Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 8:15

He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure.

15. hold it fast ] i. e. hold fast by it. The meaning of course is not that he tries to uphold his house, but that he tries to support himself by holding on to it. This is true both of the spider and the man.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

He shall lean upon his house – This is an allusion to the web or house of the spider. The hope of the hypocrite is called the house which he has built for himself; his home, his refuge, his support. But it shall fail him. In times of trial he will trust to it for support, and it will be found to be as frail as the web of the spider. How little the light and slender thread which a spider spins would avail a man for support in time of danger! So frail and unsubstantial will be the hope of the hypocrite! It is impossible to conceive any figure which would more strongly describe the utter vanity of the hopes of the wicked. A similar comparison occurs in the Koran, Sur. 28, 40: They who assume any other patrons to themselves besides God, are like the spider building his house; for the house of the spider is most feeble.

He shall hold it fast – Or, he shall lay hold on it to sustain him, denoting the avidity with which the hypocrite seizes upon his hope. The figure is still taken from the spider, and is an instance of a careful observation of the habits of that insect. The idea is, that the spider, when a high wind or a tempest blows, seizes upon its slender web to sustain itself. But it is insufficient. The wind sweeps all away. So the tempest of calamity sweeps away the hypocrite, though he grasps at his hope, and would seek security in that, as a spider does in the light and tenuous thread which it has spun.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 15. He shall lean upon his house] This is all allusion to the spider. When he suspects his web, here called his house, to be frail or unsure, he leans upon it in different parts, propping himself on his hinder legs, and pulling with his fore claws, to see if all be safe. If he find any part of it injured, he immediately adds new cordage to that part, and attaches it strongly to the wall. When he finds all safe and strong, he retires into his hole at one corner, supposing himself to be in a state of complete security, when in a moment the brush or the besom sweeps away both himself, his house, and his confidence. This I have several times observed; and it is in this that the strength and point of the comparison consist. The wicked, whose hope is in his temporal possessions strengthens and keeps his house in repair; and thus leans on his earthly supports; in a moment, as in the case of the spider, his house is overwhelmed by the blast of God’s judgments, and himself probably buried in its ruins. This is a very fine and expressive metaphor, which not one of the commentators that I have seen has ever discovered.

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

He, either the spider, or rather, the wicked man signified by it,

shall lean upon his house, i.e. he shall trust to the multitude and strength of his children and servants. and to his wealth, all which come under the name of a mans house in Scripture use.

It shall not stand, i.e. not be able to uphold itself, nor him that trusted to it.

He shall hold it fast; or, he shall take fast hold of it; not to uphold it, but to strengthen and uphold himself by it, as it is in the former branch.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

15. he shall hold it fastimplyinghis eager grasp, when the storm of trial comes: as the spider “holdsfast” by its web; but with this difference: the light spider issustained by that on which it rests; the godless is not by the thinweb on which he rests. The expression, “Hold fast,”properly applies to the spider holding his web, but is transferred tothe man. Hypocrisy, like the spider’s web, is fine-spun, flimsy, andwoven out of its own inventions, as the spider’s web out of its ownbowels. An Arab proverb says, “Time destroys the well-builthouse, as well as the spider’s web.”

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

He shall lean upon his house,…. Either the spider or the hypocrite, or the hypocrite as the spider; that is, that which is the ground of his confidence, which is as the spider’s house, on that he shall depend, either on his riches and outward prosperity, which he promises himself a long continuance of, and from whence he concludes himself to be high in the favour and good will of God; or on his works of righteousness, his outward profession of religion, attendance on external worship, and a round of duties performed by him; in these he trusts, on these he depends, in such webs he enwraps himself, in such a house he dwells, and imagines himself safe; which is only making flesh his arm, leaning upon a broken reed, and building an house upon the sand: the Septuagint version is, “if he prop up his house”, by repeated outward acts of religion:

but it shall not stand: whether it be riches, these are uncertain things, of no continuance; there are no riches durable but the unsearchable riches of Christ and his grace; or whether it be a man’s own righteousness, which he endeavours to establish, or “make to stand”, as the phrase is in Ro 10:3; but in vain; it is but a sandy foundation to build on; or the hope and confidence laid upon it is like a house built on the sand, and, when rain falls, floods come, and winds beat upon it, it falls; and great is the fall of it, Mt 7:26;

he shall hold it fast; as the worldling does his wealth, his gold and his silver; but it is snatched out of his hand by one providence or another, or however at last death obliges him to part with it; and the self-righteous man holds fast his righteousness, it is his own, he is fond of, an house of his own building, and cannot bear to have it demolished; an idol of his own setting up, and to take it away is to take away his gods; and what has he more? wherefore he holds it as fast as he can, and will not let it go till he can hold it no longer; or, “he shall fortify himself in it” h, as in a castle or strong hold, which he thinks impregnable, yet will soon and easily be battered down by divine justice:

but it shall not endure; gold perishes, riches come to nought, wealth is no enduring substance, nor is a man’s righteousness lasting; only Christ’s righteousness is everlasting; true grace endures to eternal and issues in it; but external gifts, speculative and rational knowledge, and a mere profession of religion, fail, cease, and vanish away.

h “roborabit in eam”, Montanus, Bolducius; “firmat se”, Vatablus; so the Targum and Ben Gersom.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(15) It shall not endure.The description of the wicked man ends here.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

Job 8:15. He shall lean upon his house He may prop up his house, but it shall not stand: he may make himself strong in it, but it shall not endure. Heath, after the LXX.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Job 8:15 He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure.

Ver. 15. He shall lean upon his house ] The spider shall, so Vatablus taketh it; but better, the hypocrite leaneth, or layeth his whole weight upon his house, that is, wealth, children, friends, clients, tenants, &c., as did Doeg, Psa 52:7 ; Haman, Est 3:9-11 . That profane earl of Westmoreland, who said that he needed not at all to pray to God, for he had tenants enough to pray for him. Bildad probably glanceth here at Job, as if he had once trusted in his riches, relations, &c., which yet Job disavoweth, Job 31:24-25

But it shall not stand ] No more than the spider’s house doth, borne down sometimes by her very weight, and not only by the wind. Hypocrites ruin their own houses by their sins, and particularly by relying on them. Though thou build thy palace as high as heaven, said the oracle to Phocas, yet sin, that lieth at the bottom, will be the ruin of it.

He shall hold it fast ] Mordicus tenebit, he shall hold it, not with his hands only, but with his teeth, as Cynegiras did the Persian ship; or as a drowning man doth the branch of a tree.

But it shall not endure ] All will not do; riches avail not in the day of wrath, &c. A hypocrite runs in his trouble to former false refuges; he trusted to his legs, or repairs to his bushes, as the hunted hare goes to the places that she used when she lived in quiet, thither she flees when she knows not how else to escape; but all to no purpose.

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

it shall not stand: Job 18:14, Job 27:18, Psa 52:5-7, Psa 112:10, Pro 10:28, Mat 7:24-27, Luk 6:47-49

Reciprocal: Pro 14:11 – house Pro 21:12 – wisely Isa 59:6 – webs

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Job 8:15. He shall lean upon his house He shall trust to the multitude and strength of his children and servants, and to his wealth, all which come under the name of a mans house in Scripture. But it shall not stand That is, not be able to uphold itself, nor him that trusted to it. He shall hold it fast Or, he shall take fast hold of it to strengthen and uphold himself by it. But his web, that refuge of lies, will be swept away, and he crushed in it. Or, by holding it fast, may be meant, that he shall endeavour to support his house by strong alliances, but it will be to no purpose, for it shall not endure.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments