Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 4:1
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
1 11. 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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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 circumstances of his friend, but the tone of Job’s words constrains him to speak ( Job 4:2). He wonders at the despondency of Job, one who had shewn himself so skilful in comforting other good men in affliction ( Job 4:3-4), and who was himself a righteous man. He should place confidence in his righteousness, and remember that the righteous never perish under affliction. God does not send trouble upon them to destroy them, but for very different ends ( Job 4:6-7). It is only the wicked whom He chastises unto death, and causes to reap the trouble which they sow ( Job 4:8-9), and perish like beasts of prey ( Job 4:10-11). Eliphaz’s doctrine of the meaning of suffering or evil comes out in the very forefront of his remonstrance with Job.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered – See the notes at Job 2:11.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 4:1-21
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 closely resemble each other. But while similar in form, in spirit they differ widely. At the outset the friends are content to hint their doubts of Job, their suspicion that he has fallen into some secret and heinous sin, in general and ambiguous terms; but, as the argument rolls on, they are irritated by the boldness with which he rebuts their charges and asserts his integrity, and grow ever more candid and harsh and angry in the denunciation of his guilt. With fine truth to nature, the poet depicts Job as passing through an entirely opposite process. At first, while they content themselves with hints and ambiguous givings-out, with insinuating in general terms that he must have sinned, and set themselves to win him to confession and repentance, he is exasperated beyond all endurance, and challenges the justice both of man and God; for it is these general charges, these covert and undefined insinuations of some occulted guilt, which, because it is impossible to meet them, most of all vex and disturb the soul. But as, in their rising anger, they exchange ambiguous hints for open, definite charges, by a fine natural revulsion, Job grows even more calm and reasonable; for definite charges can be definitely met; why then should he any longer vex and distress his spirit? More and more he turns away from the loud, foolish outcries of his friends, and addresses himself to God, even when he seems to speak to them. (Samuel Cox, D. D.)
The message of the three friends
When Job opened his mouth and spoke, their sympathy was dashed with pious horror. They had never in all their lives heard such words. He seemed to prove himself far worse than they could have imagined. He ought to have been meek and submissive. Some flaw there must have been: what was it? He should have confessed his sin, instead of cursing life, and reflecting upon God. Their own silent suspicion, indeed, is the chief cause of his despair; but this they do not understand. Amazed, they hear him; outraged, they take up the challenge he offers. One after another the three men reason with Job, from almost the same point of view, suggesting first, and then insisting that he should acknowledge fault, and humble himself under the hand of a just and holy God. Now, here is the motive of the long controversy which is the main subject of the poem. And, in tracing it, we are to see Job, although racked by pain and distraught by grief–sadly at disadvantage, because he seems to be a living example of the truth of their ideas–rousing himself to the defence of his integrity and contending for that as the only grip he has of God. Advance after advance is made by the three, who gradually become more dogmatic as the controversy proceeds. Defence after defence is made by Job, who is driven to think himself challenged not only by his friends, but sometimes also by God Himself through them. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar agree in the opinion that Job has done evil and is suffering for it. The language they use, and the arguments they bring forward are much alike. Yet a difference will be found in their way of speaking, and a vaguely suggested difference of character. Eliphaz gives us an impression of age and authority. When Job has ended his complaint, Eliphaz regards him with a disturbed and offended look. How pitiful! he seems to say but also, How dreadful, how unaccountable! He desires to win Job to a right view of things by kindly counsel; but he talks pompously, and preaches too much from the high moral bench. Bildad, again, is a dry and composed person. He is less the man of experience than of tradition. He does not speak of discoveries made in the course of his own observation; but he has stored the sayings of the wise and reflected upon them. When a thing is cleverly said he is satisfied, and he cannot understand why his impressive statements should fail to convince and convert. He is a gentleman like Eliphaz, and uses courtesy. At first he refrains from wounding Jobs feelings. Yet behind his politeness is the sense of superior wisdom–and wisdom of ages and his own. He is certainly a harder man than Eliphaz. Lastly, Zophar is a blunt man with a decidedly rough, dictatorial style. He is impatient of the waste of words on a matter so plain, and prides himself on coming to the point. It is he who ventures to say definitely, Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth,–a cruel speech from any point of view. He is not so eloquent as Eliphaz, he has no air of a prophet. Compared with Bildad, he is less argumentative. With all his sympathy–and he too is a friend–he shows an exasperation which he justifies by his zeal for the honour of God. The differences are delicate, but real, and evident even to our late criticism. In the authors day the characters would probably seem more distinctly contrasted than they appear to us. Still, it must be owned, each holds virtually the same position. One prevailing school of thought is represented, and in each figure attacked. It is not difficult to imagine three speakers differing far more from each other. One hears the breathings of the same dogmatism in the three voices. The dramatising is vague, not at all of our sharp, modern kind, like that of Ibsen, throwing each figure into vivid contrast with every other. (Robert A. Watson, D. D.)
Eliphaz as a natural religionist
See such an one estimating mans character.
I. He regarded the fact that a man suffered as proof of his wickedness. It is true that the principle of retribution is at work amongst men in this world. It is also true that this principle is manifest in most signal judgments. But retribution here, though often manifest, is not invariable and adequate; the wicked are not always made wretched, nor are the good always made happy in this life. To judge a mans character by his external circumstances is a most flagrant mistake.
