How you have counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge!
Job has just listened to Bildad's short third speech about the greatness of God and the smallness of man. Now he answers with a string of stinging questions. The irony is sharp. Bildad counseled a man he treated as having no wisdom, and poured out knowledge in abundance. What did any of it do for the suffering man himself?
Sarcasm aimed at empty help
Kelly ties the sarcasm to what the shortness of Bildad's speech revealed:
William KellyJob's reply begins with bitter sarcasm about the abundant help Bildad's curt speech had given. That speech really showed the friends could not continue the discussion. The case had to go against them by default, on the overwhelming counter-proof that in this life the righteous may suffer and the wicked prosper.
Hole reads the same lines and notes what drove the taunts:
F. B. HoleAs their arguments for the prosecution were failing, his for the defence increased. Bildad's brief words had been of a gentler kind. Job would go on to show that he too can speak in glowing terms of the greatness of God. But first he gave himself to the sarcasms that fill verses 2 and 3 of Job 26. To us it seems quite obvious that the speeches of the friends had not been helpful, saving, or wise. But Job was human, and he did not miss the opportunity to hurl these taunts at them.
The real need: help, not verdicts
Job's questions in verses 2 and 3 fit together. He is the man without power and the man said to lack wisdom. Bildad's speech met neither need:
Leslie M. GrantJob fully admitted his utter weakness in the face of his sufferings, and what he needed was help, not condemnation. If it was true that Job lacked wisdom, as Bildad hinted, where was there any wise counsel in Bildad's words? Job admitted that he did not know why God was dealing with him as He did. But his friends gave false answers to this question, so their advice was completely unsound.
Ridout presses the same test: did Bildad's fine words touch Job's actual case?
Samuel RidoutAdmitting that he is the one "without power," what good are Bildad's lofty words? Do they help to solve the dark puzzle of present suffering? Has he given any counsel to Job, or untangled the tormenting mystery of God's treatment of him? ... In these few biting questions he completely disposes of his friend's argument, if it could be called an argument at all.
Where did the words come from?
Verse 4 finishes the thought of verse 3 by asking who was really speaking. Commentators differ on the sense. Ridout offers two possibilities. Bildad may have been repeating the thoughts of Eliphaz. Or Job may be asking whether this kind of speech comes from God at all. Grant takes it as a flat denial:
Leslie M. Grant"To whom have you uttered words?" They would say they were speaking to Job, but their words were really not for him at all, but for an evil person. "And whose spirit came from you?" For Job did not consider that it was the Spirit of God who was moving Bildad.
Hole notes that some translations read "To whom" rather than "For whom." On that reading, Job reminded them that they had really spoken in God's presence — and not in the right spirit.
Why true statements can still do damage
Verse 3 credits Bildad with declaring sound knowledge in abundance. Kelly draws out what happens when true things are wrongly applied:
William KellyAbstract truth is completely useless for the saints of God. More harm may be done by things which are true, but misunderstood and misapplied, than by many a thing that is false. Misapplied truth gives an error the apparent authority of God. It carries all the more weight because it comes as the truth. If a foolish or plainly false thing is said, people despise it; but no believer can brush aside the truth of God. So if people use the truth of God wrongly — if they apply it to crush someone who is at that moment an object of intense interest to God — how foreign and offensive that is to His mind!
The reply that rises higher than the taunt
Job does not stop at the sarcasm. Having cleared away the useless counsel, he goes on to speak of God with a reach Bildad never touched:
William KellyAfter an ironic compliment to the speech just delivered, praising its power and wisdom as though it settled the question in debate, he sets out the power of God. Despite all his misery, he does it far more fully and far more gloriously than they did. He adds the solemn realities of the unseen world.
Summary
- Help: One word measures Job's whole complaint in verses 2 and 3: help. Counsel that does not reach the powerless and the confused is not counsel.
- Abundance: Bildad declared knowledge "in abundance," and it was true knowledge. Volume and accuracy are not the test; fitness to the case is.
- Source: The follow-up question asks whose spirit produced the speech. Commentators differ: was Bildad echoing Eliphaz, or was Job denying that God's Spirit lay behind the speech?
- Danger: Misapplied truth can do more harm than open falsehood. It borrows God's authority to crush someone God cares about.
- Answer: Job answers the empty speech by going past it. He sets out God's power far more fully and more gloriously than his comforters did.