Job Chapter 8 verse 17 Holy Bible
His roots are wrapped about the `stone' -heap, He beholdeth the place of stones.
read chapter 8 in ASV
His roots are twisted round the stones, forcing their way in between them.
read chapter 8 in BBE
His roots are entwined about the stoneheap; he seeth the place of stones.
read chapter 8 in DARBY
His roots are wrapped about the heap, and seeth the place of stones.
read chapter 8 in KJV
His roots are wrapped about the heap, and seeth the place of stones.
read chapter 8 in WBT
His roots are wrapped around the rock pile, He sees the place of stones.
read chapter 8 in WEB
By a heap his roots are wrapped, A house of stones he looketh for.
read chapter 8 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 17. - His roots are wrapped about the heap, and seeth (rather, he seeth) the place (literally, house) of stones. This passage is very obscure The word gal, translated heap, means sometimes a spring or stream of water (Song of Solomon 4:12); and many of the best Hebraists regard it as having that meaning here (Buxtorf, Lee, Stanley Leathes, Revised Version). In this case we have to regard the rapidly growing plant as having its roots wrapped about the perennial spring, which was a not uncommon, and always a much-desired, feature of an Eastern garden. Thus nourished, it naturally increased and spread itself, and "was green before the sun." May we suppose that it "saw the house of stones," because the spring which nourished it gushed forth from the native rock so that its roots were in contact with both?
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(17) His roots are wrapped about.--This is the cause of his continual luxuriance, that his roots receive moisture from below, where they are wrapped about the spring which fertilises them underneath; they are planted near to a perennial fountain, and therefore (see Job 8:6) "he is green before the sun."And seeth the place of stones.--Rather, the house of stones--i.e., the stone house. He seeth the permanent and durable edifice of stone which is the habitation of civilisation and culture, and here his holding is so firm that, even if plucked up, his roots and suckers are so numerous that they leave behind them descendants and offshoots, so that out of his earth others grow; or, more correctly, out of another dust they grow. Even if transplanted, this luxuriant tree will flourish equally well in another soil.
