Job 26:2

Job's reply begins with bitter sarcasm about the abundant help given by Bildad's curt speech. That speech really showed the inability of the friends to carry on the discussion. It showed too that judgment must go by default, settled by the winning counter-proof that in this life the righteous may suffer and the wicked prosper.

This moved Job to open his mouth for the ninth time, in a speech longer than all the rest. As their arguments for the prosecution were failing, his for the defence increased. Bildad's brief words had been of a gentler kind. Job first indulged in the sarcasms that fill verses 2 and 3 of Job 26. Only then did he show that he too can speak in glowing terms of the greatness of God. To us it seems quite obvious that the speeches of the friends had not been helpful nor saving nor wise. But Job was human, and he did not miss the chance to hurl these taunts at them.

Job first replies to Bildad's argument as far as it touches himself. Admitting that he is the one "without power," what good are the lofty words of Bildad? Do they help to solve the dark riddle of present suffering? Has he given any counsel to Job, or untangled the tormenting mystery of God's treatment of him? ... With these few biting questions he completely disposes of his friend's argument. That is, if it could be called an argument.

Job simply denied the charge of deep evil, covered over by high claims of piety on his part, as the cause of his terrible trial. But Job was as far as Bildad from putting the creature on a false level with the Creator — least of all man, who is morally corrupt. The lights of heaven lack brightness in His eyes. What then does a sinner count for? In the abstract, what Bildad urges is unquestionable truth. As a reply applied to Job, it is perverse and useless.

And what does Job 26 let us hear Job saying in answer? He first pays an ironical compliment to the speech just delivered, praising its power and wisdom as the settlement of the question in debate. Then, despite all his misery, he can set forth the power of God far more fully and in more glowing terms than they did. He adds the solemnities of the unseen world.

All merely human attempts to comfort, apart from God and the truth, are ineffective because they are more or less ignorant. The bitterer the trial a person faces, the more obvious that failure becomes. The history of Job shows this. His three friends were clearly sincere in their regard for the sufferer, and eager to serve him in the hour of his sorrow. But the cause of the patriarch's affliction completely baffled them... They did not understand the ways of God with His own in any degree. By their false and unworthy suggestions they made Job feel their utter inability to help him, and threw him back on God Himself.