1. Suffering is not necessarily connected (directly) with sin.
2. Suffering seems almost necessary to the human creature in this world.
3. Suffering, as a fact, has a sanitary influence upon the character of the good.
II. He regarded the murmuring of a man under suffering as a proof of his wickedness. Job had uttered terrible complaints. Eliphaz was right here: a murmuring spirit is essentially an evil. In this complaining spirit Eliphaz discovers two things. Hypocrisy. Ignorance of God. He then unfolds a vision he had, which suggests three things.
1. That man has a capacity to hold intercourse with a spirit world.
2. That mans character places him in a humiliating position in the spirit world.
3. That mans earthly state is only a temporary separation from a conscious existence in the spirit world. (Homilist.)
The error of Eliphaz
Let us avoid the error of Eliphaz, the Temanite, who, in reproving Job, maintained that the statute of requital is enforced in all cases, rigorously and exactly–that the world is governed on the principle of minute recompense–that sin is always followed by its equivalent of suffering in this present life. This is not so. To the rule of recompense we must allow for a vast number of exceptions. The penalty does not always follow directly on the heels of sin. It is oftentimes delayed, may be postponed for years, may possibly never be inflicted in this world at all And meantime the wicked flourish. They sit in places of honour and authority. As it is said, The tabernacles of robbers do prosper, and they that provoke God are secure. They are not in trouble as other men. They increase in riches, and their eyes stand out with fatness. Yea, I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper?
1. It is not because God is unobservant. Ah, no. The iniquities of the wicked are not hid from Mine eyes, saith the Lord. He seeth our ways, pondereth our goings, hath set a print upon the very heels of our feet.
2. Nor is it because of any indifference on the part of God. Seeing our sin, He abhors it; otherwise He would not be God.
3. Nor is it for want of power. The tide marks of the deluge, remaining plain upon the rocks even unto this day, attest what an angry God can do. Why then is the sinner spared? And why is the just penalty of his guilt not laid upon us here and now? Because the Lord is merciful. Sweep the whole heavens of philosophy for a reason and you shall find none but this, the Lord is merciful. As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
A few practical inferences–
1. The fact that a sinner is afflicted here will not exempt him hereafter from the just penalty of his ill-doing. We say of a man sometimes when the darkest waves of life are rolling over him, He is having his retribution now. But that cannot be.
2. The fact that a sinner does not suffer here is no evidence that he will always go scot-free. If the sentence be suspended for a timer it is only for a time–and for a definite end. The Roman emblem of Justice was an old man, with a two-edged sword, limping slowly but surely to his work.
3. The fact that the wicked are sometimes left unpunished here, is proof conclusive of a final day of reckoning. For the requital is imperfect. Alas, for justice, if its administration is to be regarded as completed on earth!
4. The fact that compensation is often delayed so long, in order that the sinner may have abundant room for repentance, is a complete vindication of Gods mercy though the fire burn forever.
5. The fact that all sin must be and is in every case, sooner or later, followed by suffering, proves the absolute necessity of the vicarious pain of Jesus. God sent forth His only-begotten and well-beloved Son to bear in His own body on the tree the retribution that should have been laid upon us. So He redeemed the lost, yet did no violence to justice. And thus it comes about that God can be just and yet the justifier of the ungodly. (D. J. Burrell, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER IV
Eliphaz answers; and accuses Job of impatience, and of
despondence in the time of adversity, 1-6;
asserts that no innocent man ever perished, and that the wicked
are afflicted for their sins, 7-11;
relates a vision that he had, 12-16,
and what was said to him on the occasion, 17-21.
NOTES ON CHAP. IV
Verse 1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered] For seven days this person and his two friends had observed a profound silence, being awed and confounded at the sight of Job’s unprecedented affliction. Having now sufficiently contemplated his afflicted state, and heard his bitter complaint, forgetting that he came as a comforter, and not as a reprover, he loses the feeling of the friend in the haughtiness of the censor, endeavouring to strip him of his only consolation, – the testimony of his conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, he had his conversation among men, – by insinuating that if his ways had been upright, he would not have been abandoned to such distress and affliction; and if his heart possessed that righteousness of which he boasted, he would not have been so suddenly cast down by adversity.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
1. Eliphazthe mildest ofJob’s three accusers. The greatness of Job’s calamities, hiscomplaints against God, and the opinion that calamities are proofs ofguilt, led the three to doubt Job’s integrity.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said. When Job was done cursing his day, and had finished his doleful ditty on that subject, then Eliphaz took the opportunity of speaking, not being able to bear any longer with Job and his behaviour under his afflictions; Eliphaz was one of Job’s three friends that came to visit him, Job 2:11; very probably he might be the senior man, or a man of the greatest authority and power; a most respectable person, had in great esteem and reverence among men, and by these his friends, and therefore takes upon him to speak first; or it may be it was agreed among themselves that he should begin the dispute with Job; and we find, that in the close of this controversy the Lord speaks to him by name, and to him only, Job 42:7; he “answered”; not that Job directed his discourse to him, but he took occasion, from Job’s afflictions and his passionate expressions, to say what he did; and he “said” not anything by way of condolence or consolation, not pitying Job’s case, nor comforting him in his afflicted circumstances, as they required both; but reproaching him as a wicked and hypocritical man, not acting like himself formerly, or according to his profession and principles, but just the reverse: this was a new trial to Job, and some think the sorest of all; it was as a sword in his bones, which was very cutting to him; as oil cast into a fiery furnace in which he now was, which increased the force and fury of it; and as to vinegar an opened and bleeding wound, which makes it smart the more.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In reply to Sommer, who in his excellent biblische Abhandlungen, 1846, considers the octastich as the extreme limit of the compass of the strophe, it is sufficient to refer to the Syriac strophe-system. It is, however, certainly an impossibility that, as Ewald ( Jahrb. ix. 37) remarks with reference to the first speech of Jehovah, Job 38-39, the strophes can sometimes extend to a length of 12 lines = Masoretic verses, consequently consist of 24 and more. Then Eliphaz the Temanite began, and said:
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Address of Eliphaz. | B. C. 1520. |
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, 2 If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking? 3 Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands. 4 Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees. 5 But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled. 6 Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?
