Eliphaz Speaks: The Innocent Prosper
1 Eliphaz reproves Job for want of religion. 7 He teaches God’s judgments to be not for the righteous, but for the wicked. 12 His fearful vision, to humble the excellency of creatures before God.
Job 4:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
Eliphaz. The first of the friends to reply to Job. His statements are more profound than those of his companions. Perhaps he was the oldest of the group. He summarizes with great clarity the prevailing attitude current in his day regarding the relationship between suffering and sin.
There is some truth in Eliphaz’ speech. He reveals keen insight, but he lacks warmth and sympathy and completely misses the mark in his appraisal of Job’s situation. Eliphaz is an example of how sincere people who fail to understand God and His attitude toward man may mishandle profound truths.
Job 4:2 “If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking?
Eliphaz begins his speech with a question. Such a form is frequently used in Job (see chs. 8:2; 11:2; 15:2; 18:2; 22:2). It is difficult to be sure whether the tone of Eliphaz’ question is apologetic or mildly sarcastic.
Impatient? The same word is translated “discouraged” in v. 5. Eliphaz has observed Job’s affliction and listened to Job’s complaint. He feels he can keep quiet no longer. He evidently came to the scene with a well-defined philosophy regarding suffering. Now he attempts to interpret Job’s plight in the light of this philosophy. He appears determined, at all costs, to protect his preconceived ideas.
Job 4:3 Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands.
Perhaps here in a moral sense, teaching others to regard afflictions as corrective chastenings.
Feeble hands. Literally, “the hands hanging down.” A sign of despondency and discouragement. Eliphaz pays tribute to Job’s endeavors on behalf of his fellow men.
Job 4:4 Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees.
Stumbled. “staggering,” “tottering.”
Faltering knees. Or, “bowing knees”; knees unable to carry the weight of a heavy load.
Job had been successful in bringing help to discouraged, afflicted people. He had no doubt pointed such people to God, and his counsel had been effective in their behalf.
Job 4:5 But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed.
But now. The situation has changed. Job can no longer take an objective attitude toward affliction. Personal experience is called upon to test the former theories.
Discouraged. Troubled. Or, “disturbed,” “dismayed,” “frightened.” Eliphaz makes a significant observation. People who endeavor to help others to bear their afflictions well should be an example of fortitude in trial. On the other hand, it is doubtful whether Job had ever had occasion to encourage a person whose condition was as serious as his own. Eliphaz seems to fail to recognize that in a few days Job had suffered more reverses than the average man is called upon to meet in a lifetime.
To Eliphaz’ legal mind, trouble is trouble, and Job, who had lost all, is expected to meet his sorrow with the same fortitude as another man who, for example, might have lost one of his children.
Job 4:6 Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?
Blameless. The Hebrew word thus translated is from the same root as the one rendered “perfect” in ch. 1:1. To balance the verse this second line should be translated “[Is not] your hope the integrity of your ways?” Eliphaz refers to two of Job’s great virtues, his fear of God and his integrity. Are not these sufficient in the hour of trial?
Job 4:7 “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed?
Verses 7–11 state the philosophy that suffering is the direct punishment for specific sin.
Job 4:8 As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.
The intended conclusion was inescapable that Job was reaping as he had sown.
Job 4:9 At the breath of God they perish; at the blast of his anger they are no more.
Breath of God. A poetic figure attributing human characteristics to God.
Job 4:10 The lions may roar and growl, yet the teeth of the great lions are broken.
Verses 10 and 11 describe five classes of lions that cover the entire range from the whelp to the old, helpless beast. The picture suggests the breaking up of a den of lions. The illustration is significant in a country where lions are numerous. In the minds of the people lions were synonymous with violence and destructiveness.
Eliphaz is pointing to the destruction of all classes of wicked men, young and old, weak or strong, even as a group of lions is dispersed. Eliphaz may have been alluding to the family of Job.
Job 4:11 The lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
Job 4:12 “A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it.
In one of the most vivid passages of the book Eliphaz describes what he claims to be a divine revelation.
Job 4:13 Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on people,
The darkness of night provided the eerie atmosphere for what follows.
Job 4:14 fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake.
Bones. Forming the supporting structure to the human frame, bones are, by figure, often closely associated with inward emotions (see Prov. 3:8; 12:4; 15:30; 17:22; Job 30:30; Ps. 31:10).
Shake. Applied to the bones figuratively in the sense noted above.
Job 4:15 A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end.
Job 4:16 It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice:
We have no assurance that this was a genuine revelation. Eliphaz apparently believed in its validity. The Bible nowhere even suggests that he possessed the prophetic gift.
Job 4:17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker?
A mortal. Heb. ’enosh. The two English words translate a single Hebrew word. ’Enosh means simply “man” or “mankind.” It is translated “man” 31 times, “men” 7 times, “another” once, and in connection with other nouns, “familiar” once, and “stranger” once.
Only here is it translated with the descriptive adjective “mortal.” The translation is interpretative in that it supplies an adjective where the original has none. The interpretation is selective because it chooses one of the many attributes of the human family, each of which would have equal validity if an adjective needed to be supplied. Such, however, is not essential. The text, therefore, does not lend support to the doctrine of the mortality of man. However, the clear proof of man’s mortality is found in numerous scriptures (1 Tim. 1:17; 6:16; etc.). It is possible that the translation “mortal man” has come to us through the medium of the LXX. In Job 4:17 that version translates ’enosh by brotos, which properly means “mortal man.” However, the LXX has brotos also in chs. 9:2; 10:4; 15:14; 25:4; 28:4, 13; 32:8; 33:12; 36:25; in none of which the KJV renders ’enosh as “mortal man.” Furthermore, the LXX does not consistently translate ’enosh by brotos, even in the book of Job (see the LXX of chs. 5:17; 7:1, 17; 10:5; 14:19; 25:6; 33:26).
More pure. Many translators render this verse, “Can a mortal man be righteous before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?” The Hebrew allows either translation. The use of “before” rather than “more than” seems to strengthen the meaning of the verse. Not only is man unable to surpass God in righteousness and purity; he is unable to be just and pure in the sight of God.
Job 4:18 If God places no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error,
Here evidently heavenly beings, for they are contrasted with members of humans (v. 19). It is not to be concluded that these beings are sinful. In their measure they are perfect, but their holiness is as nothing compared with the infinite perfection of God. The history of rebellion in heaven indicates that even the heavenly beings could be influenced by temptation and were capable of rebellion against God. Compare Rev. 12:3.
Job 4:19 how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth!
Eliphaz is contrasting man with the heavenly beings and stressing man’s frailty.
Crushed… Perhaps the meaning is “like the moth,” or “sooner or easier than the moth.” Some paraphrase it, “as though they were moths.”
Job 4:20 Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces; unnoticed, they perish forever.
Job 4:21 Are not the cords of their tent pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’
The revelation that Eliphaz describes may be summarized as a glimpse of the greatness and goodness of God in contrast with the sinfulness and frailty of man. But his statements are not tempered with sympathy, kindness, and human understanding. Job needs to be told how he can maintain his trust in God amid terrible suffering. Eliphaz merely tells him what he already knows—that he should trust in God.