Job's friends cannot help him at all in his search for the answer to the main question: why? And Bildad's speech is the best proof of that. Bildad, however, appeals not so much to personal experience as to tradition. And he quotes many...
Job's friends cannot help him at all in his search for the answer to the main question: why? And Bildad's speech is the best proof of that. Bildad, however, appeals not so much to personal experience as to tradition. He offers many quotations from the books of the sages, which, beyond any doubt, prove his, Bildad's, main thesis: nothing bad can happen to a righteous person, and if something like that still happens to someone, then that person is not righteous. It is a religious scheme as old as the world, one that easily allows Job's problem to be presented, in essence, as a false problem. There is no problem of a suffering righteous man; there is the old, long-solved problem of a suffering sinner. Here again is the same desire not to solve Job's problem, but to smooth it over. And the best way to smooth it over would be to fit it into the framework of religion, where there would be traditional mechanisms for resolving it and ready-made answers to the questions Job is asking.
Eliphaz did this more subtly. He relied, among other things, on his own spiritual experience, especially since that experience had helped form and strengthen Eliphaz's own religiosity. Eliphaz sees that Job's religiosity is wavering, and he offers him something that could strengthen it. Bildad is doing essentially the same thing, but unlike Eliphaz, he has no experience of his own, so he offers Job the experience of the ancestors, Tradition, in its place. It is a sure move: Tradition is unquestionably important. But only when it is received properly.
Genuine Tradition always carries within itself the experience of the spiritual life of earlier generations. But it also carries the religious forms characteristic of those generations, in which the bearers of Tradition expressed their experience. If one wants, even in genuine Tradition one can find religiosity and stop there. One can turn certain ancient books, for example, into a book of quotations, where statements on any given topic can always be found, much as Bildad does. Then Tradition disappears, and only tradition remains, the work of human hands.
That is essentially what Bildad offers Job to reinforce Job's religiosity. But Job needs something else. He does not need the restoration of his own religiosity. He needs an answer to the main question, without which there is no life for him. Not only no spiritual life, but no life at all. Everything is that serious for Job. And his friends still hope to "talk away" his problem, to find religiously correct words for it, words that, once heard, will make the problem disappear on its own.
8 Bildad affirms, that Job had spoken amiss, Job 8:1-3.
That if he would sincerely seek to God, God would help him, Job 8:4-7.
That it is usual with God, to destroy the hypocrite, Job 8:8-19.
The joy of the upright, Job 8:20-22.
8:2 Strong wind - Boisterous and violent.
8:3 Doth God - Heb. The might God, as this word signifies, the Almighty, or All - sufficient God, as the next name of God implies.These names are emphatically used, to prove that God cannot deal unjustly or falsely with men, because he hath no need of it, nor temptation to it, being self - sufficient for his own happiness, and being able by his own invincible power to do whatsoever pleaseth him.Pervert - Judge unrighteously? No, this is inconsistent with God's nature, and with his office of governor of the world.
8:4 If - If thou wast innocent, thy children, upon whom a great part of these calamities fell, might be guilty; and therefore God is not unrighteous in these proceedings.
8:5 Betimes - Heb. rise early to seek him, if thou wouldest seek him speedily, early and diligently.
8:6 Habitation - The concerns of thy house and family; which thou hast got and managed with righteousness.
8:8 Search - Seriously and industriously search the ancient records.
8:9 We, etc - But lately born, and therefore have but little knowledge and experience. We live not so long as they did, to make observations on the methods of Divine Providence.
8:10 Utter - Not partially, but sincerely, speaking their inward thoughts; not rashly, but from deep consideration; not by hearsay, but their own knowledge.
8:11 Can, etc - The hypocrite cannot build his hope, without some false, rotten ground or other, any more than the rush can grow without mire, or the flag without water.
8:12 Greenness - Whereby it promises long continuance. Tho' no man cut it down, it withers of itself, sooner than other herbs.
8:13 Paths - Of wicked men. By their paths he doth not understand their manner of living, but the events which befall them, God's manner of dealing with them.
8:14 Hope - Whose wealth and outward glory, the matter of his hope,and trust, shall be cut off suddenly and violently taken away from him.Web - Which tho' it be formed with great art and industry, is easily swept down, or pulled in pieces.
8:15 House - He shall trust to the multitude of his children and servants, and to his wealth, all which come under the name of a man's house in scripture. Hold it - To uphold himself by it. But his web, that refuge of lies, will be swept away, and he crushed in it.
8:16 He - The secure and prosperous sinner may think himself wronged, when he is compared to a rush or flag. Compare him then to a flourishing and well - rooted tree. Yet even then shall he be suddenly cut off.Green - Flourisheth in the world. Before the sun - Publickly and in the view of all men. Branch - His children, who are here mentioned as additions not only to his comfort, but also to his strength and safety.Garden - A place where it is defended from those injuries to which the trees of the field are subject, and where, besides the advantages common to all trees, it hath peculiar helps from the art and industry of men.So he supposes this man to be placed in the most desirable circumstances.
8:17 Heap - Of stones. This circumstance is added, to signify its firmness and strength, that it was not in loose and sandy ground, which a violent wind might overthrow, but in solid ground, within which were many stones, which its numerous and spreading roots embrace, folding and interweaving themselves about them. Seeth - The tree reacheth thither, takes the advantage of that place for the strengthening of itself.
8:18 He - God, who is the saviour of good men, and the destroyer of the wicked. It - The place; to which denying him, and seeing him, are here ascribed figuratively. Not seen - He shall be so utterly extirpated and destroyed, that there shall be no memorial of him left.
8:19 Behold - This is the issue of the flourishing state. This all his joy comes to. And, etc - Out of the same earth or place shall another tree grow.
8:20 Behold - God who will not help the evildoer, will not cast away a good man, tho he may be cast down. Yet it may be, he will not be lifted up in this world: and therefore Bildad could not infer, that if Job was not restored to temporal prosperity, he was not a good man. Let us judge nothing before the time, but wait 'till the secrets of all hearts are revealed, and the present difficulties of providence solved, to universal and everlasting satisfaction.
8:21 'Till, etc - And what I have said in general of good men, shallbe made good to thee, if thou art such: God will not forsake thee, nor desist from doing thee good, 'till he give thee abundant matter of rejoicing.