In these verses,
I. Eliphaz excuses the trouble he is now about to give to Job by his discourse (v. 2): “If we assay a word with thee, offer a word of reproof and counsel, wilt thou be grieved and take it ill?” We have reason to fear thou wilt; but there is no remedy: “Who can refrain from words?” Observe, 1. With what modesty he speaks of himself and his own attempt. He will not undertake the management of the cause alone, but very humbly joins his friends with him: “We will commune with thee.” Those that plead God’s cause must be glad of help, lest it suffer through their weakness. He will not promise much, but begs leave to assay or attempt, and try if he could propose any thing that might be pertinent, and suit Job’s case. In difficult matters it becomes us to pretend no further, but only to try what may be said or done. Many excellent discourses have gone under the modest title of Essays. 2. With what tenderness he speaks of Job, and his present afflicted condition: “If we tell thee our mind, wilt thou be grieved? Wilt thou take it ill? Wilt thou lay it to thy own heart as thy affliction or to our charge as our fault? Shall we be reckoned unkind and cruel if we deal plainly and faithfully with thee? We desire we may not; we hope we shall not, and should be sorry if that should be ill resented which is well intended.” Note, We ought to be afraid of grieving any, especially those that are already in grief, lest we add affliction to the afflicted, as David’s enemies, Ps. lxix. 26. We should show ourselves backward to say that which we foresee will be grievous, though ever so necessary. God himself, though he afflicts justly, does not afflict willingly, Lam. iii. 33. 3. With what assurance he speaks of the truth and pertinency of what he was about to say: Who can withhold himself from speaking? Surely it was a pious zeal for God’s honour, and the spiritual welfare of Job, that laid him under this necessity of speaking. “Who can forbear speaking in vindication of God’s honour, which we hear reproved, in love to thy soul, which we see endangered?” Note, It is foolish pity not to reprove our friends, even our friends in affliction, for what they say or do amiss, only for fear of offending them. Whether men take it well or ill, we must with wisdom and meekness do our duty and discharge a good conscience.
II. He exhibits a twofold charge against Job.
1. As to his particular conduct under this affliction. He charges him with weakness and faint-heartedness, and this article of his charge there was too much ground for, v. 3-5. And here,
(1.) He takes notice of Job’s former serviceableness to the comfort of others. He owns that Job had instructed many, not only his own children and servants, but many others, his neighbours and friends, as many as fell within the sphere of his activity. He did not only encourage those who were teachers by office, and countenance them, and pay for the teaching of those who were poor, but he did himself instruct many. Though a great man, he did not think it below him (king Solomon was a preacher); though a man of business, he found time to do it, went among his neighbours, talked to them about their souls, and gave them good counsel. O that this example of Job were imitated by our great men! If he met with those who were ready to fall into sin, or sink under their troubles, his words upheld them: a wonderful dexterity he had in offering that which was proper to fortify persons against temptations, to support them under their burdens, and to comfort afflicted consciences. He had, and used, the tongue of the learned, knew how to speak a word in season to those that were weary, and employed himself much in that good work. With suitable counsels and comforts he strengthened the weak hands for work and service and the spiritual warfare, and the feeble knees for bearing up the man in his journey and under his load. It is not only our duty to lift up our own hands that hang down, by quickening and encouraging ourselves in the way of duty (Heb. xii. 12), but we must also strengthen the weak hands of others, as there is occasion, and do what we can to confirm their feeble knees, by saying to those that are of a fearful heart, Be strong,Isa 35:3; Isa 35:4. The expressions seem to be borrowed thence. Note, Those should abound in spiritual charity. A good word, well and wisely spoken, may do more good than perhaps we think of. But why does Eliphaz mention this here? [1.] Perhaps he praises him thus for the good he had done that he might make the intended reproof the more passable with him. Just commendation is a good preface to a just reprehension, will help to remove prejudices, and will show that the reproof comes not from ill will. Paul praised the Corinthians before he chided them, 1 Cor. xi. 2. [2.] He remembers how Job had comforted others as a reason why he might justly expect to be himself comforted; and yet, if conviction was necessary in order to comfort, they must be excused if they applied themselves to that first. The Comforter shall reprove, John xvi. 8. [3.] He speaks this, perhaps, in a way of pity, lamenting that through the extremity of his affliction he could not apply those comforts to himself which he had formerly administered to others. It is easier to give good counsel than to take it, to preach meekness and patience than to practise them. Facile omnes, cum valemus, rectum consilium grotis damus–We all find it easy, when in health, to give good advice to the sick.–Terent. [4.] Most think that he mentions it as an aggravation of his present discontent, upbraiding him with his knowledge, and the good offices he had done for others, as if he had said, “Thou that hast taught others, why dost thou not teach thyself? Is not this an evidence of thy hypocrisy, that thou hast prescribed that medicine to others which thou wilt not now take thyself, and so contradictest thyself, and actest against thy own know principles? Thou that teachest another to faint, dost thou faint? Rom. ii. 21. Physician, heal thyself.” Those who have rebuked others must expect to hear of it if they themselves become obnoxious to rebuke.
(2.) He upbraids him with his present low-spiritedness, v. 5. “Now that it has come upon thee, now that it is thy turn to be afflicted, and the bitter cup that goes round is put into thy hand, now that it touches thee, thou faintest, thou art troubled.” Here, [1.] He makes too light of Job’s afflictions: “It touches thee.” The very word that Satan himself had used, Job 1:11; Job 2:5. Had Eliphaz felt but the one-half of Job’s affliction, he would have said, “It smites me, it wounds me;” but, speaking of Job’s afflictions, he makes a mere trifle of it: “It touches thee and thou canst not bear to be touched.” Noli me tangere–Touch me not. [2.] He makes too much of Job’s resentments, and aggravates them: “Thou faintest, or thou art beside thyself; thou ravest, and knowest not what thou sayest.” Men in deep distress must have grains of allowance, and a favourable construction put upon what they say; when we make the worst of every word we do not as we would be done by.
2. As to his general character before this affliction. He charges him with wickedness and false-heartedness, and this article of his charge was utterly groundless and unjust. How unkindly does he banter him, and upbraid him with the great profession of religion he had made, as if it had all now come to nothing and proved a sham (v. 6): “Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways? Does it not all appear now to be a mere pretence? For, hadst thou been sincere in it, God would not thus have afflicted thee, nor wouldst thou have behaved thus under the affliction.” This was the very thing Satan aimed at, to prove Job a hypocrite, and disprove the character God had given of him. When he could not himself do this to God, but he still saw and said, Job is perfect and upright, then he endeavoured, by his friends, to do it to Job himself, and to persuade him to confess himself a hypocrite. Could he have gained that point he would have triumphed. Habes confitentem reum–Out of thy own mouth will I condemn thee. But, by the grace of God, Job was enabled to hold fast his integrity, and would not bear false witness against himself. Note, Those that pass rash and uncharitable censures upon their brethren, and condemn them as hypocrites, do Satan’s work, and serve his interest, more than they are aware of. I know not how it comes to pass that this verse is differently read in several editions of our common English Bibles; the original, and all the ancient versions, put thy hope before the uprightness of thy ways. So does the Geneva, and most of the editions of the last translation; but I find one of the first, in 1612, has it, Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, the uprightness of thy ways, and thy hope? Both the Assembly’s Annotations and Mr. Pool’s have that reading: and an edition in 1660 reads it, “Is not thy fear thy confidence, and the uprightness of thy ways thy hope? Does it not appear now that all the religion both of thy devotion and of thy conversation was only in hope and confidence that thou shouldst grow rich by it? Was it not all mercenary?” The very thing that Satan suggested. Is not thy religion thy hope, and are not thy ways thy confidence? so Mr. Broughton. Or, “Was it not? Didst thou not think that that would be thy protection? But thou art deceived.” Or, “Would it not have been so? If it had been sincere, would it not have kept thee from this despair?” It is true, if thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength, thy grace, is small (Prov. xxiv. 10); but it does not therefore follow that thou hast no grace, no strength at all. A man’s character is not to be taken from a single act.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
JOB -CHAPTER 4
THE FIRST ADDRESS OF ELIPHAZ
Verses 1-21:
The Mildest of Job’s Accusers
Verses 1, 2 begin an extended controversy between Job and his three friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, followed by a younger accuser named Elihu.
The phrase “after this” means after one week of their sitting in silence with Job in dust and ashes, and after he had concluded deriding the day of his birth and why he had not then died, Eliphaz the Temanite responded, Job 2:11-13; ch. 3. Eliphaz inquired of Job directly whether or not he would be grieved or gravely offended if his friends should share their judgments in the occasion of his grief. In essence he said, “one can not hold back from speaking on such an occasion, can he?”
Verses 3-5 affirm that Job had truly instructed many and strengthened weak hands, supporting him who was falling, strengthened or supported the feeble knees, the infirm and the aged, Isa 35:3; 2Sa 4:1; Heb 12:12. But now he had become troubled, fainted, or fallen out with weariness, weaknesses and asserted he wished to die, having lost self-command or emotional control, 2Th 3:3; 1Co 10:13; Heb 13:5.
Verses 6, 7 first inquire if Job’s upright conduct or behavior in life is not the basis of his fear or reverence of and hope in God, Psa 119:116; Ecc 9:4. Then Eliphaz chides or scolds Job, asking him to name anyone who ever perished in innocence or was cut off or killed in righteousness, yet they are. in war and in peace, on the highway and in the home, Ecc 9:2; Jas 5:11.
Verses 8, 9 recount observations of life that Eliphaz has noted. He asserts that those who plow, sow, and plant iniquity reap what they sow, Psa 7:14; Pro 22:8; Hos 7:7; Hos 10:13; Gal 6:7-8. By the judgment blast of God they come to ruin, and by the breath of His nostrils, at His breathed out fury, they are consumed, brought to ruin, like the blast of an hot, dry, east wind destroys grass and crops of the fields, Job 1:16; Isa 5:25; Psa 18:8; Psa 18:15. See also Exo 15:8; Job 1:19; Job 15:30; Isa 11:4; Isa 30:33; 2Th 2:8.
Verses 10, 11 use five Hebrew terms for the lion in describing different stages of the life of the lion to symbolize calamities that come upon the strongest of the wicked among men, just as destruction comes upon the lion in spite of his strength, Psa 58:6; 2Ti 4:17. There is, 1) the raging or teasing lion, 2) the roaring or bellowing lion, 3) the teeth of the young lion that hunts for prey, 4) the strong lion of old age, and 5) the stout lion, Job 29:17; Psa 3:7; Psa 57:4; Psa 34:10; Psa 58:6.
Verse 12 begins a horrid dream that Eliphaz had and relates, as if it had a godly, covert meaning. It was secretly or stealthily brought before him and he received it as a whisper, implying there was more to it than the words he heard, or more than words could utter, Job 26:14; 2Co 12:4.
Verses 13-16 describe this vision of a “spooky dream,” apparently demon given. The night vision came as Eliphaz was in deep sleep, with divided or troubled thoughts, Job 33:15. Fear overcame him that made his bones to shake and tremble. Then a spirit passed before his face, evidently a demon spirit, causing his hair to stand up on his whole body. The spirit came and momentarily stopped before his eyes. There was dead silence. Then a whispering voice spoke out of the silence, Psa 104:4; Heb 1:14.
Verse 17 adds that the voice rhetorically asked, “mortal man shall not be more just than God or purer than his maker, shall he?” The answer is no. But note that though man in his depraved nature is “mortal” deathly, it does not mean that he becomes extinct, goes out of existence at death. The soul of man is never said to be mortal! Heb 9:27-28. Man may be justified before God, only by faith in Jesus Christ, or at the point of total reliance on Jesus who died for all his sins, Rom 3:24-25.
Verse 18 asserts that “he put no trust (no longer trust) in His servants,” those fallen ones He charged with folly or imperfection because of their rebellion, of those angels once called “saints” or holy servants, Job 15:15; 2Pe 2:4; Jud 1:6; Jud 1:14-15.
Verse 19 affirms that God would surely put no more trust in men who dwell in houses of clay, with a foundation in the dust of death, than in the fallen angels. For men are crushed in death as payment for original sin as surely as moths are crushed by foundations of hard clay, Mat 7:27; 2Co 5:1; Gen 3:19. As a moth eats a garment, so is man a subject of crushing by the law of sin and death, Job 27:18; Psa 39:11; Isa 1:9.
Verses 20, 21 conclude that men die from morning to night, all day long, in spite of any moral holiness, because of sin in them, Jas 1:15; Exo 18:14; Isa 38:12; Psa 90:5-6. Men perish without any really regarding it. Their excellency, station of life is soon gone and forgotten. Their wisdom dies with them, a general rule of human experience, Psa 49:14; Psa 49:17; Job 34:12. Only their works follow, Rev 14:13.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THE FIRST SPEECH OF ELIPHAZ
Job 4, 5.
THESE two chapters contain the first speech of Eliphaz, and introduce the long and interesting debate between Job, his three visitors, and, finally, with Elihu, Jehovahs defender.
It is interesting to note the characteristics of this debate. They are those common to practically every intense discussion; they begin on high ground and in calm tone, but eventually descend to sharpness of speech and bitterness of spirit, and are not to be found entirely free from personalities. However, none of these were originally intended. These two chapters contain the opening speech of Eliphaz.
THE GENTLE REPROOF
Mark the approach!
It is made by an apology for breaking the silence.
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking? (Job 4:1-2).
This is certainly a careful procedure. Eliphaz finds himself in the dilemma of either speaking when silence seems more in harmony with his friends sorrow, or else of keeping silent when his friend suffers from a false philosophy. It is a delicate situation, and is approached with diffidence.
The speech contains a review of his friends ministry.
Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees (Job 4:3-4).
There is never a time when a man so much needs to be reminded of his sacrificial service in behalf of others as in that day when he himself is smitten.
Its review, however, paves the way for personal reproof.
But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.
Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways? (Job 4:5-6).
There is many a man whose philosophy concerning the sufferings of others sound and even comforting; but when grief and pain come to him, he forgets what he taught his fellows, and is even tempted to think in wholly different, channels, and to reach almost adverse conclusions.
THE GOODLY REASONING
It is interesting to trace the reasoning of Eliphaz. His contention takes a course of two or three lines.
He maintains the godly cannot perish.
Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? (Job 4:7).
This statement is absolutely true, but while the innocent cannot perish, all history is replete with the fact that they can suffer, and while the righteous are not cut off forever, it is certainly a fact that they are temporarily cut off. Even Christ Himself on the Cross lost the vision of God, and cried, Why hast Thou forsaken Me?
Whether Eliphaz meant to refer to finalities or merely to possible experiences would determine whether what he said were true. It will be seen when we come to it that Job interpreted him as meaning the innocent could not suffer, and the vision of the righteous could not be obscured. The viewpoint of men often determines their interpretation of words.
The godless cannot escape judgment.
Even as I have seen, they that plough iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of His nostrils are they consumed (Job 4:8-9).
Here again, debate seems scarcely necessary. The general principle laid down by Eliphaz is confessedly correct, but Jobs interpretation of that will also prove that one needs to make his meaning very clear, or else seem to approve false conclusions.
Strength cannot oppose the Almighty.
The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken.
The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lions whelps are scattered abroad (Job 4:10-11).
Man has reason to fear the roaring of the lion, and the fierceness of his voice, and the breaking, tearing power of his teeth, but not God. There is nothing beyond Him. Even the old lion, crafty in his ways, could not take his prey apart from Divine provision, and his whelps would starve and be scattered; in other words, animal life is dependent upon Divine provision and power.
THE GREAT EXPERIENCE
From 4:12 to 5:27, Eliphaz is reporting an experience and philosophizing upon the basis of the same..
