ARCHIVES
DIVISION
Shuah District
| Name | BILDAD |
| Aliases | THE SHUHITE / SECOND OF JOB'S FRIENDS / DEFENDER OF STRICT RETRIBUTION |
| Status | COUNSELOR TO JOB / REBUKED BY GOD FOR NOT SPEAKING RIGHTLY |
| Birth | UNRECORDED | Marks & Identifiers | THE FRIEND WHO APPEALED TO THE WISDOM OF THE AGES |
| Place of Birth | THE LAND OF SHUAH | Hair | UNRECORDED |
| Tribe | NONE (A SHUHITE) | Eyes | UNRECORDED |
| Parentage | OF THE PEOPLE OF SHUAH | People | THE PEOPLES OF THE EAST |
| Occupation | COUNSELOR / SPEAKER OF PROVERBS | Species | HUMAN |
| Affiliation | THE THREE FRIENDS OF JOB | Calling | A COMFORTER WHOSE WORDS MISSED THE MARK |
| Primary Mission | PERSUADE JOB THAT HE MUST HAVE SINNED | Known Signs | THE APPEAL TO TRADITION / THE REBUKE FROM GOD |
| Covenant Role | A WARNING OF WELL-MEANT BUT WRONG COUNSEL | Divine Access | INDIRECT / GOD JUDGED HIS WORDS AT THE LAST |
| Divine Encounter Level | INDIRECT | Wisdom Classification | THE TRADITIONAL COUNSELOR |
| Covenant Status | MISJUDGED GOD'S WAYS | Known Miracles | NONE RECORDED |
| Divine Commission | CONDEMNED | Threat Assessment | HIS RIGID RETRIBUTION / MISREADING JOB |
| Mission Status | REBUKED / NEEDING JOB'S PRAYER | Archive Category | WISDOM / MISTAKEN COUNSEL |
His confident charge against Job's children: THEY DIED FOR THEIR OWN TRANSGRESSION
God's verdict on his speeches: YOU HAVE NOT SPOKEN RIGHTLY, AS MY SERVANT JOB
The subject was the Shuhite, second of the three friends who came to comfort Job in his suffering and, after seven days of silence, entered the long debate.
He appealed to the wisdom of the ancestors, arguing that God does not pervert justice, and that if Job were pure and upright God would restore him, implying his troubles proved hidden sin.
He grew harsher, painting the terrible end of the wicked, whose light is put out and whose memory perishes, and he even declared that Job's children must have died for their own transgression.
In his last brief speech he asked how any mortal, a maggot before God, could be righteous, insisting on man's utter worthlessness before the Almighty.
Though there was truth in his praise of God's greatness, he wrongly forced it onto Job's case, condemning a righteous sufferer. At the end the LORD rebuked the subject and his companions for not speaking rightly of Him, and had them bring offerings while Job prayed for them.
EYES ONLYRestricted // Sacred Record
- Sound doctrine wrongly applied can wound the very sufferer it addresses.
- Not all suffering is punishment; do not judge a person by their pain.
- Well-meant counsel still needs the humility to be corrected by God.
