Bildad

and compelling figures of speech. This could simply be another reflection that he was younger and had not gathered a repertoire of poetic metaphors. Sidebar - C.L. Seow’s cogent assessment (pp 31-37) of the integrity of these chapters is invaluable. Here is just a sampling to whet our appetites. Vocabulary differences do seem to set Elihu’s speeches apart. He used El for God instead of Elohim. It turns out, however, that Bildad used El with just about the same frequency as Elihu so that is not a reason for presuming these chapters are a later addition. When Elihu referred to himself, the first person singular pronoun is different; he used ani instead of anochi, the pronoun regularly employed by Job. Elihu had multiple occasions to refer to “knowledge.” In his vocabulary, that was dea’ instead of da’at. It may be that Elihu substituted dea’ for da’at to signal his sense of divine inspiration; this was not just garden-variety knowledge and he wanted his audience to know that (Seow 34). The presumed Aramaic influence on Elihu is almost equally present in the Bildad speeches (Seow, 32-33). Just a note: the Jewish tenth century commentator, Sa’adiah Gaon suggested that the Elihu chapters are the most important part of the book. God did not rebut Elihu but instead reiterated Elihu’s position (Seow 128). The challenge for readers is what conclusions to draw from the differences. To be sure, Elihu’s language may represent his youth and cosmopolitan background, but that does not…

suffered and couldn’t understand, but this has already cost Job to lose self-esteem and stated in chapter 3 of The Book of Job, “Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire?” (24-25). The chosen words by Job are much different than Noah’s when confronting God. Noah has limitations but as claimed in Genesis 9-11 “Noah, a man of soil, was the first to plant a vineyard” (37) mentions that Noah was the creation for earth’s future because he was one with the soil and a friend of…

It was another moment of transition for Job in his constantly dynamic thinking, only to be interrupted by Bildad who failed even more miserably than before to make a meaningful contribution. Job pounced on Bildad’s brief allusion to God’s peace-making presence in the heavens (25:2). After a sarcastic jab about how helpful Bildad’s counsel was, Job unleashed a vibrant description of what God actually does in those heavenly realms. Some of his discourse described the visible heavenly realms – the…

But His mighty thunder, who can understand?” (Job 26:14). After Bildad has given his third speech, first proclaiming God’s greatness and then asking once again how anyone can be righteous in the sight of the Lord, Job responds by rebuking Bildad for his useless counsel. Job then continues in his speech by demonstrating his own ability to describe God’s greatness, declaring his power over the dead and all of creation. However, Job concludes by questioning who can understand His ways? This verse…

shows that Job wasn 't just being sent suffering from mortal men such as the Sabeans, but also fire from the heavens something unnatural. They believed this was from God and had no idea that Satan or otherwise known as the Adversary was the one who was sending the suffering to test Job. (Martin,193) Symbolism also plays a role in helping readers to understand the suffering of Job. But not just his suffering but also the way he looked at things while he was suffering. Later in the story when…

and adversity, just so long as it is someone else's and not our own. In both the Book of Job and A Serious Man by the Coen Brothers, the audience is told a story of how a very well-off man loses what he has for seemingly no reason at all. In order to better understand their situations and figure out why bad things were happening to them, both Job and Larry seek help from other members of the Jewish faith. Job's friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, all try to come up with explanations as to why…

We are, however, kept in suspense for six chapters as a new voice entered – and it was not a timid voice. We will explore the nature of Elihu’s role at length but suffice it to say here that he certainly made himself heard, expressing his anger at Job as well as the friends for not doing justice to the difficult issues and adjudicating some of the fine points of the arguments. He also set the stage for the appearance and voice of the LORD. Then the LORD Answered Job (chs 38-41) Finally – the…

Job responds by affirming that his suffering was causing his rash desire to die, Eliphaz’s response has disappointed him, and by asking for forgiveness if he sinned (6:1-7:21). Job referees to God as a watcher over man. His feeling was that God was an enemy of his. He sensed that God was watching him squirm in his misery. God does watch over us, but with. But God does it with love, with compassion and for our wellbeing. Chapter 8 starts Bildad the Shuhite’s reply. Bildad begins by…

defamiliarizing of religion is when Peleg and Bildad ask Queequeg his presence in any kind of Christian church. Ishmael intervenes, stating that Queequeg belongs to the “First Congregational Church” (Melville, Moby-Dick 83). John Bryant, in his analysis of the changes that Moby-Dick has undergone throughout editions and localizations to other regions, states that this originally read as “first Congregational Church,” where the word “first” was left uncapitalized. “Claiming that Queequeg is a…

In the Book of Job a great quarrel or debate between Job and his three friends, liphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite. This debate only occurs after Job’s outburst in which he cursed the day of his birth and began wondering why those who long for death continue to live. Following his cries, Job’s friends offer their though that ultimately lead Job in the wrong direction. Each friend of Job’s offers a reason to Job’s suffering. For example, Eliphaz justifies his…