Bildad בִּלְדַּד
One of Job's three friends
Biography
Bildad the Shuhite was one of the three friends who came to comfort Job during his time of intense suffering (Job.2.11). Along with Eliphaz the Temanite and Zophar the Naamathite, Bildad engaged in a series of dialogues with Job, attempting to explain the cause of his afflictions and offering advice. Bildad's speeches emphasize the justice and righteousness of God, suggesting that Job's suffering must be a result of his sin (Job.8.1-22; 18.1-21; 25.1-6). He argues that God does not pervert justice and that if Job were to seek God and plead for mercy, he would be restored if he were truly pure and upright (Job.8.5-7). However, like the other friends, Bildad fails to grasp the true reason behind Job's suffering and mistakenly accuses him of wrongdoing. In the end, God rebukes Bildad and the other friends for not speaking what is right about Him, unlike Job (Job.42.7-9). Despite his misguided attempts to explain Job's situation, Bildad's presence and dialogue with Job highlight the complexities of human suffering and the importance of faith in the face of adversity.
In Scripture
1 biblical bookJob 5 verses
- Job 2:11
"Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him."
- Job 8:1
"Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,"
- Job 18:1
"Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,"
- Job 25:1
"Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,"
- Job 42:9
"So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did what Yahweh commanded them, and Yahweh accepted Job."
Names & Aliases
| Form | Language | Script | Strong's |
|---|---|---|---|
| Named | Hebrew | בִּלְדַּד | H1085 |
Bildad
">Job 2:11). He is from Shuah, an unknown place somewhere in the countries East and Southeast of Palestine (or the designation Shuhite may be intended to refer to his ancestor Shuah, one of Abraham's sons by Keturah, Ge 25:2), and from his name (compounded with Bel, the name of a Babylonian deity) would seem to represent the wisdom of the distant East. His three speeches are contained in Job 8; 18; For substance they are largely an echo of what Eliphaz has maintained, but charged with somewhat increased vehemence (compare Job 8:2; 18:3,4) because he deems Job's words so impious and wrathful. He is the first to attribute Job's calamity to actual wickedness; but he gets at it indirectly by accusing his children (who were destroyed, Job 1:19) of sin to warrant their punishment (Job 8:4). For his contribution to the discussion he appeals to tradition (Job 8:8-10), and taking Eliphaz' cue of cause and effect (Job 8:11) he gives, evidently from the literary stores of wisdom, a description of the precarious state of the wicked, to which he contrasts, with whatever implication it involves, the felicitous state of the righteous (Job 8:11-22). His second speech is an intensified description of the wicked man's woes, made as if to match Job's description of his own desperate case (compare Job 18:5-21 with Job 16:6-22), thus tacitly identifying Job with the reprobate wicked. His third speech (Job 25), which is the last utterance of the friends, is brief, subdued in tone, and for substance is a kind of Parthian shot, reiterating Eliphaz' depravity idea, the doctrine that dies hardest. This speech marks the final silencing of the friends.
John Franklin Genung
bil'-e-am (bil`am; Iblaam): A town in the territory of Manasseh assigned to the Kohathite Levites (1Ch 6:70), probably the same as Ibleam (Jos 17:11<