NOTES for Иов 26:1-14

Job is ironic toward Bildad, but there is no irony in his words when he speaks of the Creator’s greatness. For him it is subject neither to doubt nor diminution. One might even say that at last Job and one of his accusers are of one mind, were it not for certain substantial differences in their conceptions of God.

Both Bildad and Job experience fear and trembling before God, but these are not the same in each of them. In Bildad’s fear one senses too strongly the human terror of power and might; it is therefore difficult to say whether he loves God or merely fears Him. The human soul is so constituted that one’s attitude toward God is often projected onto one’s attitude toward people, and vice versa (“he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” 1 Jn 4:20). Bildad’s hardness toward Job should therefore not surprise us.

Job, however, is open to God. His fear is not panic-stricken terror but reverence before God’s boundless greatness. Yet Job is also aware of the greatness of man, who despite all his smallness and weakness is appointed by God to be the crown of creation. There is humility in Job’s heart, but no sense of being crushed, because despite all his doubts and bouts of despair, he is capable of loving the Creator.