His roots entwine the stone heap; he looks upon a house of stones.
Bildad is in the middle of a word-picture of the godless man. He draws a plant that looks lush and well-rooted, its roots gripping a pile of stones. Does such visible strength prove anything about a person's standing with God? And does Job's ruined life prove the opposite?
The Root and the Stone Heap
The plant in Bildad's picture is not strong in itself. It borrows its grip from the rubble it has wound itself around.
William Kelly"His roots are wrapped about the heap" — to get a little strength from the heap — "and sees the place of stones." That is what the reed does to get a firm grip.
Kelly quotes an older translation here; the ESV says the roots entwine the stone heap. Commentators differ on the plant — some call it a reed, others a vine. Either way the grip is borrowed, not grown.
Lush Growth, Sudden Removal
The stone heap belongs in a garden, and Bildad piles his images high: sap, sunshine, sprawling cover. Then the picture turns.
Samuel RidoutBildad's images keep pouring out. He compares this short-lived prosperity to a lush vine covering a heap of stones in the garden, full of sap and strength in the bright sunshine. Soon God cuts him off, and "the place that once knew him shall know him no more." Others take his place.
The verse has two halves: roots gripping a stone heap, and a plant looking out on a house of stones. Neither hold lasts.
William KellyIt lasts no longer than the coarse weed that spreads over a garden and winds its shoots into a stone heap. But it is all in vain. He may look on a house of stone, but he is soon destroyed, like a harmful weed that only takes up space in the ground. The ground then denies him, as if it had never seen him. This is the joy of his way and the bitter end of godless prosperity. Yet such men keep coming, just as such weeds do: one springs up after another out of the dust, only to pass away even faster.
True Description, False Diagnosis
Taken on its own, Bildad's description is not wrong. What ruins it is the person he aims it at.
Leslie M. GrantIn verses 16 and 17 he speaks of the hypocrite. At first he grows green in the sun, his branches spread out, and his roots wrap around the rock heap. He seems to be doing well... This description may indeed be true of the hypocrite when he is finally exposed and humbled. But Bildad hinted that since Job had suffered things like the destruction he describes, Job must be a hypocrite! Bildad did not yet know the end of the story, and his assumptions were careless and false.
The logic runs backwards from the wreckage to the man's heart. Job had lost everything, so — by Bildad's rule — Job must have been rootless all along.
Judging by Appearances
The fault is not in the picture but in how Bildad uses it. He measures Job by what he can see.
William KellyBut applied to Job's case, there was no fellowship with God in Bildad's thoughts, and no gracious care for the sufferer. So his judgment went by appearances, and it was unrighteous.
Where Bildad Got His Wisdom
Bildad's wisdom is borrowed too. He leans on the sayings of earlier generations. That is why his picture can be vivid and still miss the man in front of him.
C. H. MackintoshThe authority of many "fathers" carries far more weight and respect than the experience of one person... But the fact is that neither experience nor tradition will do. Experience may be true, as far as it goes, but you can hardly find two people whose experience matches exactly. As for tradition, it is a mass of confusion — one father differs from another. Nothing is more slippery or uncertain than the voice of tradition, the authority of the fathers.
If neither tradition nor experience settles the matter, what does?
Samuel RidoutEven so, what does all the gathered wisdom of the past give us when the question is God's truth? We are not to turn to the past, but to God and His word.
Summary
- Borrowed grip. The roots do not hold the plant up; the stone heap does. Bildad's image is of strength taken from outside, not life from within.
- Borrowed vigour fades. The sap and sunshine are real for a season, then God cuts him off and another springs up in the same spot.
- Borrowed memory fails. The very ground it clung to will deny it — no trace left that the prosperity was ever there.
- Borrowed logic misfires. The description fits a hypocrite exposed; it did not fit Job, because Bildad did not know the end of the story.
- Borrowed wisdom is not enough. Tradition sounds stronger than one man's experience. Neither settles God's truth. Only God and His word do.