He saw an indefinite something.
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,
Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.
Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:
It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof (Job 4:12-16 a).
It is not at all uncommon for men of certain psychical temperaments to have visions. Most of those amount to nothing except a temporary elation or depression of the individual involved.
It is doubtless true that the best poised men who have such visions, if they believe them to be sacred at all, maintain a silence about them. There are some experiences that are spoiled by speech, and in fact, are too sacred for the same, and there are others that doubtless were nothing more than a dream, and are in no wise important with God or the soul.
That there have been exceptional instances, no student of Scripture can doubt, unless he be an unbelieving student of the same; for instance, Isaiahs vision as recorded in chapter six finds the proof of its genuineness in Isaiahs ministry; while Pauls vision on the way to Damascus has its Divinity demonstrated in the marvelous life resulting from the same and the matchless ministry that followed it. However, there was no indefiniteness in either the vision of Isaiah or Paul as there is in this of Eliphaz.
Strange and unwonted experiences are not proofs of inspiration. The facts are that the argument of Eliphaz which follows has its points of weakness, and Job will make them apparent when he replies.
The present tendency is to rest too much upon personal experience; in fact, a recent book contributed to philosophy, in which the author seeks to show that personal experience is the foundation stone on which the Church of God rests, is commonly repudiated by careful students of Scripture, and the whole argument of Modernism now resting upon personal experience as a proof of the saving power of Christ, is only a partial truth, and we know that partial truths, at times, are entire falsehoods.
However, Eliphaz clearly heard. That was not like Pauls attendants, hearing the sound, but not discerning the sense thereof; but like Paul himself, he heard a voice, and what was said follows:
Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his Maker?
Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:
How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?
They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it.
Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom (Job 4:17-21).
Call now, if there be any that will answer thee; and to which of the saints wilt thou turn?
For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one.
I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation.
His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, neither is there any to deliver them.
Whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh it even gut of the thorns, and the robber swalloweth up their substance.
Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;
Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause:
Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number:
Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields:
To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety.
He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.
He taketh the wise in their own craftiness; and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.
They meet with darkness in the day-time, and grope in the noon-day as in the night.
But he saveth the poor from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty.
So the poor hath hope, and iniquity stoppeth her mouth.
Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth; therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:
For He maketh sore, and bindeth up; He woundeth, and His hands make whole.
He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.
In famine He shall redeem thee from death; and in war from the power of the sword.
Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue; neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.
At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh; neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field; and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.
And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin.
Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great, and thine offspring as the grass of the earth.
Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.
Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good (Job 5:1-27).
There is no claim in this text that this vision was certainly divinely given. It is reported as a dream, but Eliphaz evidently believed that in that dream the speaker was the voice of truth, and in fact, there is so much of truth found in these verses that one would be justified in maintaining that it was a special revelation.
However, the next chapter will be devoted to Jobs answer, involving as it does, the power of matter over mind.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
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, and hints at sin as the cause of his suffering. Job. 4:1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite, &c. First of the three in age and experience. The mildest of Jobs accusers, and superior to the rest in discernment and delicacy. His tone friendly and modest, but pours vinegar rather than oil on Jobs wounds. A wise man of the class of Solomon, Heman, and Ethan (1Ki. 4:30-31). Maintains that no innocent person is ever left to perish (Job. 4:7). His statements sound in themselves, but false in their application. His speech the product of a genuine, pious, wise man of the east. Characterized by the legality and narrowness of the age in which he lived. Sadly wanting in sympathy and heart. Eliphaz immensely Jobs inferior in intelligence, though his superior in age.
I. Introduction (Job. 4:2).
If we assay, &c. Begins with gentleness and courtesy. Reproof to be given, not only with love in the heart, but tenderness on the tongue. The razor cuts cleanest when whetted with oil. Tenderness especially due to sufferers.Wilt thou be grieved, or take it ill? As difficult to bear reproof in trouble as it is to give it. Patiently to bear reproof, the sign of an honest, if not a gracious heart (Pro. 16:32). Next to the not deserving of a reproof is the well taking of it [Bishop Hall]. No little grace required to say Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness (Psa. 141:5).But who can withhold himself, &c. The reason of his speaking. Compelled by conscience. Good to speak and act only from conviction of duty. Care to be taken, however, that that conviction be an enlightened one. Compulsion from our own spirit not to be mistaken for impulsion from Gods. Better not to speak at all than not to speak to the purpose.
II. The Reproof. Contains
1. A testimony to Jobs past character and conduct, (Job. 4:3-4). Thou hast instructed many, &c. Jobs conduct to others in similar circumstances to his own. Instructed,strengthened, upheld.Noble testimony(l.) To his sympathy and warmth of heart;
(2.) To his wisdom and intelligencehast instructed;
(3.) To his zeal and self-denying activity on behalf of othersinstructed many;
(4.) To his experience in the things of God, fitting him for a spiritual comforter. Jobs character not merely one of uprightness and integrity, but of kindness and benevolence. Elipbaz endorses the testimonya perfect as well as an upright man. Does this, however, less to praise his past, than to censure his present conduct. Confirms Jobs own testimony of himself (Job. 29:13, &c.; Job. 30:25). Job the opposite of a selfish character. Improved his prosperity and influence for the comfort and benefit of others. A true priest and minister to the neighbourhood in which he lived. Not only prayed and sacrificed for others, but imparted instruction and consolation to them. Not only feared God himself, but sought to lead others to do the same. Sought to stimulate to duty and to strengthen under trial. Performed for those in trouble the part of Jonathan to David (1Sa. 23:16). His conduct enjoined as a New Testament duty (Isa. 35:3; Heb. 12:12). Practised by Christians as a New Testament grace (Rom. 15:14; 1Co. 16:15; Heb. 6:10; 1Th. 5:11). The work and ministry of Christ himself, Jobs antitype (Isa. 42:3; Isa. 61:1-3). Instruction placed first, as the means and foundation of the rest. The word of truth the medium to be employed in healing sick and wounded spirits (Psa. 107:20).
