Job 8:12

Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Whilst it is yet in his greenness - That is, while it seems to be in its vigor.

And is not cut down - Even when it is not cut down. If suffered to stand by itself, and if undisturbed, it will wither away. The application of this is obvious and beautiful. Such plants have no self sustaining power. They are dependent on moisture for their support. If that is withheld, they droop and die. So with the prosperous sinner and the hypocrite. His piety, compared with that which is genuine, is like the spongy texture of the paper-reed compared with the solid oak. He is sustained in his professed religion by outward prosperity, as the rush is nourished by moisture; and the moment his prosperity is withdrawn, his religion droops and dies like the flag without water.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12. not cut down—Before it has ripened for the scythe, it withers more suddenly than any herb, having no self-sustaining power, once that the moisture is gone, which other herbs do not need in the same degree. So ruin seizes on the godless in the zenith of prosperity, more suddenly than on others who appear less firmly seated in their possessions [Umbreit] (Ps 112:10).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Yet in his greenness; whereby it promiseth long continuance.

Not cut down; though no man cut it down, it withereth of itself, and will save a man the labour of cutting or plucking it up. It gives not a man so much warning that he can cut it down in time, as other green herbs do, but suddenly withereth.

Before any other herb, i.e. sooner than other herbs, or in their presence, or they surviving; in which sense it seems to be said that Ishmael died in the presence of his brethren, Genesis 25:18; the rest of the herbs looking upon it, and admiring this sudden change. For actions of sense and understanding are oft ascribed to lifeless creatures, both in Scripture and other authors.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Whilst it is yet in its greenness,.... Before it is come to its full height, or to a proper ripeness; when as yet it has not flowered, or is about it; before the time usual for it to turn and change; it being without moisture, water, or watery clay, will change:

and not cut down; by the scythe, or cropped by the hand of man:

it withereth before any other herb; of itself; rather sooner than such that do not require so much moisture; or in the sight and presence of them, they looking on as it were, and deriding it; a poetical representation, as Schultens observes: next follows the accommodation of these similes to wicked and hypocritical men.

Geneva Study Bible

Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. and not cut down] lit. and not to be cut down (or, plucked, ch. Job 30:4), that is, in its full luxuriance, not ripe nor ready for cutting, and therefore with no trace of withering or decay in it. In this state of full freshness, when water is withdrawn from it, it sinks and collapses, withering sooner than any herb.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not out down. It grows and flourishes in a rich greenness up to a certain point; no one touches it; but the water fails from the root, and it fades, collapses, and is gone. It withereth before any other herb. The ground may be all green around it with ordinary grass and other herbs, since they only need a little moisture - the water-plant will collapse unless it has its full supply. Job 8:12

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

11 Doth papyrus grow up without mire?

Doth the reed shoot up without water?

12 It is still in luxuriant verdure, when it is not cut off,

Then before all other grass it with

13 So is the way of all forgetters of God,

And the hope of the ungodly perisheth,

14 Because his hope is cut off,

And his trust is a spider's house:

15 He leaneth upon his house and it standeth not,

He holdeth fast to it and it endureth not.

Bildad likens the deceitful ground on which the prosperity of the godless stands to the dry ground on which, only for a time, the papyrus or reed finds water, and grows up rapidly: shooting up quickly, it withers as quickly; as the papyrus plant,

(Note: Vid., Champollion-Figeac, Aegypten, German translation, pp. 47f.)

if it has no perpetual water, though the finest of grasses, withers off when most luxuriantly green, before it attains maturity. גּמא, which, excepting here, is found only in connection with Egypt (Exodus 2:3; Isaiah 18:2; and Isaiah 35:7, with the general קנה as specific name for reed), is the proper papyrus plant (Cypeerus papyyrus, L.): this name for it is suitably derived in the Hebrew from גּמא, to suck up (comp. Lucan, iv. 136: conseritur bibul Memphytis cymba papyro); but is at the same time Egyptian, since Coptic kam, cham, signifies the reed, and 'gôm, 'gōme, a book (like liber, from the bark of a tree).

(Note: Comp. the Book of the Dead (Todtenbuch), ch. 162: "Chapter on the creation of warmth at the back of the head of the deceased. Words over a young cow finished in pure gold. Put them on the neck of the dead, and paint them also on a new papyrus," etc. Papyrus is here cama: the word is determined by papyrus-roll, fastening and writing, and its first consonant corresponds to the Coptic aspirated g. Moreover, we cannot omit to mention that this cama equals gôme also signifies a garment, as in a prayer: "O my mother Isis, come and veil me in thy cama." Perhaps both ideas are represented in volumen, involucrum; it is, however, also possible that goome is to be etymologically separated from kam, cham equals גמא.)

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