Job 4:6

Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?

Is not this thy fear, thy confidence ... - Does thy fear, thy confidence, etc., come to nothing? Does it come only to this, that thou faintest now? Rather (Job 15:4), 'Is not thy fear [of God], thy confidence, and the uprightness of thy ways, thy hope?' (Job 8:14). "Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent?" (Maurer). But Luke (Luke 13:2) shows that though there is a retributive divine government even in this life, yet we cannot judge by the mere outward appearance. "One event is outwardly to the righteous and to the wicked" (Ecclesiastes 9:2); but yet we must take it on trust that God deals righteously even now (Psalms 37:25; Isaiah 33:16). Judge not by a part, but by the whole of a godly man's life, and by his end, even here (James 5:11). The one and the same outward event is altogether a different thing in its inward bearings on the godly and on the ungodly even here. Even prosperity-much more calamity-is a punishment to the wicked (Proverbs 1:32). Trials are chastisements for their good-to the righteous (Psalms 119:67; 71:75). See Preface on the Design of this Book.