1. The harm of inconsideration. 3 The end of the wicked is misery. 6 God is to be regarded in affliction. 17 The happy end of God’s correction.
Job 5:1 “Call if you will, but who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?
Call now. In other words, “if you turn away from God and reproach Him, what aid can you invoke?”
“Holy ones.” Here probably angels are meant (see Dan. 8:13; Zech. 14:5), but it must not be assumed that invocation of angels is endorsed. Eliphaz is no authority on religious questions.
Job 5:2 Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple
Eliphaz implies that Job, like a fool, was permitting his resentment, vexation to destroy him. To this Job replied, “Oh that my grief [vexation] were throughly weighed” (ch. 6:2). Envy. Or, “jealousy,” “passionate anger” (Prov. 14:30; Isa. 42:13).
Slays the simpley one.
Job 5:3 I myself have seen a fool taking root, but suddenly his house was cursed.
Eliphaz admits that the wicked may “take root” and prosper, but he does not believe such prosperity will be permanent.
Cursed. That is, I pronounced it accursed, knowing that the curse of God was resting upon it.
Job 5:4 His children are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender.
The gate of the ancient city was the place where the court of justice convened. The expression may be equivalent to “deprived of their rights in the court of judgment” (see Prov. 22:22). Some see in this verse an allusion to the death of Job’s children.
Job 5:5 The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from among thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
Even the thorn hedge around the field does not protect the crop of the fool from the bands of hungry marauders.
Job 5:6 For hardship does not spring from the soil, nor does trouble sprout from the ground.
Sorrow and trouble, he asserts, do not grow like weeds out of the ground. The soil must be prepared and the evil seed implanted. Man is naturally sinful; therefore, it is natural for him to suffer.
Job 5:7 Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
All men sin; therefore it is as natural for them to experience trouble as it is for sparks to fly upward. Why should Job complain of his lot so bitterly when sorrow is the common lot of all mankind?
Eliphaz fails to recognize that stating a reason for trouble does not comfort the sufferer. The human heart is not healed by a knowledge of the inevitability of trouble any more than sin is forgiven by a knowledge of the universality of sin.
Job 5:8 “But if I were you, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him.
“If I were you,” Eliphaz is saying, “I would cease complaining and seek God. Rather than wish for death, I would place my trust in Him.” It is easy for a person to assume that he would meet adversity more bravely than another. Actual experience sometimes betrays weakness in those who are most confident. Eliphaz was correct in what he said, but Job later evaluated its appropriateness in these words: “miserable comforters are ye all” (ch. 16:2).
Job 5:9 He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.
In vs. 9–16 Eliphaz speaks of the hand of God in human events. He was unaware of the presence and operations of the great adversary, at whose door must be laid the responsibility of all earth’s suffering and woe.
Job 5:10 He provides rain for the earth; he sends water on the countryside.
Job 5:11 The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
Job 5:12 He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success.
Job 5:13 He catches the wise in their craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are swept away
This is the only text in the book of Job that is quoted in the NT (1 Cor. 3:19).
1Co 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”;
Paul probably translated the text directly from the Hebrew or used some manuscript of the LXX not now extant. He expresses a thought like that of the LXX but makes use of different words.
Job 5:14 Darkness comes upon them in the daytime; at noon they grope as in the night.
Job 5:15 He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth; he saves them from the clutches of the powerful.
The text does not follow the regular parallelism. Various revisions have been suggested to preserve the poetic meter, but none of these versions adds much to the understanding of the passage. God is pictured as a defender of the needy against his oppressor.
Job 5:16 So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.
Job 5:17 “Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
Verses 17–27 probably constitute the supreme passage among all the statements of Job’s friends; yet it assumes that Job was suffering punishment for sin. The idea that God’s reproof is a favor is found in other scriptures (see Ps. 94:12; Prov. 3:11, 12; Heb. 12:5–11).
Job 5:17 “Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
Job 5:18 For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal.
See Deut. 32:39; Hosea 6:1.
Job 5:19 From six calamities he will rescue you; in seven no harm will touch you.
An expression found also in Ugaritic poetry. These numbers should not be taken literally. Six means many—seven means more. This is a poetic way of saying that God will deliver from all trouble (see Amos 1:3–11 for an example of similar numbering).
Job 5:20 In famine he will deliver you from death, and in battle from the stroke of the sword.
Job 5:21 You will be protected from the lash of the tongue, and need not fear when destruction comes.
Lash of the tongue.
Job 5:22 You will laugh at destruction and famine, and need not fear the wild animals.
Job 5:23 For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you.
Have a covenant. A poetic figure. The animate (the beasts) and the inanimate (the stones) would be at peace with the servant of God.
Job 5:24 You will know that your tent is secure; you will take stock of your property and find nothing missing.
Job 5:25 You will know that your children will be many, and your descendants like the grass of the earth.
To be blessed with many descendants was accepted as a sign of divine favor.
Job 5:26 You will come to the grave in full vigor, like sheaves gathered in season.
Another sign of divine favor. Despite Job’s serious physical condition, his friend holds before him the hope of longevity. Like as a shock of corn. Compare Milton: “So mayest thou live; till like ripe fruit, thou drop Into thy mother’s lap; or be with ease Gathered, not harshly plucked; for death mature.”
Job 5:27 “We have examined this, and it is true. So hear it and apply it to yourself.”
Eliphaz was convinced that his observations and conclusions were correct, and urged Job to accept his counsel and to act upon it.