Then answered Bildad the Shuhite marks the opening of Bildad the Shuhite's first speech in reply to Job. That speech belongs to the debate between Job and his three friends that occupies chapters 4-31 in three rounds of speeches by each. The larger dialogue is a poem meant to be read through as a whole in order to understand it. The book sets forth overruling providence and the problems of sin and suffering, with God disciplining Job and bringing him through the fire of affliction.
Bildad is one of Job's three friends who argue with him about the cause and purpose of human suffering. In this speech Bildad exhorts Job to humility. Bildad speaks as one determined to charge Job with sin and to declare that his sufferings are because of sin. His answer is part of the constant accusations, implied and otherwise, that trouble Job through to chapter 27, where the friends cease, and it belongs together with Job's responses, including his last reply still in progress at chapter 27.
The friends' statements are generally true but misapplied to Job, since suffering does not prove that a person is under God's displeasure. Chapter 8 is among the friends' misguided claims that must be tested against the rest of Scripture, because they did not speak truthfully about God or about Job. The verse exposes the human proneness to misjudge fellow sufferers in the same way.
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite marks the opening of Bildad the Shuhite's first speech in reply to Job. That speech belongs to the debate between Job and his three friends that occupies chapters 4-31 in three rounds of speeches by each. The larger dialogue is a poem meant to be read through as a whole in order to understand it. The book sets forth overruling providence and the problems of sin and suffering, with God disciplining Job and bringing him through the fire of affliction.
Bildad is one of Job's three friends who argue with him about the cause and purpose of human suffering. In this speech Bildad exhorts Job to humility. Bildad speaks as one determined to charge Job with sin and to declare that his sufferings are because of sin. His answer is part of the constant accusations, implied and otherwise, that trouble Job through to chapter 27, where the friends cease, and it belongs together with Job's responses, including his last reply still in progress at chapter 27.
The friends' statements are generally true but misapplied to Job, since suffering does not prove that a person is under God's displeasure. Chapter 8 is among the friends' misguided claims that must be tested against the rest of Scripture, because they did not speak truthfully about God or about Job. The verse exposes the human proneness to misjudge fellow sufferers in the same way.