Job 18:2

As usual in the later speeches, the address opens with a reproach, showing none of the courtesy that marked the first address of Eliphaz. Bildad, who keeps his own speeches quite short, accuses Job of piling up words, and of being so full of talk that he will not listen to others. Notice that Bildad addresses Job as if others stood with him: "How long will you hunt for words?" This does not have to mean that others were with Job at that time and place. Rather, he stands as the representative of everyone who would question the friends' position. But, as we know, Job was holding to the truth, at least in his opposition to their argument. We may think of him as standing at the head of that great company of the righteous who have passed through deep suffering for no apparent reason. If Job had used strong language, the friends' charges had given him great provocation.

How long will you make a hunt for words? Consider, and afterwards we will speak. Why are we accounted as cattle, stopped up [that is, stupid] in your eyes?

Yet Bildad begins his second speech, recorded in Job 18, on a very harsh note. Job certainly had not yet come to the end of himself, and in his friends' arguments there was nothing to cause him to "make an end of words." The second part of verse 2 has been translated, "Be intelligent, and then we will speak." He evidently saw Job's rejection of their position and of the claims they put forward as degrading to them, as though they were beasts. So he hit back with an insult.

Bildad, who is always brief, hits back at Job's long and passionate answers. He treats them as contemptuous towards his friends, and as useless in Job's effort to justify himself, while Job was evidently an object of divine displeasure and judgment for hidden evil. Was he alone an exception to the always righteous government of God? If not, why such a volume of words, and why such fierce attacks?

Job's words did not teach Bildad to be a little more considerate than before. He shows only stronger opposition, reproving Job unjustly. He thought Job's words showed no understanding, so he told him to "gain understanding" — then his friends would be more free to speak to him. No doubt if Bildad had not acted like a beast, Job would not have spoken to him as he did. Yet Job had not accused them of being stupid. He had only insisted that he was not inferior to them, and that he found no wise man among them.

Such is the spirit of Bildad. He was sure that, whatever the appearances had been, they were all hollow, and that now the truth could no longer be hidden. God's judgments and Job's words were making it plain that he had been simply a prosperous fool. Such folly has its just and usual end in this life. In Scripture the "fool" means a man without God. No folly is like it. So he believes it was with Job. Is it not humbling and solemn that we may be ever so sincere in what we believe, and yet be completely wrong? We are just as responsible for what our convictions are as for what we do or say. Only one can give us the right thought or feeling: He who alone gives the wisdom and strength to carry it out. It is God Himself.