Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 8:14
Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust [shall be] a spider’s web.
14. shall be cut off ] Perhaps rather, goeth in sunder, though the meaning is not quite certain. One would have expected a noun here parallel to “spider’s web” in the second clause, but no efforts to find a noun have been successful. Saadia in his Arabic Translation rendered gossamer, the filmy thread-like substance that floats in the air, or the thread-like shimmer of the air itself when sultry and moist. This is a very suitable sense but is without sufficient support.
a spider’s web ] lit. spider’s house, cf. “house” in Job 8:15. The flimsiness of the spider’s house is proverbial in the East. Mohammed compares idolaters to the spider: The likeness of those who take to themselves patrons beside God is as the likeness of the spider who taketh to herself a house; and verily the frailest of houses is the spider’s house, if they did but know, Kor. 29:40. See also Job 27:18.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Whose hope shall be cut off – Schultens supposes that the quotation from the ancients closes with Job 8:13, and that these are the comments of Bildad on the passage to which he had referred. Rosenmuller and Noyes continue the quotation to the close of Job 8:19; Dr. Good closes it at Job 8:13. It seems to me that it is extended further than Job 8:13, and probably it is to be regarded as continued to the close of Job 8:18. The beginning of this verse has been very variously rendered. Dr. Good says that it has never been understood, and proposes to translate it, thus shall his support rot away. Noyes renders it, whose expectation shall come to naught; Gesenius, shall be cut off. Jerome, Non ei placebit vecordia sua. his madness (do age, rage, or frenzy) shall not please him? The Septuagint, his house shall be uninhabitable, and his tent shall pass away as the spider.
The Hebrew word translated cut off ( yaqot) is from kut, usually meaning to loathe, to nauseate, to be offensive. Gesenius supposes that the word here is synonymous with the Arabic to be cut off. But this sense does not occur elsewhere in the Hebrew, and it is doubtful whether this is the true sense of the phrase. In the Hebrew word there is probably always the idea of loathing, of being offensive, irksome, or disgusting; see Psa 95:10, I was grieved; Job 10:1, is weary; Eze 6:9, shall loathe; so Eze 20:43; Eze 36:31; Eze 16:47, a tiresome, or disgusting object. Taylor (Concord) renders it here, Whom his hope shall loathe or abominate, that is, who shall loathe or hate the thing that he hopes for. I have no doubt that the meaning here is, to be loathsome, offensive, or nauseous, and the correct sense is, whose hope shall rot. The figure is continued from the image of the paper-reed and the flag, which soon decay; and the idea is, that as such weeds grow offensive and putrid in the stagnant water, so shall it be with the hope of the hypocrite.
And whose trust – Whose confidence, or expectation.
A spiders web – Margin, house. So the Hebrew bayth. The spiders house is the web which it forms, a frail, light, tenuous substance which will sustain almost nothing. The wind shakes it, and it is easily brushed away. So it will be with the hope of the hypocrite.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 8:14
Whose trust shall be a spiders web.
The spider and the hypocrite
In physics, in morals, in religion, reality has no respect for those who have no regard for truth and fact. Abused nature, undeterred by rank, plies her scourge on all the votaries of sin. Reality does not in moral matters seem to many so honest and severe. Fancy and imagining hold here a completer sway. Men propose to sip the sensual sweet and decline the sensual bitter. In religion, reality might seem to reign without a rival, for here is no dreamland for fancy, but the field of revelation for the activities of mind and heart. Some make religion their mirror, in which they see themselves the end of their whole devotion. Some overact their part in the temple, the more easily to overreach their brethren in the market. Some forge the name of God to the cheque of a sanctified deportment and present it for golden profits at the bank of Christian confidence. These are the hypocrites who trust that God will not expose them this side the grave; but their hope shall be cut off; their trust is as a spiders web, which, while very beautiful in its structure, is equally fragile as to its texture, and, though adequate to the builders purposes, yet, being self-spun, self-built, is destined to be swept away.
