Job 25

General context

Bildad the Shuhite answers in six verses. Dominion and fear, he says, are with God, who makes peace in his high places. He asks whether there is any number to God's armies and upon whom God's light does not arise. From this he asks how a man can be justified with God, or how anyone born of a woman can be clean. Even the moon does not shine and the stars are not pure in God's sight; how much less man, who is a worm, and the son of man, who is a worm. The chapter ends there, with no reply to Job's account of oppressors who go unpunished and no mention of the case Job wished to plead.

Cited passages: Job 25:1, Job 25:2, Job 25:3, Job 25:4, Job 25:5, Job 25:6, Job 24:12, Job 23:4

Job 25 (KJV)

This page shows the King James Version. In the app, reading opens in the Berean Standard Bible unless you have chosen another translation. The reader includes five translations: the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), the King James Version (KJV), the World English Bible (WEB), the Bible in Basic English (BBE), and the American Standard Version (ASV). Search covers three of them: Berean Standard, King James, and World English. Basic English and American Standard readers search the King James words.

Historical context

The speaker is Bildad, identified as "the Shuhite." His reply is the whole of the chapter, six verses. Job answers him in the next chapter, and the headings that follow read "Job continued his parable" twice, so no further speech from Bildad, and none from Zophar, appears in this round before Elihu is introduced. Bildad's statements about God's armies, light, the moon and the stars are his claims; the chapter contains no narration. He does not address the charges Eliphaz made or the examples Job gave; his question is whether any human can be clean at all, which is a different question from whether Job did the things Eliphaz said. The phrase "born of a woman" applies the point to every person, not to Job alone. The chapter gives no setting.

Cited passages: Job 25:1, Job 26:1, Job 27:1, Job 29:1, Job 25:4, Job 25:3

Literary context

The speech descends from the top of creation to the bottom. It begins with dominion, peace in high places, uncountable armies and light on everyone, then asks its central question, "How then can man be justified with God?" It answers by comparison: the moon does not shine, the stars are not pure, so man is a worm. The word "worm" is repeated in the final verse to close on the lowest point. Two links to earlier speeches stand out. Eliphaz had said, "behold the height of the stars, how high they are"; Bildad takes the same stars and declares them impure. Job had wished to "order my cause" and be "delivered for ever from my judge"; Bildad's reply is that no one born of a woman can be clean, which does not deny Job's case but denies that any case could be won. The brevity itself is part of the effect: after Job's long catalogue of unpunished wrong, the answer is six verses and no examples.

Cited passages: Job 25:2, Job 25:3, Job 25:4, Job 25:5, Job 25:6, Job 22:12, Job 23:4, Job 23:7

Key moments

1. Dominion and fear (Job 25:2). Bildad opens by saying dominion and fear are with God, who makes peace in his high places.
2. Armies without number (Job 25:3). Bildad asks whether God's armies can be counted and on whom his light does not rise.
3. Can man be justified? (Job 25:4). Bildad asks how anyone born of a woman can be clean before God.
4. Moon and stars impure (Job 25:5). Bildad says even the moon and stars are not pure in God's sight.
5. Man is a worm (Job 25:6). Bildad ends by calling man and the son of man a worm.

For reflection

Bildad answers Job's wish to argue his case before God with the question of whether anyone born of a woman can be clean. Does that answer Job's complaint, or change the subject?

People in this chapter

Also indexed here:

• Bildad