TEXT [Commentary]

  P.   Bildad: An Unanswered Question (25:1-6)

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

2 “God is powerful and dreadful.

He enforces peace in the heavens.

3 Who is able to count his heavenly army?

Doesn’t his light shine on all the earth?

4 How can a mortal be innocent before God?

Can anyone born of a woman be pure?

5 God is more glorious than the moon;

he shines brighter than the stars.

6 In comparison, people are maggots;

we mortals are mere worms.”

NOTES

25:1ff It is difficult to find a commentator who thinks this chapter should stand independently. Yet the Old Greek translation, which regularly omits lines (14 in the previous chapter, including all of 24:14b-18a), has this chapter in the same form as the Heb. The Aramaic Targum of Qumran is also unambiguous; fragment eight consists of portions of lines from 24:25–26:2, so we know it is a translation of the same Heb. text that has been preserved. Though the Aramaic has an extra line for v. 3, it is uncertain if this is an expansion or if the translator had a longer text. Regarding the position of ch 25, we can be confident we have the composition as the author intended it.

25:3 his heavenly army. Job earlier described his suffering as an attack by the heavenly troops (19:12). Bildad used the same term here to say there is no limit to the heavenly army. Bildad was speaking of the awe-inspiring rule of God that has power to keep peace in the highest places. The phrase that follows this, “doesn’t his light shine on all the earth,” must be a reference to the coming of divine justice and salvation rather than to the realm of the stars, although some commentators suggest that Bildad is referring to the stars by the phrase “heavenly army” here. The stars are the divine hosts created by God and completely under his power (Ps 33:6; Isa 40:26; 45:12), but the stars as heavenly bodies are not associated with divine warfare. Isaiah was the first to speak of the day when God will bring judgment against the hosts on high (Isa 24:21) that oppose him, which might be a reference to heavenly powers, but not as heavenly bodies. The Gr. and 11QtgJob (apparently) did not find here any reference to stars.

Doesn’t his light shine on all the earth? The Gr. has this as: “on whom will his ambush not arise?” The subject pronoun in the Aramaic (which is all that remains in the Targum fragment; van der Ploeg and van der Woude 1971:28-29) is feminine, suggesting that the translator did not have the masculine word for “light” (nehor [TH5094B, ZH10465]). It is possible the Heb. “his light” (’orehu [TH216, ZH240]) was corrupted to “his ambush” (’orevu [TH693, ZH741]), but it should not be followed, as sometimes suggested (see REB).

25:5 God is more glorious than the moon. Though most translations treat the brightness of the heavenly bodies in contrast to God, both the context and a comparison with parallel passages suggest the point is the divine control over the heavenly luminaries. The Heb. is abbreviated, but can quite naturally be read “he orders the moon, and it does not shine” (Gordis 1978:277). The LXX renders this sense. Bildad was still on the theme of divine justice and was pointing out its universal extent.

COMMENTARY [Text]

What can Bildad say after Job has recited a poem on the demise of the wicked? He can hardly say that Job was just a blustering wind (8:2) or that he considered his friends to be as unintelligent as animals (18:3). It is evident that Job understood the sovereignty and justice of God, but he had doubts about the way in which it was exercised. Wickedness prevails and innocent victims suffer. Bildad begins with the question of God’s dominion. His rule is awe-inspiring; God keeps peace in “his high places,” whether these are the high places of power on earth or the high places of the heavens. There is no possibility of escaping divine judgment. The wicked are judged. The suffering of the innocent is a separate question.

The doxology of Bildad, as this is sometimes called, is not one that gives praise to God for his creative power. His focus is divine dominion and in particular the rule of God that inspires fear and brings about submission. His reference to God making “peace in his high places” has its counterpart in the prophets. Isaiah spoke of the day when God would bring judgment upon all the evil troubling the earth. In that day Yahweh “will punish the host of the high ones on high” (Isa 24:21, ASV). The highest of powers may go beyond earthly powers (if this is apocalyptic language), but the high places are not to be associated with the stars. Bildad used similar language. God has his troops, which cannot be counted. Since no one can escape his attack, the wicked will be judged. Bildad did not have in mind a great future judgment, but he did mean universal judgment. The light of divine justice and salvation (cf. Isa 58:8; 60:1-2) will rise and shine upon all.

The affirmation of judgment brought Bildad back to a question that had been addressed twice by Eliphaz (4:17; 15:14). The language of the question itself is the same in each instance, but there is some variation on the sequel. In the first instance Eliphaz referred to the impossibility of the divine emissaries being pure; in the second he referred to the divine assembly and the heavens. Bildad referred specifically to the moon and the stars (25:4-6). Eclipses and other heavenly disruptions serve well to illustrate that nothing stands outside of divine control and that everything is affected by it. Perhaps by stating the sequel this way, Bildad had made his point. If even the immortal moon and stars in the purity of the heavens are sometimes disrupted, how much more will it happen to mortal humans? Everyone born of woman will become food for the maggot; they can hardly expect their life to proceed without suffering. This must not become an indictment against divine justice.

Either Bildad was interrupted or he had nothing more to say. We know his viewpoint because we have heard it from Eliphaz: Divine providence is always beneficent for the righteous and brings judgment on the wicked. The mortality of humans does not change that truth. For Job, however, this was insufficient. He wondered if the righteous could really control their own lives by their righteousness.