Job 8:18
in Job 8If he is uprooted from his place, it will disown him, saying, ‘I never saw you.’
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
If he be destroyed from his place, Then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.
KJV
If he destroy him from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.
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This verse in Job 8
Commentary
10 notes on this verseIf He destroy him from his place, then He shall deny him, saying, I have not known thee. The hypocrite is 'destroyed from his place,' when he is parted from the applause of the present life, by death intervening. But the interior Witness 'denieth' him, thus destroyed, and asserts that He knows him not, in that in justly condemning the life of the pretender, 'Truth' knows him not, nor recognises the good works he has done, in that he never put them forth in a right purpose of mind.
This site's exposition
He is a well-watered plant in the sunshine
on Job 8:16-19
A second portrait follows the spider's web, "a well-watered plant in the sunshine", thriving before it is torn out. The line "yet others will spring from the dust" fills the wicked man's place. Bildad implies Job's place stands ready to be filled or restored by his response.
This site's exposition
If he is uprooted from his place
The place itself speaks, a figure Clarke calls prosopopoeia, giving a voice to a thing. At Job 7:10 Job said his place would remember him no more, and Bildad turns that picture on the wicked. The ground disowns the plant.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
For the text continues, "if someone will pull it," the rush, "from its place," the place, "will deny him and say, 'I do not know you.'" This means: The rush is so uprooted from a place that no trace appears in the place. Nor is …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
I sought him, but he could not be found, Ps. xxxvi. He made a great show and a great noise for a time, but he is gone of a sudden, and neither root nor branch is left him, Mal. iv. This is the joy (that is, this is the end and conclusion) of the wicked man's way (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
He - God, who is the saviour of good men, and the destroyer of the wicked. It - The place; to which denying him, and seeing him, are here ascribed figuratively.
If he destroy him from his place,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
If He (God) tear him away (properly, "to tear away rapidly and violently") from his place, "then it [the place personified] shall deny him" (Ps 103:16). The very soil is ashamed of the weeds lying withered on its surface, as though it never had been connected with them.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
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.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
If he destroy him from his place - The particle here which is rendered “if (אם 'ı̂m) is often used to denote emphasis, and means here “certainly” - “he shall be certainly destroyed.” The word rendered destroy, from בלע 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 words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אִם־ | ʾim- | if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| יְבַלְּעֶ֥נּוּ | yevalleenu | someone will swallow it | H1104 → | 49 times |
| מִמְּקוֹמ֑וֹ | mimekomo | from place its | H4725 → | 401 times |
| וְכִ֥חֶשׁ | vekhichesh | and it will deny | H3584 → | |
| בּ֝֗וֹ | bo | <in> it | ||
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| רְאִיתִֽיךָ׃ | reitikha | I have seen you | H7200 → | 1300 times |
אִם־if
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
יְבַלְּעֶ֥נּוּsomeone will swallow it
yevalleenuH1104 →49 times
מִמְּקוֹמ֑וֹfrom place its
mimekomoH4725 →401 times
וְכִ֥חֶשׁand it will deny
vekhicheshH3584 →
בּ֝֗וֹ<in> it
bo
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
רְאִיתִֽיךָ׃I have seen you
reitikhaH7200 →1300 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 37:36yet he passed away and was no more; though I searched, he could not be found.
it leads to
- Psalms 37:10
Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 37:10
Through
Psalms 92:7that though the wicked sprout like grass, and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed.
it leads to
- Psalms 37:38
But the transgressors will all be destroyed; the future of the wicked will be cut off.
- Psalms 73:18–20
Surely You set them on slick ground; You cast them down into ruin.
- Psalms 37:1–2
Do not fret over those who do evil; do not envy those who do wrong.
- 1 Peter 1:24
For, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,
- Psalms 37:35–36
I have seen a wicked, ruthless man flourishing like a well-rooted native tree,
- Psalms 37:38
Through
Job 7:8The eye that beholds me will no longer see me. You will look for me, but I will be no more.
it leads to
- Job 20:9
The eye that saw him will see him no more, and his place will no longer behold him.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 37:36
yet he passed away and was no more; though I searched, he could not be found.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Job 20:9
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book VIII; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.