Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 8:18

If he destroy him from his place, then [it] shall deny him, [saying], I have not seen thee.

18. if he destroy him ] The subject is God. The words might be rendered, if he be (when he is) destroyed. This is perhaps better, as the plant is spoken of. The point of the verse is not who destroys him, but that he is destroyed, and when destroyed utterly disappears, so that his place says, I never saw thee. In spite of his luxuriance and hold of the soil he is suddenly and wholly swept away and his place denies ever having known him.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

If he destroy him from his place – The particle here which is rendered if ( ‘m) is often used to denote emphasis, and means here certainly – he shall be certainly destroyed. The word rendered destroy, from bela, means literally to swallow Job 7:19, to swallow up, to absorb; and hence, to consume, lay waste, destroy. The sense is, that the wicked or the hypocrite shall be wholly destroyed from his place, but the image or figure of the tree is still retained. Some suppose that it means that God would destroy him from his place; others, as Rosenmuller and Dr. Good, suppose that the reference is to the soil in which the tree was planted, that it would completely absorb all nutriment, and leave the tree to die; that is, that the dry and thirsty soil in which the tree is planted, instead of affording nutriment, acts as a sucker, and absorbs itself all the juices which would otherwise give support to the tree. This seems to me to be probably the true interpretation. It is one drawn from nature, and one that preserves the concinnity of the passage.

Then it shall deny him – That is, the soil, the earth, or the place where it stood. This represents a wicked man under the image of a tree. The figure is beautiful. The earth will be ashamed of it; ashamed that it sustained the tree; ashamed that it ever ministered any nutriment, and will refuse to own it. So with the hypocrite. He shall pass away as if the earth refused to own him, or to retain any recollection of him.

I have not seen thee – I never knew thee. It shall utterly deny any acquaintance with it. There is a striking resemblance here to the language which the Savior says he will use respecting the hypocrite in the day of judgment: and then will I profess to them, I never knew you; Mat 7:23. The hypocrite has never been known as a pious man. The earth will refuse to own him as such, and so will the heavens.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 18. If he destroy him from his place] Is not this a plain reference to the alienation of his inheritance? God destroys him from it; it becomes the property of another; and on his revisiting it, the place, by a striking prosopopoeia, says, “I know thee not; I have never seen thee.” This also have I witnessed; I looked on it, felt regret, received instruction, and hasted away.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

If he; either God, who is the Saviour of good men, and the Destroyer of the wicked; or the owner; or any other man; for this is an indefinite speech, and may be taken passively and impersonally; which is very common in the holy text and language.

From his place, in which he was planted.

Then it, i.e. the place; to which denying him and seeing him are here ascribed figuratively, as we have oft seen.

I have not seen thee, i.e. I do not know nor remember that ever thou wast planted here. He shall be so utterly extirpated and destroyed, that there shall be no footstep, nor name, nor memorial of him left there.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

18. If He (God) tear him away(properly, “to tear away rapidly and violently”) from hisplace, “then it [the place personified] shall deny him” (Ps103:16). The very soil is ashamed of the weeds lying withered onits surface, as though it never had been connected with them. So,when the godless falls from prosperity, his nearest friends disownhim.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

If he destroy him from his place,…. If the sun when he is risen strikes the tree with such vehement heat that it withers and utterly perishes from the place where it grew; or roots it up, so the Targum and Nachmanides; or, if God destroys the hypocrite from his place, or he is by one means or another removed out of the garden, the church, being detested and rejected by good men; or from all his worldly enjoyments, his honour, credit, and esteem with men, which are all precarious, fickle, and inconstant; or out of the world, being cut down as a cumber ground:

then [it] shall deny him, [saying], I have not seen thee; that is, either the tree shall deny that it ever was planted in such a place, or rather the place shall deny that the tree ever was planted there; the sense is, that it shall be so utterly destroyed, that neither root nor branch shall be left, nor anything to show that it ever grew there; its place shall know it no more, see Job 7:10; or God shall deny the hypocrite, and say he never saw him nor knew him; he never belonged to him, nor was under his care; he never looked upon him with a look of love, grace, and mercy; he never had any delight and pleasure in him, nor regarded him as one of his; he was no tree of his planting, watering, and keeping, see Mt 7:23; this seems most difficult to accommodate to a good man, and those who carry it that way seem to be most puzzled with this; some render it, “shall he be swallowed?” or, “shall anyone in, allow him up?” p destroy or root him out of his place? none shall: the root of the righteous cannot be moved, nor they from that; not from the everlasting love of God, in which they are rooted, nor from Christ, in whom they are fixed: others understand this of the digging up of a tree, and transplanting it to another place, where it grows as well, or better; and so the people of God, though they have many stripping providences, and are removed from place to place, and from one condition to another, so that their former state and place know them no more; yet all things work together for their good.

p “num absorbebitur a loco suo?” Beza; “num absorbebit cum quisquam e loco suo”, Diodatus.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

18. If he (God) destroy Or the subject of the verb may be indefinite. The plant was apparently a useless growth, which any one would do well to destroy,

Him Or, It. The interweaving of the image and its object throughout this entire citation is a sign, not only of its great antiquity, but also of its foreign origin. The Hebrew mind wielded an imagination which was always clear and distinct.

Deny him The earth that had given the plant its life is moved with such a sense of shame as to deny that it had seen him, (or it.) A powerful personification. For nature’s abhorrence of human fungi, see Job 27:21-23.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Job 8:18 If he destroy him from his place, then [it] shall deny him, [saying], I have not seen thee.

Ver. 18. If he destroy him from his place ] If he stub up this green tree, no better surely than the cyparit, of which Pliny writeth that it beareth fruit to no purpose, small berries, bitter leaves, that it yields an ill smell, and no pleasant shade; or as the boxtree, green indeed all the year about, but of an offensive smell, no fruit, and such a seed as all living creatures hate. Now if he, that is, Almighty God, destroy him, that is, the hypocrite, as he will do questionless (totally and speedily swallowing him up), what then?

Then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee ] Heb. It shall tell a lie of him, &c., the place, as ashamed to own him, shall feign and say, We have not seen him, we know not what is become of him. So Psa 37:35-36 . As they have denied the Lord that bought them, 2Pe 2:1 , so they shall one day be denied by the places they have bought or builded, by the people that once clawed them, and cried them up.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

him . . . it. See translation, below: “him” and “it” refer to the tree.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

he: Job 7:10, Job 20:9, Psa 37:10, Psa 37:36, Psa 73:18, Psa 73:19, Psa 92:7

Reciprocal: Job 8:22 – come to nought Psa 103:16 – and the Rev 12:8 – their

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Job 8:18. If he, &c. Namely, God, who is the saviour of good men and the destroyer of the wicked; destroy him from his place When God blasts him and plucks him up; then it shall deny him That is, the place shall deny him; saying, I have not seen thee The reader will easily observe, that denying him and seeing him are here ascribed to the place figuratively, and the meaning is, that he shall be so utterly extirpated and destroyed, that there shall be no memorial of him left, nor any remembrance that such a man ever lived in that place. He shall no more recover himself than a tree which is plucked out of the ground, and left to wither.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

8:18 If he destroy him from his place, then [it] shall {k} deny him, [saying], I have not seen thee.

(k) That is, so that there remains nothing there to prove whether the tree had grown there or not.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes