparison with eternity but for a moment. But, since Bildad put it to this issue, God was pleased to join issue with him, and proved his servant Job an honest man by Bildad's own argument; for, soon after, he blessed his latter end more than his beginning. Or, 2. As designed to direct and encourage Job, that he might not thus run himself into despair, and give up all for gone; there might yet be hope if he would take the right course. I am apt to think Bildad here intended to condemn Job, yet would be thought to counsel and comfort him. (1.) He gives him good counsel, yet perhaps not expecting he would take it, the same that Eliphaz had given him (Job 5:8; Job 5:8), to seek unto God, and that betimes (that is, speedily and seriously), and not to be dilatory and trifling in his return and repentance. He advises him not to complain, but to petition, to make his supplication to the Almighty with humility and faith, and to see that there was (what he feared had hitherto been wanting) sincerity in his heart ("thou must be pure and upright") and honesty in his house--"that must be the habitation of thy righteousness, and not filled with ill-gotten goods, else God will not hear thy prayers," Psalms 66:18. It is only the prayer of the upright that is the acceptable and prevailing prayer, Proverbs 15:8. (2.) He gives him good hopes that he shall yet again see good days, secretly suspecting, however, that he was not qualified to see them. He assures him that, if he would be early in seeking God, God would awake for his relief, would remember him and return to him, though now he seemed to forget him and forsake him--that if his habitation were righteous it should be prosperity. When we return to God in a way of duty we have reason to hope that he will return to us in a way of mercy. Let not Job object that he had so little left to being the world with again that it was impossible he should ever prosper as he had done; no, "Though thy beginning should be ever so small, a little meal in the barrel and a little oil in the cruse, God's blessing shall multiply that to a great increase." This is God's way of enriching the souls of his people with graces and comforts, not per saltum--as by a bound, but per gradum--step by step. The beginning is small, but the progress is to perfection. Dawning light grows to noonday, a grain of mustard seed to a great tree. Let us not therefore despise the day of small things, but hope for the day of great things.