I. Beautiful as to its structure. Admirable is the fairy architecture of the spiders web. This tracery of insect art, on hawthorn or holly fence, seen before the sun grows hot, strung with beads of dew, asks no painters skill, no poets eulogy; its beauty, like the suns glory, is its own evidence. Beautiful, too, is the hypocrites trust, and the religion that trust inspires. The hypocrites religion satisfies the eye; it is the bright cloud which for the moment passes for the sun itself; it is the sacrifice without spot or blemish in the skin; an argument constraining charity to hope it is pure and right in heart. To mens sight the hypocrites religion is like the spiders web, beautiful in its structure, but when tried it is found to be–
II. Very fragile in its texture. This is no disparagement to the web. For such a tiny weaver, it is strong and wonderful. Were man as insignificant as the spider, his paltry trust would be no indignity; being but little lower than the angels, a hypocritical trust merits the comparison. God hangs great weights on small wires; the hypocrite hangs them all upon the semblance of them. There is nothing real but his wickedness, nothing true but his deception.
III. It is adequate to the owners purposes and successful in securing them. The hypocrite, wanting to fly with the doves to their windows, decks himself with their feathers. All of the true prophet is his hairy garment. His success often equals the completeness of his disguise. Charity hopes that under the leaves there is fruit; that behind the smile there is the loving heart; that the fragrance of profession steals from the true flower of grace within. It is adequate to his purposes, and too often successful in securing them. The spider ensnares his prey; the hypocrite does make a gain of godliness, and a ladder of religion.
IV. Their trust, being false, shall, with all that rests upon it, be utterly swept away. The truth, holiness, and honour of God require it. Hypocrisy! It is a tomb with the lettered porch and golden dome of a temple. It is deception sublimed to a science. The hypocrite takes the precious name of Christ as an angler does a worm, and, thrusting it on the hook of his crooked purposes, angles for suffrages or lucre. But the pious dissembler will exhaust his last resource, and wear out his last disguise. This human spider may take hold with his hands, and pursue his close-couched schemes in the great Kings palace, but coming judgment will sweep him and them away. The anger of the Lord will smoke against the hypocrite. No sacrifice can be presented without salt; no service can be accepted without sincerity. (W. G. Jones.)
False and true hope
(with Heb 6:19):–The world is full of hope of various kinds. Alike in the dreams of childhood, the resolves of youth, the purposes of manhood, and the more chastened anticipations of old age, we may see its power displayed. The faculty of hope is a great motive force of human action.
I. False hope is as a spiders web. Because–
1. Not altogether destitute of beauty. Such webs are often beautiful, especially those kinds which in summer time we see spread upon the hedgerows, or festooned between the garden trees. They attract our admiration as we behold them sparkling in the sunlight. Fair, in external appearance, are the hopes which even the impenitent cherish. The power of hope will often enable a man, who is entirely destitute of the grace of God, to paint the future in roseate hues, to dream dreams of possible excellence, and call up visions of the glory of heaven, which, though unsubstantial as gossamer, are not without their attractive features.
2. Self-derived. It is well known that spiders produce from their own bodies the, glutinous fluid with which they form their webs. Even so the hopes in which the wicked indulge are self-produced. They are merely the creations of their own fancy.
3. Exceedingly frail. How slight and strengthless is the spiders web: The fall of a leaf will destroy it, a gust of wind will sweep it away. Significant emblem in this respect of the weakness of false hope!
II. True hope is as the anchor of the soul. Because–
1. It connects its possessor with an unseen world. When an anchor is cast overboard from a vessel, it drops out of sight, beneath the blue waves, which act as a kind of veil to hide it from view. The sailor sees it not, though he knows and feels that it is there. He perceives that his ship is anchored, though the secrets of the anchoring ground are concealed from his gaze. Even so the apostle describes the Christians hope, as entering into that within the veil.
2. It possesses enduring strength. When once the anchor is embedded in the ground, with what a firm grasp does it hold fast the largest vessel! An emblem this of the strength of true hope! It is both sure and steadfast, for it rests not upon the broken promises of man, but the unchanging promises of God; it clings not to the sand of human support, but to the rock of Divine strength.
3. It gives the soul calmness and security amid the storms of life. Though the gale may blow fiercely, the ship rides safely in the bay. Held firmly by the friendly anchor, it scarcely moves from its moorings. Even so, the soul that anchors itself in the Divine power and the Divine love abides calm and secure through every tempest of trial. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, etc. (George John Allen, B. A.)