Christian Ministry
Especially one of instruction and consolation (Isa. 40:12). Requires an enlightened mind, a tender heart, and a gracious tongue. Abundant room for such a ministry in a sinning and suffering world. Dark minds, weak hands, and tottering knees to be met with everywhere. The feeble, the falling, and the fallen, the church has with it always. The whole creation travailing together in pain; and believers, with the first fruits of the Spirit, groaning within themselves (Rom. 8:22-23). Cases especially requiring such a ministry:
1. Affliction, personal or domestic;
2. Bereavement;
3. Temporal losses and misfortunes;
4. Persecution and cruel treatment from others;
5. Spiritual darkness and temptation;
6. Sorrow and contrition for sin;
7. Infirmities of age and approaching dissolution. Till tears are wiped away, and hearts cease to ache, and sin no longer desolates, every believer has a mission in this world [Beecher]. Grounds of consolation and support in the character and truth of God (1Sa. 23:16. The Old and New Testaments the storehouse of Divine consolations (Rom. 15:4). Lamentations 3, Romans 8, and Hebrews 12. especially rich in such topics. The believer and well-instructed scribe to be always ready to draw out of this treasury (Mat. 13:52).Topics of consolation in time of trouble and affliction:
(1.) The character of God, as compassionate and faithful;
(2.) The hand of God in all our afflictions;
(3.) Gods gracious purposes in sending trouble;
(4.) The shortness and lightness of affliction as compared with the eternal weight of glory for which it is preparatory;
(5.) The promises of pardon, grace, guidance, provision, and protection to the end;
(6.) Christ Himself as our Redeemer, in whom we have all things;
(7.) His example as a sufferer;
(8.) His sympathy in our affliction.
2. The censure. But now, &c. To commend with a but is a wound rather than a consolation [Trapp]. Christs reproofs, however, sometimes given with such a but (Rev. 2:14).Now it is come upon thee,viz., trouble. Storms prove the ships seaworthiness.And thou faintest. Same word as in Job. 4:2, rendered grieved. An unfeeling reproach. Eliphaz a sorry imitator of what he had just commended in Job. Forgets the unprecedented character of Jobs sufferings. Charges him with being either a pretender to the virtue he had not, or a neglector of what he had. Jobs antitype similarly taunted,He saved others, &c. (Mat. 27:42). Yet suggests an important truth both for Christians and ministers.
Ministerial Consistency
Heed to be taken not to preach to others without practising ourselves. The peoples ears not to be holier than the preachers heart. Jewish Rabbies condemned for teaching others whilst not teaching themselves (Rom. 2:21). Self application of enforced truth the preachers duty as well as the peoples. The exhortation of the lips to be seconded by the testimony of the life. Present doings not to shame former sayings [Trapp]. One said of Erasmus, There is more of Christs soldier in his book than in his bosom. The easiest thing to give good counsel, the hardest to act on it. Self application of Divine truth mans duty, but Gods gift. Sustaining grace needed by the strongest as well as the weakest. The saddest fall, that when a standard bearer fainteth (Isa. 40:28). To faint in the day of adversity proves our strength is small (Pro. 24:10). The believers duty to do each days work with Christian diligence, and to bear each days cross with Christian patience. The charge of Eliphaz though not the kindest, yet true. Job had both fainted, and was troubled, or confounded. The language of chap. 3. a sad contrast to that of chap. 1 and
2. The shield of faith vilely cast away. How is the mighty fallen!Faith and patience in the greatest taints subject to eclipse. Job had with Peter walked on the water; but now, with Peter, begins to sink in it.Inconstancy written on all creature-excellence. Only One able to say I change not, (Mal. 3:6). Davids mountain stands strong till God hides His face, and he is troubled (Psa. 30:7). Job to learn that his own strength is weakness, and that his righteousness is of God and not of himself. The strong man must glory only in the Lord (ch. Job. 29:20; Jer. 9:23-24). Job, like Paul, to be shorn of his strength, that the power of Christ may rest upon him (2Co. 12:9). Only he who waits on the Lord renews his strength, so as to walk without fainting (Isa. 40:31). In spite of dashing waves the limpet clings to the rock through its own emptiness.(Job. 4:6). Is not this thy fear, &c. Apparently a cruel charge of hypocrisy. Probably, however, not so decided and direct as appears in our version. Perhaps more correctly read: Is not thy fear [of God] thy confidence, and thy hope, the uprightness of thy ways? That is, Should it not be so? Doctrine: A mans religion ought to give him confidence in time of trouble. Like his former statement, the question of Eliphaz a testimony to Job s piety. An endorsement of ch. Job. 1:1. Job admitted to have been distinguished for his fear of God and integrity of life. The only question now, Is it real? Eliphaz begins to suspect it.The fear of God another word for religion. That fear, when genuine, coupled with uprightness of life. True religion ever accompanied with its twin-sister, morality. True piety ought to give confidence in regard to the present, and hope in regard to the future. The words of Eliphaz a great truth falsely applied. The 46th Psalm an exemplification of that truth. Habakkuks Song another (Hab. 3:17-18). For this result, however, the fear of God to be coupled with
Faith in God
Jobs fear of God unshaken, but his faith in God beclouded. A past religious and moral life in itself not sufficient to stay the mind in trouble. The peace of God that keeps the heart and mind, the result of faith in Jesus Christ (Php. 4:7). Not a blameless or God-fearing life, but a mind stayed on God and trusting in Him, keeps the soul in perfect peace (Isa. 26:3). Such a trust, however, the usual outcome and accompaniment of such a life. Faith in God, and the fear of God make the soul triumph in every trouble. Let us sing the 46th Psalm, and let them do their worst [Luther, when threatened by enemies]. My father is at the helm, enough to quiet the soul in every storm. He has nothing to fear who has Csar for his friend (Seneca] For Csar, substitute Christ. The privilege of believers, eagle-like, to hold on their career through storms and tempests. The righteous is as bold as a lion, i.e., with faith in exercise. Jobs faith, like that of the disciples, tested in a storm and found defective (Mar. 4:40). Sometimes, however, breaks through the cloud, and triumphs over all opposition (Job. 23:10; Job. 16:19; Job. 19:25-27; Job. 13:15). There are times when the believers faith is scarcely able to keep head above water.
