Job 8:20 - Exposition

Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man . Bildad winds up with words of apparent trust in, and good will towards, Job. God is absolutely just, and will neither forsake the righteous man nor uphold the wicked one. If Job is, as he says, true to God, upright, and (humanly speaking) "perfect," then he has only to go on trusting God; God will not leave him "till he fill his mouth with laughing, and his lips with rejoicing" (verse 21); then "they that irate him shall be clothed with shame, and their dwelling-place shall come to nought' (verse 22); but if, as we feel instinctively that Bildad believes, Job is not "perfect," but "an evil-doer," then he must expect no relief, no lull in his sufferings; he is obnoxious to all the threatenings which have formed the bulk of Bildad's discourse (verses 8-20)—be may look to being cut off, like the rush and the flag (verses 11, 12), crushed like the spider's web (verse 14), destroyed, and forgotten, like the rapidly growing gourd (Verses 16-19); he must look for no help from God (verse 20); but must be contented to pass away and make room for men of a better stamp (verse 19). Neither will he help the evil-doers; literally, neither will he grasp the hand of evil-doers ; i.e. though he may support them for a while, he will not maintain them firmly and constantly.