Hope as a spiders web
A similitude of great elegance and significance. We may observe a great analogy between the spiders web and that in a double respect.
1. In respect of the curious subtilty and the fine artificial composure of it. The spider in every web shows itself an artist: so the hypocrite spins his hope with a great deal of art, in a thin, fine thread. This and that good duty, this good thought, this opposing of some gross sin, are all interwoven together to the making up a covering for his hypocrisy. And as the spider draws all out of its own bowels, so the hypocrite weaves all his confidence out of his own inventions and imaginations.
2. It resembles it in respect of its weakness–it is too fine spun to be strong. After the spider has used all its art and labour in framing a web, yet how easily is it broken, how quickly is it swept down! So, after the hypocrite has wrought out a hope with much cost, art, and industry, it is yet but a weak, slender, pitiful thing. He does indeed by this get some name, and room amongst professors; he does, as it were, hang his hopes upon the beams of Gods house. But when God shall come to cleanse, and, as it were, to sweep His sanctuary, such cobwebs are sure to be fetched down. Thus the hypocrite, like the spider, by all his artifice and labour, only disfigures Gods house. A hypocrite in a church is like a cobweb in a palace–all that he is or does, serving only to annoy and misbecome the place and station that he would adorn. (R. South.)
The hope of the hypocrite
I. The character of the hypocrite. He hides wickedness under a cloak of goodness. He derives his honour from his birth; the child of God from his new birth. He serves God with that which costs him nothing. He is only disposed to some virtues. He puts reason in the place of religion. His virtues are only shining vices. He hears the Word without real benefit. He is the stony ground. Sometimes he trembles under the Word, but he shifts it off. He is a seeming friend, but a secret foe, to the Gospel. If he pray, it is with his tongue, not with his heart. He acts according to his wishes. He is wavering and double minded.
II. The hope of the hypocrite.
1. The trust, or hope, of the hypocrite is a spiders web, because he forms it, as it were, out of his own bowels.
2. Because the profession and all the works of the hypocrite are weak and unstable. There is some curiosity in the spiders web, but there is neither strength nor stability.
3. The spider makes her web to catch and ensnare. So the hypocrite ensnares the simple; he makes gain of godliness.
4. The hypocrite, like the spider, thinks himself perfectly safe; when once lodged in his profession he apprehends no danger.
5. In the issue the hope shall perish as does a spiders web. When the house is swept, down go the spiders webs. (T. Hannam.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. Whose hope shall be cut off] Such persons, subdued by the strong habits of sin, hope on fruitlessly, till the last thread of the web of life is cut off from the beam; and then they find no more strength in their hope than is in the threads of the spider’s web.
Mr. Good renders, Thus shall their support rot away. The foundation on which they trust is rotten, and by and by the whole superstructure of their confidence shall tumble into ruin.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
i.e. Whose wealth and outward glory, which is the matter of his hope and trust, shall be cut off, i.e. suddenly and violently taken away from him. Whose hope shall be irksome or tedious to him, by the succession of earnest expectation and great disappointment.
A spiders web; which though it be formed with great art and industry, and may do much mischief to others, yet is most slender and feeble, and easily swept down or pulled in pieces, and unable to defend the spider that made it. The application is obvious.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. cut offso GESENIUS;or, to accord with the metaphor of the spider’s “house,””The confidence (on which he builds) shall be laid in ruins”(Isa 59:5; Isa 59:6).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Whose hope shall be cut off,…. The same thing as before, expressed in different words, and repeated for the certainty of it; signifying that it should be of no manner of use, should be wholly lost, and issue in black despair: the word has the signification of loathing, and is differently rendered, either, “whom his hope shall loathe” e or, “who shall loathe his hope” f; he shall fret and tease, and vex himself that he should be such a fool to entertain such a vain hope, or to place hope and confidence in such vain things, finding himself most sadly disappointed:
and whose trust [shall be] a spider’s web; or “a spider’s house” g; and such its web is to it; having made it, it encloses itself in it, and dwells securely: very fitly is the hope and confidence of an hypocrite compared to a spider’s web, which is a very nice and curious piece of workmanship, as are the outward works of righteousness, done by hypocrites they are wrought out and set off to the best advantage, to be seen of men; yet very slight and thin, and will bear no weight; such are the best works of carnal professors; they make a fine appearance, but have no substance, do not flow from principles of grace, nor are done in the strength of Christ, or to the glory of God; are but “splendida peccata”, as one calls them, and fall infinitely short of bearing the weight of the salvation of the soul: as the spider’s web is spun out of its own bowels, so the works of such persons are wholly of themselves; they are their own, done without the grace of God and spirit of Christ; and such webs are not fit for garments, are too thin to cover naked souls; insufficient to shelter from divine wrath and vengeance; cannot bear the besom of justice, one stroke of which will sweep them all away; and though they may think themselves safe enclosed in them as in a house, they will find themselves in the issue wretchedly mistaken; for there is no shelter, safety, and security, in such cobwebs; there is none but in Christ and his righteousness.
