Job 4:21

_DOTH NOT THEIR EXCELLENCY WHICH IS IN THEM GO AWAY? THEY DIE, EVEN WITHOUT WISDOM._ Their excellency - (Psalms 39:11; Psalms 146:4; 1 Corinthians 13:8). But Umbreit by an Oriental image from a bow useless, because unstrung. 'Their nerve or string would be torn away.' Michaelis, better in accordance with Job 4:19, makes the allusion be to the cords of a tabernacle taken down (Isaiah 33:20; Isaiah 38:12;...

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. Ever since man sinned, it has been terrible to him to receive communications from Heaven, conscious that he can expect no good tidings thence. Sinful man! shall he pretend to be more just, more pure, than God, who being his Maker, is his Lord and Owner? How dreadful, then, the pride and presumption of man! How great the patience of God! Look upon man in his life. The very foundation of that cottage of clay in which man dwells, is in the dust, and it will sink with its own weight. We stand but upon the dust. Some have a higher heap of dust to stand upon than others but still it is the earth that stays us up, and will shortly swallow us up. Man is soon crushed; or if some lingering distemper,...

Verse Job 4:21. _DOTH NOT THEIR EXCELLENCY - GO AWAY!_] Personal beauty, corporeal strength, powerful eloquence, and various mental endowments, pass away, or are _plucked up by the roots_; they are no more seen or heard among men, and their memory soon perisheth. _THEY DIE, EVEN WITHOUT WISDOM._] If wisdom means _the pursuit of_ _the best end, by the most legitimate and appropriate means_, the great mass of mankind appear to perish without it. But, if we consider the subject more closely, we shall find that all men die in a state of comparative ignorance. With all our boasted science and arts, how little do we know! Do we know any thing to _perfection_ that belongs either to the _material_ or _spiritual_ world? Do we understand even what _matter_ is? What is its _essence_? Do we understand what _spirit_ is? Then, what is

DOTH NOT THEIR EXCELLENCY ... - Dr. Good renders this, “Their fluttering round is over with them,” by a very forced construction of the passage. Translators and expositors have been very much divided in opinion as to its meaning; but the sense seems to be, that whatever is excellent in people is torn away or removed. Their excellence does not keep them from death, and they are taken off before they are truly wise. The word “excellency” here refers not only to moral excellency or virtue, but everything in which they excel others. Whatever there is in them of strength, or virtue, or influence, is removed. The word used here יתר _yether_ means, literally, something hanging over or redundant (from יתר _yâthar_, to hang over, be redundant, or to remain), and hence, it means abundance or remainder, and then that which exceeds or abounds. It is thus applied to any distinguished virtue

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...

DOTH NOT THEIR EXCELLENCY [WHICH IS] IN THEM GO AWAY?.... Either the soul which is in them, and is the most excellent part of them; this, though it dies not, yet it goes away and departs from the body at death; and so do all the powers and faculties of it, the thoughts, the affections, the mind, and memory, yea, all the endowments of the mind, wisdom, learning, knowledge of languages, arts, and sciences, all fail at death, 1 Corinthians 13:8; and so likewise all that is excellent in the body, the strength and beauty of it depart, its strength is weakened in the way, and its comeliness turned into corruption: or, as it may be rendered, "which is with them" l; and so may likewise denote all outward enjoyments, as wealth and riches, glory and honour, which a man cannot carry with him, do not descend into the grave with him, but then go away: a learned man m renders the words, "is not

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

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 clay, _i.e._ a body formed from the dust (Genesis 2:7; Genesis 3:19; 2 Corinthians 5:1). Observe that we are not yet at the point of view of the later Judaism and the NT, according to which some angels are good, some bad. All are fallible. Again, observe that man's sin fulness is deduced simply from his creatureliness, especially, however, from his being made from the dust. The spirit that appears to Eliphaz knows nothing of the Fall as an explanation of human sin. His thought is rather that if the angels, who are of spirit

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 smites only that He may the more profoundly heal. Happy should the man count himself whom God corrects. for his correction is meant to awaken him out of his dream of evil and lead him into a broader, clearer life, rich in blessings, and to be crowned with a ripe and peaceful end. This beautiful speech consists of three parts, of which the first contains a single division, ch. Job 4:1-11; the second, two divisions, ch. Job 4:12-21, and ch. Jo

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 of the night, When deep sleep falleth on men, 14 Fear came upon me, and trembling, Which made all my bones to shake. 15 Then a spirit passed before my face; The hair of my flesh stood up. 16 It stood still, but I could not discern the appearance thereof; A form was before mine eyes: _There was_ SILENCE, AND I HEARD A _voice, saying,_ 17 SHALL MORTAL MAN BE MORE JUST THAN GOD? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker? 18 Behold, he putteth no trust in his servants; And his angels he chargeth with folly: 19 How much more them that dwell in houses of clay, Whose foundation