King James Version
Job 25
6 verses with commentary
Bildad's Third Speech: How Can Man Be Righteous?
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said</strong>—This introduces Bildad's third and final speech, the briefest dialogue contribution in the book (only 6 verses). The Hebrew וַיַּעַן (vaya'an, 'then answered') marks a formal response in wisdom dialogue. <strong>Bildad the Shuhite</strong> (בִּלְדַּד הַשּׁוּחִי) comes from Shuah, likely descended from Abraham's son by Keturah (Genesis 25:...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
XXV.
(1) **Then answered Bildad.**—Bildad attempts no formal reply to Job’s statements, he merely falls back upon the position twice assumed by Eliphaz before (Job 4:17-21; Job 15:14-16), and twice allowed also by Job (Job 14:4)—the impossibility of man being just with God—and therefore implies the impiety of Job in maintaining his righteousness before God. God, he says, is almighty, infinite, and...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
22. And yet I did not ask you to "bring me" a gift; or to "pay for me out of your substance a reward" (to the Judge, to redeem me from my punishment); all I asked from you was affectionate treatment.
Dominion and fear are with him, he maketh peace in his high places.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Dominion and fear are with him</strong> (מֶמְשָׁלָה וָפַחַד עִמּוֹ)—Bildad emphasizes God's absolute sovereignty (מֶמְשָׁלָה, memshalah) and the terror (פַחַד, pachad) He inspires. While theologically true, Bildad wields these truths as weapons rather than comfort. <strong>He maketh peace in his high places</strong> (עֹשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם בִּמְרוֹמָיו)—The participle emphasizes God's continual co...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(2) **Dominion and fear are with him.**—He is absolute in sovereignty and terrible in power, so that even in His high places, and among His celestial hosts, He maintaineth peace and harmony.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**23. the mighty--**the oppressor, or creditor, in whose power the debtor was [Umbreit].
Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth not his light arise?
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Is there any number of his armies?</strong> (הֲיֵשׁ מִסְפָּר לִגְדוּדָיו)—The rhetorical question expects 'no'—God's armies (גְדוּדָיו, gedudav, military troops or raiding bands) are innumerable. This likely refers to angelic hosts who execute divine will (Psalm 103:20-21, 148:2). <strong>And upon whom doth not his light arise?</strong> (וְעַל־מִי לֹא־יָקוּם אוֹרֵהוּ)—God's <em>or</em> (או...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(3) **Is there any number of his armies?**—He is also so glorious that He dispenses of His glory to His innumerable hosts of angels. Glorious as they are, they but reflect His glory; and what then must not that be? but if so, how utterly hopeless for man to think he can have any purity to compete with His, or that He will acknowledge to be such. Man also is by nature and birth unclean. (Comp. Psal...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
24-25. Irony. If you can "teach me" the right view, I am willing to be set right, and "hold my tongue"; and to be made to see my error. But then if your words be really the right words, how is it that they are so feeble? "Yet how feeble are the words of what you call the right view." So the Hebrew is used (in Mi 2:10; 1:9). The English Version, "How powerful," &c., does not agree so well with ...
Read full commentary →How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?
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KJV Study Commentary
Bildad's question: 'How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?' This raises the fundamental problem of human sinfulness before divine holiness. While the question is legitimate, Bildad uses it to deny any defense rather than point toward grace.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
24-25. Irony. If you can "teach me" the right view, I am willing to be set right, and "hold my tongue"; and to be made to see my error. But then if your words be really the right words, how is it that they are so feeble? "Yet how feeble are the words of what you call the right view." So the Hebrew is used (in Mi 2:10; 1:9). The English Version, "How powerful," &c., does not agree so well with ...
Read full commentary →Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not</strong> (הֵן עַד־יָרֵחַ וְלֹא יַאֲהִיל)—Bildad argues that even the moon (יָרֵחַ, yareach) lacks inherent brightness (לֹא יַאֲהִיל, lo ya'ahil, 'does not shine') before God's surpassing glory. <strong>Yea, the stars are not pure in his sight</strong> (וְכוֹכָבִים לֹא־זַכּוּ בְעֵינָיו)—The stars (כוֹכָבִים, kokavim) are not <em>zakku</em> (זַכּוּ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(5) **Even to the moon and stars, **pure and chaste as their light is, they are not clean before Him (comp. Job 4:18), for the stars rise and set, and once in every month the moon hides her face.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**26. Do you imagine--**or, "mean."
**to reprove words and (to reprove) the speeches of one desperate, (which are) as wind?--**mere nothings, not to be so narrowly taken to task? Umbreit not so well takes the Hebrew for "as wind," as "sentiments"; making formal "sentiments" antithetical to mere "speeches," and supplying, not the word "reprove," but "would you regard," from the first clause.
How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?
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KJV Study Commentary
Bildad concludes: 'How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?' This degradation of humanity emphasizes sinfulness but loses sight of imago dei. Humans are fallen yet image-bearers, worms yet crowned with glory (Psalm 8:4-5).
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(6) **How much less man . . .**—Comp. Psalm 8:4; Psalm 22:6; Isaiah 41:14, &c.
**Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
27. literally, "ye cause" (supply, "your anger") [Umbreit], a net, namely, of sophistry [Noyes and Schuttens], to fall upon the desolate (one bereft of help, like the fatherless orphan);
**and ye dig (a pit) for your friend--**that is, try to ensnare him, to catch him in the use of unguarded language [Noyes]. (Psa 57:6); metaphor from hunters catching wild beasts in a pit covered with brushwood ...
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