Job 4 commentary

JOB 4 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Eliphaz
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
The sympathic silence now ends for the sake of some advice. It starts out very
gentle, but there is a note of disapproval here. Job's depression and his words of
despair made him suspicious of his spirituality. Here we have cold comfort from
these three who speak in the order of their senority and Eliphaz is the oldest.
Parker has a more positive view of Eliphaz. He sees them as good men who blew it,
as many good men have often done.
Interpreter's Bible, "Like someone safely up on the beach throwing a cheery word
or two to poor souls wrestling in the great dark deep, with the huge billows
knocking the breathe out of them. What Job needs is the compassion of a human
heart. What he gets is a series of absolutely "true and absolutely beautiful religious
cliches and moral platitudes."
CLARKE, "Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered - For seven days this person
and his two friends had observed a profound silence, being awed and confounded at the
sight of Job’s unprecedented affliction. Having now sufficiently contemplated his
afflicted state, and heard his bitter complaint, forgetting that he came as a comforter,
and not as a reprover, he loses the feeling of the friend in the haughtiness of the censor,
endeavoring to strip him of his only consolation, - the testimony of his conscience, that
in simplicity and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, he had
his conversation among men, - by insinuating that if his ways had been upright, he
would not have been abandoned to such distress and affliction; and if his heart
possessed that righteousness of which he boasted, he would not have been so suddenly
cast down by adversity.
GILL, "Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said. When Job was done
cursing his day, and had finished his doleful ditty on that subject, then Eliphaz took the
opportunity of speaking, not being able to bear any longer with Job and his behaviour
under his afflictions; Eliphaz was one of Job's three friends that came to visit him, Job_
2:11; very probably he might be the senior man, or a man of the greatest authority and

power; a most respectable person, had in great esteem and reverence among men, and
by these his friends, and therefore takes upon him to speak first; or it may be it was
agreed among themselves that he should begin the dispute with Job; and we find, that in
the close of this controversy the Lord speaks to him by name, and to him only, Job_42:7;
he "answered"; not that Job directed his discourse to him, but he took occasion, from
Job's afflictions and his passionate expressions, to say what he did; and he "said" not
anything by way of condolence or consolation, not pitying Job's case, nor comforting
him in his afflicted circumstances, as they required both; but reproaching him as a
wicked and hypocritical man, not acting like himself formerly, or according to his
profession and principles, but just the reverse: this was a new trial to Job, and some
think the sorest of all; it was as a sword in his bones, which was very cutting to him; as
oil cast into a fiery furnace in which he now was, which increased the force and fury of it;
and as to vinegar an opened and bleeding wound, which makes it smart the more.
HE RY, "In these verses,
I. Eliphaz excuses the trouble he is now about to give to Job by his discourse (Job_
4:2): “If we assay a word with thee, offer a word of reproof and counsel, wilt thou be
grieved and take it ill?” We have reason to fear thou wilt; but there is no remedy: “Who
can refrain from words?” Observe, 1. With what modesty he speaks of himself and his
own attempt. He will not undertake the management of the cause alone, but very humbly
joins his friends with him: “We will commune with thee.” Those that plead God's cause
must be glad of help, lest it suffer through their weakness. He will not promise much,
but begs leave to assay or attempt, and try if he could propose any thing that might be
pertinent, and suit Job's case. In difficult matters it becomes us to pretend no further,
but only to try what may be said or done. Many excellent discourses have gone under the
modest title of Essays. 2. With what tenderness he speaks of Job, and his present
afflicted condition: “If we tell thee our mind, wilt thou be grieved? Wilt thou take it ill?
Wilt thou lay it to thy own heart as thy affliction or to our charge as our fault? Shall we
be reckoned unkind and cruel if we deal plainly and faithfully with thee? We desire we
may not; we hope we shall not, and should be sorry if that should be ill resented which is
well intended.” Note, We ought to be afraid of grieving any, especially those that are
already in grief, lest we add affliction to the afflicted, as David's enemies, Psa_69:26. We
should show ourselves backward to say that which we foresee will be grievous, though
ever so necessary. God himself, though he afflicts justly, does not afflict willingly, Lam_
3:33. 3. With what assurance he speaks of the truth and pertinency of what he was about
to say: Who can withhold himself from speaking? Surely it was a pious zeal for God's
honour, and the spiritual welfare of Job, that laid him under this necessity of speaking.
“Who can forbear speaking in vindication of God's honour, which we hear reproved, in
love to thy soul, which we see endangered?” Note, It is foolish pity not to reprove our
friends, even our friends in affliction, for what they say or do amiss, only for fear of
offending them. Whether men take it well or ill, we must with wisdom and meekness do
our duty and discharge a good conscience.
JAMISO , "Job_4:1-21. First speech of Eliphaz.
Eliphaz — the mildest of Job’s three accusers. The greatness of Job’s calamities, his
complaints against God, and the opinion that calamities are proofs of guilt, led the three
to doubt Job’s integrity.

K&D, "In reply to Sommer, who in his excellent biblische Abhandlungen, 1846,
considers the octastich as the extreme limit of the compass of the strophe, it is sufficient
to refer to the Syriac strophe-system. It is, however, certainly an impossibility that, as
Ewald (Jahrb. ix. 37) remarks with reference to the first speech of Jehovah, Job 38-39,
the strophes can sometimes extend to a length of 12 lines = Masoretic verses,
consequently consist of 24 στίχοι and more. Then Eliphaz the Temanite began, and said:
BE SO , ". Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered — Job’s three friends reasoning
on the principles of an equal providence, and supposing that affliction could happen
only in the way of punishment, which necessarily inferred guilt, and thinking his
complaints exceeded the bounds of decency, the eldest of them, Eliphaz, here
interposes. He desires Job to recollect himself, not to give way to fruitless
lamentations, but to put into practice those lessons he had often recommended to
others. He reminds him of that, as he thought, infallible maxim, that those who
reaped misery must have sowed iniquity, a maxim which he confirms by his own
particular experience, and which he supposes was assented to by all mankind. And,
in the display of this maxim, he throws in many of the particular circumstances
attending Job’s calamity, intimating, that he must have been a great, though secret
oppressor, and that, therefore, the breath of God had blasted him at once. He
confirms also the truth of this principle by a revelation, which, he says, was made to
him in a vision. He urges further, that supposing he, Job, had been guilty of no very
atrocious crime; yet the common frailties of human nature were abundantly
sufficient to account for any afflictions which it should please God to inflict on man;
but takes care, as he proceeds, (as may be seen in the next chapter,) to let him know,
they had a far worse opinion of him; representing him as wicked and foolish, and a
proper object of divine wrath.
COFFMA , "This chapter and the next record the first speech of Eliphaz, loaded
with the false wisdom of his day, "It merely poured vinegar, rather than oil, upon
Job's wounds."[2] Out of the whirlwind, God Himself declared that Job's friends,
"Had not spoken of God the things that were right" (Job 42:7); and the very first
word that God spoke out of the whirlwind blasted the long-winded diatribes of Job's
comforters, as "Darkening counsel by words without knowledge" (Job 38:2); and,
therefore, the very worst mistake that anyone could possibly make in studying the
speech of Eliphaz (or any of the rest of Job's comforters) would be the acceptance of
what he said as the truth. In the light of that fact, we shall limit our comments on
those speeches. God Himself has already made the only comment that one needs in
studying these speeches.
Job 4:1-5
ELIPHAZ BEGA WITH A COMPLIME T TO JOB
"Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said:

If one assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved?
But who can withhold himself from speaking?
Behold, thou hast instructed many,
And thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
Thy words have upholden him that was falling,
and thou hast made firm the feeble knees.
But now it is come unto thee, and thou faintest;
It toucheth thee, and thou art troubled."
In short, Eliphaz here says, "Look, why don't you take some of that good advice you
have always been giving to other people? These words were a wound and not a
comfort to Job. Eliphaz was totally ignorant of the unique suffering of Job, which
was not due to his sins at all; and his self-righteous speech to Job must have sorely
aggravated Job's miseries. Eliphaz, apparently the oldest of Job's comforters, and
allowed by the others as the wisest of them, would go on and on with his "comfort."
COKE, "Eliphaz reproves Job, who, having consoled others in adversity,
nevertheless desponds himself. He affirms, that it was a thing unheard of, for an
innocent man to perish; on the contrary, that the wicked perish at the blast of God,
and are destroyed for ever.
Before Christ 1645.
Job 4:1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite— The three friends who came to comfort Job,
disgusted, as it seems, with the bitterness of his complaint, change their purpose,
and, instead of consolation, vent the severest reproaches against him. The eldest of
these three extraordinary comforters condemns his impatience; desires Job to
recollect himself; not to give way to fruitless lamentations, but to put in practice
those lessons which he had often recommended to others; Job 4:3-6. He reminds him
of that (as they thought) infallible maxim, that "those who reap misery must have
sown iniquity;" a maxim which he confirms by his own particular experience, and
which he supposes was assented to by all mankind: and, in the display of this
maxim, he throws in many of the particular circumstances attending Job's calamity;
intimating, that he must have been a great, though secret oppressor, and that
therefore the breath of God had blasted him at once, Job 4:7-11; and he confirms
the truth of his principles by a revelation which he says was made to him in a vision;
Job 4:12 to the end. See Bishop Lowth and Heath.

GUZIK, "This begins a long section in the Book of Job where Job’s friends counsel
him and he answers them. His friends speak in more or less three rounds, with each
speech followed by a reply from Job. At the end of these speeches, God answers Job
and his friends and settles the matter.
A. The opening comments of Eliphaz.
1. (Job 4:1-6) Eliphaz calls upon Job to remember the advice he has given to others
as a helper of the weak.
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
“If one attempts a word with you, will you become weary? But who can withhold
himself from speaking?
Surely you have instructed many,
And you have strengthened weak hands.
Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,
And you have strengthened the feeble knees;
But now it comes upon you, and you are weary;
It touches you, and you are troubled.
Is not your reverence your confidence?
And the integrity of your ways your hope?”
a. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: Eliphaz was from Teman, an Edomite city
that was known as a center of wisdom (Jeremiah 49:7).
b. If one attempts a word with you, will you become weary? With this tactful
beginning, Eliphaz began his speech. We may say that he had earned the right to
speak to Job because, in a remarkable display of friendship, he sat wordless with
Job through whole week to show his sympathy and brotherhood with the afflicted
man (Job 2:11-13).
c. But who can withhold himself from speaking? Eliphaz felt compelled to speak; his
love and concern for Job strongly motivated him to help his suffering friend.
evertheless, it will be later found that the advice of Eliphaz and the rest of Job’s
counselors was wrong (Job 42:7-8).
d. Surely you have instructed many . . . now it comes upon you, and you are weary:
Eliphaz began to confront Job with what he saw as his problem. This took a great

deal of courage on the part of Eliphaz; he was the first one to speak, and he spoke to
a man with an enviable reputation for godliness and one suffering from terrible
calamity.
i. Yet he pointed at this apparent contradiction in Job’s lament recorded in the
previous chapter: That this man who had taught and comforted many in their time
of need now seems to despair in his own time of need.
ii. “Already there is insinuation that Job is unable to apply to himself what he
preached to others.” (Anderson)
iii. “This is galling. But hitherto Eliphaz had commended Job; now he dasheth all,
and draweth a black line over that he had spoken once. To commend a man with a
but is a wound instead of a commendation . . . it sprinkleth black upon white, and so
smutteth a man’s good name, which is slander in a high degree.” (Trapp)
e. Is not your reverence you confidence? This has the idea of, “Job, does not your
despair show that you have lost confidence in your reverence and lost hope in the
integrity of your ways?”
i. “Men are best known by affliction, and this now showeth of what metal thou art
made; for now thou doth cast off thy fear of God, and all thy confidence and hope in
him.” (Trapp)
ii. This begins a section where Eliphaz (and others) will try to make Job see that his
problems have come upon him because of some sin on his part, and that he should
confess and repent of his sin in order to be restored.
iii. Eliphaz began on the basis of Job’s complaint as recorded in Job 3. He reasoned
that Job would not complain in this way unless he was in some way guilty; that his
guilty conscience was the root of his suffering. As it turned out, this was a false
assumption. Job’s complaint was simply the cry of a life in pain and not because Job
consciously or unconsciously understood that he deserved this calamity because of
his sin.
EBC, "THE THI GS ELIPHAZ HAD SEE
Job 4:1-21; Job 5:1-27
ELIPHAZ SPEAKS
THE ideas of sin and suffering against which the poem of Job was written come now
dramatically into view. The belief of the three friends had always been that God, as
righteous Governor of human life, gives felicity in proportion to obedience and
appoints trouble in exact measure of disobedience. Job himself, indeed, must have
held the same creed. We may imagine that while he was prosperous his friends had

often spoken with him on this very point. They had congratulated him often on the
wealth and happiness he enjoyed as an evidence of the great favour of the Almighty.
In conversation they had remarked on case after case which seemed to prove,
beyond the shadow of doubt, that if men reject God affliction and disaster
invariably follow. Their idea of the scheme of things was very simple, and, on the
whole, it had never come into serious questioning. Of course human justice, even
when rudely administered, and the practice of private revenge helped to fulfil their
theory of Divine government. If any serious crime was committed, those friendly to
the injured person took up his cause and pursued the wrong doer to inflict
retribution upon him. His dwelling was perhaps burned and his flocks dispersed, he
himself driven into a kind of exile. The administration of law was rude, yet the
unwritten code of the desert made the evildoer suffer and allowed the man of good
character to enjoy life if he could. These facts went to sustain the belief that God
was always regulating a man’s happiness by his deserts. And beyond this, apart
altogether from what was done by men, not a few accidents and calamities appeared
to show Divine judgment against wrong. Then, as now, it might be said that
avenging forces lurk in the lightning, the storm, the pestilence, forces which are
directed against transgressors and cannot be evaded. Men would say, Yes, though
one hide his crimes, though he escape for long the condemnation and punishment of
his fellows, yet the hand of God will find him: and the prediction seemed always to
be verified. Perhaps the stroke did not fall at once. Months might pass; years might
pass; but the time came when they could affirm, ow righteousness has overtaken
the offender; his crime is rewarded; his pride is brought low. And if, as happened
occasionally, the flocks of a man who was in good reputation died of murrain, and
his crops were blighted by the terrible hot wind of the desert, they could always say,
Ah! we did not know all about him. o doubt if we could look into his private life we
should see why this has befallen. So the barbarians of the island of Melita, when
Paul had been shipwrecked there, seeing a viper fasten on his hand, said, " o doubt
this is a murderer whom, though he hath escaped from the sea, yet justice suffereth
not to live."
Thoughts like these were in the minds of the three friends of Job, very confounding
indeed, for they had never expected to shake their heads over him. They accordingly
deserve credit for true sympathy, inasmuch as they refrained from saying anything
that might hurt him. His grief was great, and it might be due to remorse. His
unparalleled afflictions put him, as it were, in sanctuary from taunts or even
questionings. He has done wrong, he has not been what we thought him, they said to
themselves, but he is drinking to the bitter dregs a cup of retribution.
But when Job opened his mouth and spoke, their sympathy was dashed with pious
horror. They had never in all their lives heard such words. He seemed to prove
himself far worse than they could have imagined. He ought to have been meek and
submissive. Some flaw there must have been: what was it? He should have confessed
his sin instead of cursing life and reflecting on God. Their own silent suspicion,
indeed, is the chief cause of his despair; but this they do not understand. Amazed
they hear him; outraged, they take up the challenge he offers. One after another the
three men reason with Job, from almost the same point of view, suggesting first and

then insisting that he should acknowledge his fault and humble himself under the
hand of a just and holy God.
ow, here is the motive of the long controversy which is the main subject of the
poem. And, in tracing it, we are to see Job, although racked by pain and distraught
by grief-sadly at disadvantage because he seems to be a living example of the truth
of their ideas-rousing himself to the defence of his integrity and contending for that
as the only grip he has of God. Advance after advance is made by the three, who
gradually become more dogmatic as the controversy proceeds. Defence after defence
is made by Job, who is driven to think himself challenged not only by his friends,
but sometimes also by God Himself through them.
Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar agree in the opinion that Job has done evil and is
suffering for it. The language they use and the arguments they bring forward are
much alike. Yet a difference will be found in their way of speaking, and a vaguely
suggested difference of character. Eliphaz gives us an impression of age and
authority. When Job has ended his complaint, Eliphaz regards him with a disturbed
and offended look. "How pitiful!" he seems to say; but also, "How dreadful, how
unaccountable!" He desires to win Job to a right view of things by kindly counsel;
but he talks pompously, and preaches too much from the high moral bench. Bildad,
again, is a dry and composed person. He is less the man of experience than of
tradition. He does not speak of discoveries made in the course of his own
observation; but he has stored the sayings of the wise and reflected upon them.
When a thing is cleverly said he is satisfied, and he cannot understand why his
impressive statements should fail to convince and convert. He is a gentleman, like
Eliphaz, and uses courtesy. At first he refrains from wounding Job’s feelings. Yet
behind his politeness is the sense of superior wisdom-the wisdom of ages, and his
own. He is certainly a harder man than Eliphaz. Lastly, Zophar is a blunt man with
a decidedly rough, dictatorial style. He is impatient of the waste of words on a
matter so plain, and prides himself on coming to the point. It is he who ventures to
say definitely: "Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity
deserveth,"-a cruel speech from any point of view. He is not so eloquent as Eliphaz,
he has no air of a prophet. Compared with Bildad he is less argumentative. With all
his sympathy-and he, too, is a friend-he shows an exasperation which he justifies by
his zeal for the honour of God. The differences are delicate, but real, and evident
even to our late criticism. In the author’s day the characters would probably seem
more distinctly contrasted than they appear to us. Still, it must be owned, each holds
virtually the same position. One prevailing school of thought is represented and in
each figure attacked.
It is not difficult to imagine three speakers differing far more from each other. For
example, instead of Bildad we might have had a Persian full of the Zoroastrian ideas
of two great powers, the Good Spirit, Ahuramazda, and the Evil Spirit, Ahriman.
Such a one might have maintained that Job had given himself to the Evil Spirit, or
that his revolt against providence would bring him under that destructive power
and work his ruin. And then, instead of Zophar, one might have been set forward
who maintained that good and evil make no difference, that all things come alike to

all, that there is no God who cares for righteousness among men; assailing Job’s
faith in a more dangerous way. But the writer has no such view of making a striking
drama. His circle of vision is deliberately chosen. It is only what might appear to be
true he allows his characters to advance. One hears the breathings of the same
dogmatism in the three voices. All is said for the ordinary belief that can be said.
And three different men reason with Job that it may be understood how popular,
how deeply rooted is the notion which the whole book is meant to criticise and
disprove. The dramatising is vague, not at all of our sharp, modern kind like that of
Ibsen, throwing each figure into vivid contrast with every other. All the author’s
concern is to give full play to the theory which holds the ground and to show its
incompatibility with the facts of human life, so that it may perish of its own
hollowness.
evertheless the first address to Job is eloquent and poetically beautiful. o rude
arguer is Eliphaz, but one of the golden-mouthed, mistaken in creed but not in
heart, a man whom Job might well cherish as a friend.
I.
The first part of his speech extends to the eleventh verse. With the respect due to
sorrow, putting aside the dismay caused by Job’s wild language, he asks, "If one
essay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved?" It seems unpardonable to add to
the sufferer’s misery by saying what he has in his mind; and yet he cannot refrain.
"Who can withhold himself from speaking?" The state of Job is such that there
must be thorough and very serious communication. Eliphaz reminds him of what he
had been-an instructor of the ignorant, one who strengthened the weak, upheld the
falling, confirmed the feeble. Was he not once so confident of himself, so resolute
and helpful that fainting men found him a bulwark against despair? Should he have
changed so completely? Should one like him take to fruitless wailings and
complaints? " ow it cometh upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou
art confounded." Eliphaz does not mean to taunt. It is in sorrow that he speaks,
pointing out the contrast between what was and is. Where is the strong faith of
former days? There is need for it, and Job ought to have it as his stay. "Is not thy
piety thy confidence? Thy hope, is it not the integrity of thy ways?" Why does he
not look back and take courage? Pious fear of God, if he allows himself to be guided
by it, will not fail to lead him again into the light.
It is a friendly and sincere effort to make the champion of God serve himself of his
own faith. The undercurrent of doubt is not allowed to appear. Eliphaz makes it a
wonder that Job had dropped his claim on the Most High; and he proceeds in a tone
of expostulation, amazed that a man who knew the way of the Almighty should fall
into the miserable weakness of the worst evildoer. Poetically, yet firmly, the idea is
introduced:-
Bethink thee now, whoever, being innocent, perished,
And where have the upright been destroyed

As I have seen, they who plough iniquity
And sow disaster reap the same.
By the wrath of God they perish,
By the storm of His wrath they are undone.
Roaring of the lion, voice of the growling lion,
Teeth of the young lions are broken;
The old lion perisheth for lack of prey,
The whelps of the lioness are scattered.
First among the things Eliphaz has seen is the fate of those violent evildoers who
plough iniquity and sow disaster. But Job has not been like them and therefore has
no need to fear the harvest of perdition. He is among those who are not finally cut
off. In the tenth and eleventh verses (Job 4:10-11) the dispersion of a den of lions is
the symbol of the fate of those who are hot in wickedness. As in some cave of the
mountains an old lion and lioness with their whelps dwell securely, issuing forth at
their will to seize the prey and make night dreadful with their growling, so those
evildoers flourish for a time in hateful and malignant strength. But as on a sudden
the hunters, finding the lions’ retreat, kill and scatter them, young and old, so the
coalition of wicked men is broken up. The rapacity of wild desert tribes appears to
be reflected in the figure here used. Eliphaz may be referring to some incident
which had actually occurred.
II.
In the second division of his address he endeavours to bring home to Job a needed
moral lesson by detailing a vision he once had and the oracle which came with it.
The account of the apparition is couched in stately and impressive language. That
chilling sense of fear which sometimes mingles with our dreams in the dead of night,
the sensation of a presence that cannot be realised, something awful breathing over
the face and making the flesh creep, an imagined voice falling solemnly on the ear, -
all are vividly described. In the recollection of Eliphaz the circumstances of the
vision are very clear, and the finest poetic skill is used in giving the whole solemn
dream full justice and effect.
ow a word was secretly brought me,
Mine ear caught the whisper thereof;
In thoughts from visions of the night,

When deep sleep falls upon men,
A terror came on me, and trembling
Which thrilled my bones to the marrow.
Then a breath passed before my face,
The hairs of my body rose erect.
It stood still-its appearance I trace not.
An image is before mine eyes.
There was silence, and I heard a voice-
Shall man beside Eloah be righteous?
Or beside his Maker shall man be clean?
We are made to feel here how extraordinary the vision appeared to Eliphaz, and, at
the same time, how far short he comes of the seer’s gift. For what is this apparition?
othing but a vague creation of the dreaming mind. And what is the message? o
new revelation, no discovery of an inspired soul. After all, only a fact quite familiar
to pious thought. The dream oracle has been generally supposed to continue to the
end of the chapter. But the question as to the righteousness of man and his cleanness
beside God seems to be the whole of it, and the rest is Eliphaz’s comment or
meditation upon it, his "thoughts from visions of the night."
As to the oracle itself: while the words may certainly bear translating so as to imply
a direct comparison between the righteousness of man and the righteousness of God,
this is not required by the purpose of the writer, as Dr. A.B. Davidson has shown. In
the form of a question it is impressively announced that with or beside the High God
no weak man is righteous, no strong man pure; and this is sufficient, for the aim of
Eliphaz is to show that troubles may justly come on Job, as on others, because all
are by nature imperfect. o doubt the oracle might transcend the scope of the
argument. Still the question has not been raised by Job’s criticism of providence,
whether he reckons himself more just than God; and apart from that any
comparison seems unnecessary, meeting no mood of human revolt of which Eliphaz
has ever heard. The oracle, then, is practically of the nature of a truism, and, as
such, agrees with the dream vision and the impalpable ghost, a dim presentation by
the mind to itself of what a visitor from the higher world might be.
Shall any created being, inheritor of human defects, stand beside Eloah, clean in His
sight? Impossible. For, however sincere and earnest any one may be toward God
and in the service of men, he cannot pass the fallibility and imperfection of the

creature. The thought thus solemnly announced, Eliphaz proceeds to amplify in a
prophetic strain, which, however, does not rise above the level of good poetry.
"Behold, He putteth no trust in His servants." othing that the best of them have to
do is committed entirely to them; the supervision of Eloah is always maintained that
their defects may not mar His purpose. "His angels He chargeth with error." Even
the heavenly spirits, if we are to trust Eliphaz, go astray; they are under a law of
discipline and holy correction. In the Supreme Light they are judged and often
found wanting. To credit this to a Divine oracle would be somewhat disconcerting to
ordinary theological ideas. But the argument is clear enough, -If even the angelic
servants of God require the constant supervision of His wisdom and their faults
need His correction, much more do men whose bodies are "houses of clay, whose
foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth"-that is, the moth which
breeds corrupting worms. "From morning to evening they are destroyed"-in a
single day their vigour and beauty pass into decay.
"Without observance they perish forever," says Eliphaz. Clearly this is not a word
of Divine prophecy. It would place man beneath the level of moral judgment, as a
mere earth creature whose life and death are of no account even to God. Men go
their way when a comrade falls, and soon forget. True enough. But "One higher
than the highest regardeth." The stupidity or insensibility of most men to spiritual
things is in contrast to the attention and judgment of God.
The description of man’s life on earth, its brevity and dissolution, on account of
which he can never exalt himself as just and clean beside God, ends with words that
may be translated thus:-
"Is not their cord torn asunder in them? They shall die, and not in wisdom."
Here the tearing up of the tent cord or the breaking of the bow string is an image of
the snapping of that chain of vital functions, the "silver cord," on which the bodily
life depends.
The argument of Eliphaz, so far, has been, first, that Job, as a pious man, should
have kept his confidence in God, because he was not like those who plough iniquity
and sow disaster and have no hope in Divine mercy; next, that before the Most High
all are more or less unrighteous and impure, so that if Job suffers for defect, he is no
exception, his afflictions are not to be wondered at. And this carries the further
thought that he ought to be conscious of fault and humble himself under the Divine
hand. Just at this point Eliphaz comes at last within sight of the right way to find
Job’s heart and conscience. The corrective discipline which all need was safe ground
to take with one who could not have denied in the last resort that he, too, had
"Sins of will, Defects of doubt and taints of blood."
This strain of argument, however, closes, Eliphaz having much in his mind which
has not found expression and is of serious import.

III.
The speaker sees that Job is impatient of the sufferings which make life appear
useless to him. But suppose he appealed to the saints-holy ones, or angels-to take his
part, would that be of any use? In his cry from the depth he had shown resentment
and hasty passion. These do not insure, they do not deserve help. The "holy ones"
would not respond to a man so unreasonable and indignant. On the contrary,
"resentment slayeth the foolish man, passion killeth the silly." What Job had said in
his outcry only tended to bring on him the fatal stroke of God. Having caught at this
idea, Eliphaz proceeds in a manner rather surprising. He has been shocked by Job’s
bitter words. The horror he felt returns upon him, and he falls into a very singular
and inconsiderate strain of remark. He does not, indeed, identify his old friend with
the foolish man whose destruction he proceeds to paint. But an instance has
occurred to him-a bit of his large experience-of one who behaved in a godless,
irrational way and suffered for it; and for Job’s warning, because he needs to take
home the lesson of the catastrophe, Eliphaz details the story. Forgetting the
circumstances of his friend, utterly forgetting that the man lying before him has lost
all his children and that robbers have swallowed his substance, absorbed in his own
reminiscence to the exclusion of every other thought, Eliphaz goes deliberately
through a whole roll of disasters so like Job’s that every word is a poisoned arrow:-
Plead then: will any one answer thee;
And to which of the holy ones wilt thou turn?
ay, resentment killeth the fool,
And hasty indignation slayeth the silly,
I myself have seen a godless fool take root;
Yet straightway I cursed his habitation:-
His children are far from succour,
They are crushed in the gate without deliverer
While the hungry eats up his harvest
And snatches it even out of the thorns,
And the snare gapes for their substance.
The desolation he saw come suddenly, even when the impious man had just taken
root as founder of a family, Eliphaz declares to be a curse from the Most High; and
he describes it with much force. Upon the children of the household disaster falls at

the gate or place of judgment; there is no one to plead for them, because the father
is marked for the vengeance of God. Predatory tribes from the desert devour first
the crops in the remoter fields, and then those protected by the thorn hedge near the
homestead. The man had been an oppressor; now those he had oppressed are under
no restraint and all he has is swallowed up without redress.
So much for the third attempt to convict Job and bring him to confession: It is a bolt
shot apparently at a venture, yet it strikes where it must wound to the quick. Here,
however, made aware, perhaps by a look of anguish or a sudden gesture, that he has
gone too far, Eliphaz draws back. To the general dogma that affliction is the lot of
every human being he returns, that the sting may be taken out of his words:-
"For disaster cometh not forth from the dust,
And out of the ground trouble springeth not;
But man is born unto trouble
As the sparks fly upward."
By this vague piece of moralising, which sheds no light on anything, Eliphaz betrays
himself. He shows that he is not anxious to get at the root of the matter. The whole
subject of pain and calamity is external to him, not a part of his own experience. He
would speak very differently if he were himself deprived of all his possessions and
laid low in trouble. As it is he can turn glibly from one thought to another, as if it
mattered not which fits the case. In fact, as he advances and retreats we discover
that he is feeling his way, aiming first at one thing, then at another, in the hope that
this or that random arrow may hit the mark. o man is just beside God. Job is like
the rest, crushed before the moth. Job has spoken passionately, in wild resentment.
Is he then among the foolish whose habitation is cursed? But again, lest that should
not be true, the speaker falls back on the common lot of men born to trouble-why,
God alone can tell. Afterwards he makes another suggestion. Is not God He who
frustrates the devices of the crafty and confounds the cunning, so that they grope in
the blaze of noon as if it were night? If the other explanations did not apply to Job’s
condition, perhaps this would. At all events something might be said by way of
answer that would give an inkling of the truth. At last the comparatively kind and
vague explanation is offered, that Job suffers from the chastening of the Lord, who,
though He afflicts, is also ready to heal. Glancing at all possibilities which occur to
him, Eliphaz leaves the afflicted man to accept that which happens to come home.
IV.
Eloquence, literary skill, sincerity, mark the close of this address. It is the argument
of a man who is anxious to bring his friend to a right frame of mind so that his latter
days may be peace. "As for me," he says, hinting what Job should do, "I would turn
to God, and set my expectation upon the Highest." Then he proceeds to give his
thoughts on Divine providence. Unsearchable, wonderful are the doings of God. He

is the Rain-giver for the thirsty fields and desert pastures. Among men, too, He
makes manifest His power, exalting those who are lowly, and restoring the joy of the
mourners. Crafty men, who plot to make their own way, oppose His sovereign
power in vain. They are stricken as if with blindness. Out of their hand the helpless
are delivered, and hope is restored to the feeble. Has Job been crafty? Has he been
in secret a plotter against the peace of men? Is it for this reason God has cast him
down? Let him repent, and he shall yet be saved. For
Happy is the man whom Eloah correcteth,
Therefore spurn not thou the chastening of Shaddai.
For He maketh sore and bindeth up;
He smiteth, but His hands make whole.
In six straits He will deliver thee;
In seven also shall not evil touch thee.
In famine He will rescue thee from death,
And in war from the power of the sword.
When the tongue smiteth thou shalt be hid;
or shalt thou fear when desolation cometh.
At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh;
And of the beasts of the earth shalt not be afraid.
For with the stones of the field shall be thy covenant;
With thee shall the beasts of the field be at peace.
So shalt thou find that thy tent is secure,
And surveying thy homestead thou shalt miss nothing
Thou shalt find that thy seed are many,
And thy offspring like the grass of the earth;
Thou shalt come to thy grave with white hair,
As a ripe shock of corn is carried home in its season.

Behold! This we have searched out: thus it is.
Hear it, and, thou, consider it for thyself!
Fine, indeed, as dramatic poetry; but is it not, as reasoning, incoherent? The author
does not mean it to be convincing. He who is chastened and receives the chastening
may not be saved in those six troubles, yea seven. There is more of dream than fact.
Eliphaz is apparently right in everything, as Dillmann says; but right only on the
surface. He has seen that they who plough iniquity and sow disaster reap the same.
He has seen a vision of the night, and received a message; a sign of God’s favour
that almost made him a prophet. He has seen a fool or impious man taking root, but
was not deceived; he knew what would be the end, and took upon him to curse
judicially the doomed homestead. He has seen the crafty confounded. He has seen
the man whom God corrected, who received his chastisement with submission,
rescued and restored to honour. "Lo, this we have searched out," he says; "it is even
thus." But the piety and orthodoxy of the good Eliphaz do not save him from
blunders at every turn. And to the clearing of Job’s position he offers no suggestion
of value. What does he say to throw light on the condition of a believing, earnest
servant of the Almighty who is always poor, always afflicted, who meets
disappointment after disappointment, and is pursued by sorrow and disaster even to
the grave? The religion of Eliphaz is made for well-to-do people like himself, and
such only. If it were true that, because all are sinful before God, affliction and pain
are punishments of sin and a man is happy in receiving this Divine correction, why
is Eliphaz himself not lying like Job upon a heap of ashes, racked with the torment
of disease? Good orthodox prosperous man, he thinks himself a prophet, but he is
none. Were he tried like Job he would be as unreasonable and passionate, as wild in
his declamation against life, as eager for death.
Useless in religion is all mere talk that only skims the surface, however often the
terms of it may be repeated, however widely they find acceptance. The creed that
breaks down at any point is no creed for a rational being. Infidelity in our day is
very much the consequence of crude notions about God that contradict each other,
notions of the atonement, of the meaning of suffering, of the future life, that are
incoherent, childish, of no practical weight. People think they have a firm grasp of
the truth; but when circumstances occur which are at variance with their
preconceived ideas, they turn away from religion, or their religion makes the facts of
life appear worse for them. It is the result of insufficient thought. Research must go
deeper, must return with new zeal to the study of Scripture and the life of Christ.
God’s revelation in providence and Christianity is one. It has a profound coherency,
the stamp and evidence of its truth. The rigidity of natural law has its meaning for
us in our study of the spiritual life.
PARKER, "The Argument of Eliphaz.
I.

Job 4
We must remember that the three comforters who came to Job in the hour of his
great grief probably never heard such a speech as that which Job poured forth
when after seven days and seven nights he opened his mouth, and cursed his day.
Who could reply to such a speech? It may be that Eliphaz was the oldest and the
chief of the comforters who came to the suffering patriarch, and therefore he began
the conversation. The best comment upon his speech, as indeed upon the whole
Book of Job , is not a critical handling of the individual words and sentences, but a
paraphrase,—a turning of the grand old controversy into modern forms and
present-day applications. It has been customary to sneer at the comforters of Job.
Surely there is nothing to sneer at in the great speech of Eliphaz? It might be so
read as to appear to be cold, haughty, reproachful, bitter, so as to turn Eliphaz
himself into an insufferable Pharisee; but it may also be so read as to disclose in
Eliphaz a Christian by anticipation, a philosophical comforter,—a man whose
condolence was not the utterance of vapouring sentiment, but the balm of sanctified
philosophy and reason. Better read it so. Why should these men have sprung all at
once into reproachful critics? They had heard of their friend being impoverished,
smitten down, crushed almost to death; they came from various quarters and from
long distances to condole with him: what was there to turn them instantly into
sourness, and to embitter their spirit? They themselves were so overcome by what
they had seen of Job"s grief and desolation that for a whole week, in and out, they
could not speak a word to him. Strange, passing all credulity, that they should
instantly turn themselves into sour critics, and throw stones at the sufferer, with
pharisaic self-conceit and haughtiness. There is nothing of this kind in the opening
of the conversation. What there may be by-and-by we shall discover. Evidently,
however, the case was wholly new to Eliphaz. He was a somewhat ponderous
speaker—slow, deliberate, majestic. Whilst he is talking we feel that he is looking
round about the case, trying to discern its meaning; for it is wholly novel, and it
comes upon him so as to create surprise. He has certain great principles with which
he never parts; he has based his life upon certain solid philosophies, and whatever
happens he will try everything by these great conclusions. But he talks slowly, and
whilst he is talking he is thinking, and whilst he is thinking he is endeavouring to
discern something in the case that will be as light upon a mystery, or a key to a
stubborn lock. This kind of experience never occurred before: what wonder if some
mistakes were made? and what wonder if Job resented even balm and cordial and
music in such enfeebled distress? There are agonies which will not bear the
utterance of words, even on the part of sympathising friends: well-meant remarks
only seem to drive the iron farther into the quivering life. A broad view, therefore,
must be taken of the whole situation, and taking that broad view it may happen that
we shall change our whole appreciation of this history of Job , and find in it things
that we had hitherto left undiscovered.
Eliphaz approaches the suffering man with an "if," and with a double
interrogation:—"If we assay, or attempt, to speak, will it add to thy grief? If Song of
Solomon , we will still hold our peace. Yet who can withhold or restrain himself
from speaking? It is a poor thing to do; still, who can resist the impulse?

Understand us: we do not want even to breathe upon thy pain, lest the breathing
should increase its agony; yet, if we went home without saying a word, without
endeavouring to present another view of the case than that which has darkened
upon thy poor life, it would seem as if we were judging thee, and even by silent
judgment increasing an intolerable pain. That, O poor suffering friend, is our
position. We are afraid to speak, and yet we must speak. We could not have uttered
a word if thou hadst not begun to speak thyself, but seeing that thou hast taken to
speaking, may we follow thee? It may be that in talking out all these thousand
problems relief may come. Let us then reverently and tenderly betake ourselves to a
contemplation of the marvellous drama and tragedy of human life." He begins as if
he meant to succeed. He loses nothing by this apparent weakness. It is the beginning
of his strength. If he were feebler he would be more furious: it is because he is
strong that he can afford to be slow. Then Hebrews , with a master"s skill, proceeds
to a positive declaration:—"Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast
strengthened the weak hands. Thy words have upholden him that was fallen, and
thou hast strengthened the feeble knees" ( Job 4:3-4). Sometimes an encouraging
word by way of review helps a man to listen, to think, and to pray. All the beneficent
past was not forgotten, the comforters knew the former status of Job—the chief man
in the land, the prime counsellor; a very fountain of consolation; a man who was
asked for and sought for when the whole horizon darkened with thunder.
Sometimes we need to be reminded of our better selves. It may do us good to be told
that once we were good, brave, wise, tender. A reference of that kind may bring
tears to a strong man"s eyes, and make him say in his heart—"If you think of me so
kindly as all that, God helping me, I will pluck up courage and try again to be as
good a man as you have supposed me to be." We lose nothing in our education of
men by words of encouragement, seasonably and lovingly spoken. What is
appropriate to a sufferer is sometimes appropriate to a prodigal. Tell him that once
he was the bravest in the whole set at school, whose face would have gathered up
into unutterable scorn at the bare mention of a lie or a thing mean and cowardly;
tell him of the days when his name was a charm, a watchword, which had only to be
spoken and at once it would symbolise honour, integrity, unselfishness. Let us try
that species of medicament when we attempt to heal wounds that are gaping and
bleeding, and that mean swift death.
Eliphaz is now entitled to say, "But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it
toucheth thee, and thou art troubled" ( Job 4:5). I see no taunt in these words. The
man is rather called to recollection of what he himself would have said to other men,
and, in the sixth verse, "Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the
uprightness of thy ways?"—simply means, in a broad sense: Recall thine own
principles; hasten to thine own sureties, and strong towers, and refuges; thou didst
point them out with eloquence and unction to other men, now will they not be
enough for thyself? Flee unto them, and accept sanctuary at the hands of God. Then
Job was but human, for he did quail under desolations, and losses, and torments,
concerning which he had comforted other men. If he live to get out of this, he will
comfort them as he never comforted them before. We cannot tell (reading the
history as if we had not read it before) what will become of this man; but if he
survive this night—all nights grouped into one darkness—he will speak as he has

never spoken before; he will be but a little lower than the angels.
In the seventh verse Eliphaz appears to be reproachful and bitter, and to suggest
that Job had been playing the part of a hypocrite:—"Remember, I pray thee, who
ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the righteous cut off." How easy it
would be to spoil that music by one rough tone; and how difficult it is to lift those
words into music such as one strong man could communicate to another, more than
his equal once in strength and dignity. But apart from the immediate application to
Job"s case, here is a sublime historical testimony. Leaving Job for a moment, here is
a challenge to the men who have read history—"Who ever perished, being
innocent? Or where were the righteous cut off?" Eliphaz knew of no such case, and
Eliphaz, by his own talk, whoever he was, was not a little Prayer of Manasseh ,
judging by his words, judging by the handling of his language. For the moment
forgetting all about inspiration and theology, and taking the speech as a piece of
literature, we are bound to say that the speaker is no contemptible person. Hebrews
, having established his authority to speak by the very manner of his speech,
challenges men to say when innocence perished, and where righteousness was cut
off. The usual rendering has been: Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being
innocent,—if thou hadst been innocent thou wouldst not have been in this condition;
remember, I pray thee, where were the righteous cut off,—if thou hadst been
righteous every son and daughter would have been living today, and the hills would
have been alive with thy flocks. But who reads it so? Surely not the brave, gentle
soul inhabited by the angel of Charity or the angel of Justice. Read it in some other
tone; then its meaning will be this: Job , remember who ever perished, being
innocent? And we all know the life you have led: you have been eyes to the blind,
ears to the deaf, a tongue to the dumb, a home to the homeless; you have lived
amongst us a spotless character: do not fear, therefore, you will not be driven to
destruction: the strife is very heavy; all the winds of heaven seem to have conspired
in one furious gust and to be driving thee away, but remember your integrity, and
take comfort: from the fact that innocence was never utterly destroyed: where were
the righteous cut off? Job , there lives not a man who could charge you with
unrighteousness; were any witness suborned to tell this lie, we would all rise up
against him, and convict him of high treason against the law of truth and
righteousness: that being the case, stand upon this grand broad fact, that God will
not allow the righteous man to be cut off. Thus what appeared to be a harsh
criticism is turned into a noble argument for the consolation and sustenance of a
desolated and impoverished soul.
PULPIT, "Job having ended his complaint, Eliphaz the Temanite, the first-named
of his three friends (Job 2:11), and perhaps the eldest of them, takes the word, and
endeavours to answer him. After a brief apology for venturing to speak at all (verse
2), he plunges into the controversy. Job has assumed that he is wholly guiltless of
having given any cause for God to afflict him. Eliphaz lays it down in the most
positive terms (verses 7, 8) that the innocent never suffer, only the wicked are
afflicted. He then passes on to the description of a vision which has appeared to him
(verses 12-21), from which he has learnt the lesson that men must not presume to be

"more wise than their Maker."
BI 1-21, "Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said.
The first colloquy
At this point we pass into the poem proper. It opens with three colloquies between Job
and his friends. In form these colloquies closely resemble each other. But while similar
in form, in spirit they differ widely. At the outset the friends are content to hint their
doubts of Job, their suspicion that he has fallen into some secret and heinous sin, in
general and ambiguous terms; but, as the argument rolls on, they are irritated by the
boldness with which he rebuts their charges and asserts his integrity, and grow ever
more candid and harsh and angry in the denunciation of his guilt. With fine truth to
nature, the poet depicts Job as passing through an entirely opposite process. At first,
while they content themselves with hints and “ambiguous givings-out,” with insinuating
in general terms that he must have sinned, and set themselves to win him to confession
and repentance, he is exasperated beyond all endurance, and challenges the justice both
of man and God; for it is these general charges, these covert and undefined insinuations
of some “occulted guilt,” which, because it is impossible to meet them, most of all vex
and disturb the soul. But as, in their rising anger, they exchange ambiguous hints for
open, definite charges, by a fine natural revulsion, Job grows even more calm and
reasonable; for definite charges can be definitely met; why then should he any longer vex
and distress his spirit? More and more he turns away from the loud, foolish outcries of
his friends, and addresses himself to God, even when he seems to speak to them.
(Samuel Cox, D. D.)
The message of the three friends
When Job opened his mouth and spoke, their sympathy was dashed with pious horror.
They had never in all their lives heard such words. He seemed to prove himself far worse
than they could have imagined. He ought to have been meek and submissive. Some flaw
there must have been: what was it? He should have confessed his sin, instead of cursing
life, and reflecting upon God. Their own silent suspicion, indeed, is the chief cause of his
despair; but this they do not understand. Amazed, they hear him; outraged, they take up
the challenge he offers. One after another the three men reason with Job, from almost
the same point of view, suggesting first, and then insisting that he should acknowledge
fault, and humble himself under the hand of a just and holy God. Now, here is the
motive of the long controversy which is the main subject of the poem. And, in tracing it,
we are to see Job, although racked by pain and distraught by grief—sadly at
disadvantage, because he seems to be a living example of the truth of their ideas—
rousing himself to the defence of his integrity and contending for that as the only grip he
has of God. Advance after advance is made by the three, who gradually become more
dogmatic as the controversy proceeds. Defence after defence is made by Job, who is
driven to think himself challenged not only by his friends, but sometimes also by God
Himself through them. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar agree in the opinion that Job has
done evil and is suffering for it. The language they use, and the arguments they bring
forward are much alike. Yet a difference will be found in their way of speaking, and a
vaguely suggested difference of character. Eliphaz gives us an impression of age and
authority. When Job has ended his complaint, Eliphaz regards him with a disturbed and
offended look. “How pitiful!” he seems to say but also, “How dreadful, how

unaccountable!” He desires to win Job to a right view of things by kindly counsel; but he
talks pompously, and preaches too much from the high moral bench. Bildad, again, is a
dry and composed person. He is less the man of experience than of tradition. He does
not speak of discoveries made in the course of his own observation; but he has stored the
sayings of the wise and reflected upon them. When a thing is cleverly said he is satisfied,
and he cannot understand why his impressive statements should fail to convince and
convert. He is a gentleman like Eliphaz, and uses courtesy. At first he refrains from
wounding Job’s feelings. Yet behind his politeness is the sense of superior wisdom—and
wisdom of ages and his own. He is certainly a harder man than Eliphaz. Lastly, Zophar is
a blunt man with a decidedly rough, dictatorial style. He is impatient of the waste of
words on a matter so plain, and prides himself on coming to the point. It is he who
ventures to say definitely, “Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine
iniquity deserveth,”—a cruel speech from any point of view. He is not so eloquent as
Eliphaz, he has no air of a prophet. Compared with Bildad, he is less argumentative.
With all his sympathy—and he too is a friend—he shows an exasperation which he
justifies by his zeal for the honour of God. The differences are delicate, but real, and
evident even to our late criticism. In the author’s day the characters would probably
seem more distinctly contrasted than they appear to us. Still, it must be owned, each
holds virtually the same position. One prevailing school of thought is represented, and in
each figure attacked. It is not difficult to imagine three speakers differing far more from
each other. One hears the breathings of the same dogmatism in the three voices. The
dramatising is vague, not at all of our sharp, modern kind, like that of Ibsen, throwing
each figure into vivid contrast with every other. (Robert A. Watson, D. D.)
Eliphaz as a natural religionist
See such an one estimating man’s character.
I. He regarded the fact that a man suffered as proof of his wickedness. It is true that the
principle of retribution is at work amongst men in this world. It is also true that this
principle is manifest in most signal judgments. But retribution here, though often
manifest, is not invariable and adequate; the wicked are not always made wretched, nor
are the good always made happy in this life. To judge a man’s character by his external
circumstances is a most flagrant mistake.
1. Suffering is not necessarily connected (directly) with sin.
2. Suffering seems almost necessary to the human creature in this world.
3. Suffering, as a fact, has a sanitary influence upon the character of the good.
II. He regarded the murmuring of a man under suffering as a proof of his wickedness.
Job had uttered terrible complaints. Eliphaz was right here: a murmuring spirit is
essentially an evil. In this complaining spirit Eliphaz discovers two things. Hypocrisy.
Ignorance of God. He then unfolds a vision he had, which suggests three things.
1. That man has a capacity to hold intercourse with a spirit world.
2. That man’s character places him in a humiliating position in the spirit world.
3. That man’s earthly state is only a temporary separation from a conscious existence
in the spirit world. (Homilist.)

The error of Eliphaz
Let us avoid the error of Eliphaz, the Temanite, who, in reproving Job, maintained that
the statute of requital is enforced in all cases, rigorously and exactly—that the world is
governed on the principle of minute recompense—that sin is always followed by its
equivalent of suffering in this present life. This is not so. To the rule of recompense we
must allow for a vast number of exceptions. The penalty does not always follow directly
on the heels of sin. It is oftentimes delayed, may be postponed for years, may possibly
never be inflicted in this world at all And meantime the wicked flourish. They sit in
places of honour and authority. As it is said, “The tabernacles of robbers do prosper, and
they that provoke God are secure. They are not in trouble as other men. They increase in
riches, and their eyes stand out with fatness. Yea, I have seen the wicked in great power,
and spreading himself like a green bay tree.” “Wherefore doth the way of the wicked
prosper?”
1. It is not because God is unobservant. Ah, no. “The iniquities of the wicked are not
hid from Mine eyes,” saith the Lord. He seeth our ways, pondereth our goings, hath
set a print upon the very heels of our feet.
2. Nor is it because of any indifference on the part of God. Seeing our sin, He abhors
it; otherwise He would not be God.
3. Nor is it for want of power. The tide marks of the deluge, remaining plain upon
the rocks even unto this day, attest what an angry God can do. Why then is the sinner
spared? And why is the just penalty of his guilt not laid upon us here and now?
Because the Lord is merciful. Sweep the whole heavens of philosophy for a reason
and you shall find none but this, the Lord is merciful. “As I live,” saith the Lord, “I
have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.”
A few practical inferences—
1. The fact that a sinner is afflicted here will not exempt him hereafter from the just
penalty of his ill-doing. We say of a man sometimes when the darkest waves of life
are rolling over him, “He is having his retribution now.” But that cannot be.
2. The fact that a sinner does not suffer here is no evidence that he will always go
scot-free. If the sentence be suspended for a timer it is only for a time—and for a
definite end. The Roman emblem of Justice was an old man, with a two-edged
sword, limping slowly but surely to his work.
3. The fact that the wicked are sometimes left unpunished here, is proof conclusive
of a final day of reckoning. For the requital is imperfect. Alas, for justice, if its
administration is to be regarded as completed on earth!
4. The fact that compensation is often delayed so long, in order that the sinner may
have abundant room for repentance, is a complete vindication of God’s mercy
though the fire burn forever.
5. The fact that all sin must be and is in every case, sooner or later, followed by
suffering, proves the absolute necessity of the vicarious pain of Jesus. God sent forth
His only-begotten and well-beloved Son to bear in His own body on the tree the
retribution that should have been laid upon us. So He redeemed the lost, yet did no
violence to justice. And thus it comes about that God can be just and yet the justifier
of the ungodly. (D. J. Burrell, D. D.)

2 “If someone ventures a word with you, will you
be impatient?
But who can keep from speaking?
He knew Job would not be patient with these his friends, for they were about to
carry out a plan to set him straight and defend the justice of God's providence in his
life. Their judgment was that he deserved the suffering he is enduring and that his
attitude is wrong in trying to play the innocent man, when the innocent are not
treated this way. He is saying that they cannot stand by and let him rail against God
and providence and say nothing. They are obligated to defend God and his ways
even if it adds to the pain he is suffering. Eliphaz is the most mild and friendly of the
three friends, and he begins with a friendly tone, and only gets negative when Job
will not listen to his wisdom. At that point he considers Job a fallen man, and he
then begins to condemn him just as the others will do.
ROGER HAH , "Many of us have discovered that our own advice is hard to follow
when we are the ones standing in need of it. Good advice always seems more appropriate
for someone else. Eliphaz accuses Job of failing to recognize this basic human
inconsistency in his own life.
Joe Bayly lost three children in a series of tragedies. In his book, The Last Thing We
Talk About, he relates that one friend visited him in the funeral home and talked
and talked about God’s grace and how God would get him through it. He knew all
those things were true, but he couldn’t wait for his friend to leave. Another friend
came and just sat with him quietly, not saying much, not trying to explain. He was
just there if needed him. Bayly said, “I hated to see him go.”
Don’t you hate it when you are suffering and people get all preachy or philosophical
on you and say things like, “You’re still young; you’ll have other children.” Or
“God works all things out for your good.” You just want to smack them.
The truth is that you can’t expect more out of people than they’re able to deliver.
Most of the time your friends want to help but they just don’t know how or they say
things that actually hurt more than they help. Galatians 6:2 says, “Carry each

other’s burdens,” but a few verses later it says to carry your own load.
BAR ES, "If we assay to commune with thee - Margin, A word. Hebrew - ‫הנסה‬
‫דבר‬ dâbâr hanıcâh. “May we attempt a word with thee?” This is a gentle and polite
apology at the beginning of his speech - an inquiry whether he would take it as unkind if
one should adventure on a remark in the way of argument. Jahn, in characterizing the
part which Job’s three friends respectively take in the controversy, says: “Eliphaz is
superior to the others in discernment and delicacy. He begins by addressing Job mildly;
and it is not until irritated by opposition that he reckons him among the wicked.”
Wilt thou be grieved? - That is, Wilt thou take it ill? Will it be offensive to you, or
weary you, or tire your patience? The word used here (‫לאה‬ lâ'âh) means to labor, to
strive, to weary, to exhaust; and hence, to be weary, to try one’s patience, to take
anything ill. Here it is the language of courtesy, and is designed to introduce the
subsequent remarks in the kindest manner. Eliphaz knew that he was about to make
observations which might implicate Job, and he introduced them in as kind a manner as
possible. There is nothing abrupt or harsh in his beginning. All is courteous in the
highest degree, and is a model for debaters.
But who can withhold himself from speaking? - Margin, “Refrain from words.”
That is, “the subject is so important, the sentiments advanced by Job are so
extraordinary, and the principles involved are so momentous, that it is impossible to
refrain.” There is much delicacy in this. He did not begin to speak merely to make a
speech. He professes that be would not have spoken, if he had not been pressed by the
importance of the subject, and had not been full of matter. To a great extent, this is a
good rule to adopt: not to make a speech unless there are sentiments which weigh upon
the mind, and convictions of duty which cannot be repressed.
CLARKE, "If we assay to commune with thee - As if he had said, Should I and
my friends endeavor to reason with thee ever so mildly, because we shall have many
things to say by way of reprehension, thou wilt be grieved and faint; and this we may
reasonably infer from the manner in which thou bearest thy present afflictions. Yet as
thou hast uttered words which are injurious to thy Maker, who can forbear speaking? It
is our duty to rise up on the part of God, though thereby we shall grieve him who is our
friend. This was a plausible beginning, and certainly was far from being insincere.
GILL, "If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved?.... Eliphaz
speaks in the name of himself and his two friends, who had doubtless consulted
together, and compared their sentiments of Job; which appearing to be the same, they
formed a plan and scheme in which they should attack him, and the part which each
should take, and the order in which they should proceed: these words are said, either as
seemingly doubting whether they should speak or be silent; for they may be rendered,
"shall we try", or attempt, to drop or speak a "word to thee"; to enter into a conversation
with thee? or, "shall we take up a discourse", and carry it on with thee, "who art grieved"
already? or art weary and heavy laden, and bore down with the burden of affliction, with

sorrows and troubles; or art impatient (h) under them; we fear, should we, that thou wilt
be more grieved and burdened, and become more impatient; and therefore know not
well what to do: or else, as supposing and taking it for granted that he would be grieved
and burdened, and made more restless and uneasy, impatient and outrageous, yet they
had determined to enter into a debate with him; for so the words are by some rendered,
"should we speak a word unto thee"; or, "against thee" (i); even should the least word be
spoken against thee, thou wilt be weary (k), or burdened, or grieved, or take it ill: we
know thou wilt; yet, nevertheless, we must not, we cannot, we will not forbear speaking:
or else interrogatively, as our version and others, "wilt thou be grieved?" we desire thou
wouldest not, nor take it ill from us, but all in good part; we mean no hurt, we design no
ill, but thy good, and beg thou wilt hear us patiently: this shows how great a man Job
had been, and in what reverence and respect he was had, that his friends bespeak him
after this manner in his low estate; however, this was artifice in them, to introduce the
discourse, and bring on the debate after this sort:
but who can withhold himself from speaking? be it as it will; Eliphaz suggests,
though Job was already and greatly burdened, and would be more so, and break out into
greater impatience, yet there was a necessity of speaking, it could not be forborne; no
man could refrain himself from speaking, nor ought in such a case, when the providence
of God was reflected upon, and he was blasphemed and evil spoken of, and charged with
injustice, as was supposed; in such circumstances, no good, no faithful man, could or
ought to keep silence; indeed, when the glory of God, the honour of the Redeemer, and
the good of souls require it, and a man's own reputation with respect to his faithfulness
lies at stake, silence should not be kept, let the consequence be as it may; but how far
this was the case may be considered.
JAMISO , "If we assay to commune — Rather, two questions, “May we attempt a
word with thee? Wilt thou be grieved at it?” Even pious friends often count that only a
touch which we feel as a wound.
K&D, "The question with which Eliphaz beings, is certainly one of those in which the
tone of interrogation falls on the second of the paratactically connected sentences: Wilt
thou, if we speak to thee, feel it unbearable? Similar examples are Job_4:21; Num_
16:22; Jer_8:4; and with interrogative Wherefore? Isa_5:4; Isa_50:2 : comp. the similar
paratactic union of sentences, Job_2:10; Job_3:11. The question arises here, whether ‫ה‬ ָ ִ‫נ‬
is an Aramaic form of writing for ‫א‬ ָ ִ‫נ‬ (as the Masora in distinction from Deu_4:34 takes
it), and also either future, Wilt thou, if we raise, i.e., utter, etc.; or passive, as Ewald
formerly,
(Note: In the second edition, comp. Jahrb. ix. 37, he explains it otherwise: “If we
attempt a word with thee, will it be grievous to thee quod aegre feras?” But that,
however, must be ‫ה‬ ֶ ִ‫;נ‬ the form ‫ה‬ ָ ִ‫נ‬ can only be third pers. Piel: If any one attempts,
etc., which, according to Ewald's construction, gives no suitable rendering.)
If a word is raised, i.e., uttered, ‫ר‬ ָ‫ב‬ ָ ‫א‬ ָ‫שׂ‬ָ‫,נ‬ like ‫ל‬ ָ‫שׁ‬ ָ‫מ‬ ‫א‬ ָ‫שׂ‬ָ‫,נ‬ Job_27:1; or whether it is third
pers. Piel, with the signification, attempt, tentare, Ecc_7:23. The last is to be preferred,
because more admissible and also more expressive. ‫ה‬ ָ ִ‫נ‬ followed by the fut. is a

hypothetic praet., Supposing that, etc., wilt thou, etc., as e.g., Job_23:10. ‫ין‬ ִ ִ‫מ‬ is the
Aramaic plur. of ‫ה‬ ָ ִ‫,מ‬ which is more frequent in the book of Job than the Hebrew plur.
‫ים‬ ִ ִ‫.מ‬ The futt., Job_4:3., because following the perf., are like imperfects in the western
languages: the expression is like Isa_35:3. In ‫ה‬ ָ ַ‫ע‬ ‫י‬ ִⅴ, Job_4:5, ‫י‬ ִⅴ has a temporal
signification, Now when, Ges. §155, 1, e, (b).
BE SO , "Job 4:2. If we assay to commune with thee, &c. — This is nearly the
sense, but not exactly the construction of the Hebrew, ‫אליְך‬ ‫דבר‬ ‫,הנסה‬ hanissah dabar
eeleka, is rather, Annon aggrediemur sermonem adversus te. Shall we not attempt a
discourse against thee? Shall we suffer thee to go on with thy complaints? Shall we
hear thee with patience, and be altogether silent, without so much as attempting a
reply? Wilt thou be grieved? — Or, Thou wilt be grieved; ‫,תלאה‬ Tileh, moleste feres,
thou wilt take it ill. Our words will undoubtedly vex, and not comfort thee, as we
desired and intended to do. For truth is surely to be regarded more than friendship,
and we cannot, in consistency therewith, speak words of consolation, but we must
use those of sharp reproof. This makes me desire to be silent, were it possible. But
who can withhold? &c. — The Hebrew
‫במלין‬ ‫,ועצר‬ vagnetser bemillin, &c., is literally, But to refrain from words, who can?
Who, when he hears such unreasonable and ungodly words, coming from such a
person as thou art, words whereby thou dost accuse thy Maker, reproach his
providence, and contemn his blessings, can forbear speaking? o man, who hath
any respect to God, or love to thee, can refrain from reproving thee. I will, therefore,
suggest to thee some of those observations, which were the thoughts of wise and
prudent men of old time; and from which, if well applied, thou mayest receive
singular profit. The verse is intended as an apology for what he was about to say.
COKE, "Job 4:2. If we assay to commune with thee, &c.— This verse contains an
apology for what Eliphaz was about to say, and is well rendered by Houbigant thus:
If I should attempt a discourse against thee, thou wilt take it ill; but who can refrain
from such discourse? In the following verses he proceeds to put Job in mind, that he
had instructed many how to bear afflictions, and that his good advice had been
effectual to the healing of their griefs; that, therefore, it would ill become him, now
that it was his own time to suffer, to forget the lessons which he had taught, and to
deliver himself up to despair, as he had seemed to do by the whole tenor of his
speech. The several images of weak hands, feeble knees, &c. contain a fine poetical
description of affliction. See Peters and Heath.
ELLICOTT, "(2) If we assay.—Rather, perhaps, Has one ever assayed? or, Has a
word ever been tried? It appears from Job 29:9-10, that Job was held in great
honour and reverence by all, and Eliphaz regarded him with awe such as would
have constrained him to be silent, but he is so convinced that Job is wrong and

deserves reproof, that he cannot refrain from speaking. He strikes a note, however,
which the friends all sound, namely, that it is the wicked who suffer, and that all
who suffer must be wicked. This, in a variety of forms, is the sum and substance of
what they have to say.
PULPIT, "If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? rather, If one
assay a word against thee' wilt thou be angry? Eliphaz feels that what he is about to
say will be unwelcome, and, as it were, apologizes beforehand. Surely Job will not be
angry if a friend just ventures a word. But who can withhold himself from
speaking? Let Job be angry or not, Eliphaz must speak. It is impossible to hear such
words as Job has uttered, and yet keep silence. God's wisdom and justice have been
impugned, and must be vindicated.
3 Think how you have instructed many,
how you have strengthened feeble hands.
BAR ES, "Behold, thou hast instructed many - That is, thou hast instructed
many how they ought to bear trials, and hast delivered important maxims to them on the
great subject of the divine government. This is not designed to be irony, or to wound the
feelings of Job. It is intended to recall to his mind the lessons which he had inculcated
on others in times of calamity, and to show him how important it was now that he
should reduce his own lessons to practice, and show their power in sustaining himself.
Thou hast strengthened the weak hands - That is, thou hast aided the feeble.
The hands are the instruments by which we accomplish anything, and when they are
weak, it is an indication of helplessness.
CLARKE, "Thou hast instructed many - Thou hast seen many in affliction and
distress, and thou hast given them such advice as was suitable to their state, and
effectual to their relief; and by this means thou hast strengthened the weak hands, and
the feeble knees - the desponding have been encouraged, and the irresolute confirmed
and excited to prompt and proper actions, by thy counsel and example.
GILL, "Behold, thou hast instructed many,.... This is introduced with a "behold",
either as a note of admiration, that such a man, who had instructed others, should act
the part he now does; or as a note of attention to Job himself, and all others that should
hear and read this, to observe it, and well consider it, and make the proper use of it; or as

a note of asseveration, affirming it to be true and certain, notorious and unquestionable,
as no doubt it was: Job was the instructor, a great man, and yet condescended to teach
and instruct men in the best things, as did also Abraham, David, Solomon, and others;
and a good man, and so fit to teach good things, as every good man is, and who,
according to his ability, the gift and measure of grace received should instruct others;
and a man of great gift he was, both in things natural, civil, and religious; one that could
speak well, and to the purpose, and so was apt and able to teach; and such should not
disuse and hide their talents: the persons he instructed were not only his own family, his
children and servants, as Abraham before him did; but others who attended him, and
waited for his counsel and advice, his words and doctrine, as for the rain, and latter rain,
and which dropped and distilled as such, see Job_29:15; and these were "many"; his
many ignorant neighbours about him, or many professors of religion, as there might be,
and it seems there were in this idolatrous country; and many afflicted ones among these,
which is usually the case: Job had many scholars in his school, of different sorts, that
attended on him; and these he instructed in the knowledge of the true God, his nature,
perfections, and works; and of the living Redeemer, his person, office, grace, and
righteousness; and of themselves, the impurity of their nature through original sin, he
was acquainted with; their impotency and inability to purge themselves, to atone for sin,
and to justify and make themselves acceptable to God; as well as he instructed them in
the worship of God, and the manner of it, their duty to him and to one another, and to all
their fellow creatures: some render it, "thou hast corrected", or "reproved many" (l); he
had taught the afflicted to be patient under their afflictions, and had reproved them for
their impatience; and the design of Eliphaz is to upbraid him with it, as in Rom_2:21;
thou that didst correct others for their unbecoming behaviour under afflictions, art
thyself guilty of the same: "turpe est doctori, cure culpa redarguit ipsum":
and thou hast strengthened the weak hands; either such as hung down through
want of food, by giving it to them, both corporeal and spiritual, which strengthens men's
hearts, and so their hands; or through sluggishness, by exhorting and stirring them up to
be active and diligent; or through fear of enemies, especially spiritual ones, as sin, Satan,
and the world; by reason of whose numbers and strength good men are apt to be
dispirited, and ready to castaway their spiritual armour, particularly the shield of faith
and confidence in God, as faint hearted soldiers in war, to which the allusion is: and
these were strengthened by telling them that all their enemies were conquered, and they
were more than conquerors over them; that the victory was certain, and their warfare
accomplished, or would quickly be: or else, whose hands were weak through a sense of
sin and danger, and being in expectation of the wrath, and vengeance of God; and who
were strengthened by observing to them that there was a Saviour appointed and
expected, a living Redeemer, who would stand upon the earth in the latter day, and save
them from their sins, and from wrath to come; see Isa_35:3; or rather, such whose
hearts and hands were, weak through sore and heavy afflictions, whom Job strengthened
by showing them that their afflictions were of God; not by chance, but by appointment,
and according to the sovereign will of God; that they were for their good, either
temporal, spiritual, or eternal; and that they would not continue always, but have an
end; and therefore should be patiently bore, see 1Co_12:11.
HE RY, "II. He exhibits a twofold charge against Job.
1. As to his particular conduct under this affliction. He charges him with weakness and
faint-heartedness, and this article of his charge there was too much ground for, Job_4:3-
5. And here,

(1.) He takes notice of Job's former serviceableness to the comfort of others. He owns
that Job had instructed many, not only his own children and servants, but many others,
his neighbours and friends, as many as fell within the sphere of his activity. He did not
only encourage those who were teachers by office, and countenance them, and pay for
the teaching of those who were poor, but he did himself instruct many. Though a great
man, he did not think it below him (king Solomon was a preacher); though a man of
business, he found time to do it, went among his neighbours, talked to them about their
souls, and gave them good counsel. O that this example of Job were imitated by our
great men! If he met with those who were ready to fall into sin, or sink under their
troubles, his words upheld them: a wonderful dexterity he had in offering that which was
proper to fortify persons against temptations, to support them under their burdens, and
to comfort afflicted consciences. He had, and used, the tongue of the learned, knew how
to speak a word in season to those that were weary, and employed himself much in that
good work. With suitable counsels and comforts he strengthened the weak hands for
work and service and the spiritual warfare, and the feeble knees for bearing up the man
in his journey and under his load. It is not only our duty to lift up our own hands that
hang down, by quickening and encouraging ourselves in the way of duty (Heb_12:12),
but we must also strengthen the weak hands of others, as there is occasion, and do what
we can to confirm their feeble knees, by saying to those that are of a fearful heart, Be
strong, Isa_35:3, Isa_35:4. The expressions seem to be borrowed thence. Note, Those
should abound in spiritual charity. A good word, well and wisely spoken, may do more
good than perhaps we think of. But why does Eliphaz mention this here? [1.] Perhaps he
praises him thus for the good he had done that he might make the intended reproof the
more passable with him. Just commendation is a good preface to a just reprehension,
will help to remove prejudices, and will show that the reproof comes not from ill will.
Paul praised the Corinthians before he chided them, 1Co_11:2. [2.] He remembers how
Job had comforted others as a reason why he might justly expect to be himself
comforted; and yet, if conviction was necessary in order to comfort, they must be
excused if they applied themselves to that first. The Comforter shall reprove, Joh_16:8.
[3.] He speaks this, perhaps, in a way of pity, lamenting that through the extremity of his
affliction he could not apply those comforts to himself which he had formerly
administered to others. It is easier to give good counsel than to take it, to preach
meekness and patience than to practise them. Facile omnes, cum valemus, rectum
consilium aegrotis damus - We all find it easy, when in health, to give good advice to
the sick. - Terent. [4.] Most think that he mentions it as an aggravation of his present
discontent, upbraiding him with his knowledge, and the good offices he had done for
others, as if he had said, “Thou that hast taught others, why dost thou not teach thyself?
Is not this an evidence of thy hypocrisy, that thou hast prescribed that medicine to
others which thou wilt not now take thyself, and so contradictest thyself, and actest
against thy own know principles? Thou that teachest another to faint, dost thou faint?
Rom_2:21. Physician, heal thyself.” Those who have rebuked others must expect to hear
of it if they themselves become obnoxious to rebuke.
BE SO , "Job 4:3. Behold, thou hast instructed many — It is well known thou
hast given good counsel unto others, teaching them those lessons which, it appears,
thou hast not thyself learned, and wilt not practise, namely, patiently to bear
afflictions, and to submit to God’s will and providence in all things. And thou hast
strengthened the weak hands — Hast encouraged those that were dispirited; hast
administered counsels, supports, and comforts to such as were unable to bear their

