a root (literally or figuratively) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
about
יְסֻבָּ֑כוּye.su.Ba.khu
H5440
to entwine · verb, pual imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
heap
גַּ֭לgal
H1530
something rolled · noun, common masculine singular absolute
seeth
יֶחֱזֶֽהye.che.Zeh
H2372
to gaze at · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
place
בֵּ֖יתbeit
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · cardinal number, masculine singular construct
stones
אֲבָנִ֣ים'a.va.Nim
H68
a stone · noun, common feminine plural absolute
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
Job 18:16 His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.
Job 29:19 My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.
Isaiah 5:24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shal…
Isaiah 40:24 Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon…
Jeremiah 12:1-2 Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper…
Mark 11:20 And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.
Jude 1:12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried…
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…
seeth the place of stones--Hebrew, "the house of stones"; that is, the wall surrounding the garden. The parasite plant, in creeping towards and over the wall--the utmost bound of the garden--is said figuratively to "see" or regard it.
John Gill on Job 8:17
His roots are wrapped about the heap,.... The heap of stones where the tree stands; it strikes its roots among them, and implicates and twists them about them, and secures itself and grows up notwithstanding them: and this expresses the seeming stable state and condition of hypocrites for a season, who not only flourish, but seem to take root; and who maintain their ground amidst some difficulties; this fitly agrees with and describes such hearers of the word, and professors of religion, comparable to the seed sown on stony ground, Matthew 13:5,
and seeth the place of stones; or, "the house of stones" (n); a house built of stones, high and stately; yet this tree rises higher than that, over…
16 He dwells with sap in the sunshine,
And his branch spreads itself over his garden.
17 His roots intertwine over heaps of stone,
He looks upon a house of stones.
18 If He casts him away from his place,
It shall deny him: I have not seen thee.
19 Behold, thus endeth his blissful course,
And others spring forth from the dust.
The subject throughout is not the creeping-plant directly, but the ungodly, who is likened to it. Accordingly the expression of the thought is in part figurative and in part literal, יחזה אבנים בּית (Job 8:17). As the creeper has stones before it, and by its interwindings, as it were, so rules them that it may call them its own (v. Gerlach: the exuberant growth twines i…
The Church Fathers
"He falls asleep on heaps of stones. They are the ones who crucified him. "And he will live among the pebbles; In the midst of the humble, among whom were the Apostles.
His roots will be wrapped about the heap of rocks, and he will dwell among the stones. For what do we understand by the name of 'roots' save the hidden thoughts, which issue forth out of sight, but rise up in the display of works in open day? as it is also said by the Prophet concerning the seed of the Word, And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. For to 'take root downward,' is to multiply good thoughts in the secret depths, but 'to bear fruit upward,' is to shew forth by the doing of practice what one has thought that is right. Now by the title of 'stones' in Holy Writ men are denoted, as it is said to Holy Church by Isaiah, And I will make thy battlements jasper, and thy gates of carved stones. And he made it plain what it was that he called those stones, where he added, All thy children taught of the Lord. As it is also expressed by Peter in giving admonition, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house. Here therefore, whereas they are called 'stones,' but are not in any wise called 'living stones,' by the bare appellation of stones may be set forth the lost and the Elect mixed together. Therefore this rush, 'which abideth in the place of stones, wrappeth his roots about the heap of rocks,' in that every hypocrite multiplies the thoughts of his heart, in seeking out the admiration of men; for in all that hypocrites do, seeing that in their secret thoughts they look out for the applauses of their fellow-creatures, like rushes as it were they 'send out roots into the heap of the rocks.' For on the point of acting they imagine their praises, and when applauded, they dwell upon them secretly with themselves in the thoughts of their heart. They rejoice that they have distinguished themselves first and foremost in the esteem of men; and while they are puffed up and swoln in themselves by their applause, they often themselves secretly wonder at what they are. They long to appear day by day higher than themselves, and grow to a height by extraordinary arts in practice. For as habits of virtue enfeeble every thing bad, so presumption strengthens the same. For it forces the mind to grow quick, and to be in high condition at the expense of strength, in that what the prime quality of health withholds, the love of applause enjoins. Whence too, as we said, they look out for witnesses…
In this parable, a plant with roots that grow down through a pile of stones gains stability by becoming entwined with the rocks.
Rashi on Job 8:17
are entwined Will be entwined with the branch and with the thicket.
a stone house He sees a strong place and builds it for himself as a stronghold. Menachem, however explains יֶחֶזֶה as an expression of a border: will border him; he will build it up to his border. [Perlow ed, reads: on his border.] Likewise (Ps. 107:30), “their desired haven.” Likewise (I Kings 7:4), “an edge to an edge (מחזה אל מחזה)” (Machbereth Menachem p. 86). All these are before his plague.
