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Job 8:6

in Job 8

if you are pure and upright, even now He will rouse Himself on your behalf and restore your righteous estate.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

If thou wert pure and upright: Surely now he would awake for thee, And make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.

KJV

If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.

This verse in Job 8

Commentary

11 notes on this verse
If thou wert pure and upright,.... By which he tacitly intimates that he was neither; though the character given of him is, that he was perfect and upright, feared God and eschewed evil, and which is confirmed by God himself, and even after he had been tried by sore afflictions. Bildad's meaning is, if he was pure in heart, and upright in his life and conversation, then things would be well with him.

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

if you are pure and upright

Bildad sets a condition the reader knows Job already meets. Job 1:1 calls him blameless and upright. Clarke draws out the logic behind it: a pure and upright man would have been restored long ago, so Job must be neither.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Olympiodorus of Alexandria

COMMENTARY ON JOB 8:5-7 · Written before 600.

proposed

And if you are true and empty of any deceit and falseness, God will give you back a condition of life and a status worthy of a righteous person.

The Medieval Church2 voices

A commentator

Gregory the Dialogist

Morals on the Book of Job, Book VIII · Written before 604.

proposed

If thou wilt walk pure and upright; surely now He will awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness at peace. That is to say, pure in thought, upright in practice. Surely now He will awake for thee. As if it were in plain words, 'that He, Who now forbears to put forth the power of His protecting hand to thy tribulations, is as if asleep to the succouring of one going wrong.'

A commentator

Thomas Aquinas

Commentary on Job · Written before 1274.

proposed

The third is that man persevere in taking care that he does not relapse into sin. So he says, "if you proceed pure and honest," avoiding uncleanness of the flesh in yourself and the injustices by which your neighbor is injured. So after he has …

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

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,

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

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

3 more voices on this verse

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

If thou wert pure and upright - Concerning thy guilt there can be no doubt; for if thou hadst been a holy man, and these calamities had occurred through accident, or merely by the malice of thy enemies, would not God, long ere this, have manifested his power and justice in thy behalf, punished thy enemies, and restored thee to affluence? The habitation of thy righteousness - Strongly ironical.

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

He would awake for thee--that is, arise to thy help. God seemed to be asleep toward the sufferer (Ps 35:23; Isa 51:9). make . . . prosperous--restore to prosperity thy (their) righteous habitation.
If thou wert pure and upright - There is something especially severe and caustic in this whole speech of Bildad. He first assumes that the children of Job were cut off for impiety, and then takes it for granted that Job himself was not a pure and upright man. This inference he seems to have derived partly from the fact that he had been visited with so heavy calamities, and partly from the sentiments which Job had himself expressed. Nothing could be more unjust and severe, however, than to take it for granted that he was a hypocrite, and then proceed to argue as if that were a settled point. He does not make it a supposition that possibly Job might have erred - which would not have been improper; but he proceeds to argue as if it were a point about which there could be no hesitation. He would awake for thee - He would arouse or excite himself יעיר yā‛ı̂r on thy account. The image is that of arousing oneself from sleep or inactivity to aid another; and the idea is, that God had, as it were, slumbered over the calamities of Job, or had suffered them to come without interposing to prevent them, but that he would arouse himself if Job were pure, and would call upon him for aid. And make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous - That is, if thy habitation should become righteous now, he would make it prosperous. Hitherto, is the idea of Bildad, it has been a habitation of wickedness. Thy children have been wicked, and are now cut off. Thou thyself hast been a wicked man, and in consequence art afflicted. If now thou wouldest become pure and seek unto God, then God would make thy habitation prosperous. What could more try the patience of a sufferer than such cold and unfeeling insinuations? And what could more beautifully illustrate the nature of true courtesy, than to sit unmoved and hear such remarks? […]

The words behind it

11 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • אִם־if

    ʾim-H518 →1069 times

  • זַ֥ךְ[are] pure

    zakhH2134 →11 times

  • וְיָשָׁ֗רand upright

    veyasharH3477 →119 times

  • אָ֥תָּהyou

    ʾatahH859 →1094 times

  • כִּי־for

    ki-H3588 →4482 times

  • עַ֭תָּהnow

    ʾatahH6258 →433 times

  • יָעִ֣ירhe will awake

    yairH5782 →80 times

  • עָלֶ֑יךָon you

    ʾaleikhaH5921 →5755 times

  • וְ֝שִׁלַּ֗םand he will restore

    veshilamH7999 →116 times

  • נְוַ֣ת[the] abode of

    nevatH5116 →35 times

  • צִדְקֶֽךָ׃righteousness your

    tzidkechaH6664 →119 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    Isaiah 3:10

    Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their labor.

    it leads to

    • Psalms 128:1–2

      Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in His ways!

    • Hebrews 6:10

      For God is not unjust. He will not forget your work and the love you have shown for His name as you have ministered to the saints and continue to do so.

    • Ecclesiastes 8:12

      Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and still lives long, yet I also know that it will go well with those who fear God, who are reverent in His presence.

    • Galatians 6:7–8

      Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.

    • Ezekiel 18:9–19

      He follows My statutes and faithfully keeps My ordinances. That man is righteous; surely he will live, declares the Lord GOD.

  • Through

    Proverbs 15:8

    The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.

    it leads to

    • Proverbs 15:29

      The LORD is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous.

    • 1 Chronicles 29:17

      I know, my God, that You test the heart and delight in uprightness. All these things I have given willingly and with an upright heart, and now I have seen Your people who are…

  • Through

    Isaiah 51:9

    Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD. Wake up as in days past, as in generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced through the…

    it leads to

    • Psalms 74:13–14

      You divided the sea by Your strength; You smashed the heads of the dragons of the sea;

About Job

Job Hears of His Misfortunes, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Job Hears of His Misfortunes, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); 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 (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Olympiodorus of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON JOB 8:5-7 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.