He is a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden.
Parallel translations
- WEB He is green before the sun. His shoots go out along his garden.
- KJV He is green before the sun, and his branch shooteth forth in his garden.
- NKJV He grows green in the sun, And his branches spread out in his garden.
- NASB “He flourishes before the sun, And his shoots spread out over his garden.
- NLT The godless seem like a lush plant growing in the sunshine, its branches spreading across the garden.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Bildad describes a plant thriving in the sun, sending shoots through the garden. It pictures the seeming vigor of the godless before their fall.
Overview
Shifting images, Bildad portrays the wicked as a lush, well-watered plant flourishing in the sunlight. The apparent prosperity is real but temporary. The picture prepares for the plant's sudden uprooting, illustrating Bildad's theme that the success of the godless is short-lived, however green it looks now.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Ps 80:11It sent out its branches to the Sea, and its shoots toward the River.
- Ps 37:35–36I have seen a wicked, ruthless man flourishing like a well-rooted native tree,
- Ps 73:3–12For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
- Job 5:3I have seen a fool taking root, but suddenly his house was cursed.
- Jer 11:16The LORD once called you a flourishing olive tree, beautiful with well-formed fruit. But with a mighty roar He will set it on fire, and its branches will be consumed.
- Job 21:7–15Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 8:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.