Bildad, who followed Eliphaz before, does so for the second
ver. 3, 3. time. He, too, like his friend, even more than he, is shocked
and outraged at what seems to him Job's presumptuous and
scornful attitude. He, too, thinks it enough to repeat and
enforce what seems to him the eternal truth, that suffering
is the sure concomitant, the sure result, of evil-doing.
'Against this law Job frets and "tears himself" in vain.
God's immutable laws will hold good : the solid order of
the earth will not be changed for him.'
ver. 4. Thou that tearest thyself in thine anger,

Shall the earth be forsaken for thee ?
Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?
' The principles of the moral world will not be set aside,

ver. 5-11. because Job rails against them ! ' He is content, therefore,
to hold up once more a vivid picture of the fate of the
ungodly, of the darkness that shall quench his light, of
the snares that wait for his steps, of the terrors that haunt
his soul, of the calamities that wait for his fall. 'Sore

ver. 12-14. disease, first-born of the progeny of death, fastens on his
limbs, and brings its victim into the presence of the King
of ' Terrors.' He is not merely, in these verses, declaring a



Second speech of Bildad. yob's reply. 145

general law — he is holding up a mirror before the eyes Lecture
of the shuddering Job, as he goes through the list of Job's own ^^•
pains and miseries. Chap .xviii.
There shall dwell in his tent, he goes on, that which is ver. 15.
none of his.
