In the fourth chapter of the Book of Job Eliphaz admitted that Job had helped many people who were in distress (Job 4:3-4), saying he had helped “…him who was falling, and you have strengthened the feeble knees.” Nevertheless, the friends had not uttered a single word of encouragement for Job, who had been suffering unspeakable emotional and physical pain. In fact, his form was so marred that the friends didn’t even recognize him, when they first saw him (Job 2:12). Yet, not a single word of encouragement on their part was forthcoming! All they did was judge him according to their religious beliefs, and that without any evidence to show Job was a wicked man. Yet, they claimed the Lord was treating him better than he deserved (cp. Job 11:6). Truly, they had showed themselves to be miserable comforters to the very end (Job 16:2, cp. 13:4), choosing, rather, to defend their traditions than to help their friend, whose suffering proved their religious traditions were wrong, because Job was truly a righteous man, according to God (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3)!
Make no mistake, Job’s reply to Bildad is filled with sarcasm, and some scholars believe Job’s question actually points to God. That is, he accuses Bildad of arrogance and idiocy, because he thought the Lord was so weak that he needed Bildad’s help in order that he might be saved from Job’s attack on his reputation (Job 26:1-2). Nevertheless, most scholarship interprets Job’s reply so that the word weakness etc. refers to Job, himself. Essentially, this is the easiest and the most probable interpretation of the text. The tone of Job’s reply implies anger on his part, because Bildad and the friends had accused Job of having a poor understanding of God, weak in his trust in the Lord’s power to save and forgive him, and equally failing in his strength to bear up under the trial the Lord had laid upon him. Yet, Bildad’s short speech offered nothing in the way of encouragement. Instead, Job was told that he was nothing but a worm and totally unclean before God. How would that encourage or strengthen a dying man?
Job had also been accused of being unwise and in need of guidance, but how did Bildad light up Job’s presumed darkness? After all, hadn’t he come to comfort and encourage Job in the time of his trial? What, then, had he and the other friends to show for such a grand gesture of kindness and hope? Although they had admitted that Job had instructed men and strengthened the weak and saved the ones who were about to fall (Job 4:3-4), they had done nothing but exalt (so to speak) the Almighty, while judging Job according to their traditions, even demeaning him (Job 25:6)! Shouldn’t they have said something to relieve and encourage Job during his trials? They had appointed themselves Job’s counsellors, but how has a brief speech filled with truisms done that? What has Bildad or the friends added that would strengthen Job or encourage him? What have they added in any of their speeches that would teach him what he didn’t already know and comfort him during his time of distress?
Job waxes ironical when he asks Bildad: “To whom have you uttered words?” and “Whose spirit came from you?” (Job 26:4). If Bildad intended to address Job in his most recent reply, how is it that he directed none of his words to Job’s claims? ‘How can you teach me, if you don’t reply to any of my arguments?’ If my complaints aren’t addressed, to whom have you uttered words (Job 26:4)? Moreover, ‘what prompted you to make such a speech?’ or ‘Whose spirit came from you?’ In a reply made up of truisms, how can one claim inspiration from God? How can one even claim inspiration from the wise, if one adds nothing to what the wise claim? When all one does is utter truism upon truism (Job 25:1-6), whose spirit came from you (Job 26:4)? Certainly not your own! Was it Eliphaz’ spirit (Job 4:17-19; 15:14-16; cp. Job 25:4-6)?
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