The debate between Job and his friends on the question of his sufferings and on the meaning of evil in general This Debate occupies the whole body of the Book. It attaches itself to Job's passionate cry for death and his impatient allusions to Heaven in ch. 3. The tone of this speech the friends ca... [ Continue Reading ]
First, Eliphaz wonders that Job, who had comforted so many in trouble, and who was a righteous man, should fall into such despair under his afflictions, forgetting the great principle that the righteous never perish under affliction. Calamity destroys only the wicked; the affliction of the righteous... [ Continue Reading ]
_If we assay to commune_ lit. _if one should assay a word with thee. be grieved_ This word is rendered _thou faintest, Job 4:5_. It means _to be weary_; this may be equivalent either to _be impatient_, Isaiah 1:14, or to _be exhausted_. It is difficult to decide here. We may render, leaving the ambi... [ Continue Reading ]
_the weak hands_ lit. the hands hanging down, a sign of helplessness and despondency, 2 Samuel 4:1; Isaiah 13:7. Comp. Job's words of himself, ch. Job 29:15-16.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the feeble knees_ lit. as margin, _the bowing_, or tottering, _knees_; the figure being that of one tottering under a heavy load, which he is ready to sink beneath. See Isaiah 35:3-4; Hebrews 12:12.... [ Continue Reading ]
_it is come upon thee_ Rather, IT COMETH. _It_is the calamity, which Eliphaz does not care further to particularize. _art troubled_ Or, _art confounded_, losest self-possession, as Job had indeed described himself as one wholly perplexed, "whose way was hid," Job 3:23. We must beware of supposing... [ Continue Reading ]
_Is not this thy fear?_ This verse should read, Is not thy fear of God thy confidence? And thy hope, is it not the perfection of thy ways? When Job comforted others he no doubt would refer to their god-fearing life as a ground of hope that God would give them a happy issue out of their affliction... [ Continue Reading ]
Eliphaz would have Job remember that the afflictions of the righteous are disciplinary, and not designed for their destruction who ever perished being innocent? He puts his principle first negatively, the righteous do not perish under affliction; and then positively, it is the wicked, they who ploug... [ Continue Reading ]
_even as I have seen_ Rather, AS I HAVE SEEN. The words might be also rendered, _when I saw those that ploughed iniquity … they reaped it_. Eliphaz draws a distinction between two classes of men, on both of whom affliction may come the righteous, who may no doubt sin and be chastised for their sin,... [ Continue Reading ]
Third, surely instead of despairing and murmuring under his afflictions Job should follow a very different way. I, says Eliphaz, putting himself in Job's place, would seek unto God, all whose doings are directed to the saving of the meek and disappointing the devices of the evil. When He smites, He... [ Continue Reading ]
_by the blast of God_ Better, By the breath of God they perish, And by the blast of his anger are they consumed. The destructive judgment of God upon the wicked is described as a fiery breath coming from His mouth, as the hot wind of the desert withers and burns up the grass, cf. Isaiah 40:7; Amo... [ Continue Reading ]
The sudden destruction of the wicked is thrown by Eliphaz into another graphic figure, the breaking-up and dispersion of a den of lions. There are five words used for lion in these verses, some of which are epithets taken from the characteristics of the lion; they are: lion, roaring lion (rather tha... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now a thing_ Or, AND A WORD. Eliphaz proceeds to another point, but he introduces it calmly, though with deepening earnestness in his tone; it is something additional, and he appends it by the simple _and_. _a little thereof_ Rather, THE WHISPER THEREOF. His ear caught it all, but the whole of it... [ Continue Reading ]
Turning to Job's murmurs against heaven, Eliphaz points to the unapproachable purity of God and the imperfection of all creatures, and warns Job against such complaints Having expressed his wonder that a righteous man like Job should fall into such utter despair under afflictions, forgetting that t... [ Continue Reading ]
This revelation which came to him secretly or "stealthily," as the word means, was given in the dead of night. He had had visions on his bed, and perplexing, tangled thoughts filled his heart. God's providence and ways to man, no doubt, were the subject of his thoughts. The night was recognised of... [ Continue Reading ]
Eliphaz depicts graphically the circumstances in which he received the message from heaven. In the dead night, in the midst of his perplexing thoughts upon his bed, a supernatural terror suddenly seized him. Then he was conscious of a breath passing before him, Job 4:15. Then he seemed to perceive a... [ Continue Reading ]
_then a spirit_ Rather, A BREATH. It was something which he felt; that which he saw follows in Job 4:16. The word _spirit_does not seem used in the Old Testament in the sense of an apparition.... [ Continue Reading ]
_it stood still It_is the mysterious object in his presence. _there was silence, and I heard a voice_ lit. _stillness and a voice I heard_, i. e. probably, I HEARD A STILL VOICE; cf. "whisper," Job 4:12.... [ Continue Reading ]
_be more just than God_ This translation is possible. It is very unnatural, however; for though, if a man were found complaining of God's ways, the immediate inference might be that he was making himself more righteous (at least in the perception of moral rectitude) than God, such an inference does... [ Continue Reading ]
_he put no trust_ Better, HE PUTTETH. _he charged with folly_ Rather, HE CHARGETH WITH ERROR. The "servants" of God are here His heavenly ministers, as the parallel, "angels", indicates. The word "folly" (_tohŏlah_) does not occur again in Heb., and its meaning must be in some measure conjectural.... [ Continue Reading ]
_houses of clay_ The verse refers to men, and their "houses of clay" are their bodies, which are of the dust, Genesis 2:7; Genesis 3:19; 2 Corinthians 5:1. _whose foundation_ Men's bodies being compared to houses are now spoken of as, like houses, having a foundation. They are not only of earth, th... [ Continue Reading ]
_from morning to evening_ i. e. from a morning to an evening, in the course of a single day, cf. Isaiah 38:12. They are short-lived as ephemerids. _without any regarding_ i. e. without any one noticing it; so insignificant and of no account are they, that they pass away unobserved, like ephemeral i... [ Continue Reading ]
_their excellency go away_ This verse is obscure. The word rendered _go away_means to _pull out_, as a pin or the posts of a gate, Judges 16:3; Judges 16:14 (English version, went away with), or the stake of a tent, Isaiah 33:20 (be removed). This is probably the original meaning. Then the word is u... [ Continue Reading ]