Bible Strands
Job 8:18
If he is uprooted from his place, it will disown him, saying, ‘I never saw you.’
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Bildad addresses Job in a discourse on the collapse of human prosperity, using a plant metaphor to describe sudden ruin. The immediate context contrasts the plant’s temporary anchoring with its complete removal.
The words — כִּחֶשׁ (khi.chesh) means “deny” or “disown,” and רְאִיתִי (re'iti) translates literally as “I have seen.” The uprooted plant personifies its own erasure by refusing prior recognition.
The thread — The theme of permanent absence and forgotten location runs through Job 7:10, Job 7:8, and Psalms 37:36, where the departed leave no trace and their former place remembers them no more.
Why it lands — The text states that removal from one’s position results in total disavowal and irreversible obscurity. It requires the reader to acknowledge that earthly footing provides no permanent claim and offers no recourse after collapse.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
If he destroy him from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.
Cross-references
- Job 7:10 He never returns to his house; his place remembers him no more.
- Job 7:8 The eye that beholds me will no longer see me. You will look for me, but I will be no more.
- Psalms 37:36 yet he passed away and was no more; though I searched, he could not be found.
- Job 20:9 The eye that saw him will see him no more, and his place will no longer behold him.
- Psalms 37:10 Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.
- Psalms 73:18 Surely You set them on slick ground; You cast them down into ruin.
- Psalms 92:7 that though the wicked sprout like grass, and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed.