Here, in his final speaking appearance, Bildad makes but a weak and truncated response to Job’s long, impassioned plea. Some commentators restore a longer speech here by transposing verses from the extended speech of Job that follows (chs. 26–31). In what follows, however, we take Bildad’s brief speech as an intentional indication of the faltering of the friends’ arguments in their failure to persuade Job. Later Elihu will declare his disdain for the friends because of their inability to respond effectively to Job’s claims (32:1–3, 11–12, 15–16). Following Job’s long reply to Bildad, Zophar does not offer a third speech at all, which accentuates the dwindling argumentation from the friends. (Although many commentators also reconstruct a third speech for Zophar out of the extended material …