e “quem abominabitur spes ejus”, Montanus; “fastidit”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator “cum taedio rejectabit”, Schultens. f “Quippe abominabitur spem suam”, Schmidt. g “domus araneae, vel aranei”; Pagninus, Montanus, &c.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
b. Such a man can build on nothing securely; (Hirtzel;) supports, apparently the firmest, fail him, Job 8:14-19.
The preceding image parts asunder into similes: the one of “a spider’s house,” confessedly frail, and the other of a succulent garden plant, whose “house of stones” is more enduring yet destruction in either case is certain. The same word house, in Job 8:14-15; Job 8:17, is pivotal in the entire comparison. Job’s home had been swept away, but the prospective habitation of righteousness (Job 8:6) shall endure.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
14. A spider’s web Rather, house. Comp. Isa 59:5. A favourite Oriental figure. Thus Mohammed: “The likeness of those who take other patrons besides God is as the likeness of the spider which maketh herself a house; but the weakest of all houses surely is the house of the spider; if they knew this.” Sura 29:40, entitled The Spider. The Arabs have a proverb that “time destroys the wall of the well-built house as well as the web of the spider.” The Chinese call the spider the wise insect, a view which agrees with that of Solomon, who classes it among creatures exceedingly wise. Pro 30:24-28. Frail as is the spider’s house, it is the best and strongest she can build; but not thus with the godless man.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 8:14 Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust [shall be] a spider’s web.
Ver. 14. Whose hope (or whose folly, that is, whose foolish hope) shall be cut off] The Latin translation hath it, his folly shall not please him, sc. when once he seeth, by the disappointment of his high hopes, what a fool’s paradise he had wrought himself into, what pains he hath taken to go to hell, his hope shall be cut off; and that is the greatest cut in the world, Hypocritis nihil stupidius. This Bildad telleth the hypocrite twice over; because he will hardly be drawn to believe it. But that he telleth Job so, as if he were this hopeless hypocrite, he is quite beside the cushion, as we say.
