Bildad II and Job

The more you read the Book of Job, the more you see that the speeches of Job and his three friends in the first 29 poetic chapters (3-31) are taken up with mutual obsessions. As Elihu will later say about Job, "But you are obsessed with the case of the wicked; judgment and justice seize you (36:17)." The same can be said about the friends. Their speeches are increasingly focused on the lot of the wicked.

We saw that Elihphaz's second speech devoted 19/37 verses to this question. Now, Bildad's second speech will do even more: 17/21 verses (18:5-21) are taken up with describing in rather gruesome detail the eventual desserts of the wicked. It makes you wonder whether the Book of Job may, in addition to being an exploration of the idea of disproportionalte suffering, also be a subtle critique of the wisdom tradition itself. It would then be arguing that under the guise of giving sage counsel to aspiring youth, the tradition really is interested in making distinctions between righteous and wicked and making sure that the wicked will get punished.

Bildad's Bluster

Bildad has only two concerns in his second speech: to further upbraid Job for his words (1-4) and to describe the fate of the wicked (5-21). Space only permits a few words on the former. Of special importance is v. 4: "You who tear yourself in your anger---shall the earth be forsaken because of you, or the rock be removed out of its place?" Notice how Bildad is reversing Job's thought in 16. There, in one of Job's most poignant images, he said about God, "He has torn me in his wrath and hated me (16:9)." Bildad says, 'Job, listen, don't flatter yourself. God has not torn you up; you are tearing yourself in your own anger.' How perceptions differ! We hear it said, 'I didn't get the promotion because X undermined me' while the other side might say, 'He didn't get the promotion because he couldn't get along with others.' Bildad wants to take all the drama out of Job's massive complaint. 'Really,' he says, 'you are nothing other than an angry man, Job.'

The second half of v. 4 is likewise significant, this time as an insight into Bildad's mind. "Shall the earth be foraken because of you, or the rock be removed out of its place?" Bildad reiterates in a more colorful way his thought in 8:2: that Job's words, if taken seriously, would mean an upset to the intellectual order of the (i.e., Bildad's) world. It is as if he is saying, 'Job, you have your little suffering and it seems that you want the whole world to notice and change its manner of thinking just because of you! You remove a rock from its place and the building may crumble. That's what you are after, Job. And it will happen over my dead body!"

Then, as if to emphasize the danger of this mode of thinking, Bildad launches into his 17 verse exposition of the ultimate fate of the wicked. They will be in darkness (5-7), will be trapped (8-10), will suffer diseases (11-13), will have their possessions taken (14-16) and will have their memory perish (17-21). Case closed.

[Next]