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Mark Dunagan Commentaries

Job 4:17

"Can mankind be just before God? Can. man be pure before his Maker?"

Supposedly this is what the "spirit" said to him in the above dream. Eliphaz's argument appears to be that no man can stand pure before God, including Job. Therefore, Job must have sinned in some way to deserve such suffering. "No one is blameless or innocent before our holy God. Eliphaz is emphasizing that Job should accept God's verdict" (Strauss p. 41) The question with this argument, that no one is blameless before God, therefore everyone deserves to be punished, is "Why isn't Eliphaz suffering as well?"

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See also Job 4:17 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Job 4:17. _SHALL MORTAL MAN_] אנוש _enosh_; Greek βροτος. poor, weak, dying man. _BE MORE JUST THAN GOD?_] Or, האנוש מאלוה יצדק _haenosh meeloah_ _yitsdak_; shall poor, weak, sinful man be just...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    SHALL MORTAL MAN - Or, shall feeble man. The idea of “mortal” is not necessarily implied in the word used here, אנושׁ _'ĕnôsh_. It means man; and is usually applied to the lower classes or ranks of...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    CHAPTER S 4-5 THE FIRST ADDRESS OF ELIPHAZ _ 1. He rebukes Job (Job 4:1)_ 2. The righteous are not cast off (Job 4:6) 3. An awe-inspiring vision (Job 4:12) 4. Experience and exhortation ...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    This is what the vision said. Translate as _mg.:_ Shall mortal man be just before God, shall a man be pure before his maker? Even the angels are fallible, how much more man, who inhabits a house of cl...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    SHALL. ? Figure of speech _Erotesis._ App-6. MORTAL MAN. Hebrew. _'enosh._ App-14. MAN. strong man. Hebrew. _geber._ App-14....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    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 th...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _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 hims...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    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 a...

  • Charles Simeon's Horae Homileticae

    DISCOURSE: 454 ELIPHAZ REPROVES JOB Job 4:12. Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof. In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men,...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    2. The Visionno mortal can question God's just acts. (Job 4:12-21) TEXT 4:12-21 12 NOW A THING WAS SECRETLY BROUGHT TO ME, And mine ear received a whisper thereof. 13 In thoughts from the visions...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    _SHALL MORTAL MAN BE MORE JUST THAN GOD? SHALL A MAN BE MORE PURE THAN HIS MAKER?_ Mortal man ... a man. Two Hebrew words for man are used: the first implying his feebleness х_ 'ªNOWSH _ (H582)], the...

  • Darby's translation notes (1890)

    4:17 man (b-3) _ Enosh_ . see Psalms 8:4 . man (c-11) _ Geber_ . see ch. 3.3....

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    THE FIRST SPEECH OF ELIPHAZ (JOB 4:5) Eliphaz is the principal and probably the oldest of the three friends: cp. Job 32:6. He is also the most considerate. But the complainings of Job in Job 3 had evi...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    RM 'Shall mortal man be just before' (i.e. in the eyes of) 'God? Shall a man be pure before his Maker?'...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    JOB, A SERVANT OF GOD Job _KEITH SIMONS_ Words in boxes (except for words in brackets) are from the Bible. This commentary has been through Advanced Checking. CHAPTER 4 ELIPHAZ’S FIRST SPEECH V...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    This verse is correct. God is the judge of everyone. A person may be weak or strong. But everyone is guilty in God’s opinion. Everybody refuses to obey God’s law (Romans 3:23; Psalms 53:3; Proverbs 20...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    SHALL MORTAL MAN BE MORE JUST THAN GOD? — This is the burden, or refrain, upon which the friends of Job are for ever harping. It is perfectly orthodox, but at the same time perfectly inadequate to dea...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    הַֽ֭ אֱנֹושׁ מֵ אֱלֹ֣והַ יִצְדָּ֑ק אִ֥ם מֵ֝

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    VII. THE THINGS ELIPHAZ HAD SEEN Job 4:1; Job 5:1 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 fr...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    “SHALL MORTAL MAN BE MORE JUST THAN GOD?” Job 4:1 The first cycle of speeches is opened by Eliphaz. It must be remembered that he and the two others believed that special suffering resulted from and...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    Now begins the great controversy between Job and his friends, which occupies the major portion of the Book. This controversy moves in three cycles. The first, commencing here, runs through chapter fou...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    Shall mortal man be more (l) just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker? (l) He proves that if God punished the innocent, the creature would be more just than the creator, which was blasp...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    Maker. It is thought that these were the words of the angel. If God punish without cause, may not the sufferer esteem himself the better of the two? You must therefore be guilty. (Calmet) --- Job woul...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    (12) В¶ Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof. (13) In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men, (14) Fear came upon me, and trem...

