Job 8:9 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

We are but of yesterday, &c. But lately born, and therefore have but little knowledge and experience. We live not so long as they did to make observations on the methods of Divine Providence. “There are three things in this passage,” says Dr. Dodd, from Peters, “well worthy of our observation. As, first, his referring Job to their ancestors of former times as the best instructers in wisdom; then urging the comparative ignorance of the generation that then was, and the reason of it, namely, the shortness of men's lives; We are but of yesterday, &c., human life being at this time in a swift decline, and reduced, in a few generations, from eight or nine hundred years to one hundred and fifty, or thereabouts: for, what is most to our purpose is, in the next place, his representing these long-lived ancestors of theirs, from whom they derived their wisdom, as living but an age or two before them: they were the men of the former age, or perhaps the fathers and grand-fathers of these. And it appears from the Scripture history, that Shem, the son of Noah, who lived five hundred years after the flood, might well have been a cotemporary with the grandfathers, or great- grand-fathers, of Job and his friends; and with what authority would such a one teach them! and with what attention would his instructions be received! Indeed, the fame of these restorers of the human race was so great for many ages after, that when mankind fell into the superstition of worshipping men-deities, there is little doubt to be made, but that these were the first mortals that were deified. The last thing I shall observe from the passage, is the style or manner in which the precepts of their ancestors were transmitted to them; and that is, by some apt simile or comparison, drawn from nature; and like a picture fitted to engage the attention, and by agreeably entertaining the imagination, to leave a strong impression on the memory. Such is that natural and beautiful comparison we have here; and which, by the way of introducing it, appears plainly to have been a proverbial saying delivered down from their forefathers; perhaps taught them from their cradles. Have not they then, says he, transmitted to thee this wise lesson? That, as the rush cannot grow up without mire, nor the flag without water, so neither can any thing flourish or prosper long without the blessing of Almighty God? and how should the ungodly, or the hypocrite, expect his blessing! One scarcely knows which to admire most, the piety of the sentiment, or the elegance and justness of the comparison.”