Job 25:1–25:6, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Job 25:1–25:6
Bildad's Final Speech Stresses Human Smallness
Bildad has almost no case left, so he praises height
Bildad the Shuhite answers with a short hymn. Dominion and fear are with God. God makes peace in his high places. There is no numbering of his armies. Upon whom does his light not arise?
Then the turn: how can man be justified with God? How can one born of a woman be clean? The moon does not shine in that comparison. The stars are not pure in God's sight. How much less man, a worm, and the son of man, a worm.
Smallness does not answer the lawsuit
Human beings are not God. That is true, and it is not what Job asked. Job asked why the innocent are crushed and why the exploited are unheard. Bildad answers with maggot imagery.
Creaturely dust cannot be used to declare Job guilty, to end a hearing, or to teach that people may be treated as worms. The epilogue will not thank Bildad for this reduction.
How this should shape us
Practice humility without humiliating a sufferer. God's purity does not make a neighbor's cry illegitimate, and worm-language is not a Christian way to speak to the sick.
Teach it back
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Job 25:1–25:6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
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Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 25:1–25:6
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Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 25:1–25:6
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Sources for This Section
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Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
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Exact location: Job 25:1–25:6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 25:1–25:6
Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Job
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006; current official PDF
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 25:1–25:6.
Exact location: Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 25:1–25:6
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Job course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Daniel J. Simundson and Kathryn Schifferdecker
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, current online edition inspected 2026
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