Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

"How long will you say these things,
and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
Does God pervert justice?
Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
If your children have sinned against him,
he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.
If you will seek God
and please with the Almighty for mercy,
if you are pure and upright,
surely then he will rouse himself for you
and restore your rightful habitation.
And though your beginning was small,
your latter days will be very great.

"For enquire, please, of bygone ages,
and consider what the fathers have searched out.
For we are but of yesterday and know nothing,
for our days on earth are a shadow.
Will they not teach you and tell you
and utter words out of their understanding?

"Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
Can reeds flourish where there is no water?
While yet in flower and not cut down,
they wither before any other plant.
Such are the paths of all who forget God;
the hope of the godless shall perish.
His confidence is severed,
and his trust is a spider's web.
He leans against his house, but it does not stand;
he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.
He is a lush plant before the sun,
and his shoots spread over his garden.
His roots entwine the stone heap;
he looks upon a house of stones.
If he is destroyed from his place,
then it will deny him, saying, 'I have never seen you.'
Behold, this is the joy of his way,
and out of the soil others will spring.

"Behold, God will not reject a blameless man,
nor take the hand of evildoers.
He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,
and your lips with shouting.
Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
and the tent of the wicked will be no more."

I just started working and I'm really tired so I won't have many good comments here. I just wanted to continue working through this.

A lot of what Bildad says here is probably true. He seems to have a more immediate and certain concept of God's blessing those who are righteous than is evident in the story of Job and in the whole of life. In general I think it is true that God does tend to bless the rightous with prosperity and success on this earth, it is by no means absolutely true, and in fact, I think we should consider it a blessing when we suffer because it means we are more mature Christians who are ready to recieve those things. James in the New Testament, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let your steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." I think it is better for us to sufer, in fact, than for us to cruise through life. But that suffering is not necessarily a result of our own sinfulness (although sometimes it is), even though Bildad thinks that the two are totally connected.

Bildad thinks the two are as connected as a reeds and water, and papyrus and marsh. But I disagree, and I think the story of Job does as well. In this fallen world, sometimes (it seems like most of the time actually) the corrupt and sinful flourish, and the righteous don't. Job is a righteous man, but he suffers. Although he is eventually restored, that doesn't always happen, and it was through no doing of his own.