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Job 25

KJV · Chapter 25/42

1Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,

2Dominion and fear are with him, he maketh peace in his high places.

3Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth not his light arise?

4How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?

5Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight.

6How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Bildad offers his third and shortest speech, poetically reaffirming that God holds total dominion and power, and that no human being can be considered righteous or pure before Him, comparing humanity to a mere worm.

Explanation

This is the briefest speech in the entire cycle of debates, perhaps suggesting that the friends' arguments are running out as Job persists in defending his innocence. The comparison of humanity to "a worm" and "a maggot" (verse 6) pushes the doctrine of human unworthiness before divine holiness to its extreme — a true theological theme, but one that, applied without nuance to Job's specific situation, again fails to address the real question of why he suffers. Application for today: recognizing God's greatness and human smallness before Him is important, but this truth should not be used to avoid grappling with specific, legitimate questions about justice and suffering.

Fun facts

  • This chapter, just six verses long, is the shortest speech in the entire book of Job — a striking contrast to the long, elaborate speeches these same characters gave earlier.
  • The statement that "even the moon shines not" and "the stars are not pure" in God's eyes (verse 5) reflects a common view in antiquity that heavenly bodies were associated with deities or spiritual beings — here subordinated to the surpassing purity of Israel's one God.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Job 25:1Bildad’s third speech — the shortest in the entire book, only six verses, almost a surrender; the friends are running out of new arguments.
  2. Job 25:2Bildad opens his third and final speech, the shortest in the whole book, with a cosmic image: dominion and fear belong to God, who keeps peace in his own heights.
  3. Job 25:3He asks whether God’s heavenly armies can be numbered, and upon whom his light does not rise — another way of describing power without limits.
  4. Job 25:4Bildad repeats almost word for word Eliphaz’s argument from chapters 4 and 15: how could man, born of woman, be pure before God? A sign that the friends have no new argument left.
  5. Job 25:5Bildad repeats, for the umpteenth time, that nothing and no one is pure next to God, including even the moon and the stars, which the ancients saw as almost divine.
  6. Job 25:6Bildad closes his speech, and his part in the book, with the harshest insult of all: how much less man, “a worm,” and the son of man, “a worm.”

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