For we are but of yesterday and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow.
Bildad is answering Job, and he turns to one source of authority: the wisdom of earlier generations. This verse gives his reason. His own generation is too young and too short-lived to know anything worth trusting.
The force of "yesterday"
The phrase Bildad uses is not a comment on his age. It is a way of saying that his life has almost no length at all.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe word yesterday is used for the previous day (Ex. 5:14; John 4:52; Acts 7:28). It is also used for past time in general, as in "a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday," and when the Lord Jesus is called "the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Ps. 90:4; Heb. 13:8). It is used also as if of "no duration," as in "we are but of yesterday" (Job 8:9).
Bildad's ground: the records of the past
This verse is the hinge of Bildad's method. He will not argue from what he has seen himself, because a man whose days are a shadow has seen too little.
F. B. HoleIn verses 8-10, Bildad revealed his own standpoint in the argument that was developing. He set great store by the accumulated treasures of human wisdom. Even in those far-off days, people could search records kept from still earlier days. Eliphaz argued from his own observation — what he had seen for himself. Bildad argued from tradition — what the records of earlier days could teach. He distrusted a deduction from one's personal experience, since the days of a man upon earth are but "a shadow."
At first glance this looks like the humbler position. It does sound better than what Eliphaz said.
C. H. MackintoshNow, it must be admitted that Bildad conducts us into a much wider field than that of Eliphaz. The authority of many "fathers" carries much more weight and respect than the experience of one person. It would also show much more modesty to follow the voice of many wise and learned men than the light of your own experience. But the fact is that neither experience nor tradition will do.
The contradiction Bildad missed
There is an irony in Bildad's words that he seems not to notice. By saying "we know nothing," he cancels out Eliphaz along with himself.
Leslie M. GrantNow Bildad appealed to tradition (vv.8-10). In this he contradicted what Eliphaz had said. If Eliphaz had only been born "yesterday", what value was his observation? But Bildad's appeal to tradition was just as empty as the appeal of Eliphaz to observation, for Bildad came to the wrong conclusion also.
What a short life should have sent him to
Bildad was right that he knew nothing on his own. He was wrong about the remedy. The cure for a shadow-length life is not older men, but God speaking.
Samuel RidoutBildad here seeks confirmation of his contention from the wisdom of past ages. He goes beyond Eliphaz: "For we are but as children of yesterday." This is true. But what does the stored-up wisdom of all the past give us when the question is God's truth? It is not to the past that we are to turn, but to God and His word. How immeasurably superior is the position of those who have the "sure word of prophecy," "the oracles of God."
Numbers do not change the case. A shared human opinion, however old and however wide, is still human.
C. H. MackintoshNo one has any right to make his own experience a rule for others. If one man has no right, neither do many men together. In other words, it is not the voice of man but the voice of God which must govern us all. It is not experience or tradition which shall judge at the last day, but the word of God.
Where the borrowed wisdom led
What Bildad drew from the past was a rule about withering plants and collapsing hopes, aimed straight at his suffering friend.
William KellyNext comes Bildad the Shuhite (Job 8), who follows Eliphaz, but with a great deal more harshness, and so draws a sharper reply from Job. In reproving Job he does not hesitate to suppose that his children had brought on themselves the due reward of their deeds, and hints that he himself could not be what he seemed.
The shadow and what outlasts it
Bildad called his life a shadow to excuse how little he knew. What answers that shadow was not yet shown in his day.
William KellyWhat a contrast this life of "days" and "vanity" and "shadow" is with life eternal! That life is now given in Christ to the believer, with the bright hope of being with Him Who is its source and fulness. There, where He is, we shall have its perfect, unhindered expansion and display in its proper heavenly sphere. But all was veiled then. Now Christ has brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.
Summary
- Shadow. "Of yesterday" means no duration at all. Bildad's whole appeal rests on how little his own days amount to.
- Search. Because his days are a shadow, Bildad turns from what he has seen to what earlier generations recorded.
- Snag. His words undo Eliphaz too. If everyone is born yesterday and knows nothing, one man's observation proves nothing either.
- Standard. Numbers do not create authority; one man has no right to make his experience a rule, and neither do many men. Only God's word can govern.
- Substance. The shadow is real, but it is not the last word. Life eternal is now given in Christ, and Christ has brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.