Job 25 · The Lantern

Bildad: Man Cannot Be Righteous

And Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

Dominion and dread are with him; he makes peace in his heights.

Is there any number to his troops? And on whom does his light not rise?

Since he said, "You have not visited these yet," truly Bildad answers, "There is no respite for robbers." Therefore, he says the opposite of what happens, because there is respite. But in order to play a trick on Job, he speaks in this way. "How then can a mortal be righteous before God?" Indeed, he is necessarily punished.

Is there any number of His soldiers? In the cognizance of human reason there is not any number of the spirits above, in that it cannot tell how great is that concourse of the Invisible Host, whereof it is said by Daniel, Thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.

Second, he shows the divine power from those things he does in lower creatures in which he acts through the ministry of higher creatures, whose great number is unknown to man. So he then says, "Can one number his soldiers?" He calls soldiers of God are all of the heavenly powers which follow the divine will just as soldiers obey the command of their leader.

And how can a mortal be righteous with God? And how can one born of woman be clean?

Look, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not clean in his eyes —

Indeed the stars themselves do not regulate the times according to their authority but know their rising and setting moments according to the [divine] law that has been fixed for them.

Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in His sight. What is denoted by 'the moon' but the whole Church together? what by 'the stars' but the souls of the several persons that live rightly? who amidst the practices of wicked men, whilst they are conspicuous by rare virtues, as it were shine in the darkness of night.

Next, he strengthens what he had said with a metaphor when he then says, "Behold! Even the moon does not shine, and the stars are not pure in his sight." Here consider that he does not mention the sun because it is not evident to the senses that its light is obscured in the presence of a brighter light.

how much less a mortal, a maggot; and a son of man, a worm.

Job25

Bildad: Man Cannot Be Righteous