It seems that Bildad ignores Job when he draws his resolutions, or when the logic of his words comes to him or when the power of his words comes to him, and where his will leads him, because the fighter continues to fight. The more Job sees his enemies increase, the more he grows strong against them. The more he sees the number of the slanderers grow, the more he renews himself to fight back in favor of truth. It is not only by exhorting but also by becoming firmer that Job makes the truth appear. But Bildad ignores that, and that is why he has said, How long will you continue? It is necessary that Job respond, and since he has not said that, we will say it instead of him, He will continue until his spirit animates you, until he makes sources spring, until he blows wisdom into sincere vases, until you are tortured by his words as by the strikes of a whip. For you do not understand the wisdom of God and do not know his economy with regard to the righteous and the sinners.

Why are we considered to be as cattle? After taking away from us the right to speak, you now claim that it is only reserved to you, if you are wise.

Bildad speaks these words because Job did not refrain from complaining by saying that he wanted to die. What sort of consolation is this? How could he have disheartened him in another way? He said, in fact, that the stretches under heaven would be desolate, or did he mention his death as if it brought a great contribution to this life that is common to us? Actually Bildad says the opposite: a man is nothing and deserves no mention. Why do you^[1] say that? Then he also foolishly and haphazardly accuses the impious, in order to support his present argument. They cannot put the blame on [Job] for any evil action. But notice their perversity; by saying that great misfortunes will befall the impious, they mention those afflictions suffered by Job, naming his miseries in their words, as if they wanted to show that they alluded to him. Notice and observe that their remarks about others are addressed to him.

For every ungodly person has a flame of his own fire that he kindles in his heart from the heat of temporal desires, while he burns now with these, now with those lusts and fans his thoughts into a bigger flame by the diverse flatteries of the world. But if a fire has no flame, it does not shine by shedding any light. And so the flame of the fire is his outward beauty or power that comes from his burning within. What he anxiously desires to get, he very often wins, to the heaping up of his own ruin; and whether in the power of the loftiest pitch or in the wealth of multiplied increase, he, as it were, shines in external glory. But the flame of his fire shall not shine, in that in the day of his departure, all the fair outward show is removed, and he is consumed by his own burning within. And so the flame is removed from the fire when his exterior glory is separated from his interior burning.. . . Now it is well that it is not said of this lamp, which is by him but which is above him, in that earthly enjoyments possess the mind of the bad and so swallow it up in delight, that they are above it and not by it. But the righteous, even when they have the good fortune of the present life, are taught to force it to bow beneath them. That is, when they are made glad in themselves with good things, they may get above it by the counsel of a steadied mind and surmount it by the control of virtue. And so the lamp of the wicked person, which is above him, is put out, in that his joy is quickly brought to an end, a joy that possessed him wholly in this life; and the person who now wickedly lets himself out at large in pleasures is punished hereafter being closely encompassed round about in woe.

Bildad says these things using the metaphor of the birds or the animals that are captured in the hunt. In fact, as they can no longer escape after falling into snares and nets, so the impious are caught by inevitable calamities that overwhelm them. And what is worse, after all their schemes have been overturned and reversed, their riches are taken away from them not by the powerful but by people of the lowest class.

A rope is hid for them in the ground, a trap for them in the path. They do not realize in what dangers they are lost, and what rope, that is, the binding of sin, in which they entangle their feet, is hidden in them. In the violence of their life, through which they believe they are proceeding righteously, the trap of this error is hidden. Terrors or pains frighten them on every side and entrap their feet. The proud will be always frightened by the terror of impending calamities. Here terrors can also be interpreted not as feelings but as the ministers of the devil. In fact, they tried to terrify holy Job in many ways, so that he might surrender to them.

These words are appropriate to the impious but not at all to Job, because pains have not destroyed him but have made him appear to be a powerful fighter, have made him appear doubly just. Many have come, and the soles of their feet have been devoured;^[1] therefore, those who have come must complain about themselves and not about the righteous, because Job, thanks to his patience, deserves crowns and happiness.

He calls the soles of their feet the products of their journeys, in order to say that the impious are not prosperous in their travels when they fall into a violent ruin.^[1] But also their fruits of season, that is, their children, are insatiately consumed by death; and from this entire condition, in which they find themselves, all healing withdraws. That is, their results will always be incorrigible and incurable. It is also possible to interpret the soles of their feet as their offspring or descendants.

These words mean that the punishment of the impious will be similar to the massacre of the Sodomites. Their roots dry beneath, and their branches wither above so that nothing useful to the impious may remain anywhere, beneath or above the ground.

Their memory perishes from the earth. In order that Bildad may not appear to speak inconsistently after saying, Their roots dry up beneath, he had added, Their crops are ruined above. He then concludes with what he wanted to convey through such a sequel of expressions, that is, Their memory perishes from the earth. In fact, it could happen that the ripening of the fruits occurred before the drying up of the roots, which takes place over a long period of time. Their memory perishes from the earth. All the things that happen to the impious are described in general but also obliquely referred to Job, because he suffers these same things under the scourge of God.

That these words are to be understood as speaking of the antichrist is shown when it is added, In his days the last shall be astonished, and horror shall seize on the first. He will then let himself loose against the righteous with such a measure of iniquity that even the hearts of the very elect shall be struck with no small consternation. Hence it is written, Insomuch that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect,^[1] which clearly isn’t said because the elect shall fall but because they shall tremble with terrible alarms. Now, at that time, both the latest elect and the first elect are described as maintaining the conflict for righteousness against him. They that shall be found among the elect at the end of the world are destined to be laid low in the death of the flesh. And they too who proceeded from the former times of the world, that is, Enoch and Elijah, shall be brought back among humankind and shall be exposed to the savageness of his cruelty while still in their mortal flesh. This one’s forces will be let loose with such terrible power that the latest are astonished at, and the first do dread.. . . Then he adds, Surely such are the dwellings of the ungodly, such is the place of those who do not know God, in that he who is now lifted up from ignorance of God is then brought to his own dwellings where his own wickedness plunges him into woes. One day he finds darkness his place, who while he made himself glad here in the counterfeit light of righteousness, was occupying the place of another. For bad people act deceitfully, striving to possess for themselves the righteous person’s good name, as of another place. But they are then brought to their own place, when they are tormented with everlasting fire, as the deserved punishment of their iniquity.