Bible Strands
Job 8:4
When your children sinned against Him, He gave them over to their rebellion.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Bildad speaks to Job in direct response to Job’s question about divine justice, framing God’s action as a conditional reaction to human disobedience.
The words — The Hebrew אִם ('im) sets the conditional "if," while בְּיַד פִּשְׁעָם (be-yad pish'am) literally means "in the hand of their transgression," describing a state of surrender to the consequences of rebellion.
The thread — This theme of familial consequence appears in Job 5:4, where the wicked man’s sons face ruin, and connects to the domestic context of Job 1:5 and Job 1:18, where the spiritual and daily conditions of children are noted.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to acknowledge personal or familial culpability before pursuing divine mercy, directly setting up the conditional appeal in Job 8:5.
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 thy children have sinned against him, and he have cast them away for their transgression;
Cross-references
- Job 1:5 And when the days of feasting were over, Job would send for his children to purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.
- Job 1:18 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and reported: “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
- Job 5:4 His sons are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender.
- Genesis 19:13 because we are about to destroy this place. For the outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that He has sent us to destroy it.”
- Job 18:16 The roots beneath him dry up, and the branches above him wither away.
- Genesis 13:13 But the men of Sodom were wicked, sinning greatly against the LORD.