Lives of Scripture

Bildad the Shuhite was the second of Job's three friends to speak, following the pattern of the dialogue's three cycles (Job 8, 18, 25). He grounded his argument not in personal vision, as Eliphaz had, but in inherited tradition: "inquire, please, of past generations, and consider the things searched out by their fathers," appealing to the accumulated wisdom of the ancients to insist that God does not pervert justice, and that the wicked always come to ruin while the blameless are restored (8:8-22). His bluntness could be harsh -- he told Job directly that his children's deaths must have been punishment for their own sin (8:4) -- yet he also held out hope that if Job were truly pure, God would still restore him, showing his theology was not without room for grace, only wrongly and rigidly applied to Job's actual, sinless suffering. His second speech vividly describes the terrifying fate awaiting the wicked (chapter 18), and his final, much shorter speech reflects on the vast, unapproachable holiness of God compared to mortal frailty (25:1-6), a theme the book later develops far more fully in God's own speeches to Job. Bildad, along with Eliphaz and Zophar, was rebuked directly by God at the book's close for failing to speak rightly about Him as Job had, and was required to offer a sacrifice while Job interceded for him (42:7-9).