Job 25:1–6
Bildad's six verses and the missing Zophar
Bildad's third speech is six verses long, and Zophar has no third speech at all. Every manuscript and version agrees. The broken third cycle is a feature of the text as it has come down to us.
Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning
The family tree
Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.
✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
Every witness, in order
Poem often dated 6th–4th century BC (debated)
Original Job
No original survives. Small Hebrew fragments of Job are known from Qumran (2Q15, 4Q99–101).
c. AD 390s, from Hebrew
Jerome's Vulgate
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
Potestas et terror apud eum est, qui facit concordiam in sublimibus suis. Numquid est numerus militum ejus? et super quem non surget lumen illius? Numquid justificari potest homo comparatus Deo? aut apparere mundus natus de muliere? Ecce luna etiam non splendet, et stellæ non sunt mundæ in conspectu ejus: quanto magis homo putredo, et filius hominis vermis?
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
הַמְשֵׁ֣ל וָפַ֣חַד עִמּ֑וֹ עֹשֶׂ֥ה שָׁ֝ל֗וֹם בִּמְרוֹמָֽיו׃ הֲיֵ֣שׁ מִ֭סְפָּר לִגְדוּדָ֑יו וְעַל־מִ֝֗י לֹא־יָק֥וּם אוֹרֵֽהוּ׃ וּמַה־יִּצְדַּ֣ק אֱנ֣וֹשׁ עִם־אֵ֑ל וּמַה־יִּ֝זְכֶּ֗ה יְל֣וּד אִשָּֽׁה׃ הֵ֣ן עַד־יָ֭רֵחַ וְלֹ֣א יַאֲהִ֑יל וְ֝כוֹכָבִ֗ים לֹא־זַכּ֥וּ בְעֵינָֽיו׃ אַ֭ף כִּֽי־אֱנ֣וֹשׁ רִמָּ֑ה וּבֶן־אָ֝דָ֗ם תּוֹלֵעָֽה׃
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
Dominion and fear are with him, he maketh peace in his high places. Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth not his light arise? How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?
Printed Septuagint; translated 1872
Greek Job, filled-out text (library: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
Que peut-on attendre, sinon des sujets de crainte, de la part de Celui qui fait tout au plus haut des cieux? Que nul ne s’imagine que les pirates sont laissés tranquilles sur qui donc ses escadrons vengeurs ne s’abattront-ils pas? Comment donc un mortel sera-t-il juste aux yeux du Seigneur? Et quel fils de la femme sera pur devant lui? S’il le commande à la lune, elle cesse de luire; et les étoiles ne sont point pures devant lui. Combien moins l’homme qui n’est que pourriture, le fils de l’homme, ce vermisseau!
Greek via Giguet's French (filled-out printed text); not checked against Ziegler's critical edition.
What changed, and why
Scholars reconstruct a fuller third cycle by moving 26:5–14 to Bildad and 27:13–23 to Zophar. Others think the breakdown is deliberate. No lost manuscript with a longer Bildad speech is known.
What the evidence shows
- All known witnesses have a six-verse Bildad speech and no third Zophar speech.
- A longer Bildad speech was displaced.
Sources
Related lessons
- Bildad's Six Verses →Bildad's third speech is only six verses long: dominion and fear belong to God, who makes peace in his high places; his armies cannot be numbered. How can a man be righteous before God? Even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his sight; how much less man, a maggot, and the son of man, a worm. Zophar never speaks a third time. The third cycle of speeches seems broken.