Who Was Bildad in the Bible?

Bildad the Shuhite was the second of Job's three friends to speak, and his approach was more blunt and less initially compassionate than Eliphaz's. The Shuhites were descendants of Abraham through Keturah, making Bildad related to the patriarch by blood. Yet his theological rigidity led him to wound rather than heal. Bildad's first speech opened with a harsh accusation disguised as a question: 'How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?' He argued that God does not pervert justice — if Job's children had sinned and were punished, and if Job himself was suffering, then Job must have sinned. 'If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.' His theology allowed no room for innocent suffering. In his second speech, Bildad appealed to the wisdom of past generations. 'For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow: shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart?' He described the fate of the wicked in vivid terms — they are like plants without water, caught in a web, dwelling in dark tents — and implied that Job's suffering proved he was among them. In his third and final speech, Bildad's patience was exhausted. He spoke of the awesome greatness of God — His dominion over all creation — and concluded that no human can be righteous before such a God. 'How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?' This was his final word, and it contained an important truth: human beings cannot justify themselves before God. But like his friends, he applied this truth wrongly to Job's situation, using it to accuse rather than to point to grace. Bildad's contribution to the Book of Job demonstrates the danger of applying traditional wisdom without compassion. His arguments were not entirely false — God is just, the wicked do suffer, and no one is righteous in himself. But his application was cruel, his timing was wrong, and his effect was to drive Job further into despair rather than to draw him closer to God. God rebuked Bildad along with Eliphaz and Zophar for not speaking what was right about Him. Yet God also provided a way of restoration through sacrifice and prayer. Bildad's story teaches that even those who wound with their words can be forgiven when they humble themselves and seek the intercession of the one they have hurt.