Job 25:1–6 Bildad's Finial Response

 ¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

²“Dominion and fear belong to Him;

He makes peace in His high places.

³Is there any number to His armies?

Upon whom does His light not rise?

⁴How then can man be righteous before God?

Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?

⁵If even the moon does not shine,

And the stars are not pure in His sight,

⁶How much less man, who is a maggot,

And a son of man, who is a worm?”

Preamble: With both Eliphaz and Zophar now silenced, Bildad alone will now seek to respond to Job. And in this his previous arrogant declarations against Job, like his friends, are now all but gone. For he like Job’s friends seems to now realize that life is not so black and white as they expounded it was, that there are ambiguities, things that happen to us that cannot be so easily explained, as Job has discovered for himself. Bildad’s response here then is one of trepidation, then that of brazen self confidence, of maybe realizing that he himself is not immune to what has befallen Job.

Commentary 

Bildad now begins by briefly exalting God; but there is a real sense of trepidation and fear in his words; Before declaring that both dominion (rule, power) and fear belong to Him. That it is God who makes peace in His high places, (thus touching on two themes that Job himself already had, God’s Sovereign Power). He then asks a question clearly born out of his own fear, asking is there any number to His armies? Followed by asking, “Upon whom does His light not shine?” Thus, by implication no one can resist God, and God who makes His light shine on everyone, by implication then also makes it shine upon the wicked and the unjust (see Matt. 5:44-45), something that his friends had previously denied. Then in verses four to six Bildad picks up on the theme of Eliphaz who said God puts no trust in his angels how much less the sons of men, by now expanding on that and asking how then can man be righteous in the sight of God? For one born of woman is inherently defiled by sin, (thus we all have an inherent need for God’s grace, which Bildad through his new found fear of God and His judgment, which he believes came upon Job, is beginning to realize he is in need of. Verses five and six then are pretty self-deprecating of not just of Job as in times past, but humanity in general, and maybe even of Bildad himself, as he now steps away from his previous arrogant stance in condemning the blameless Job. These then will be the last words of Job’s three friends who have exhausted their own reasonings in seeking to explain Job's plight. However, there is a fourth speaker who is still to come, (who will be the wisest of Job’s friends with his counsels), before God Himself speaks, and He will finally set everyone straight. But for now, Job will again speak, for he still feels the need to justify himself, for he still feels that he has been wronged by God, and this he will do so in the next five chapters justifying himself rather than God.

Scripture Quotations

New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.