  • John Brown Commentaries Selected Books of the Bible

    Eliphaz Relying on Experience I. INTRODUCTION A. Last week, in Chapter 3, Job was at the height of his deep, dark, depression! 1. In fact, he stated over and over again that he wished that he had n...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY COVERS CHAPTER S 4 THROUGH 31. As to the friends of Job, they do not call for any extended remarks. They urge the doctrine that God's earthly government is a full measure and...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    SHALL MORTAL MAN BE MORE JUST THAN GOD?.... Poor, weak, frail, dying man, and so sinful, as his mortality shows, which is the effect of sin; how should such a man be more righteous than God? who is so...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker? Ver. 17. _Shall mortal man_] Sorry sinful man, a very mixture and hodge podge of dirt and sin, _Miser, aerumnis et pec...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _Shall mortal man be more just than God?_ Shall man, _fallen man_, as the word אנושׁ, _enosh_, here used, signifies, subject as he is to diseases, troubles, and all those calamities which are the nece...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker? The thought contained here is this, that whoever censures the government of God, as Job had done in his complaint, ther...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    Job having thus given way to his impatience, his friends thought it their duty to correct him. But instead of showing him in what respect his position was wrong, they proceed according to the assumpti...

  • Leslie M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible

    ELIPHAZ: COMMENDATION TWISTED INTO REBUKE (vv.1-6) The three friends of Job could only think of God's justice in reference to Job's sufferings, and had no idea of God's love. Eliphaz no doubt though...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    12-21 Eliphaz relates a vision. When we are communing with our own hearts, and are still, Psalms 4:4, then is a time for the Holy Spirit to commune with us. This vision put him into very great fear....

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    The sense is, Thou, O Job, dost presumptuously accuse God for dealing harshly and unrighteously with thee, in sending thee into the world upon such hard terms, and punishing all innocent and righteous...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Job 4:17 mortal H582 righteous H6663 (H8799) God H433 man H1397 pure H2891 (H8799) Maker H6213 ...

  • Sermon Bible Commentary

    Job 4:13 I. Consider the spectre itself and its appearance. (1) It was produced by a likeness of moral state. It was a time of thought. But this does not convey all the idea of the passage. The Hebrew...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Eliphaz's theory in regard to Job's suffering. CHARACTERS: God, Eliphaz, Job. CONCLUSION: Those who pass rash and uncharitable censures upon their brethren, do Satan's work. We should be c...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Job 4:1. _Eliphaz answered,_ being the eldest, or the more eloquent. Job 4:3. _Thou hast instructed many._ The holy patriarchs were all preachers of righteousness on the sabbath days, &c, He admits t...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _Shall a man he more pure than his Maker?_ MAN COMPARED WITH GOD The sum of the assertion in this verse is, that no man can be more pure and just than God. Let a man be never so just or sincere, yet...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _In thoughts from the visions of the night._ THE SPECTRE’S QUESTION Disguise it how we may, this is a ghost story. I. Attempt to realise the spectre. Recollect that for every one of us spirit has c...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _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 clos...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    JOB—NOTE ON JOB 4:12 Eliphaz reports that he had a vision (vv. Job 4:12) and then describes its content (vv. Job 4:17). The vision raises t

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    _COMMENCEMENT OF THE CONTROVERSY BETWEEN JOB AND HIS THREE FRIENDS_ First Course of the Speeches. First Dialogue,—Eliphaz and Job FIRST SPEECH OF ELIPHAZ _Eliphaz censures Job for his impatience, an...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION 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...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    So Job has made his complaint, and so Eliphaz, his friend who came to comfort him, he said, If we attempt to talk to you, will you be grieved? [But really after what you've said] who can keep silent?...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    Ecclesiastes 7:20; Genesis 18:25; Jeremiah 12:1; Jeremiah 17:9; Job

  • Wells of Living Water Commentary

    THE PHILOSOPHY OF ELIPHAZ Job 4:1 INTRODUCTORY WORDS We are now approaching a part of the Book of Job that is most interesting. Job's three friends have at last broken their silence, and Eliphaz th...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    More just — Pretend more strictly to observe the laws of justice? Shall (enosh) mortal, miserable man (so the word signifies) be thus insolent? Nay, shall geber, the strongest and most eminent man, st...

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Old Testament