3. Bildad (25:1-6)

In his truncated speech, Bildad emphasizes both the power and purity of God. In sharp contrast to Job’s assessment in the previous chapter, Bildad argues that God maintains order through his greatness. Seeking again to establish Job’s guilt, he deprecates humankind. Both the maggot and the worm are associated with the grave (v.6). Thus Bildad refers here to the certainty and finality of death. The psalmist, comparing people to the moon and stars (Ps 8:3-4), also realized humanity’s relative insignificance, but he quickly added an important qualification when he observed that the human creature was made a little lower than God and crowned with glory and honor (Ps 8:5).