As in the case of Eliphaz, Job has no intention of arguing with Bildad over the substance...
As in the case of Eliphaz, Job has no intention of arguing with Bildad over the substance. He fully agrees that God is in any case right in His judgments. Something else torments him: how can a person be justified before God (vv. 2-3)? To understand the question tormenting Job, it is important to remember that in this case the issue is not simply being right, but righteousness, the righteousness of a person before God, which a person ought to show but is unable to show. Job understands no worse than his friends that God's power over the world He created is absolute and limitless (vv. 4-13).
And this is the full horror of Job's situation: if God is like this, then Job cannot count on proving anything to Him; such a God can only be begged for mercy (vv. 14-15). The most terrible thing for Job is that he does not see justice in God. He sees in Him only power, a power turned even against Job himself (vv. 16-18). In a dispute with God, a person is doomed even if he is right, for God is stronger than any person from the outset and has no intention of stooping to a trial with any human being (vv. 19-20).
Job, it appears, is no less religious than his friends. The greatness and power of God are as well known to him as to them, and he knows no worse than Eliphaz or Bildad that in every respect a person is infinitely far from God. Perhaps for quite a long time Job, like his friends, was fully satisfied with the image of the God of religion, infinitely distant and mighty, the God whose power sustains such righteous people of religion as Job himself and his friends had been all their lives. But now, when God's power has turned against Job and religion has been unable to help him at all, Job has understood that the God known to him through religious tradition, in essence, has no concern for a person. Job is innocent, but God strikes the righteous and the wicked alike (vv. 21-23); He has handed the world over to sinners (v. 24).
Justifying oneself before God is pointless. He will judge either arbitrarily or according to some laws of His own, unknown to human beings, in such a way that it is impossible to be justified before Him (vv. 25-31). The God of religion is no longer enough for Job. He is seeking the God of revelation, the God before whom one could stand face to face as with a human being, because only then can a person hope for God's just judgment (vv. 32-33). But Job does not see such a desire in God, and of course no one can force Him to be merciful toward a person (vv. 33-35).
