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Job25

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Bildad's Final, Brief Speech

1
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, ​

God's Absolute Dominion

2
Dominion and fear are with him, he maketh peace in his high places. ​
3
Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth not his light arise?

The Impurity of Humanity

4
How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? ​
5
Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. ​
6
How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm? ​

Study Notes for Job 25

Verse 1

This is the third and shortest speech by Bildad, concluding the cycle of dialogue between Job and his three friends. The brevity suggests the friends have exhausted their arguments.

Verse 2

Bildad opens by emphasizing God’s sovereign power ('Dominion') and the cosmic order He maintains ('maketh peace in his high places'). This sets the stage for contrasting God's perfection with human frailty.

Verse 4

This rhetorical question is the central theological point of the friends' arguments: no human, simply by birth, can achieve righteousness or purity sufficient to stand before a holy God. It echoes similar questions raised by Job himself (Job 9:2).

Verse 5

Bildad uses celestial bodies (the moon and stars) as examples of things that, while magnificent to humans, lack purity or brilliance when compared to God's own radical transcendence and holiness.

Verse 6

The comparison of man to a 'worm' (Hebrew: rimmah, often meaning maggots or decay) is the ultimate statement of human insignificance and mortality, reinforcing the vast gulf between God and man.

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