burdens, or to do their duty.
ELLICOTT, "(3) Behold, thou hast instructed many.—There is a conspicuous want
of feeling in Eliphaz. Without any true sympathy, however, he may have given the
outward signs of it (Job 2:12-13). He charges Job with inability to derive from his
own principles that support which he had expected them to afford to others, and
seems almost to rejoice malevolently that one who had been so great a help to others
was now in need of help himself. “Calamity touches thee, and thou art overwhelmed
by it.”
PULPIT, "Behold, thou hast instructed many; or, corrected many. When others
have been afflicted and murmured, thou hast corrected them, and shown them that
they were suffering only what they deserved to suffer. In so doing, thou hast
strengthened the weak hands; "given moral strength," i.e; "to those who were
morally weak," upheld them, saved them from impatient words and hard thoughts
of God.
4 Your words have supported those who
stumbled;
you have strengthened faltering knees.
BAR ES, "Thy words have upholden him that was falling - That is, either
falling into sin, or sinking under calamity and trial. The Hebrew will bear either
interpretation, but the connection seems to require us to understand it of one who was
sinking under the weight of affliction.
The feeble knees - Margin, “bowing.” The knees support the frame. If they fail, we
are feeble and helpless. Hence, their being weak, is so often used in the Bible to denote
imbecility. The sense is, that Job, in the days of his own prosperity, had exhorted others
to submit to God; had counselled them in such a manner as actually to give them
support, and that the same views should now have sustained him which he had so
successfully employed in comforting others.
GILL, "Thy words have up, holden him that was falling,.... Or "stumbling" (m);
that was stumbling at the providence of God in suffering good men to be afflicted, and
wicked men to prosper; which has been the stumbling block of God's people in all ages;
see Psa_73:2; or that was stumbling and falling off from the true religion by reason of

the revilings and reproaches of men, and their persecutions for it; which is sometimes
the case, not only of nominal professors, Mat_13:21; but of true believers, though they
do not so stumble and fall as to perish: or else being under afflictions themselves, were
ready to sink under them, their strength being small; now Job was helped to speak such
words of comfort and advice to persons in any and every of these circumstances as to
support them and preserve them from failing, and to enable them to keep their place and
station among the people of God. The Targum interprets it of such as were falling into
sin; the words of good men to stumbling and falling professors, whether into sin, or into
affliction by it, are often very seasonable, and very useful, when attended with the power
and Spirit of God:
and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees; that were tottering and trembling,
and bending, and not able to bear up under the weight of sin, which lay as an heavy
burden, too heavy to bear; or of afflictions very grievous and intolerable; to such persons
Job had often spoken words that had been useful to alleviate their troubles, and support
them under them. It may be observed, that the cases and circumstances of good men in
early times were much the same as they are now; that there is no temptation or affliction
that befalls the saints but what has been common; and that Job was a man of great gifts,
grace, and experience, and had the tongue of the learned, to speak a word in season to
every weary soul, in whatsoever condition they were: and all this, so very laudable in
him, is not observed to his commendation, but to his reproach; to show that he was not a
man of real virtue, that he contradicted himself, and did not act according to his
profession and principles, and the doctrines he taught others, and was an hypocrite at
heart; though no such conclusion follows, supposing he had not acted according to his
principles and former conduct; for it is a difficult thing for any good man to act entirely
according to them, or to behave the same in prosperity as in adversity, or to take that
advice themselves in affliction, and follow it, they have given to others, and yet not be
chargeable with hypocrisy. It would have been much better in Eliphaz and his friends to
have made another use of Job's former conduct and behaviour, namely, to have imitated
it, and endeavoured to have strengthened, and upheld him in his present distressed
circumstances; instead of that, he insults him, as follows.
BE SO ,"Job 4:4. Thy words have upholden him that was falling — That was
ready to sink under his pressures, or to fall into sin, or from God, through
despondency and distrust of his providence and promise, or through impatience.
And thou hast strengthened the feeble knees — Such as were weak-hearted, and
fainting under their trials.
PULPIT, "Thy words have upholden him that was falling. Many a man, just on the
point of falling, has been stopped in time by thy wise words and good advice to him.
This is a strong testimony to Job's kindliness of heart, and active sympathy with
sufferers during the period of his prosperity. And thou hast strengthened the feeble
knees; literally, the bowing knees—those that were just on the point of collapsing
and giving way through exhaustion or feebleness (comp. Isaiah 35:3).

5 But now trouble comes to you, and you are
discouraged;
it strikes you, and you are dismayed.
He is trying to say why can't you take your own medicine. He is aggrevated that Job
is going all to pieces when he has helped others to stay together in calamity. Let's
face it, it is always easier to give advice than to take it. Anybody can tell another
better how to face suffering than to suffer properly himself. It is not wise for the
non-sufferer to try and counsel the sufferer. It just does not fit reality. What can be
more irritating than one who has never lost a child telling one who has that all
things work for good. Alexander Pope, "I never knew any man in my life who could
bear another's misfortunes perfectly like a Christian."
Mr nice guy now turns to critic. But now that you are the one who has fallen you
will not take your own medicine and this shows that you are a hypocrite and refuse
to respond as you expected others to respond to the truth that they need to repent
and be restored. You are good at giving advice, but you can't take it, and so reveal a
dishonest spirit.
BAR ES, "But now it is come upon thee - That is, calamity; or, the same trial
which others have had, and in which thou hast so successfully exhorted and comforted
them. A similar sentiment to that which is here expressed, is found in Terence:
Facile omnes, cum valemus, recta consilia aegrotis damus.
And. ii. i. 9.
It toucheth thee - That is, affliction has come to yourself. It is no longer a thing
about which you can coolly sit down and reason, and on which you can deliver formal
exhortations.
And thou art troubled - Instead of evincing the calm submission which you have
exhorted others to do, your mind is now disturbed and restless. You vent your
complaints against the day of your birth, and you charge God with injustice. A sentiment
resembling this, occurs in Terence, as quoted by Codurcus:
Nonne id flagitium est, te aliis consilium dare,
Foris sapere, tibi non posse te auxiliarier?
Something similar to this not unfrequently occurs. It is an easy thing to give counsel to

others, and to exhort them to be submissive in trial. It is easy to utter general maxims,
and to suggest passages of Scripture on the subject of affliction, and even to impart
consolation to others; but when trial comes to ourselves, we often fail to realize the
power of those truths to console us. Ministers of the gospel are called officially to impart
such consolations, and are enabled to do it. But when the trial comes on them, and when
they ought by every solemn consideration to be able to show the power of those truths in
their own case, it sometimes happens that they evince the same impatience and want of
submission which they had rebuked in others; and that whatever truth and power there
may have been in their instructions, they themselves little felt their force. It is often
necessary that he who is appointed to comfort the afflicted, should be afflicted himself.
Then he can “weep with those who weep;” and hence, it is that ministers of the gospel
are called quite as much as any other class of people to pass through deep waters. Hence,
too, the Lord Jesus became so pre-eminent in suffering, that he might be touched with
the feelings of our infirmity, and be qualified to sympathize with us when we are tried;
Heb_2:14, Heb_2:17-18; Heb_4:15-16. It is exceedingly important that when they whose
office it is to comfort others are afflicted, they should exhibit an example of patience and
submission. Then is the time to try their religion; and then they have an opportunity to
convince others that the doctrines which they preach are adapted to the condition of
weak and suffering man.
CLARKE, "But now it is come upon thee - Now it is thy turn to suffer, and give
an example of the efficacy of thy own principles; but instead of this, behold, thou
faintest. Either, therefore, thou didst pretend to what thou hadst not; or thou art not
making a proper use of the principles which thou didst recommend to others.
GILL, "But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest,.... The affliction and
evil that he feared, Job_3:25; or rather the same trials and afflictions were come upon
him as had been on those whom he had instructed and reproved, and whose hands and
hearts he had strengthened and comforted; and yet now thou thyself "faintest", or "art
weary" (z), or art bore down and sinkest under the burden, and bearest it very
impatiently (a), quite contrary to the advice given to others; and therefore it was
concluded he could not be a virtuous, honest, and upright man at heart, only in show
and appearance. Bolducius renders the words, "God cometh unto thee", or "thy God
cometh"; very wrongly, though the sense may be the same; God cometh and visits thee
by laying his afflicting hand upon thee:
it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled; suggesting that it was but a touch, a slight
one, a light affliction; thereby lessening Job's calamity and distress, or making little and
light of it, and aggravating his impatience under it, that for such a trial as this he should
be so excessively troubled, his passions should be so violently moved, and he be thrown
into so much disorder and confusion, and be impatient beyond measure; no bounds
being set to his grief, and the expressions of it; yea, even to be in the utmost
consternation and amazement, as the word (b) signifies.
HE RY, "(2.) He upbraids him with his present low-spiritedness, Job_4:5. “Now
that it has come upon thee, now that it is thy turn to be afflicted, and the bitter cup that
goes round is put into thy hand, now that it touches thee, thou faintest, thou art

Job 4 commentary

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Job 4 commentary