Job · chapter 25 of 42
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Job 25 contains the third and last speech of Bildad the Shuhite, only six verses long. He declares that dominion and awe belong to God, who makes peace in the heights and whose armies cannot be numbered. From this he concludes that no man can be righteous or clean before God, and that a human being is like a worm. The friends have nothing more to say.
After Job's challenge at the end of chapter 24, a refutation would be expected. Instead Bildad gives the shortest speech in the book, without answering the cases of injustice Job had described. Job 25 is the friends' last attempt to silence Job and shows they have no new arguments, only the repeated claim that God is great and man is small.
Bildad begins by affirming that dominion and awe belong to God, who makes peace in his high heaven (vv. 1-2). He asks whether his armies can be numbered and on whom his light does not rise (v. 3). What he says about God is true: he is sovereign, majestic and orders the heavens.
From this Bildad draws the conclusion he had already repeated in other speeches: how can a man be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be clean (v. 4)? Even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes (v. 5). Much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, a worm (v. 6).
The speech ends there, with no call to repentance and no promise like those of Eliphaz. Bildad gives no answer to the injustices of chapter 24 and does not touch Job's actual case: he only proclaims that the distance between God and man makes any claim to innocence impossible. In the next chapter Job will answer with irony.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Bildad says dominion and awe belong to God and that he makes peace in the heights. It is a true statement of God's sovereignty, though Bildad uses it to silence Job rather than comfort him.
Bildad asks how a man can be righteous before God and how one born of woman can be clean. The Bible agrees that no one is perfect before God, but Job does not deny that: he argues that his suffering is not punishment for a specific sin.
Even the moon and the stars are not pure before God, and man is a maggot and a worm. The picture stresses the distance between Creator and creature, but Bildad forgets that God cares for man, as Psalm 8 says.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Bildad the Shuhite, in his third and last speech. — Job 25:1
Answer: Dominion and awe; he makes peace in his high heaven. — Job 25:2
Answer: Whether they can be numbered, and on whom his light does not rise. — Job 25:3
Answer: How can a man be righteous before God, and how can one born of woman be clean? — Job 25:4
Answer: That the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in God's eyes. — Job 25:5
Answer: A maggot and a worm. — Job 25:6
Job 25 shows how a truth can be misused. It is true that God is great and that no one is righteous by his own merit, but Bildad says it to crush a man who is suffering. In a small group it helps to remember that what we say about God should lead to hope, not condemnation.
For the Christian there is more: we know that human beings cannot stand clean before God, and so we receive the righteousness that comes by faith in Christ, who makes us clean. Man's smallness is not solved by denying it but by trusting a God who comes close to us.
Job 25 is the shortest speech in the book and marks the friends' exhaustion: from here none of them will speak again until Elihu appears. In chapter 26 Job will answer Bildad with irony and a grand description of God's power over creation.
The text does not say. It shows the friends running out of new arguments: Bildad repeats what they have already said, without answering Job's complaint about the world's injustice. Some scholars think part of Bildad's speech was lost or merged with chapter 26, but that is a hypothesis.
Not in essence: the Bible teaches that everyone needs God's grace (Romans 3:23). What fails is the application: Bildad uses that truth to treat Job's guilt as proven, when the book presents him as upright.
It is a picture of frailty and smallness before God, not an insult to human dignity. The Bible also teaches that God made man in his image (Genesis 1:27) and cares for him (Psalm 8:4-5), so both truths must be held together.