UTN uW Translation Notes:

Job 25 Chapter Introduction

Structure and Formatting

This chapter is the third and final speech of Job’s friend Bildad.The ULT sets the lines of this chapter farther to the right on the page than the rest of the text because it is poetry.

Religious and Cultural Concepts in This Chapter

The brevity of Bildad’s speech

This speech by Bildad is much shorter than his first two speeches. It is also much shorter than the three speeches that Eliphaz has given to this point in the book and the two speeches that Zophar has given. The likely explanation is that Job’s friends are running out of things to say to him. Indeed, Zophar does not give a third speech at all. The narrator says in [32:3](../32/03.md) that the three friends “found no answer” for Job’s arguments. The brevity of Bildad’s third speech and the absence of a third speech by Zophar dramatize this. Since the narrator eventually offers an explanation, it would not be necessary to put an explanation in your translation at the end of this chapter such as, “And that was all that Job’s friends had to say to him.”

God’s holiness and human sinfulness

In this short speech, Bildad describes God’s holiness and human sinfulness. While the points he makes are accurate, they are not convincing for Job, because he has actually been righteous. (See: holy and sin and righteous)

Translation Issues in This Chapter

Bildad using the words of Eliphaz

Although Bildad speaks only briefly, he repeats significant phrases from Eliphaz’s first and second speeches. Bildad asks in [verse 4](../25/04.md), “So how will a man be righteous with God? Or how will one born of a woman be pure?” Eliphaz had asked similarly in [4:17](../04/17.md), “Will a man be more righteous than God? If a man will be more pure than his Maker?” and in [15:14](../15/14.md), “What is man, that he should be pure, or that one born of a woman should be righteous?” To show this, it would be helpful to use the same wording in your translation of [25:4](../25/04.md) that you used in [4:17](../04/17.md) and [15:14](../15/14.md).