Jobchapter 25
6 verses · unknown · 10th century BC · Wisdom and poetry
If even the moon does not shine, and the stars are not pure in His sight,
Introduction
unknown, Wisdom and poetry, Job Overview.
Bildad speaks for the last time, in the shortest speech of the book. After it none of the three friends speaks again. He has no new argument and falls back on the one point no one disputes. His hearers looked up at the moon and stars as the brightest and cleanest things they knew. Listen for how Bildad measures a human being against them. Notice also how much shorter each friend's turn has become. The silence that follows is part of the chapter's meaning.
Context
- Who
- Hearers who could hear an argument running out of road
- What
- Bildad's third speech, six verses on God's power and the impurity of every human being before Him.
- Where
- The ash heap outside Job's town.
- When
- The third round of speeches, the last words the friends speak.
- Why
- To insist that no man can be righteous before God, so that Job's claim of innocence cannot stand.
Historical context
Six verses, and then the friends never speak again. Bildad has no new material, so he falls back on the one point nobody disputes: God is so great that no man can be clean before him.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
He opens with the heavenly court. Dominion and fear are with him; he makes peace in his high places; is there any number of his armies? The armies are the host of heaven, the same assembly that appeared in chapter 1, and Bildad, without knowing it, is pointing at the room where Job's case was actually opened.
'Doth not his light arise?' and the moon and the stars being not pure in his sight use the brightest things anyone could see as the measuring stick. If the clean lights of the sky are dim next to God, what is a man?
His answer is deliberately degrading: man is a worm, and the son of man a maggot. The Hebrew words name the grub that breeds in decay, the creature of the corpse and the dung heap. He is looking at a man sitting on an ash mound covered in sores and calling him what he appears to be.
Significance
The collapse is the message. Three men came a long way with a complete explanation of the universe, and the last of them can only repeat that God is big and Job is small, and then stop.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
First hearers were meant to hear the silence that follows. When the third friend runs dry with the sufferer still sitting there in the ashes, the whole system has been answered.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter has no place in the synagogue year. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for the book of Job, and no festival reading.
The corpus joins it to the study of the Torah portions through the Midrash arranged by them. Under the second verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bereshit 13:1.
How it is read
The corpus carries the English of two commentators on this chapter. Rashi is quoted from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, and Malbim from Malbim's Job, trans. Jeremy I. Pfeffer. Ktav, 2003. Sefaria reports both as CC-BY. Malbim frames the chapter as the sixteenth oration, the speech of Bildad in the third round (Malbim on Job 25:1:1).
Malbim reads the speech as Bildad's final effort to save his theories. He had held that the righteous are repaid and that most punishment of the wicked waits for the world to come (Malbim on Job 25:1:2). Bildad still holds that everything is under Individual Providence. He now adds that Universal Governance sometimes prevents God from making immediate and individual recompense (Malbim on Job 25:1:3). Rain that makes the fields flourish may trouble a righteous man out walking (Malbim on Job 25:1:4). Light meant for all may light a murderer's way (Malbim on Job 25:1:5).
The forces of Nature have powers delegated to them, yet they stay under God's control and work in harmony (Malbim on Job 25:2:1). A man's life lasts a second on the cosmic scale, so he "cannot expect God to alter the structure of the Universe just for him" (Malbim on Job 25:4:1). Malbim places the final reckoning with the soul, after its release from the body (Malbim on Job 25:4:1).
Rashi reads the speech as an answer to Job, who had wished to set out his case before God, and Bildad answers that dominion and fear are with Him (Rashi on Job 25:2:1). Rashi reads dominion as Michael and fear as Gabriel, and asks whether Job could answer even one of them (Rashi on Job 25:2:1). The fourth verse answers Job's claim that he would come out of testing like gold (Rashi on Job 25:4:1). Even the moon will lose its light in the future, so a man is less able still to be just with God (Rashi on Job 25:5:1).
Rashi gives two readings twice in this short chapter and says where each came from. On peace in the heights he first gives the rising constellations, each without envy of the other, and says he heard it. He then gives fire and water mixed without quenching, and says he did not hear it (Rashi on Job 25:2:2). On the word for shining he gives light and shadow, and ends plainly. "I prefer the former, but I heard both" (Rashi on Job 25:5:2).
