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;" Matthew 7:23. The hypocrite has never been known as a pious man. The earth will refuse to own him as such, and so will the heavens.

Job 8:19 The heavens shall disclose his iniquity,

And the earth shall rise up against him.

Brimstone shall be rained down upon his dwelling.

Below shall his root be burnt up,

And above shall his branch be cut off.

Counsellors he leadeth captive,

And judges he maketh distracted.

He bewildereth the judgment of the leaders of the people of the land,

And causeth them to wander in a pathless dessert:

They grope about in darkness, even without a glimpse;

Yea, he maketh them to reel like the drunkard.

His roots shall be entangled in a rock;

With a bed of stones shall he grapple;

Utterly shall it drink him up from his place;

continued...

If he destroy him from his place,.... If the sun when he is risen strikes the tree with such vehement heat that it withers and utterly perishes from the place where it grew; or roots it up, so the Targum and Nachmanides; or, if God destroys the hypocrite from his place, or he is by one means or another removed out of the garden, the church, being detested and rejected by good men; or from all his worldly enjoyments, his honour, credit, and esteem with men, which are all precarious, fickle, and inconstant; or out of the world, being cut down as a cumber ground:

then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee; that is, either the tree shall deny that it ever was planted in such a place, or rather the place shall deny that the tree ever was planted there; the sense is, that it shall be so utterly destroyed, that neither root nor branch shall be left, nor anything to show that it ever grew there; its place shall know it no more, see Job 7:10; or God shall deny the hypocrite, and say he never saw him nor knew him; he never belonged to him, nor was under his care; he never looked upon him with a look of love, grace, and mercy; he never had any delight and pleasure in him, nor regarded him as one of his; he was no tree of his planting, watering, and keeping, see Matthew 7:23; this seems most difficult to accommodate to a good man, and those who carry it that way seem to be most puzzled with this; some render it, "shall he be swallowed?" or, "shall anyone in, allow him up?" (p) destroy or root him out of his place? none shall: the root of the righteous cannot be moved, nor they from that; not from the everlasting love of God, in which they are rooted, nor from Christ, in whom they are fixed: others understand this of the digging up of a tree, and transplanting it to another place, where it grows as well, or better; and so the people of God, though they have many stripping providences, and are removed from place to place, and from one condition to another, so that their former state and place know them no more; yet all things work together for their good.

(p) "num absorbebitur a loco suo?" Beza; "num absorbebit cum quisquam e loco suo", Diodatus.

If he destroy him from his place, then it shall {k} deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.

(k) That is, so that there remains nothing there to prove whether the tree had grown there or not.

8:18 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. Not seen - He shall be so utterly extirpated and destroyed, that there shall be no memorial of him left.

18. 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. So, when the godless falls from prosperity, his nearest friends disown him.

8:8-19 Bildad discourses well of hypocrites and evil-doers, and the fatal end of all their hopes and joys. He proves this truth of the destruction of the hopes and joys of hypocrites, by an appeal to former times. Bildad refers to the testimony of the ancients. Those teach best that utter words out of their heart, that speak from an experience of spiritual and divine things. A rush growing in fenny ground, looking very green, but withering in dry weather, represents the hypocrite's profession, which is maintained only in times of prosperity. The spider's web, spun with great skill, but easily swept away, represents a man's pretensions to religion when without the grace of God in his heart. A formal professor flatters himself in his own eyes, doubts not of his salvation, is secure, and cheats the world with his vain confidences. The flourishing of the tree, planted in the garden, striking root to the rock, yet after a time cut down and thrown aside, represents wicked men, when most firmly established, suddenly thrown down and forgotten. This doctrine of the vanity of a hypocrite's confidence, or the prosperity of a wicked man, is sound; but it was not applicable to the case of Job, if confined to the present world.