Job 25

Bildad

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
2 “Dominion and awe belong to God; he establishes order in the heights of heaven.
3 Can his forces be numbered? On whom does his light not rise?
4 How then can a mortal be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure?
5 If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes,
6 how much less a mortal, who is but a maggot— a human being, who is only a worm!”

Job 25 Commentary

Chapter 25

Bildad shows that man cannot be justified before God.

- Bildad drops the question concerning the prosperity of wicked men; but shows the infinite distance there is between God and man. He represents to Job some truths he had too much overlooked. Man's righteousness and holiness, at the best, are nothing in comparison with God's, ( Psalms 89:6 ) . As God is so great and glorious, how can man, who is guilty and impure, appear before him? We need to be born again of water and of the Holy Ghost, and to be bathed again and again in the blood of Christ, that Fountain opened, ( Zechariah 13:1 ) . We should be humbled as mean, guilty, polluted creatures, and renounce self-dependence. But our vileness will commend Christ's condescension and love; the riches of his mercy and the power of his grace will be magnified to all eternity by every sinner he redeems.

Cross References 9

  • 1. S Job 8:1
  • 2. S Job 9:4; Psalms 47:9; Psalms 89:18; Zechariah 9:7; Revelation 1:6
  • 3. S 2 Chronicles 20:6; S Job 11:8; S Job 16:19
  • 4. Matthew 5:45; James 1:17
  • 5. S Job 4:17; Job 14:4
  • 6. Job 31:26
  • 7. S Job 4:18; Job 15:15
  • 8. Job 7:17; Psalms 80:17; Psalms 144:3; Ezekiel 2:1
  • 9. S Job 4:19; S Job 7:5; Psalms 22:6

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 25

This chapter contains Bildad's reply to Job, such an one as it is; in which, declining the controversy between them, he endeavours to dissuade him from attempting to lay his cause before God, and think to justify himself before him, from the consideration of the majesty of God, described by the dominion he is possessed of; the fear creatures stand in of him; the peace he makes in his high places; the number of his armies, and the vast extent of his light, Job 25:1-3; and from the impossibility of man's being justified with him, or clean before him, argued from thence, Job 25:4; and which is further illustrated by a comparison of the celestial bodies with men, and by an argument from the greater to the less, that if they lose their lustre and purity in his sight, much more man, a mean despicable worm, Job 25:5,6.

Job 25 Commentaries

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