"_How long wilt thou speak these things? A mighty wind, forsooth, are the words of thy mouth. God:--will He pervert judgment? Almighty God:--will He pervert righteousness? If thy children sinned against Him, And He cast them away into the hand of their rebellion; If thou wilt seek unto God, And unto the Almighty wilt make entreaty; If spotless and upright thou art, Surely now He would awake for thee And make prosperous thy righteous habitation. So that thy beginning shall prove small And thy latter end exceedingly great._" How far wrong Bildad is may be seen in this, that he dangles before Job the hope of greater worldly prosperity. The children must have sinned, for they have perished. Yet Job himself may possibly be innocent. If he is, then a simple entreaty to God will insure His renewed favour and help. Job is required to seek wealth and greatness again as a pledge of his own uprightness. But the whole difficulty lies in the fact that, being upright, he has been plunged into poverty, desolation, and a living death. He desires to know the reason of what has occurred. Apart altogether from the restoration of his prosperity and health, he would know what God means. Bildad does not see this in the least. Himself a prosperous man, devoted to the doctrine that opulence is the proof of religious acceptance and security, he has nothing for Job but the advice to get God to prove him righteous by giving him back his goods. There is a taunt in Bildad's speech. He privately believes that there has been sin, and that only by way of repentance good can come again. Since his friend is so obstinate let him try to regain his prosperity and fail. Bildad is lavish in promises, extravagant indeed. He can only be acquitted of a sinister meaning in his large prediction if we judge that he reckons God to be under a debt to a faithful servant whom He had unwittingly, while He was not observing, allowed to be overtaken by disaster. Next the speaker parades his learning, the wisdom he had gathered from the past:-- "_Inquire, I pray thee, of the bygone age, And attend to the research of their fathers. (For we are but of yesterday and know nothing; A shadow, indeed, are our days upon the earth)-- Shall not they teach thee and tell thee, Bring forth words from their heart?_" The man of to-day is nothing, a poor creature. Only by the proved wisdom of the long ages can end come to controversy. Let Job listen, then, and be convinced.