He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure.
Job 8:15 belongs to Bildad's speech, forming part of the three friends' charge that Job was suffering because of his sin and arguing that the security of the wicked collapses. The word rendered hold fast is the Hebrew chah-zaq, meaning to hold firmly or take hold, standing in the same verb form as in Isaiah 56:2. The verse pictures the hypocrite's hope and trust as a house leaned on for support that falls and will not stand or endure even when clung to, so that the fabric built through a lifetime collapses and hope is extinguished.
The friends' general claim that evil is ultimately punished was true, but they wrongly applied it to Job. Suffering or adversity does not prove that a person is under God's displeasure, showing how people misjudge others by treating suffering as proof of sin. As one of the friends' statements, it should not be treated as reliable when it conflicts with the rest of Scripture. In Job's case God was disciplining him and bringing him through the fire of affliction, raising the larger questions of overruling providence and sin and suffering.
Job 8:15 belongs to Bildad's speech, forming part of the three friends' charge that Job was suffering because of his sin and arguing that the security of the wicked collapses. The word rendered hold fast is the Hebrew chah-zaq, meaning to hold firmly or take hold, standing in the same verb form as in Isaiah 56:2. The verse pictures the hypocrite's hope and trust as a house leaned on for support that falls and will not stand or endure even when clung to, so that the fabric built through a lifetime collapses and hope is extinguished.
The friends' general claim that evil is ultimately punished was true, but they wrongly applied it to Job. Suffering or adversity does not prove that a person is under God's displeasure, showing how people misjudge others by treating suffering as proof of sin. As one of the friends' statements, it should not be treated as reliable when it conflicts with the rest of Scripture. In Job's case God was disciplining him and bringing him through the fire of affliction, raising the larger questions of overruling providence and sin and suffering.