Job 31:8

Let - To hinder or obstruct.

Yea - Yes; certainly.

Let me sow, and let another eat - Let me be plagued both in my circumstances and in my family.

My offspring be rooted out - It has already appeared probable that all Job's children were not destroyed in the fall of the house mentioned Job 1:18, Job 1:19.

Then let me sow, and let another eat - This is the imprecation which he invokes, in case he had been guilty in this respect. He consented to sow his fields, and let others enjoy the harvest. The expression used here is common in the Scriptures to denote insecurity of property or calamity in general; see Leviticus 26:16 : "And ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it;" compare Deuteronomy 28:30; Amos 9:13-14.

Yea, let my offspring be rooted out - Or, rather, "Let what I plant be rooted up." So Umbreit, Noyes, Schultens, Rosenmuller, Herder, and Lee understand it. There is no evidence that he here alludes to his children, for the connection does not demand it, nor does the word used here require such an interpretation. The word צאצאים tse'ĕtsâ'iym - means properly shoots; that is, what springs out of anything - as the earth, or a tree - from יצא yâtsâ' - to go out, to go forth. It is applied to the productions of the earth in Isaiah 42:5; Isaiah 34:1, and to children or posterity, in Isaiah 22:24; Isaiah 61:9; Isaiah 65:23; Job 5:25; Job 21:8. Here it refers evidently to the productions of the earth; and the idea is, that if he had been guilty of dishonesty or fraud in his dealings, he wished that all that he had sowed should be rooted up.

31:8 Increase - All my plants, and fruits, and improvements.