1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2“How long will you speak these
things,
And the
words of your mouth be like a strong wind?
3Does God subvert judgment?
Or does the
Almighty pervert justice?
4If your sons have sinned against
Him,
He has cast
them away for their transgression.
5If you would earnestly seek God
And make
your supplication to the Almighty,
6If you were pure and upright,
Surely now
He would awake for you,
And prosper
your rightful dwelling place.
7Though your beginning was small,
Yet your
latter end would increase abundantly.
8“For inquire, please, of the former
age,
And
consider the things discovered by their fathers;
9For we were born yesterday, and
know nothing,
Because our
days on earth are a shadow.
10Will they not teach you and tell
you,
And utter
words from their heart?
11“Can the papyrus grow up without a
marsh?
Can the
reeds flourish without water?
12While it is yet green and not cut
down,
It withers
before any other plant.
13So are the paths of all who forget
God;
And the
hope of the hypocrite shall perish,
14Whose confidence shall be cut off,
And whose
trust is a spider’s web.
15He leans on his house, but it does
not stand.
He holds it
fast, but it does not endure.
16He grows green in the sun,
And his
branches spread out in his garden.
17His roots wrap around the rock
heap,
And look
for a place in the stones.
18If he is destroyed from his place,
Then it
will deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’
19“Behold, this is the joy of His
way,
And out of
the earth others will grow.
20Behold, God will not cast away the
blameless,
Nor will He
uphold the evildoers.
21He will yet fill your mouth with
laughing,
And your
lips with rejoicing.
22Those who hate you will be clothed
with shame,
And the
dwelling place of the wicked will come to nothing.”
Preamble: Bildad, Job’s second friend will now speak, he will show even less tact and grace then Eliphaz, his impatience (even contempt) with Job, will be immediately and most abundantly made clear.
Commentary
Vs.
1-7
1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2“How long will you speak these
things,
And the
words of your mouth be like a strong wind?
3Does God subvert judgment?
Or does the
Almighty pervert justice?
4If your sons have sinned against
Him,
He has cast
them away for their transgression.
5If you would earnestly seek God
And make
your supplication to the Almighty,
6If you were pure and upright,
Surely now
He would awake for you,
And prosper
your rightful dwelling place.
7Though your beginning was small,
Yet your
latter end would increase abundantly.
Bildad the second eldest now speaks, and he shows nothing but a cold contempt for Job's cries and mourning like that, saying to Job, “How long will you speak these things, And the words of your mouth be like a strong wind?” Bildad then has absolutely no patience for Job and his words, words which he equates with being like a blustery wind (NIV). For in Bildad's eyes Job has no grounds for speaking like that, for he only sees Job's loses as God's judgment on him, and so he says to Job that God does not subvert judgment nor does He pervert justice (vs. 3). Now obviously this is true, but Job is not under the justice, nor the judgment of God, rather he is under an extremely vicious attack by Satan. Bildad then in an extremely cold tone goes on to relegate Jobs children’s deaths at Satan’s hand as their being cast away by God for some undetermined sin that they must have committed against Him (vs.4). Now even if Job’s children had sinned, which they hadn't, Bildad’s extreme callousness and indifference towards Job losing his children so tragically is utterly heartless and completely unjustifiable. Thus Bildad the cold intellect has no time nor patience for those who do not accept whatever tragedies befalls them, for He believes that these come from the hand of God as judgment upon one.
Having then completely relegated Job’s mourning all his loses, Bildad now tells Job to earnestly seek God and make his supplications to the Almighty (vs. 5). Which is something Job always did, and not just for his own wellbeing, but also for the well being of others. Bildad’s counsel here then adds nothing to Job. Bildad then goes on and tells Job that if he were pure and upright God would awake for him and prosper him in his rightful dwelling place, that though his beginning were small yet his latter end would increase abundantly (vs. 5-7). Thus, Bildad like Eliphaz most wrongly and self righteously assumes that Job and his household have been sinning, that their demise came at the hand of God, and that if Job would only repent and get right with God, God would once again prosper him. Now there are truths in repenting and getting right with God and His prospering one, but Bildad fails miserably in his employment of these truths by so wrongly assuming Job’s downfall was something that he brought on himself.