The corpus carries twelve further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited by ref and unquoted. Two stand at Ibn Ezra on Job 25:2:1 and 25:5:1. Five stand at Metzudat David on Job 25:2:1, 25:3:1, 25:4:1, 25:5:1 and 25:6:1. Two stand at Malbim on Job 25:3:1 and 25:6:1. Three stand at Ramban on Job 25:3:1, 25:4:1 and 25:6:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Sifrei Devarim 199:5.
On the second verse it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 12:6, Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 24:3, Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 8:8, Bamidbar Rabbah 11:7 and Bamidbar Rabbah 12:8. It also holds Bamidbar Rabbah 2:13, Bereshit Rabbah 12:8, Devarim Rabbah 5:12, Devarim Rabbah 5:15, Ein Yaakov, Rosh Hashanah 2:5 and Jerusalem Talmud Rosh Hashanah 2:4:2. It also holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 15:11, Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 2:3:3, Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 6:26:1 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 49:25:2. It also holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bereshit 13:1.
On the third verse it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 27:10, Chagigah 13b:12, Ein Yaakov, Khagigah 2:8, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 32:30:2, Pesikta Rabbati 21:1 and Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 28:2. It also holds Shemot Rabbah 33:4, Sifrei Zuta 6:26:2 and Vayikra Rabbah 31:6. On the fifth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 48:8, Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 21:30:1, Midrash Tehillim 143:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 82:11. On the sixth verse it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 19:2, Kohelet Rabbah 5:10:2, Midrash Tehillim 146:2, Pesikta Rabbati 33:1, Temurah 31a:6, Tractate Derekh Eretz Rabbah 3:1 and Tractate Kallah Rabbati 6:1. The corpus also anchors three locators past the sixth verse, which is the last verse of this chapter in the Berean Standard Bible count the site carries. Each is listed as the corpus prints it. The corpus sets Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 25:9 at Job 25:13, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Taanit 1:24 at Job 25:23 and Bereshit Rabbah 10:2 at Job 25:25. Sefaria numbers by the Hebrew text, and a locator here is checked against that numbering before it is quoted. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Malbim, Malbim on Job 25:1:1 to 25:4:1, Malbim's Job, trans. Jeremy I. Pfeffer. Ktav, 2003, reported CC-BY; Rashi, Rashi on Job 25:2:1 to 25:5:2, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Job 25:2:1 and 25:5:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Job 25:2:1, 25:3:1, 25:4:1, 25:5:1 and 25:6:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Job 25:3:1 and 25:6:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Ramban, Ramban on Job 25:3:1, 25:4:1 and 25:6:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/job/25.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Bildad's Last Word: How Then Can Man Be Just With God?
Job 25:1-3
Then Bildad the Shuhite replied: Bildad's third speech runs six verses, the shortest, and after it Zophar never speaks a third time. What remains is majesty with no application: "Dominion and awe belong to God". Gill reads the question about "His light" as the sun shared by every man, whatever his standing before God.
Job 25:1
“Bildad the Shuhite - This is the last attack on Job; the others felt themselves foiled, though they had not humility enough to acknowledge it, but would not again return to the attack. Bildad has little to say, and that little is very little to the point. He makes a few assertions, particularly in reference to what Job had said in the commencement of the preceding chapter, of his desire to appear before God, and have his case tried by him, as he had the utmost confidence that his innocence should be fully proved.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
He establishes harmony in the heights of heaven: Bildad answers with God's dominion and awe alone. Barnes reads his aim as proving that man could never be pure before so great a God, the question of verse 4. Wesley sees the harmony of the heights set against Job's quarrel with God.
Job 25:2
“Dominion and fear are with him - God is an absolute sovereign; his fear is on all the hosts of heaven; and by his sovereignty he establishes and preserves order in the heavens, and among all the inhabitants of the eternal world: how canst thou, therefore, dare to appeal to him, or desire to appear before him?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Job 25:2
“Dominion and fear are with Him; Who maketh peace in His high places. [LITERAL INTERPRETATION] As though he expressed himself in plain words; 'He only truly terrifies the hearts of mortals, who by the power of His Divine nature truly possesses these.' For what terror does the power of man infuse, which knows not when it may lack the light of that power? Now it is rightly said, He maketh peace in His high places.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVIIpatristic
Job 25:2
“What great things are here said of God, designed to possess Job with a reverence of him, and to check his reflections upon him and upon his dealings with him: (1.) God is the sovereign Lord of all, and with him is terrible majesty.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Can His troops be numbered?: Barnes takes His troops as the armies of heaven, a band that cannot be numbered. Wesley reads the light that rises on all as the sun shared by every man. Henry hears goodness there as well as power.
