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Bildad: Job Should Repent
In Job 8:1–22, Bildad answers Job with sharp questions and firm conclusions. This is wisdom and dialogue, so the passage gives Bildad’s argument in order rather than asking us to treat his speech as a separate story.
Understanding the passage
Listening in context
Bildad the Shuhite responds to Job by defending God’s justice, urging Job to seek the Almighty, pointing to the teaching of earlier generations, and using pictures from plants and fragile shelter to describe the end of those who forget God.
Job 8:1–22Main takeaway
This passage records Bildad’s confident claim that God is just and that those who forget God cannot stand.
Look closely at the words
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Bildad challenges Job’s wordsBildad begins by rebuking Job’s speech, asking how long he will keep speaking and calling his words a “mighty wind”.
Explanation
Bildad begins by rebuking Job’s speech, asking how long he will keep speaking and calling his words a “mighty wind”. He then asks whether God perverts justice or righteousness. These questions reveal Bildad’s starting point: he is certain God acts justly and thinks Job’s words are wrong.
02Seek God, says BildadBildad speaks bluntly about Job’s children, then tells Job to seek God diligently and make supplication to the Almighty.
03Past generations and fading hopeNext, Bildad tells Job to learn from past generations because human days are “a shadow”. He then compares those who forget God to water plants that quickly wither.
Explanation
Next, Bildad tells Job to learn from past generations because human days are “a shadow”. He then compares those who forget God to water plants that quickly wither. Their hope, he says, is like a spider’s web or a house that cannot stand.
04Bildad’s final conclusionBildad continues with a plant image that seems established yet can be removed so completely that its place says, “I have not seen you.”
Explanation
Bildad continues with a plant image that seems established yet can be removed so completely that its place says, “I have not seen you.” He ends with a broad conclusion: God does not cast away a blameless man or uphold evildoers, and he speaks of laughter, shame, and the end of the wicked.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01How does Bildad connect Job’s words with his view of God’s justice?
02What actions does Bildad tell Job to take, and what outcome does he expect?
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Job 8:1–22
1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,
2“How long will you speak these things? Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?
3Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?
4If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience.
5If you want to seek God diligently, make your supplication to the Almighty.
6If you were pure and upright, surely now he would awaken for you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.
7Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would greatly increase.
8“Please inquire of past generations. Find out about the learning of their fathers.
9(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)
10Shall they not teach you, tell you, and utter words out of their heart?
11“Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the rushes grow without water?
12While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, it withers before any other reed.
13So are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man will perish,
14whose confidence will break apart, whose trust is a spider’s web.
15He will lean on his house, but it will not stand. He will cling to it, but it will not endure.
16He is green before the sun. His shoots go out along his garden.
17His roots are wrapped around the rock pile. He sees the place of stones.
18If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’
19Behold, this is the joy of his way. Out of the earth, others will spring.
20“Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, neither will he uphold the evildoers.
21He will still fill your mouth with laughter, your lips with shouting.
22Those who hate you will be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked will be no more.”