Job 4:11

_THE OLD LION PERISHETH FOR LACK OF PREY, AND THE STOUT LION'S WHELPS ARE SCATTERED ABROAD._ _ THE OLD LION PERISHETH FOR LACK OF PREY, AND THE STOUT LION'S WHELPS ARE SCATTERED ABROAD._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

7-11 Eliphaz argues, 1. That good men were never thus ruined. But there is one event both to the righteous and to the wicked, Ecclesiastes 9:2, both in life and death; the great and certain difference is after death. Our worst mistakes are occasioned by drawing wrong views from undeniable truths. 2. That wicked men were often thus ruined: for the proof of this, Eliphaz vouches his own observation. We may see the same every day....

Verse Job 4:11. _THE OLD LION PERISHETH_] In this and the preceding verse the word _lion_ occurs _five times_; and in the original the words are all different: - 1. אריה aryeh, from ארה _arah_, to tear off. 2. שחל shachal, which as it appears to signify _black_ or _dark_, may mean the _black lion_, which is said to be found in Ethiopia and India. 3. כפיר kephir, a _young lion_, from כפר _caphar, to cover_, because he is said to _hide_ himself in order to surprise his prey, which the _old one_ does not. 4. ליש lavish, from לש _lash,_ _to knead, trample upon_; because of his method of seizing his prey. 5. לביא labi, from לבא _laba, to suckle with the first milk_; a lioness giving suck; at which time they are peculiarly fierce. All these words may point out some _quality_

THE OLD LION - The word used here, לישׁ _layı̂sh_, denotes a lion, “so called,” says Gesenius,” from his strength and bravery,” or, according to Urnbreit, the lion in the strength of his old ago; see an examination of the word in Bochart, Hieroz. P. i. Lib. iii. c. 1, p. 720. PERISHETH FOR LACK OF PREY - Not withstanding his strength and power. That is, such a thing sometimes occurs. Eliphaz could not maintain that it always happened. The meaning seems to be, that as the strength of the lion was no security that he would not perish for want, so it was with men who resembled the lion in the strength of mature age. AND THE STOUT LION’S WHELPS - The word here rendered “stout lion,” לביא _lâbı̂y'_, is probably derived from the obsolete root לבא _lâbâ'_, “to roa

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 brief apology for venturing to speak at all (verse 2), he plunges into the controversy. Job has assumed that he is wholly guiltless of having given any cause for God to afflict him. Eliphaz lays it down in the most positive terms (verses 7, 8) that the innocent never suffer, only the wicked are afflicted. He then passes on to the description of a vision which has appeared to him (verses 12-21), from which he has learnt the lesson that men must not presume to be "more wise than their Maker." JOB 4:1 THEN ELIPHAZ THE TEMANITE ANSWERED AND SAID (see the comment on...

THE OLD LION PERISHETH FOR LACK OF PREY,.... Or rather "the stout" and "strong lion" e, that is most able to take the prey, and most skilful at it, yet such shall perish for want of it; not so much for want of finding it, or of power to seize it, as of keeping it when got, it being taken away from him; signifying, that God oftentimes in his providence takes away from cruel oppressors what they have got by oppression, and so they are brought into starving and famishing circumstances. The Septuagint render the word by "myrmecoleon", or the "ant lion", which Isidore f thus describes; "it is a little animal, very troublesome to ants, which hides itself in the dust, and kills the ants as they carry their corn; hence it is called both a lion and an ant, because to other animals is as an ant, and to the ants as a lion,'' and therefore cannot be the lion here spoken of; though Strabo g and Ael...

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 (Job 5:1) 5. Happy is the man whom God correcteth (Job 5:17) With this chapter the long and tedious controversy between Job and his three visitors begins. His pitiful lamentation brings forth the addresses of his friends. Eliphaz and Bildad speak thrice, each answered by Job, and Zophar twice with corresponding rebuttals by Job. Job delivers his last word, the length

Eliphaz is provoked to reply, in spite of his unwillingness, by the tone of Job's speech, which seems to him altogether irreverent. He wonders that Job, who had comforted so many others in trouble, should fall into such despair, when trouble has come to himself. Eliphaz assumes that Job is a righteous man; Job 6 is not meant as sarcasm. Eliphaz would suggest simply that Job's trouble has caused him to leave the standing-ground of religion. His complaint (ch. 3) was unsuitable. Eliphaz does not see that Job had been occupied with the problem of God's behaviour to him, a problem which is quite outside the circle of the ideas in which Eliphaz, like the rest of the friends, moves. For them religion has no concern with God's behaviour to man, but only with man's behaviour to God. Eliphaz, therefore recalls Job to the fear of God, whence he has fallen by his unsuitable complaints. He should kn...

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 is designed to have a very different issue. 12 5:7. Second, proceeding with deeper earnestness he must advert to Job's murmurs against Heaven and warn him from them. For can any man have right on his side in complaining of God? Only the ungodly resent the dealing of God with them. By their impatience under affliction they bring down God's final anger upon them, so that they perish. Ch. Job 4:1-11. Eliphaz wonders that Job, who had comforted so many in trouble, and was a righteous man, should fall into such despair under his afflictions Eliphaz would gladly have kept silence in the

THE OLD LION PERISHETH FOR LACK OF PREY— Schultens imagines, that _this want of prey_ was not so much owing to its scarcity, as to its being torn from the mouth and talons of this ravenous creature. But it may be imputed with more probability to his not daring to venture out of his den in search of prey, amidst the roar of thunder, the blaze of lightning, and the violence of the storm, that _blast of God_ mentioned in the preceding verse. This sense seems to be confirmed by the word יתפרדו _yithparadu_ which we render, _are scattered abroad;_ the meaning of which is, they are so affrighted by the lightning and thunder, that, _being separated,_ they fly every one a different way, and cannot find the path which leads to the den of the lioness their dam. See Schultens and Heath....