Job 8:11

"Can the rush grow without water? So will the wicked drift away from divine mercy.

Previously Bildad said that the teaching is passed on from the ancestors and fathers to the following generations. Now he supports this with an example. He says, "As papyrus does not prosper without water and reeds do not grow if they are not watered … likewise someone cannot produce useful fruit whose spirit has not received nourishment from higher authorities." But one can also say that human affairs are watered by providence as with water; if water is not added, they easily decrease and vanish. If, therefore, someone is hit by hardships but recovers from them, this happens with thanks to Providence. Even if what humans do seems to have a human root, it still does not last if Providence does not preside over it. Similarly the psalmist says beautifully, "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain." [Bildad then comments], "They wither before any other plant." This means the same as Bildad's earlier comment but is said about every plant. He seems to mean that, big or small, everything in life is subjected to Providence and withers if it does not pay attention to it.

Can the rush grow up without moisture? can the flag grow without water? To whom Bildad compares 'the rush' and 'the flag,' he himself immediately discloses, when he adds; Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb. So are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrite's hope shall perish. So that by the name of 'a rush' or 'a flag,' he denotes the life of the hypocrite, which has an appearance of greenness, but has no fruit of usefulness for the services of man, which continuing dry in barrenness of practice, is green with only the colour of sanctity alone. But neither does a rush grow without moisture, nor a flag without water, in that the life of hypocrites receives indeed the infused grace of the heavenly gift for the doing of good works, but in whatsoever it does seeking praises without, it proves void of fruit of the infused grace vouchsafed it. For they often perform wonderful deeds of miraculous power, they expel demons from bodies possessed, and by the gift of prophecy, by knowing anticipate things to come, yet they are separated from the Giver of so many blessings in the bent of the thought of their heart. For through His gifts they seek not His glory, but their own applause. And whereas by the benefits vouchsafed them they raise themselves in their own praise, they are assailing their Benefactor with the very gifts of His bounty. For they behave themselves proudly against Him that gave them, from the very circumstance whereby they should have been rendered the more thoroughly humble towards Him. But a judgment the more unsparing smites them hereafter, in proportion as heavenly Goodness now pours upon them even in their ingratitude the dew of His blessing in larger measure. And the fulness of the gift turns to the increase of condemnation to them, because when they are watered they bear no fruit, but under a hue of green rear themselves on high in barrenness. These 'Truth' well describes in the Gospel, saying, Many shall say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name? and in Thy Name have cast out devils? and in Thy Name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; Depart from Me, ye that work iniquity. Thus neither the rush nor the flag lives without water, because hypocrites do not take the greenness of good works, save by gift from above;…