BILDAD

(Bilʹdad) [son of contention, that is, quarrelsome; or, Bel has loved].

One of Job’s three companions, called the Shuhite; a descendant of Shuah, the son of Abraham by Keturah. (Job 2:11; Gen. 25:2; 1 Chron. 1:32) Taking his second-place turn in the three rounds of debate, Bildad usually followed the general theme set by Eliphaz; his speeches were shorter and more biting, though not to the degree of Zophar’s. Bildad is the first to accuse Job’s children of wrongdoing and therefore meriting the calamity that befell them. With misguided reasoning he made this illustration: As papyrus and reeds dry up and die without water, likewise “all those forgetting God”—a statement true in itself, but most erroneous in the intimation that it applied to God-fearing Job. (Job chap. 8) Like Eliphaz, Bildad falsely classified Job’s afflictions as those coming upon the wicked: “no posterity and no progeny” for poor Job, Bildad implied. (Job chap. 18) In his third speech, a short one in which Bildad argues that man is “a maggot” and “a worm” and hence unclean before God, the words of “comfort” from Job’s three companions came to an end. (Job chap. 25) Finally, Bildad, along with the other two, is divinely instructed to offer a burnt sacrifice and have Job pray in their behalf.—Job 42:7-9.