Job 8:5
in Job 8But if you would earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
If thou wouldest seek diligently unto God, And make thy supplication to the Almighty;
KJV
If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty;
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This verse in Job 8
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes - If thou wouldest do it now. If even on the supposition that your sons have thus perished, and that God has come out in judgment against your family, you would look to God, you might be restored to favor. The word rendered “seek betimes” (שׁחר shâchar) means literally to seek in the morning, to seek early; and then, to make it the first business. It is derived from the word meaning aurora (שׁחר shachar) and has reference to the early light of the morning, and hence, to an early seeking.
This site's exposition
When your children sinned against Him
on Job 8:4-7
True doctrine drives a false inference. "He gave them over to their rebellion" treats the deaths of Job's ten children in chapter 1 as evidence of their sin. Bildad's condition, "if you would earnestly seek God," is a bargain that assumes present guilt is the reason help has not come.
This site's exposition
But if you would earnestly seek God
Earnestly seek is shachar, a verb Barnes ties to the dawn, and Gregory reads seek God at daybreak. Bildad's offer of mercy carries a sting. He assumes God gave the children over for their sin and spared Job to repent.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
Bildad says, "I suggest you pray to the Lord with all your devotion and diligence. Everything else should come after your prayers." This is what "be early" means.
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book VIII · Written before 604.
proposed
Yet if thou wilt seek to God at dawn, and make thy supplication to the Almighty. For inasmuch as heretics think that the light of truth rests with themselves, they bid and summon Holy Church, as being in the night of error, to come to the dawning of the truth, that in the knowledge of God it may be led to rise, as in the dawning light, and by the prayer of penitence wash off past misdeeds.
The other thing which seemed to keep Job from returning to his former prosperity was the fact that he had already finished the greater part of his life and little remained for him, as Job said before. So it did not seem that his former …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
That it was a usual thing for Providence to extinguish the joys and hopes of wicked men as his were extinguished; and therefore that they had reason to suspect him for a hypocrite,
If thou hadst conducted thyself well under the former affliction, thou wouldst not have been struck with the latter." Herein Bildad was not in the right; for a good man may be afflicted for his trial, not only very sorely, but very long, and yet, if for life, it is in comparison with eternity but for a moment.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
2 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
If thou wouldest seek unto God - Though God has so severely afflicted thee, and removed thy children by a terrible judgment; yet if thou wilt now humble thyself before him, and implore his mercy, thou shalt be saved. He cut them off in their sins, but he spares thee; and this is a proof that he waits to be gracious to thee.
The words behind it
8 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 |
| אַ֭תָּה | ʾatah | you | H859 → | 1094 times |
| תְּשַׁחֵ֣ר | teshacher | you will seek | H7836 → | 12 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | <to> | H413 → | 5510 times |
| אֵ֑ל | ʾel | God | H410 → | 241 times |
| וְאֶל־ | veelosha- | and to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| שַׁ֝דַּ֗י | shadai | [the] Almighty | H7706 → | 48 times |
| תִּתְחַנָּֽן׃ | titchanan | you will seek favor | H2603 → | 78 times |
אִם־if
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
אַ֭תָּהyou
ʾatahH859 →1094 times
תְּשַׁחֵ֣רyou will seek
teshacherH7836 →12 times
אֶל־<to>
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
אֵ֑לGod
ʾelH410 →241 times
וְאֶל־and to
veelosha-H413 →5510 times
שַׁ֝דַּ֗י[the] Almighty
shadaiH7706 →48 times
תִּתְחַנָּֽן׃you will seek favor
titchananH2603 →78 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 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
Job 11:13As for you, if you direct your heart and lift up your hands to Him,
it leads to
- Psalms 143:6
I stretch out my hands to You; my soul thirsts for You like a parched land. Selah
- Psalms 88:9
My eyes grow dim with grief. I call to You daily, O LORD; I spread out my hands to You.
- Psalms 78:8
Then they will not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose heart was not loyal, whose spirit was not faithful to God.
- 1 Samuel 7:3
Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and Ashtoreths among you, prepare your hearts…
- Job 8:5–6
But if you would earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy,
- Psalms 143:6
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); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book VIII; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Olympiodorus of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON JOB 8:5-7 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.