Vs. 8-10 8“For inquire, please, of the former age,
And
consider the things discovered by their fathers;
9For we were born yesterday, and
know nothing,
Because our
days on earth are a shadow.
10Will they not teach you and tell
you,
And utter
words from their heart?
Bildad now lays out his justification for his understanding of Job’s plight, by saying that what he is saying to him their ancestral fathers first came to understand long ago, that they unlike Job and his ideas did not just arrive on the scene, but they have a longstanding history behind them. Therefore, Bildad counsels Job to listen to them, to their doctrine, for it has been long established (vs. 7-10).
Vs. 11-14 11“Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh?
Can the
reeds flourish without water?
12While it is yet green and not cut
down,
It withers
before any other plant.
13So are the paths of all who forget
God;
And the
hope of the hypocrite shall perish,
14Whose confidence shall be cut off,
And whose
trust is a spider’s web.
Bildad now uses an analogy from nature to describe the downfall of those who forget God, of the hypocrite whom he says soon perishes at the hand of God. Thus by saying these things to Job he is assuming that is what Job has done, been living like a hypocrite before Him. Saying that their confidence shall perish and that their trust is but a spiders web. Job though was not living like a hypocrite; that is pretending to believe and obey God but only living indifferently to Him. No Job was a true and faithful man of God, a blameless man before God. And so though Job's faiths light maybe dim at this point, he still has hope in the Lord. And as we will see the wicked don’t always perish when they sin, and the hypocrite is not always brought down and removed from his place, at least not immediately as Bildad so wrongly assumes has happened to Job.
Vs. 15-19 15He leans on his house, but it does not stand.
He holds it
fast, but it does not endure.
16He grows green in the sun,
And his
branches spread out in his garden.
17His roots wrap around the rock
heap,
And look
for a place in the stones.
18If he is destroyed from his place,
Then it
will deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’
19“Behold, this is the joy of His
way,
And out of
the earth others will grow.
Bildad now goes on to describe the hypocrite as leaning on his house; implying then that Job’s confidence was not in God, but in his household (i.e. his abundant possessions); using metaphoric language to describe such people as trees that grow green in the sun, who spread their branches out in the garden, and who wrap their roots around a rock heap as their anchoring point. But in the end they are destroyed from their place, all that they have acquired and hoped in will only deny them, saying: … ‘I have not seen you.’ Vs. 18 Bildad then concludes that this is God’s doing to them, that God has joy in destroying such people, and that in their place, He will plant others. These things then that Bildad is saying, he is directing towards Job if you can believe it! However we know that God has no delight when people perish in their sins, rather that all come to repentance (Ezekiel 18:23, 32; 2 Peter 3:9). And that God does indeed remove the wicked and hypocrite from their place, and places others there can be true of Him, but in Job’s case this simply does not apply to him. Therefore Bildad’s view of God’s Works in Job’s life based on his elders’ teachings is wrong, and should not be applied to him.
Vs. 20-22 20Behold, God will not cast away the blameless,
Nor will He
uphold the evildoers.
21He will yet fill your mouth with
laughing,
And your
lips with rejoicing.
22Those who hate you will be clothed
with shame,
And the
dwelling place of the wicked will come to nothing.”
In encouraging Job to repent, Bildad now touches upon some great truths, first is that God does not cast away the blameless (even though Job is going through such things), nor does God uphold evil doers, for though they may prosper for a season, sin always has consequences that are experienced in this life, as well sin must always be punished fully, either at the Cross by the Lord Jesus Christ for us, or suffered fully by the guilty party at the Judgment seat of Christ. For sin never goes unpunished. Bildad then goes on assuring Job that there is a future for him, that God Himself will yet fill his mouth with laughing and his lips with rejoicing, that all those who hate him will be clothed with same and that dwelling place of the wicked will come to nothing. Amen. These then should be the only words that Job takes to heart from him, for they will turn out to be true of him.
Scripture Quotations
New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.
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