Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 8:22
They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame; and the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to naught.
22. In his concluding words Bildad puts himself and his friends right with Job, and desires to put Job right with himself and God. By referring to Job’s haters he intimates that he and his friends are none of them; and by identifying these haters with the wicked ( Job 8:22), he lets Job know that he regards him as at heart one who belongs to quite a different class.
The position of Job’s friends cannot be understood at all unless we consider that they assumed Job’s piety at heart, but concluded from his calamities that he had been guilty of some great sins. And as Eliphaz had already brought to bear on Job’s mind the influence of a revelation, the next strongest argument was the consent of mankind. And to some minds, especially in that condition of perplexity and confusion on religious experience in which Job’s was, the general accord of mankind speaks with a more persuasive voice than anything called revelation. Bildad clearly enough perceived the drift of Job’s words in ch. 7; they were to the effect that the government of the world and the supreme Power in it was un-moral. And his reply, that mankind everywhere, and especially in circumstances that gave their judgment weight, had perceived a moral law ruling the universe, was conclusive as a general principle. His error lay in supposing that this was the only principle on which the universe was ruled, and in imagining that this principle operated always in a manner direct and immediate. Hence the principle lost its effectiveness in his hands by being stretched to uses which it did not cover.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame – When they see your returning prosperity, and the evidences of the divine favor. They will then be ashamed that they regarded you as a hypocrite, and that they reproached you in your trials.
And the dwelling-place of the wicked … – The wicked shall be destroyed, and his family shall pass away. That is, God will favor the righteous, but punish the wicked. This opinion the friends of Job maintain all along, and by this they urge him to forsake his sins, repent, and return to God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
They that hate thee, that rejoice in thy calamities, shall be wholly covered with shame, shall be utterly confounded, when they shall observe thee, whom they have despised and insulted over, to be so wonderfully and surprisingly restored to thy former or a greater felicity.
Of the wicked; either particularly of thy enemies, who dealt so unworthily and wickedly with thee; or more generally of all wicked men. Having showed what good God would do to the perfect man, he now declares the contrary portion of the wicked; and as he said that God would not help them, Job 8:20, so here he adds, that God will bring not only them, but their house, i.e. their family and estate, to nought.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. The haters of Job are thewicked. They shall be clothed with shame (Jer 3:25;Psa 35:26; Psa 109:29),at the failure of their hope that Job would utterly perish, andbecause they, instead of him, come to naught.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame,…. The Chaldeans and Sabeans, who had plundered him of his substance, when they should see him restored to his former prosperity, beyond all hope and expectation, and themselves liable to his resentment, and under the displeasure of Providence: the phrase denotes utter confusion, and such as is visible as the clothes upon a man’s back; see Ps 132:18;
and the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to naught; or, “shall not be” t; shall be no more; be utterly destroyed, and no more built up again; even such dwelling places they fancied would continue for ever, and perpetuate their names to the latest posterity; but the curse of God being in them, and upon them, they come to nothing, and are no more: thus ends Bildad’s speech; Job’s answer to it follows.
t “non erit”, Pagninus, Mercerus, Drusius, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
22. Clothed with shame clothe, when employed metaphorically is for the most part used of righteousness, (Job 29:14😉 also of the divine Spirit, light, glory, etc.; here, (also Psa 35:26,) with concealed sarcasm, the signification is, their best attire is shame.
Dwelling-place In the place of , house, three times appearing in the ancient poem, we now have , ohel, tent, happily chosen to set forth the transitoriness of the home of the wicked in comparison with that of the spider, and even the running vine.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
REFLECTIONS
WHILE we look on and behold the exercises of Job still heightening, and distresses, in the unkindness of his friends, coming from a quarter from whence he was looking for relief and consolation, I would beg the Reader, as I desire to observe the same conduct myself, to be regarding no less how gracious the LORD supported his mind while Satan thus assaulted him, and even his supposed friends joined in the temptation to cast him down. Surely Job might well have said, as another sufferer did in an after age of the church, If the Lord himself had not helped me, it had not failed but my soul had been put to silence.
Reader! it is very precious to look back and see how the LORD hath been helping us in past exercises, when we at the time were perfectly unconscious of his presence and his favor. Like some besieged city, against whose walls the battering cannons of mighty foes threatened every moment to take the place by storm, and put every soul to the sword; but by the LORD’S throwing in succours unperceived, and garrisoning it by his divine presence, the city is saved, and the foe put to flight: so GOD’S people are kept in a thousand instances where they have been many times ready to surrender, and to give up all as lost. Reader! depend upon it, thus it is with the people of JESUS. And according to the degree and strength of that sweet assistance JESUS gives the soul, so their faith is made to hold out and to be maintained. If JESUS communicates of his fulness and all-sufficiency, let the affliction be ever so great, the temptation ever so powerful, and the continuance of it ever so lasting, the succour from within bears up the soul, and makes the poor believer more than conqueror. JESUS is present, and that is enough. If the LORD be for us, what need we fear who is against us? If GOD justifieth, what care we who condemneth? Oh! for grace to be always upon the lookout for the justifying love and mercy of GOD our FATHER, the atoning blood and righteousness of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, and the sealing, heart-satisfying, and soul-rejoicing testimony of GOD the HOLY GHOST.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 8:22 They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame; and the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to nought.
Ver. 22. They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame ] It shall cover their faces, Psa 69:7 , yea, cover over the whole man; when beyond all expectation they shall see thee restored to thy former prosperity. Where it is worth considering, saith one, how truly this happened touching Job, and these friends of his; he was restored, and they, by God’s reproving them, covered with shame, as it appeareth, Job 42:7-10
And the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to nought
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
clothed with shame. Compare Psa 35:26; Psa 109:29; Psa 132:18.
dwelling place = tent.
wicked = lawless. Hebrew. rasha’. App-44.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
clothed: Psa 35:26, Psa 109:29, Psa 132:18, 1Pe 5:5
come to nought: Heb. not be, Job 8:18, Job 7:21
Reciprocal: Job 24:24 – gone Job 27:19 – he is not Eze 26:16 – clothe Amo 5:5 – come
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 8:22. They that hate thee That rejoice in thy calamities; shall be clothed with shame That is, shall be wholly covered with it, shall be utterly confounded, when they shall observe thee, whom they have despised and insulted over, to be wonderfully restored to thy former or greater felicity. And the dwelling-place of the wicked Either, particularly, of thy enemies, who acted so unworthily and wickedly toward thee; or, more generally, of all wicked men; shall come to naught Having showed what good God would do to the perfect, or good man, he now declares what would be the portion of the wicked. And, as he said, Job 8:20, that God would not help them; so here he adds, that God would bring not only them, but their house, that is, their family and estate, to utter ruin.