properly · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
tell
יֹ֣אמְרוּYo.me.ru
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
utter
יוֹצִ֥אוּyo.Tzi.'u
H3318
to go (causatively · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
words
מִלִּֽיםmi.Lim
H4405
a word · noun, common masculine plural absolute
heart
וּ֝מִלִּבָּ֗םu.mil.li.Bam
H3820
the heart · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Proverbs 18:15 The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge.
Matthew 12:35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil th…
Deuteronomy 6:7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by th…
Deuteronomy 11:19 And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest…
Job 12:7-8 But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee:
Job 32:7 I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.
Psalms 145:4 One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.
Proverbs 16:23 The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 8:8-19
Bildad here discourses very well on the sad catastrophe of hypocrites and evil-doers and the fatal period of all their hopes and joys. He will not be so bold as to say with Eliphaz that none that were righteous were ever cut off thus (Job 4:7); yet he takes it for granted that God, in the course of his providence, does ordinarily bring wicked men, who seemed pious and were prosperous, to shame and ruin in this world, and that, by making their prosperity short, he discovers their piety to be counterfeit. Whether this will certainly prove that all who are thus ruined must be concluded to have been hypocrites he will not say, but rather suspect, and thinks the application is easy.
I. He proves…
teach thee-- Job 6:24 had said, "Teach me." Bildad, therefore, says, "Since you want teaching, inquire of the fathers. They will teach thee."
utter words--more than mere speaking; "put forth well-considered words."
out of their heart--from observation and reflection; not merely, from their mouth: such, as Bildad insinuates, were Job's words. Job 8:11-13 embody in poetic and sententious form (probably the fragment of an old poem) the observation of the elders. The double point of comparison between the ungodly and the paper-reed is: 1. the luxuriant prosperity at first; and, 2. the sudden destruction.
John Gill on Job 8:10
Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee,.... That is, the men of the former age, and their fathers before them, Job is directed to inquire of, and to prepare for a search into their records and traditions; from whom he might reasonably expect to be taught and told things that would be very instructive and useful to him in his present circumstances:
and utter words out of their heart? such as were the effect of mature judgment and long observation, and which they had laid up in their hearts, and brought out from their treasure there; and, with the greatest faithfulness and sincerity, had either committed them to writing, or delivered them in a traditionary way to their posterity, to be comm…
"Will they not be able to teach you and speak to you wisely? The authority of many is always greater: he will therefore say what has been revealed to him from Christ, as already Eliphaz repeated what he had learned by inspiration.
Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart? We must mark what he had said before, And the inspiration of the words of thy mouth is multiplied. But now when the fathers are brought to mind, he says, They shall utter words out of their heart. As though heretics abhorring the life of Holy Church said, 'Thou hast abundance of inspiration in thy mouth, in thy heart thou hast none of it. But they are to be heard in opposition, who, in uttering words from the heart, have taught the right thing by living like it.' But oftentimes the wicked, whereas the evil of their own crookedness is unknown to them, boldly pull in pieces the uprightness of others, and while they usurp to themselves authority of pronouncing rebukes against good men, they either deliver those good sentiments, which they have imbibed not by seeing but by hearing them, or else with lying lips lay that evil to the charge of others, which they are themselves guilty of committing. But when they give utterance to good thoughts, which they scorn to observe, it is to be remarked that very frequently Truth so speaks by the lips of her adversaries, that in putting their tongue in motion it smites their life. So that in telling of the highest perfection of righteousness while they know nothing of it, they themselves are rendered at once both judges by their words and accusers by their deeds. Hence Bildad subjoins words of wondrous truth against hypocrites, but he is running himself through with the point of his discourse. For unless he were himself in some slight degree a pretender of righteousness, he would never venture to teach a good man with so much temerity. And indeed they are words of singular force that he speaks, but they ought to have been addressed to fools, not to a wise man; to the wicked, not to a good person; in that he proclaims himself no less than insane, who, when the gardens are parched, pours water into the river. But in the mean time, laying aside the question to whom the thing is said, let us weigh well and minutely what it is that is said, that the sentiments delivered may edify ourselves, even though they assail the character of their Author.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
History · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Wisdom · .UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO — .UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Keil & Delitzsch on Job 8:8-10
8 For inquire only of former ages,
And attend to the research of their fathers -
9 For we are of yesterday, without experience,
Because our days upon earth are a shadow -
10 Shall they not teach thee, speak to thee,
And bring forth words from their heart?
This challenge calls Deu 32:7 to mind. לבּך is to be supplied to כּונן; the conjecture of Olshausen, וּבונן, is good, but unnecessary. רשׁון is after the Aramaic form of writing, comp. Job 15:7, where this and the ordinary form are combined. The "research of their fathers," i.e., which the fathers of former generations have bequeathed to them, is the collective result of their research, the profound wisdom of the ancients gathered from ex…
born but yesterday and know nothing: Bildad suggested that Job’s generation was either born too late to be acquainted with ancient wisdom or was too young to have accumulated it.
Rashi on Job 8:8
about the past generation About the past generation, like (Deut. 4:32), “For inquire now about the earlier times.”
and apply yourself Apply and prepare yourself to understand what their fathers have searched out.