And whose trust shall be a spider’s web] Wherein there is much artifice, but no strength. Trust is somewhat more than hope; it is a bearing a man’s self bold upon the assurance that all shall be well. Such was that of Babylon in their provision laid in to hold out a siege of twenty years’ length. Such also is that of mystical Babylon, who saith, “I shall see no sorrow,” Rev 18:7 . But this trust never triumpheth. It is (by a second comparison) here fitly set forth by a spider’s web, Heb. a spider’s house, Isa 59:5 , so called because therein the spider lodgeth herself, as if safe, and out of harm’s way, which is nothing so. A reverend man cleareth the comparison thus: first, the spider’s web is made out of her own bowels (her motto was mihi soli debeo I owe it to myself only), so is the hypocrite’s hope merely from his own brain and imagination. Secondly, though this web be curiously framed, yet it only catcheth flies; so do hypocrites look after ceremonies, and not substance. Thirdly, the spider is full of poison, and remaineth in a dusty nasty hole, though she work never so curiously; so doth the hypocrite abide in his unregeneracy, &c. Fourthly, she gets to the top of the window, as high as she can; and then when she falls, she falls to the bottom, for nothing stays her: so here. Fifthly, when the besom comes, she and her web are swept away, and she is trodden under foot; so are all presumptuous hypocrites. Becket’s friends advised him (for his security) to have a mass in honour of St Stephen, (to keep him from the hands of his enemies): he did so, but it saved him not. Contrarily, a poor persecuted Huguenot in the Massacre at Paris had crept into a hole, a spider comes and weaves a cobweb over it; the murderers therefore presumed him not there; and so he was preserved. What cannot the Lord do by the weakest means that may be?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job
TWO KINDS OF HOPE
Job 8:14
These two texts take opposite sides. Bildad was not the wisest of Job’s friends, and he gives utterance to solemn commonplaces with partial truth in them. In the rough it is true that the hope of the ungodly perishes, and the limits of the truth are concealed by the splendour of the imagery and the perfection of artistic form in which the well-worn platitude is draped. The spider’s web stretched glittering in the dewy morning on the plants, shaking its threaded tears in the wind, the flag in the dry bed of a nullah withering while yet green, the wall on which leaning a man will fall, are vivid illustrations of hopes that collapse and fail. But my other text has to do with hopes that do not fail. Paul thinks that he knows of hope that maketh not ashamed, that is, which never disappoints. Bildad was right if he was thinking, as he was, of hopes fixed on earth; the Apostle was right, for he was thinking of hopes set on God. It is a commonplace that ‘hope springs immortal in the human breast’; it is equally a commonplace that hopes are disappointed. What is the conclusion from these two universal experiences? Is it the cynical one that it is all illusion, or is it that somewhere there must be an object on which hope may twine its tendrils without fear? God has given the faculty, and we may be sure that it is not given to be for ever balked. We must hope. Our hope may be our worst enemy; it may and should be our purest joy.
Let us then simply consider these two sorts of hope, the earthly and the heavenly, in their working in the three great realms of life, death, and eternity.
I. In life.
But for what did he receive this great gift? Mainly that he might pass beyond the temporal and hold converse with the skies. Its true sphere is the unseen future which is at God’s right hand.
We may run a series of antitheses, e.g. –
Earthly hope is so uncertain that its larger part is often fear.
Heavenly hope is fixed and sure. It is as certain as history.
Earthly hope realised is always less blessed than we expected. How universal the experience that there is little to choose between a gratified and a frustrated hope! The wonders inside the caravan are never so wonderful as the canvas pictures outside.
Heavenly hopes ever surpass the most rapturous anticipation. ‘The half hath not been told.’
Earthly hopes are necessarily short-winged. They are settled one way or another, and sink hull down below our horizon.
Heavenly hope sets its object far off, and because a lifetime only attains it in part, it blesses a lifetime and outlasts it.
II. Hope in death.
III. Hope in eternity.
But let us turn to the brighter of these texts. ‘Hope maketh not ashamed.’ There will be an internal increase of blessedness, power, purity in that future, a fuller possession of God, a reaching out after completer likeness to Him. So if we can think of days in that calm state where time will be no more, ‘to-morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant,’ and the angel Hope, who kept us company through all the weary marches of earth, will attend on us still, only having laid aside the uncertainty that sometime veiled her smiles, but retaining all the buoyant eagerness for the ever unfolding wonders which gave us courage and cheer in the days of our flesh.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
hope = confidence.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
trust
(See Scofield “Psa 2:12”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
web: Heb. house, Isa 59:5, Isa 59:6
Reciprocal: Job 11:20 – their hope Job 18:14 – confidence Job 27:18 – as a moth Pro 11:7 – General Mat 25:8 – for
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 8:14. Whose hope shall be cut off That is, whose wealth and outward glory, which is the foundation and matter of his hope, shall be suddenly and violently taken away from him; or, as the Hebrew , jacot, may be translated, whose hope shall be irksome or tedious to him, by the succession of earliest expectations and great disappointments. Whose trust shall be a spiders web Which though it be formed with great art and industry, and may do much mischief to others, yet is most slender and feeble, and easily swept down, or pulled in pieces, and unable to defend the spider that made it. The application is obvious.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8:14 Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust [shall be] a {h} spider’s web.
(h) Which is today and tomorrow swept away.