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While Eliphaz in his opening presentation was ready to concede Job’s piety, Bildad challenges it, arguing that if Job were innocent, God would restore him. The tone of Bildad’s remarks is set in his opening words when he accuses Job of being a windbag (8:2). Implying that Job has charged God with injustice, Bildad insists that God consistently dispenses justice (v.3). What Job’s children received, they deserved (v.4). Job must seek God and implore mercy (v.5). Restoration will result (v.6), and his future condition will greatly exceed his previous condition. While his prediction was correct, his basis for it was clearly wrong.
While Eliphaz’s theology was predicated on the mystical and the empirical, Bildad bases his on tradition. The accumulated wisdom of humankind must be consulted (vv.8-10).
Citing an ancient proverb, Bildad claims that the wicked will perish in the midst of their prosperity even as papyrus and reeds wither when deprived of water (vv.11-13). Any prosperity of the wicked is only apparent and at best momentary. It is no more lasting than the flimsy spider’s web (vv.14-15) and the luxuriant growth of an uprooted tree (vv.16-19).
In concluding Bildad contrasts the fate of the righteous and the wicked. His words that God does not reject a blameless (same Hebrew word as 1:1, 8) person are hurled at Job as the taunt of Jesus' enemies were hurled at him, charging that if he were innocent God would rescue him (Mt 27:43).