Job 25:3
“Is there any number of his armies? - The armies of heaven; or the hosts of angelic beings, which are often represented as arranged or marshalled into armies; see the notes at Isa 1:9. The word which is used here is not the common one which is rendered “hosts,” (צבא tsâbâ'), but is גדוּד gedûd which means properly a troop, band, or army. It may here mean either the constellations often represented as the army which God marshals and commands, or it may mean the angels.”
2 more voices on this verse
Job 25:3
“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. The number of the citizens above is represented as infinite and definite, in order that that which relatively to God is capable of being numbered may be shewn relatively to man to be incapable of being numbered.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVIIpatristic
Job 25:3
“All partake of the light of his goodness: it seems especially to be meant of that. He is good to all; the earth is full of his goodness. He is Deus optimus--God, the best of beings, as well as maximus--the greatest: he has power to destroy; but his pleasure is to show mercy.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Job 25:4-6
How then can a man be just before God?: Bildad closes the friends' case by asking a third time, after Eliphaz at 4:17 and 15:14: "How then can a man be just before God?" The friends end where Eliphaz began, and Job has moved from the mediator of 9:33 to the Redeemer of 19:25.
Job 25:4
“Can a man be justified being compared with God? or can he be found clean that is born of a woman? This verse is spoken above by blessed Job, and is now repeated in the upbraiding of him; since every just man is just by illumination from God, not by comparison with God. For man's righteousness when compared with the Maker is unrighteousness, since, even although man had held fast in his own estate of creation, the creature could never be equalled to the Creator.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVIIpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Job 25:4
“The scripture has concluded all under sin. [2.] Man, by reason of his original corruption, as he is born of a woman, is odious to God's holiness, and cannot be clean in his sight. God sees his impurity, and it is certain that by it he is rendered utterly unfit for communion and fellowship with God in grace here and for the vision and fruition of him in glory hereafter.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Job 25:4
“How then can man be justified? - Or, ונה umah, With what, shall a man be justified with God? Though this is no conclusion from Bildad’s premises, yet the question is of the highest importance to man. Neither Bildad nor any of his fellows could answer it; the doctrine of redemption through the blood of the cross was then known only through types and shadows. We who live in the Gospel dispensation, can readily answer the question, With what shall miserable man (אנוש enosh) be justified with God? - Ans.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
If even the moon does not shine: Bildad reaches man by way of the heavens. Barnes reads the moon as dark only in God's sight, where the brightest lights fade. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the stars as emblems of the angels, pure only as creatures are pure, as Eliphaz said at Job 4:18.
Job 25:5
“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. Whence likewise it is said by Paul to the disciples; Among whom ye shine like lights in the world.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVIIpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Job 25:5
“Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not - Or, behold even the moon shineth not. That is, in comparison with God it is dark and obscure. The idea is, that the most beautiful and glorious objects become dim and fade away when compared with him. So Jerome renders it, Ecce luna etiam non splendet. The word here rendered “shineth” (יאהיל ya'âhalı̂yl) frequently means to pitch or remove a tent, and is a form of the word אהל 'ôhel uniformly rendered tent or tabernacle.”
how much less man, who is but a maggot: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note two Hebrew words, the maggot bred in rot and the crawling worm. Wesley reads the son of man as any man, the greatest included. Bildad's scale runs from the moon down to the maggot.
Job 25:6
“How much less man, that is a worm? - Or as the Targum - “How much more man, who in his life is a reptile; and the son of man, who in his death is a worm.” Almost all the versions read, “Truly man is corruption, and the son of man a worm.” The original is degradingly expressive: “Even because אנוש enosh, miserable man, is רמה rimmah, a crawling worm; and the son of Adam, who is תולעה toleah, a worm, or rather maggot, from its eating into and dividing certain substances.” - Parkhurst.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Job 25:6
“How much more is man rottenness, and the son of man a worm? As if it were in plain words; 'If those very persons also cannot be void of contagion, who amidst the darkness of the present life shine bright by virtuous attainments, with what guilt of wickedness are they bound, who still live after the flesh?”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVIIpatristic
Job 25:6
“Worm - Mean, and vile, and impotent; proceeding from corruption, and returning to it. The son - For miserable man in the last branch he here puts the son of any man, to shew that this is true even of the greatest and best of men. Let us then wonder at the condescension of God, in taking such worms into covenant and communion with himself!”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and R. A. Watson, The Book of Job, Expositor's Bible.