Bildad Speaks
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
2 Dominion and dread o belong to him,
the one who establishes harmony in his heights.
3 Can his troops be numbered?
Does his light not shine on everyone?
4 How can a human be justified before God? p
How can one born of woman be pure? q
5 If even the moon does not shine
and the stars are not pure in his sight, r
6 how much less a human, who is a maggot,
a son of man, who is a worm! s
25:1–3. Instead of responding to the evidence of injustice that Job detailed in chapter 24, Bildad restates his previous points more emphatically. To Bildad, God is so powerful that it is inconceivable that anyone could rebel against his rule (25:2). His sovereign control prompts a sense of dreadful awe from his creatures. Thus, there is no conflict in God’s realm, because his power establishes order in the heights of heaven and order on earth as well.
25:4–6. In 25:4 the comforting words of Ps 8:4 are once again distorted (cf. Eliphaz in 4:15–19; 15:14–16). By measuring humans against the perfect righteousness of God, Bildad concludes that humans are helplessly corrupt. “Pure” in 25:5 probably refers not to moral purity but to the brightness of the stars. The two lines in verse 5 are parallel, for both the moon and the stars may be obscured by clouds so that they can be seen only dimly. Similarly, humans (25:4, 6) are morally impure before the righteous God.