Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent
1 Bildad showed God’s justice in dealing with men according to their works. 8 He alleged antiquity to prove the certain destruction of the hypocrite. 20 He applied God’s just dealing to Job.
Job 8:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
Bildad. This chapter contains Bildad’s response to Job’s speech of chs. 6 and 7. Bildad does not refer to Job’s expressions of despair (ch. 6:1–13), nor to his tirade against his friends (ch. 6:14–30). He deals, rather, with Job’s criticism of God. Where Eliphaz had supported his argument by a vision that he declared was from God (ch. 4:13), Bildad appeals for support to the wisdom of the ancients.
Job 8:2 “How long will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind.
The friends had doubtless hoped that the argument of Eliphaz would silence Job. They are amazed that he continued to pour out an unabated tempest of words.
A Blustering wind. Job had referred to his own speeches as “wind” (ch. 6:26), and Bildad seems to pick up the figure. On this point he agreed with Job!
Job 8:3 Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
Bildad attempts a defence of the justice of God. He is correct in his respect for God’s justice, but wrong in his understanding of God’s justice. He believes that justice demands specific punishment for sins in this life. He assumes that Job is the object of such justice. Job 8:4 When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
The severest of Job’s losses was that of his children. Bildad leveled an unkind thrust at Job by inferring that his children died because they were sinners. Year after year Job had offered sacrifices on behalf of his sons (ch. 1:5). Bildad was wrong in his assumption. Calamity does not prove guilt on the part of its victims (see Luke 13:1–5; John 9:2, 3).
Job 8:5 But if you will seek God earnestly and plead with the Almighty,
Bildad seems to be saying, “Your children are dead because of their sins, but you are alive. If you will seek God and live right, God may yet remedy your condition.” The cold and unfeeling insinuations of this critic must have tried Job’s patience severely.
Job 8:6 if you are pure and upright, even now he will rouse himself on your behalf and restore you to your prosperous state.
Job 8:7 Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.
Bildad joins Eliphaz in predicting the return of prosperity for Job on the basis of repentance. It is difficult to believe that either “comforter” put much faith in the prospect. There may have been an implied sarcasm in Bildad’s words. “If you were as innocent as you claim to be,” Bildad seems to say, “you would be confident of your future. If you are not confident, you must be conscious of guilt.” Unwittingly, Bildad predicts the actual outcome of Job’s experience (see ch. 42:12).
Job 8:8 “Ask the former generation and find out what their ancestors learned,
In every age men have appealed to the wisdom of their ancestors. Bildad brings to bear upon Job the traditions of their common past.
Job 8:9 for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow.
We must, Bildad implies, depend on the philosophy of the past. Shadow. See Ps. 102:11; 109:23.
Job 8:10 Will they not instruct you and tell you? Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?
Bildad obviously regarded Job as an unwilling pupil, but hoped that he would listen to the voices from the past. Some believe that Bildad referred to patriarchs of the ancient world, who lived very long lives, and thus had opportunity to acquire much wisdom.
Job 8:11 Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water?
It was abundant in ancient Egypt and was also found in the Jordan valley. These plants consume large quantities of water.
Job 8:12 While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass.
Such plants have no self-sustaining power. They are dependent on moisture for their support. If that is withheld, they droop and die.
Job 8:13 Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.
This verse contains the application of the parable. When God’s sustaining power is withdrawn from a man, he perishes like the once luxuriant water reed. The figure illustrates the judgment that Bildad conceives as falling on the man who was at one time righteous, and therefore prosperous, but who afterward departed from God. Job could not miss the application.
Job 8:14 What they trust in is fragile; what they rely on is a spider’s web.
“A spider’s web.” A symbol of frailty.
Job 8:15 They lean on the web, but it gives way; they cling to it, but it does not hold.
A picture of the insecurity of the godless. The picture is that of the spider trying to support himself by holding on to his house. Job’s “house” has been snatched from him. His hope has been cut off. Thus, Bildad appears to class Job with the godless.
Job 8:16 They are like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden;
A new illustration, that of a luxuriant creeping plant full of sap and vitality, suddenly destroyed and forgotten.
Job 8:17 it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks and looks for a place among the stones.
The picture is probably that of the creeping plant fastening its tendrils, like ivy, to the rocks and seeming to grow from the stones themselves.
The subject seems to be impersonal, “if someone [or thing] destroy him.” A storm or some other circumstance uproots the plant and sweeps it away. It shall deny him. The place where the plant grew is personified and is represented as denying the existence of the once thriving plant.
Job 8:18 But when it is torn from its spot, that place disowns it and says, ‘I never saw you.’
Job 8:19 Surely its life withers away, and from the soil other plants grow.
An ironical statement. So ends the once joyful course of life. Others grow. The plant is not mourned or missed. It leaves no trace. Other plants soon take its place. By the parable of the creeping plant Bildad seeks to illustrate what has happened to Job. For a time he thrived, then disaster came, and like the plant he is destroyed Job 8:18 But when it is torn from its spot, that place disowns it and says, ‘I never saw you.’
Job 8:20 “Surely God does not reject one who is blameless or strengthen the hands of evildoers.
Bildad had cast doubt on Job’s uprightness (v. 6). Now he challenges another of Job’s outstanding characteristics (see ch. 1:1, 8). He asserts that if Job is blameless, God will bless him.
Job 8:21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.
Bildad does not conceive of Job’s case as being hopeless. Like Eliphaz, he predicts a reversal of Job’s calamity and judgment upon Job’s enemies. The friends seem to have a degree of confidence in Job’s basic integrity, even though they are convinced that he has committed some great sin that has been responsible for his calamity.
A comparison of Eliphaz’ first discourse with Bildad’s reveals that both have a censorious introduction and a conciliatory close. Both exhorted Job to go to God in penitence and in prayer for help and held out the promise of salvation. Eliphaz reinforced his argument with an alleged divine revelation, while Bildad sought to accomplish the same results by appealing to the ancient teachers of wisdom.
Job 8:22 Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tents of the wicked will be no more.”