If he destroy him from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.
Parallel translations
- WEB If he is destroyed from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’
- BSB If he is uprooted from his place, it will disown him, saying, ‘I never saw you.’
- NKJV If he is destroyed from his place, Then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’
- NASB “If he is removed from his place, Then it will deny him, saying, ‘I never saw you.’
- NLT But when it is uprooted, it’s as though it never existed!
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 says if such a plant is torn from its place, the spot disowns it, as if it never existed. Removal brings total erasure.
Overview
When the flourishing plant is uprooted, even its own location denies ever having known it. The haunting image conveys how completely the godless can be swept away and forgotten. Bildad presses his point that the prosperity of the wicked, however impressive, leaves no lasting trace once God removes it.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Job 7:10He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.
- Job 7:8The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not.
- Ps 37:36Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.
- Ps 92:7When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:
- Ps 37:10For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.
- Job 20:9The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.
- Ps 73:18–19Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.
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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 8:18 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
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