Job 8 · a question people ask
Is Bildad right that God doesn't pervert justice?
Bildad asks, "Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?" (8:3). Other Scripture says the like of God. Moses sings of God, "for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong" (Deuteronomy 32:4), and Abraham asks, "Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25). In this book Elihu says, "neither will the Almighty pervert justice" (34:12), with the same Hebrew verb and noun as 8:3. But the book also lets the question be argued. Job says later, "know now that God has subverted me" (19:6), where subverted is the verb of 8:3, and "I cry for help, but there is no justice" (19:7). And the LORD asks Job, "Will you even annul my judgment?" (40:8), where judgment is the word of 8:3's justice. What Bildad does with his question comes straight after it: "If your children have sinned against him" (8:4), and "If you were pure and upright" (8:6). The book had told you Job "was blameless and upright" (1:1), and the LORD said Job was ruined "without cause" (2:3). What the book says of the three friends' words is 42:7, and it doesn't say which words it means. These notes set the verses side by side and add no verdict of their own on Bildad.
The verses
“Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness? If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience. If you want to seek God diligently, make your supplication to the Almighty. If you were pure and upright, surely now he would awaken for you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.”
“The Rock: his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he.”
“May it be far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?””
“Yes surely, God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert justice.”