Ver. 1. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said] Not so much disputing as inveighing against Job in a sharp and angry oration, wherein he elegantly describeth the woe of a wicked man, but wrongfully wresteth the same against good Job, who might well say with him in Tacitus, Tu linguae, ego aurium dominus, If I cannot command thy tongue, yet I can command mine own ears; or with another, Didicit ille maledicere, et ego contemnere, This man hath learned to reproach, and I to slight his contempts and contumelies; unless I should yield, that wicked men only are grievously afflicted in this life present; that they are not to be reckoned wicked who prosper in their way, but those only who suffer extremely.
Ver. 2. How long will it be ere you make an end of words?] First he taxeth Job with being talkative, when he himself talked much, but said little, save only what he had spoken before, Job 8, though Job had sufficiently refuted him. But as nothing in the world is more unreasonable than an ignorant person, who thinketh nothing well done but th at which he doth himself; so those that bear themselves overly bold upon their own knowledge, and overween their own abilities, account it a great injury if any dissent from them in opinion and judgment, Λαλειν αριστος λεγειν δε αδυνατωτατος (De Alcibiade, Plutarch). And such a one here Bildad showeth himself to be by his exordium ex abrupto, as Junius phraseth it, his abrupt beginning, as if he could bear no longer with Job’s prittle prattle; who, if he were more prolix than his friends, he had greater reason, as being heavily afflicted and falsely accused, Quando tandem finem loquendi seu nugandi potius facies? (Lay.) Among the Romans the plaintiff was allowed only three hours, the defendant six. But why doth Bildad speak of Job here in the plural number? Was it for honour’s sake (as Cajetan holdeth)? I scarcely can agree. Was it because he thought Job to be possessed by an evil spirit (as Philip after Bede)? No. But this he seemeth to do, either by bending his speech to the bystanders, who seemed to favour Job, and sometimes to put in a word for him; whom therefore Bildad looked upon as his fellow hypocrites; or else, by an irony, he speaks unto Job as unto many (Vos, o Calliope, precor. Virg.), because he seemed to set up his opinion above all others, and would needs have his counter to stand for a thousand pounds. Mark, and afterwards we will speak] Let thy words be henceforth dipped and dyed in thy heart before they be uttered; let our words also be duly weighed, that some end may be put to these altercations and disputes.
Ver. 3. Wherefore are we counted as beasts, &c.] Here he taxeth Job with pride and arrogance; grounding upon those words of his taken at the worst, Job 12:7 17:4,10, and not considering his case, that he was full of pain, which maketh wise men touchy (as oppression maketh them mad, Ecclesiastes 7:7), and that they had sorely provoked him by their bitter taunts and scurrilous invectives, which called for so sharp a currycomb. Pessime autem habet hypocrisin, si contemnatur, Hypocrisy loves not to be sighted, saith Brentius here. And Gregory upon this text saith, that in Bildad heretics are set forth, who stomach it much that the faithful take upon them to reprove them, as carried away by error; as if the knowledge of the truth resided in themselves only, and all others had no more understanding than beasts. “This people which know not the law are cursed,” say those Pharisees, John 7:49. “Ye know nothing at all,” saith Caiaphas to his assessors, John 11:49. The Gnostics and Illuminates referred to themselves as being the only knowing men. But if Bildad had been right, he would neither have so far misconstrued Job’s words nor yet have been behind to fool himself, as Asaph in a similar case did, Psalms 73:22, where he useth the plural of the words here used in the singular, calling himself, Behemoth, id est, magnam et crassam bestiam, a great and a gross beast. And reputed vile in your sight?] Heb. Polluted or unclean; that is, as beasts unfit for food, much less fit for sacrifice. The same Hebrew word signifieth polluted and vile. Every wicked man is a vile man, be he never so high and honourable in the world’s account, as Antiochus, Daniel 11:21; is called a vile person, and yet he was the great king of Syria, surnamed Epiphanes, or illustrious, and by the flattering Samaritans he was styled, Antiochus, the mighty God. See Psalms 15:4.
Ver. 4. He teareth himself in his anger] Here he chargeth Job with desperate madness, as if through extreme impatience he fell foul upon his own flesh, as did that demoniac in the Gospel, Bajazet, the Great Turk, in his iron cage, Pope Boniface VIII, when clapped up close prisoner in St Angelo; and as they say the tiger doth, when he heareth a drum struck up, he teareth his own flesh with his teeth; or as all ravenous beasts tear in pieces the prey which they have taken. Many read the text thus, O the man which teareth his soul in his anger; or, O thou which tearest thyself, &c. The moralist describeth an angry man forcibly held by his friends, biting his own lips, rending his clothes, and dashing himself against the pillars, Labia mordet, caput quassat, vestimenta scindit, et se in columnas impingit (Senec.). Such a one Bildad maketh Job to be, horn-mad, or mankind, as we say; and he takes occasion, likely, from those words of his, Job 13:14. But love would have thought no evil. Bildad herein sinned against the law of love, as likewise he doth much more in the following vehement interrogation, charging Job with insolent boldness against God. Shall the earth be forsaken for thee?] Shall God cast off the care of his earthly kingdom to gratify thee, and to make good thine assertion, that good men may suffer, and bad men go unpunished? Never think it; thou mayest sooner expect him to overturn the whole world for thy sake, and put everything out of that order he hath decreed and made it in, than cease to be just in punishing the wicked. The course of justice is as firmly settled as the course of nature is. Fiat iustitia, pereat mundus. Of Fabricius it was said, that the sun might as easily be turned out of his track as he out of his path of justice; much more may it be so said of Almighty God, the rock that cannot be removed, though he varieth the manner, the means, the times and seasons of executing justice, as seemeth best unto his heavenly wisdom.