^8:1 But Bildad the Shuhite, answering, said:
^8:2 How long will you speak such things, and will the words of your mouth be a manifold wind?
^8:3 Does God supplant judgment, and does the Almighty overturn what is just?
^8:4 Even if your sons sinned against him, and he left them in the hand of their iniquity.
^8:5 Yet if you rise at daybreak to God and make supplication to the Almighty,
^8:6 if you walk clean and upright, immediately he will awaken toward you and render peaceful the habitation of your justice,
^8:7 so much so that your former things will have been small and your latter things will be multiplied exceedingly.

142. But Bildad the Shuhite, answering, etc. In the preceding things, blessed Job had answered the sayings of Eliphaz, effectively and profoundly emptying out his judgment; but Bildad the Shuhite, agreeing with Eliphaz in the same judgment, had not comprehended the profundity of blessed Job, and therefore he speaks against the response of blessed Job as men are accustomed to speak against opinions they have not understood. Now men who do not comprehend the minds of those speaking are accustomed to fail in two ways, one of which is that they do not know when the one speaking has arrived at the proposed end; the other is that they cannot grasp the ordering of the speaker’s words. And this appears manifestly in the words of Bildad, for it is said: But Bildad the Shuhite, answering, said: How long will you speak such things? For it seemed to him that Job had prolonged his speech too much, not considering or understanding to what end Job wished to bring his speech. Likewise, he did not grasp the ordering of the things Job had said, namely how they were fitted together with one another, and therefore he adds: and a manifold wind is the speech of your mouth? For because Job had brought forth many things whose order he himself did not grasp, he judged them to be disconnected words and, as it were, the words of a man without reason, speaking various things from an impulse of spirit, without the order of reason.

143. And because, as has been said, Bildad had not comprehended the intention of Job, taking his words in another intention, he tries to lead them to an unfitting conclusion. For Job, wishing above to exclude the judgment of Eliphaz, who held that adversities in this world happen because of the sins of men and that sinners scourged by God, if they are converted, will be brought back to a state of prosperity, had spoken against both points:

for against the first, as was explained above, he had said: Would that my sins and the calamity that I suffer were weighed in a balance.

Against the second he had said: I have despaired; by no means will I now live any longer, and many things of this sort, as is clear from what has gone before. Now Job was saying these things with the intention that the punishment of sinners and the reward of justice are not to be expected from God in this life. But Bildad, who did not know another life, took these words as though Job intended to say that God does not punish sins or reward good deeds, which seems contrary to divine justice; and therefore Bildad proposes this, saying: Does God supplant judgment, and does the Almighty overturn what is just? As though saying: this follows from your words, if he punishes men in this world without sin or beyond the measure of sin, or if he does not restore good things to those who return to him. And it should be noted that justice is corrupted in two ways, namely, by the cunning of someone wise and by the violence of someone powerful; but in God both are present, both perfect wisdom and omnipotence, and yet through the wisdom understood in the name God he does not, as though acting cunningly, supplant judgment, nor through omnipotence does he, as though violently, overturn what is just.

144. Now there were two things that seemed to prevent Job from being able to have his former prosperity restored to him, even if he were converted to God, as Eliphaz had said,

one of which was that the sons whom he had lost were dead, nor could it be expected that through his conversion they would be raised back to life; and therefore Bildad says: Even if your sons sinned against him, and he left them in the hand of their iniquity, as though saying: when you have been converted to God, you will recover those things that you lost because of your sins; but your sons were oppressed by death not because of your sins but because of their own sins. Hence it is not contrary to the judgment of Eliphaz—by which he had said that through conversion you will return to prosperity—if your sons are not raised when you have been converted. And it should be noted that, because he believed the punishments of the present life to happen because of sins, and the final punishment among present punishments is death, then a man seems to be punished perfectly for sin when he is led all the way to death because of sin; and therefore he says pointedly: and he left them in the hand of their iniquity, as though in the power of their sins, so that without any restraint they would be led all the way to the final punishment for sins.

145. The other thing that seemed to hinder a return to his former prosperity was that very much of Job’s lifetime had already passed and little remained, as Job had said above; hence it did not seem that in that brief time his former prosperity could be sufficiently restored to him, even if he were converted to God. And therefore Bildad promises him, after conversion, that compensation will be made in quantity for the time, namely, that he will obtain much greater goods than he had before, because he would have them for a brief time.

And therefore Bildad first describes for him the manner of due conversion, for which three things are required,

the first of which is that the sinner should rise from sin without delay, and this is what he says: Yet if at daybreak, that is, promptly, you rise to God, having left sins behind, according to that saying of Sirach 5:8: Do not delay to be converted to the Lord;

the second is that man should make satisfaction for sins, and with regard to this he says: and make supplication to the Almighty; for among the works of satisfaction, prayer seems to be, as it were, foremost;

the third is that man should persevere, taking care for himself against falling back into sin, and therefore he says: if you walk clean and upright, namely, taking care for yourself against the uncleannesses of the flesh and against the injustices by which one’s neighbor is harmed. Thus, once he has described perfect conversion, he adds the promise of prosperity, saying: immediately he will awaken toward you; for God seems, as it were, to sleep when he permits the just to be afflicted, but to awaken when he defends them, according to that saying: Arise; why do you sleep, O Lord? And he adds the effect of this awakening, saying: and he will render peaceful the habitation of your justice, as though saying: your house and family in the time of your sin were disturbed, but in the time of your justice they will have peace. And lest he be able to complain about the brevity of time, he promises an excess of prosperity, saying: so much so that your former things will have been small, namely, in comparison with the things that follow, and this is what he adds: and your latter things will be multiplied exceedingly, so that the greatness of the prosperity may compensate you for the time in which you were in adversity.