What was Bildad the Shuhite's message to Job?

Verses 1-7. Bildad the Shuhite now speaks to Job. He is less dogmatic than Eliphaz, and less courteous, but more outspoken. He must have lost his patience listening to Job's reply. Especially does he resent what Job had said about God, the insinuations which had fallen from his lips. But we shall see he too follows the logic of Eliphaz, that God punishes Job for his sins. He starts in at once to rebuke Job for what he had said. "How long, Job, wilt thou speak these things? How long shall the words of thy mouth be like a mighty wind?" By the latter expression he insinuates that Job's speech was tempestuous like the wind, and as empty as the wind. He declares, what certainly is the truth, that God cannot be unrighteous. In this way Bildad called a decisive halt to the dangerous utterances Job had made, forced to it by Eliphaz's cold and dogmatic assertions. Job, inasmuch as he repudiated the accusation of being a sinner, and being punished for his sins, was rapidly approaching the verge of charging God with being unjust. Then Bildad deals a cruel blow to the man upon the ash-heap. He tries to illustrate the principle he defends, that God only punishes sinners, by the children of Job, that they sinned and were wicked and therefore God dealt with them in His righteousness. It has been freely rendered in this wise:

Bildad the Shuhite answers Job's second question. He is more personal than Eliphaz and calls Job's words a "strong wind." At the same time he declares that Job and his children are only receiving the due reward of their deeds. The story of Job's friends should be a solemn warning to us. There is nothing so dangerous as a truth falsely applied. One can do the greatest harm with a word of Scripture in a wrong place. This is one of the devil's methods, and only unbroken communion with God can keep us from it. How important then is the exhortation "be slow to speak," especially in spiritual matters. Conclusions too quickly drawn and hasty judgments are often bitterly repented of, just as Job's friends were surely ashamed of their mistakes when it was too late. At the end of his speech Bildad points out that God will not forsake the perfect man but assuredly fill him with joy and gladness, whereas he could hardly know that this would in Job's case be fulfilled to the letter.

Bildad's response to Job was much more brief than that of Eliphaz, but following along the same line. He did not begin in the conciliatory way that Eliphaz did, however, not even attempting to show any understanding of Job's feelings. Rather, he spoke as one exasperated, immediately accusing Job of allowing words to issue from his mouth that were only "a strong wind" (v.2). "Does God subvert judgment? Or does the Almighty pervert justice?" he asks (v.3). He was ignorant of how God was dealing with Job, but was sure God was punishing him righteously, though he had no knowledge of any actual evil on Job's part.

Then he makes a cruel thrust at Job by suggesting that Job's sons had died because they had sinned against God, so that God coldly cast them away for their transgressions (v.4). This was not true, but what was Job to answer? Thus, Bildad condemned Job's dead sons, then proceeded to attack Job himself, telling him that if he would earnestly seek God in supplication and if he were pure and upright, then God would surely immediately awake for him and turn his misery into prosperity (vv.5-6). Of course in this he implied that Job had not been pure and upright and had not before earnestly sought God. But now, if he would do as Bildad advised, Job's end would increase abundantly, though his beginning was small (v.7).

Eliphaz had appealed to his own observation in supposing that Job was guilty of some secret sin (ch.4:8), but his observation settled nothing. Now Bildad appealed to tradition , "Inquire, please, of the former age, and consider things discovered by their fathers; for we were born yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow. Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words from their heart?" (vv.8-10). Actually, in this Bildad contradicted what Eliphaz had said, for if Eliphaz had only been born "yesterday", what value was his observation? But Bildad's appeal to tradition was just as empty as the appeal of Eliphaz to observation, for Bildad came to the wrong conclusion also.

Yet Bildad had much to say that was right and good. The papyrus will not grow without a marsh, nor the reeds without water (v.11). There is always a reason for things developing, but Bildad did not interpret that reason accurately in Job's case. Also he says that a reed may wither while yet green, and he uses this as a simile for those who forget God (vv.11-12). True enough, but he was suggesting wrongly that Job had forgotten God, and the fact that Job's hope seemed to be perishing indicated that he must be a hypocrite (v.13). It is certainly true that the hypocrite's hope shall perish, but to apply this to Job was totally unfair.

Thus does Bildad more than hint, as his explanation of Job's sufferings, that his children had sinned and so brought down the divine displeasure. It must be so, he thought, for God would surely defend the right and punish iniquity. Instead therefore of bluster and complaint, let Job only turn with earnest supplication to God the Almighty, and he will soon find, provided he himself be pure, that prosperity from Him will crown his homestead, and his latter end flourish beyond the beginning. So it came to pass indeed, but by no means as Bildad conceived, who resorts to the wise saws of the ancients in support of strict retribution now at the hand of God. It is from no strength in itself that the papyrus lifts its head so high, but from the abundant mire in which it thrives its little day; and so with the flag or bulrush of the East, from mere and exceeding moisture, not solid ground; and this is so true, that they do not decay slowly, like other plants, but are the first to wither without being cut down.

So it is with the wicked, both in their elevation and their ruin: the paths of all that forget God end thus surely and miserably, the hope of the impure is alike fleeting. The object of their confidence is no firmer than a spider's web, though he may cling to it ever so tenaciously. It has no more permanence than the rank weed which extends over a garden, and entwines its suckers in a stone-heap. But in vain. He may look on a house of stone, but is quickly destroyed, as a mere and mischievous cumberer of the ground, which denies him then as if it never saw him: yet though this is the joy of his way and the bitter end of godless prosperity, there is a succession of such men just as of such weeds; one springs up after another out of the dust, to pass away still more rapidly. If Job be really a perfect man, God will not cast him away (but neither does He grasp the hand of evil-doers) till He give him the amplest grounds for thankful praise, confound his enemies, and destroy the wicked for ever. But, as applied to the present case, there was no fellowship with God in Bildad's thoughts, no gracious consideration for the sufferer; and hence his judgment, being according to appearances, was unrighteous.

