If he destroy him from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.
Job 8:18 belongs to Bildad's speech, specifically to his first speech. It has also been located in Eliphaz's speech. The verse stands in the early part of Job that sets forth the perplexing problems of overruling providence and sin and suffering.
In that setting God is disciplining Job by bringing him through the fire of affliction while his three friends charge him with sin and declare his sufferings are because of sin. The verse depicts a person destroyed or removed from his place, after which that place denies ever having known him, picturing the complete loss of his former presence and recognition. In context Bildad is exhorting Job to humility. The claims of Job's friends may be generally true yet are wrongly applied to Job.
Job's reply is that affliction, suffering, or calamity does not prove sin or that a person is under God's displeasure. What is said about Job and God in the friends' speeches is not reliable merely because it appears in the book, but must be tested against inspired teaching elsewhere in Scripture. The exchange shows how prone humanity is to misjudge its fellows.
Job 8:18 belongs to Bildad's speech, specifically to his first speech. It has also been located in Eliphaz's speech. The verse stands in the early part of Job that sets forth the perplexing problems of overruling providence and sin and suffering.
In that setting God is disciplining Job by bringing him through the fire of affliction while his three friends charge him with sin and declare his sufferings are because of sin. The verse depicts a person destroyed or removed from his place, after which that place denies ever having known him, picturing the complete loss of his former presence and recognition. In context Bildad is exhorting Job to humility. The claims of Job's friends may be generally true yet are wrongly applied to Job.
Job's reply is that affliction, suffering, or calamity does not prove sin or that a person is under God's displeasure. What is said about Job and God in the friends' speeches is not reliable merely because it appears in the book, but must be tested against inspired teaching elsewhere in Scripture. The exchange shows how prone humanity is to misjudge its fellows.