3 Does God give wrong decisions? or is the Ruler of all not upright in his judging?
So now let the fear of the Lord be in you; do your work with care; for in the Lord our God there is no evil, or respect for high position, or taking of payment to do wrong.
He is the Rock, complete is his work; for all his ways are righteousness: a God without evil who keeps faith, true and upright is he.
And a voice came from the altar, saying, Even so, O Lord God, Ruler of all, true and full of righteousness is your judging.
In no way: but let God be true, though every man is seen to be untrue; as it is said in the Writings, That your words may be seen to be true, and you may be seen to be right when you are judged. But if the righteousness of God is supported by our wrongdoing what is to be said? is it wrong for God to be angry (as men may say)? In no way: because if it is so, how is God able to be the judge of all the world?
Now then, you wise, take note; you men of knowledge, give ear to me. Let it be far from God to do evil, and from the Ruler of all to do wrong. For he gives to every man the reward of his work, and sees that he gets the fruit of his ways. Truly, God does not do evil, and the Ruler of all is not a false judge.
The king's power is used for righteousness; you give true decisions, judging rightly in the land of Jacob.
But by your hard and unchanged heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of the revelation of God's judging in righteousness;
And still you say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O children of Israel, I will be your judge, giving to everyone the reward of his ways.
But you say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Give ear, now, O children of Israel; is my way not equal? are not your ways unequal?
May a man be upright before God? or a man be clean before his Maker?
Let them be covered together in the dust; let their faces be dark in the secret place of the underworld.
Get your strength together like a man of war: I will put questions to you, and you will give me the answers.
How may a hater of right be a ruler? and will you say that the upright Ruler of all is evil? He who says to a king, You are an evil-doer; and to rulers, You are sinners; Who has no respect for rulers, and who gives no more attention to those who have wealth than to the poor, for they are all the work of his hands.
For Job has said, I am upright, and it is God who has taken away my right;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Job 8
Commentary on Job 8 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 8
Job's friends are like Job's messengers: the latter followed one another close with evil tidings, the former followed him with harsh censures: both, unawares, served Satan's design; these to drive him from his integrity, those to drive him from the comfort of it. Eliphaz did not reply to what Job had said in answer to him, but left it to Bildad, whom he knew to be of the same mind with himself in this affair. Those are not the wisest of the company, but the weakest rather, who covet to have all the talk. Let others speak in their turn, and let the first keep silence, 1 Co. 14:30, 31. Eliphaz had undertaken to show that because Job was sorely afflicted he was certainly a wicked man. Bildad is much of the same mind, and will conclude Job a wicked man unless God do speedily appear for his relief. In this chapter he endeavours to convince Job,
Job 8:1-7
Here,
Job 8:8-19
Bildad here discourses very well on the sad catastrophe of hypocrites and evil-doers and the fatal period of all their hopes and joys. He will not be so bold as to say with Eliphaz that none that were righteous were ever cut off thus (ch. 4:7); yet he takes it for granted that God, in the course of his providence, does ordinarily bring wicked men, who seemed pious and were prosperous, to shame and ruin in this world, and that, by making their prosperity short, he discovers their piety to be counterfeit. Whether this will certainly prove that all who are thus ruined must be concluded to have been hypocrites he will not say, but rather suspect, and thinks the application is easy.
Job 8:20-22
Bildad here, in the close of his discourse, sums up what he has to say in a few words, setting before Job life and death, the blessing and the curse, assuring him that as he was so he should fare, and therefore they might conclude that as he fared so he was.