Job 25: Bildad on God's dominion and man
A free study, verse by verse. Text: World English Bible. Notes come from the Hebrew. How to read a study
What happens?
Bildad the Shuhite answers in a short speech. He says dominion and fear are with God, who makes peace in his high places, and he asks whether his armies can be counted and on whom his light does not rise. He asks how a man can be just with God, or one born of a woman be clean, and says that the moon has no brightness and the stars are not pure in his sight, and that man is a maggot and the son of man a worm.
Who is speaking?
God does not speak in this chapter, so nothing is in gold. The narrator gives one line in verse 1, naming Bildad the Shuhite. Bildad speaks from verse 2 to the end of the chapter, which is six verses long. No one else is quoted. God's own words are printed in gold, and those verses are marked God speaks
1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,
In plain English: Then Bildad the Shuhite answered.
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How to say it (the stressed part in bold), the Hebrew word, and what it means. Tap a word with a dotted line to open its word study.
2“Dominion and fear are with him. He makes peace in his high places.
In plain English: Dominion and fear are with him. He makes peace in his high places.
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3Can his armies be counted? On whom does his light not arise?
In plain English: Can his armies be counted? On whom does his light not rise?
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4How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?
In plain English: How then can a man be just with God? Or how can one born of a woman be clean?
The Hebrew words: "Be just" is tsadaq and "be clean" is zakah. The same two Hebrew words are in , where Eliphaz asks "What is man, that he should be clean?" and "that he should be righteous?".
Good to know: has Eliphaz telling what a spirit said to him: "Shall mortal man be more just than God?" has Job saying "Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days". The wording differs in each verse.
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5Behold, even the moon has no brightness, and the stars are not pure in his sight;
In plain English: Look, even the moon has no brightness (the Hebrew says: it is not clear), and the stars are not pure in his sight.
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6How much less man, who is a worm, and the son of man, who is a worm!”
In plain English: How much less man, who is a maggot (the WEB says: a worm), and the son of man, who is a worm!
The Hebrew words: The Hebrew has two different words for the creature. "Maggot" is rimmah, which the dictionary gives as "a maggot (as rapidly bred), literally or figuratively". It is in 5 verses of Job: , , , and this one. "Worm" is tola, which the dictionary gives as "the crimson-grub, but used only (in this connection) of the color from it, and cloths dyed therewith". It is in 43 verses of the Bible, and the WEB says "worm" in 5 of them. It is in this verse only in Job.
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How to say it (the stressed part in bold), the Hebrew word, and what it means. Tap a word with a dotted line to open its word study.