Job 5:2

_FOR WRATH KILLETH THE FOOLISH MAN, AND ENVY SLAYETH THE SILLY ONE._ For - so far are you from profiting by your complaints. you only destroy yourself by justifying yourself and impatiently complaining against God. FOOLISH MAN ... SILLY ONE - imply at once the sin and folly of him who dreams he has merited nothing but good at Gods hands, and is impatient at affliction being sent upon him. WRATH ... ENVY - fretful and passionate complaints, such as Eliphaz charged Job with (Job 4:5). So Proverbs 14:30 - "Envy [is] the rottenness of the bones." For "envy," translate 'fretful passion killeth the foolish.' Not, the wrath of God killeth the foolish, and His envy, etc....

1-5 Eliphaz here calls upon Job to answer his arguments. Were any of the saints or servants of God visited with such Divine judgments as Job, or did they ever behave like him under their sufferings? The term, "saints," holy, or more strictly, consecrated ones, seems in all ages to have been applied to the people of God, through the Sacrifice slain in the covenant of their reconciliation. Eliphaz doubts not that the sin of sinners directly tends to their ruin. They kill themselves by some lust or other; therefore, no doubt, Job has done some foolish thing, by which he has brought himself into this condition. The allusion was plain to Job's former prosperity; but there was no evidence of Job's wickedness, and the application to him was unfair and severe....

Verse Job 5:2. _FOR WRATH KILLETH THE FOOLISH MAN_] _Foolish, silly_, and _simple_, are epithets given by _Solomon_ to sinners and transgressors of all kinds. Such parallelisms have afforded a presumptive argument that Solomon was the author of this book. See the _preface_. Job 1:1 The words of Eliphaz may be considered as a sort of _maxim_, which the wisdom and experience of ages had served to establish; viz., The wrath of God is manifested only against the wicked and impious; and if thou wert not such, God would not thus contend with thee....

FOR WRATH KILLETH THE FOOLISH MAN - That is, the wrath of God. The word foolish here is used as synonymous with wicked, because wickedness is supreme folly. The general proposition here is, that the wicked are cut off, and that they are overtaken with heavy calamities in this life. In proof of this, Eliphaz appeals in the following verses to his own observation: The implied inference is, that Job, having had all his possessions taken away, and having been overwhelmed with unspeakably great personal calamities, was to be regarded as having been a great sinner. Some suppose, however, that the word “wrath” here relates to the indignation or the repining of the individual himself, and that the reference is to the fact that such wrath or repining preys upon the spirit, and draws down the divine vengeance. This is the view of Schultens, and of Noyes. But it seems more probable that Eliphaz mea...

EXPOSITION JOB 5:1 Eliphaz, having narrated his vision, and rehearsed the words which the spirit spoke in his ear, continues in his own person, first (Job 5:1) covertly reproaching Job, and then (verses 8-27) seeking to comfort him by the suggestion that, if he will place himself unreservedly in the hands of God, it is still possible that God may relent, remove his chastening hand, deliver him from his troubles, and even give him back all his former prosperity. The anticipation is in remarkable accordance with the ultimate event (Job 42:10), and shows that Eliphaz, if not a prophet in the higher sense, is at least a sagacious interpreter of God's ways with men, and can very happily forecast the future.

FOR WRATH KILLETH THE FOOLISH MAN,.... Not one that is an idiot, and destitute of common sense, and has no understanding in things natural and civil; but a wicked man, who has no knowledge of things divine and spiritual, and so foolish; which is the character of every natural man, and of God's people before conversion; and even of some professors, who are foolish virgins, and carry the lamp of a religious profession without the oil of grace; and such an one Eliphaz took Job to be, whom sooner or later the wrath of the Lord, as the Targum interprets it, which is revealed from heaven, and comes down upon the children of disobedience, would consume like devouring fire: or this may be understood of the wrath and passion of such men themselves, which sometimes rises in them to such an height, as that they die in a fit of it; or do those things which bring them to death, either by the hand of...

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

JOB 5:1 contains the application of the principles just laid down. JOB 5:1. If the angels are imperfect, it is no use for Job to appeal to them as intercessors with God. Duhm, following Siegfried, rejects this verse connecting Job 4:21 closely with Job 5:2_._ The foolish man, he says, means in this context, the man without the fear of God. A man must be an impious fool, Eliphaz would say, in agreement with the Job of the Volksbuch (Job 2:10), if in misfortune, instead of, like a wise man, feeling his worthlessness and submitting to God, he allows himself to be carried away into rebell

SILLY. English. Anglo-Saxon _saelig_. inoffensive. Hebrew. _pathah =_ credulous. Compare Hosea 7:11....

Job 5:1-7. Having laid this broad ground, Eliphaz proceeds to apply the principle to Job....