Verses 8-10. But he is a traditionalist. He appeals to the past. "For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and apply thyself to that which their fathers have searched out." We, in our generation, are but of yesterday, and know nothing. Zophar also appealed to the fathers.

Verses 11-22. And here we have the wisdom of Bildad as he learned it from the past. It is all true and sublimely stated; the wicked cannot prosper; their doom is certain. On the other hand God will not cast off the perfect man. But Job is in the place of one who is cast off, therefore he must belong to the wicked who do not prosper. This is hidden beneath Bildad's rhetoric. Yet beautiful are the closing sentences of his first address, the truth of which was fully acknowledged by Job in his reply.

(2) Bildad asks Job a plain question, "Doth God pervert judgment?" Is He unrighteous? For anyone who knows Him there can be but one answer. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? He would not be God, if He were not perfectly righteous. This shows the dreadful precipice to which Job approaching, goaded on by this false principle that God always punishes for sin. Job was not a sinner; therefore God was unjust! Fearful reasoning this, in which both the premise and the statement of fact are wrong and in which the conclusion is blasphemous. Why did not Job, and Bildad also, pause and ask if there was not something wrong in the premise: Does God always punish for sin alone? Why does not Job consider the statement of facts; is he sinless? But this will come out in due time. We will follow Bildad.

He proposes two proofs of God's justice, the first of which is, to say the least, most arbitrary and unkind. We may read verse 4, "When thy children sinned against Him, He gave them over to the hand of their wickedness." In other words Bildad assumes that Job's children had reaped the due reward of their wickedness, and had been cut off; "Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days." This is indeed most lacerating to a parent's feelings, who had found no evidence of such wickedness in his children, and who had carefully watched over their spiritual state. Bildad is driven to this by his wrong theory of God's ways.

Next, he proves the justice of those ways by telling Job there is restoring mercy for him, if he will but turn in prayer to God — "If thou art pure and upright" — there is a strong suggestion of suspicion here — God will restore all, and bless Job's latter end. This indeed was fulfilled, but in a vastly different way from what Bildad expected; Job is blessed not for his purity, nor because of confession of suspected evil.

(3) Bildad here seeks confirmation of his contention from the wisdom of past ages. He goes beyond Eliphaz, "For we are but as children of yesterday." While this is true, what does the garnered wisdom of all the past give us when it is a question of God's truth? It is not to the past that we are to turn, but to God and His word. How immeasurably superior is the position of those who have the "sure word of prophecy," "the oracles of God."

Bildad replies. This is another exercise to Job. It is well for us to have recorded in God's word an account of the often unexplainable exercises through which we pass when learning the nothingness of man in himself — suggestions claiming to be friends, afflicting us still more sorely. Bildad here severely reproves Job; telling him that the words of his mouth are like a strong wind, and that if he were pure and upright God would awake for him; thus throwing him still more on himself and implying, that his trials are judicial requitals for sin, and not, as really was the case, the discipline of God leading him to the full end of himself. He is now no longer so much overwhelmed with his misery, as occupied with righting himself in the sight of his friends. Painful and cruel work is it to the spirit to repel charges made by friends, of deserving irretrievable misery. Job knew that he had done nothing to deserve it; but what he had to learn was that he was entitled to nothing, and this his friends knew no more than he; they stood entirely on righteousness.

One of Job's friends, 'the Shuhite,' perhaps a descendant of Shuah the son of Abraham and Keturah. He in no way understood Job's case, and could only judge that Job was being punished for wickedness, whereas God had called Job a righteous man. God's anger was kindled against Bildad: but he, with his two companions, brought a sacrifice, and when Job prayed for them God accepted him. Job 2:11; Job 8:1; Job 18:1; Job 25:1; Job 42:9.

The first of the friends has spoken and been answered by Job. Bildad now takes up what is fast becoming a controversy. There is perhaps less of the courtesy and dignity which marked the speech of Eliphaz, together with some harshness toward Job, caused apparently by the bitter charge of the latter against God. With all his ignorance of divine principles, Bildad is jealous of the honor of God, and cannot allow Him to be accused. In this he is surely right, but he fails to convince Job because of the root error in the thoughts, indeed, of them all: God must punish sin, and Job must be a sinner for he is being punished.

To establish this, Bildad refers not merely to his own experience as had Eliphaz, but calls upon all the gathered wisdom of the past for confirmation. What is God's way with the wicked? And does He not recompense the way of the righteous unto him?

Next comes Bildad the Shuhite (Job 8), who succeeds Eliphaz, but with a great deal more of asperity, and consequently bringing out from Job a greater tartness in his rejoinder. He does not scruple in reproving Job to suppose that his children had brought on themselves the due reward of their deeds, and throws out hints that he himself could not be what he seemed. He speaks and thinks only of justice, yet urges repentance on Job, which would assuredly be followed by more blessing than ever. The juiciest and greenest herb is the first to wither, and the hope of the hypocrite or polluted is no more than a spider's web, whose place will deny the sight of him, whilst the upright is filled with joy.

In Job 9 and Job 10, Job repels the insinuation of Bildad, and maintains still that the very majesty of God made it impossible for him, a poor weak man, to stand up against the blows of such a God. This is the great point. It shows therefore, that, even if he wished, he could not, however righteous, plead his righteousness before God — that God's all-holy eye must see sheer failure and imperfection in him; so that his only wish was that there might be a daysman between them both — some one who would be able to adjust the balance between God and man. He could only wish for death in his incompetence to resist the overwhelming might which had crushed him. This seems the chief peculiarity of Job's reply to Bildad.