RV 'Is not thy fear (of God) thy confidence, and thy hope the integrity of thy ways?' 'Surely Job may reckon on the uprightness of his past life as a pledge of speedy deliverance! He must not despair. The v. is important as proving that the friends recognised Job's fundamental goodness, into whatever sins he may have suffered himself to be betrayed.

7-9. Whereas gross sinners are sure to be cut off, the righteous man, though he may have to suffer for his faults, has reason to hope that he will not perish.

10, 11. The wicked, who are compared to lions, will certainly be destroyed: cp. Psalms 22:13.

12-21. By way of awakening in Job a sense of sin Eliphaz describes a vision in which was revealed to him the perfect purity of God, and the imperfection in His sight of men and even of angels. We have here one of the most wonderful passages in literature. The secrecy, the hush, the sudden panic, the breath that passes over the face, the hair erect with horror, the shadowy figure whose form he cannot discern, the silence broken by the voice, all combine to produce the impression of terror, and terror not of the definitely known, but of the vague and mysterious, leaving the imagination full play to heighten it.

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