Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the soil others will spring.
Bildad ends his picture of the fast-growing, fast-dying plant with a line that sounds almost cheerful, but he means the opposite. Is his rule true, and did it have anything to do with the man sitting in ashes in front of him?
The picture behind the words
The verse closes a run of pictures: a spider's web a man leans on, a weed sprawling over a pile of stones. Bildad's point is that such growth is quick, shallow, and easily replaced.
William KellyWhat a wicked man trusts in is no firmer than a spider's web, however tightly he clings to it. It lasts no longer than the coarse weed that spreads over a garden and winds its shoots into a heap of stones… He is quickly destroyed, as a useless and harmful thing taking up room in the ground, and the ground then disowns him as if it had never seen him. Although this is the joy of his way and the bitter end of godless prosperity, there is a succession of such men, just as there is of such weeds. One springs up after another out of the dust, only to pass away even faster.
Reading the two halves of the verse
"Joy" here is not a compliment. The pleasure Bildad describes is short, and the man who enjoyed it does not stay in anyone's memory.
Leslie M. Grant"Behold, this is the joy of his way" (v.19), that is, the joy of the hypocrite is only brief and ends abruptly. "And out of the soil others will spring." The hypocrites will be forgotten, for others will be born to take their place.
Where Bildad got his rule
Bildad is not speaking from his own experience. He leans on what earlier generations taught and on pictures from nature. Then he aims a line from earlier in the chapter at Job himself, quoted here in an older translation.
F. B. HoleSo in the rest of the chapter he summarised what tradition would teach, illustrating his point by things in nature, like the rush and the spider's web. He claimed that all history showed that God repaid man according to what he deserved. If a man is evil, God cuts him off. If he is good, God makes him prosper. To tell Job that "the hypocrite's hope shall perish" was a cut this time not at Job's children but at Job himself.
True — but not the whole truth
Much of what Bildad says about the wicked is sound. The problem is that he treats a partial truth as the whole explanation.
Samuel RidoutHere Bildad traces the way of the wicked. There is much truth in what he says, though it is not all the truth… Soon God cuts him off, and "the place that once knew him will know him no more." Others will take his place.
A right principle in the wrong case still does damage. Bildad judges Job by what he can see.
William KellyBut applied to this case, there was no fellowship with God in Bildad's thoughts and no gracious concern for the sufferer. So his judgment went by appearances, and it was unrighteous.
The word that never appears
Bildad's whole argument runs on one track: reward and punishment. One thing is missing from it — and from every other speech too.
William KellyThey were all arguing on the ground of righteousness. Not one of them had taken in, up to this and for long after, any thought of grace. And Job only arrived at it at last by the intervention of God. There he was dust and ashes. There he took the place of nothing at all, and worse than nothing. Then he was blessed. Then God vindicated him — and not before.
A warning for honest believers
Words like these can frighten a sincere believer. The answer is not to check how fresh your own faith feels.
C Stanley"The hypocrite's hope shall perish"; but the feeblest sheep of Christ shall never perish. But if a believer looks at his own imagined greenness, at his own boasted goodness, it will fade away, and Satan gains the advantage. There may be much freshness of soul at conversion, like the green flag; but beware of trusting in this.
Summary
- Picture. The verse ends Bildad's plant image: shallow growth, a quick collapse, and new weeds in the dust where the last one stood.
- Irony. The "joy" is short. The "others" simply take his place, and the man himself is forgotten.
- Source. Bildad argues from tradition and from nature: history proves God pays each man what he deserves.
- Half-truth. Much of it is true, but not all the truth. Judged by appearances, it becomes an unrighteous verdict on a suffering man.
- Grace. Every speaker reasons from righteousness, none from grace. Job was blessed only when God stepped in and he took the place of nothing at all.