III. Exhortation, with veiled Reproof (Job. 4:7).
Remember, I pray thee, &c. Skilfully ambiguous. May serve either for conviction or consolation. History a useful teacher, but requires intelligence to read its lessons. The part of true wisdom to mark, record, and improve Gods dealings in Providence (Psa. 107:43). His works made to be remembered (Psa. 111:4). Asaphs and Davids conduct in times of trouble (Psa. 77:11-12; Psa. 143:5).Whoever perished being innocent? Literally: Who is that innocent person who hath perished? Asks for any such known example. Eternity not in view. Perished by some signal judgment. Cut off by some sudden catastrophe. Reference to Jobs own case. Job not yet cut off; hence consolation in the question. The innocent cast down but not destroyed. Pauls experience (2Co. 4:9; 2Co. 6:9). Davids (Psa. 71:20). Job all but cut off; hence the question for conviction. Can Job be an innocent person? No such person has ever perished. No example, ac cording to Eliphaz, of a godly man cut off by any signal judgment or overwhelming catastrophe. The opposite side maintained by Job. The godly fall with the ungodly (ch Job. 9:22-23). Same truth taught, Ecc. 9:2-3; Eze. 21:3. The godly often suffer while the wicked prosper (Job. 12:5-6; Job. 21:7; Psa. 73:3; Psa. 73:12). The first recorded death of a believer a violent and bloody one. Saints at times killed all the day long, and their blood shed like water (Psa. 44:22; Psa. 79:3). Paul glories in the long martyr-roll of the Old Testament, as the church has since done in that of the New (Heb. 11:35-37). Thousands of the faithful cut off in the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes (Dan. 11:33). Still, Jobs case an unusual one, and not belonging to any of these classes. His crushing calamities apparently direct from the hand of God. Everything seemed to proclaim him an object of the Divine anger. God smites, hence there is guilt,an instinct of humanity (Act. 28:3-4). Hence the suspicion of his friends, and Jobs own perplexity (ch. Job. 13:24; Job. 16:9-14; Job. 19:10-11). Faith has often a hard battle to fight against appearances and carnal reasoning. Jobs friends instead of aiding his buffeted and sometimes staggering faith, help his unbelief. Their object, to make him out, and bring him to acknowledge himself to be, other than he had appeared. The experience of Job a foreshadowing of that of Jesus (Isa. 53:3-4; Mat. 27:43; Mat. 27:46).
V. Eliphaz adduces his own observation for Jobs conviction (Job. 4:8).
Even as I have seen. Useful for the preacher to substantiate his arguments and appeals by facts of his own observation.
Sin and its Consequences
1. Sin. They that plough iniquity,practise wrong, especially in relation to others. A cruel thrust at Job, as if this had been his character, and that for which he was now suffering. Plough iniquitypractise it carefully, industriously, painfully, perseveringly, and with expectation of profit (Pro. 22:8; Hos. 8:7; Hos. 10:13. Sinners sore labourers (Pro. 6:17; Isa. 59:5; Jer. 9:5). Satan the worst master; keeps his servants at hard work with miserable wages.And sow wickedness, or mischief;continue to prosecute wicked and oppressive schemes. The character of tyrants to oppress others with the view of enriching themselves. Sin gradual and progressive. One sin prepares the way for another. Ploughing prepares for sowing. The sinner urged on to persevere in sin. One sin to be followed by another, in order to gain the result, as ploughing by sowing. Evil men and seducers wax worse and worse (2Ti. 3:13). Sin is never at a stay; if we do not retreat from it, we advance in it [Barrow].
2. Its consequences. Reap the same;
(1.) The profit of their sin.
(2.) The punishment of it. Retribution corresponding with the sin, constantly recognised in the Bible (Isa. 33:1; Rev. 13:10; Mat. 7:2; Jas. 2:13). Exemplified in Adonibezek (Jud. 1:7); and in the persecutors of the church (Rev. 16:6). The Egyptians, who drowned Israels infants in the Nile, are themselves drowned in the Red Sea. Countries distinguished for persecution, as Spain with its Inquisition, and France with its Bartholomew Massacre, distinguished also for the horrors of bloody revolutions and civil wars. Charles IX. of France, who ordered the Massacre of 1575, expired in a bloody sweat, exclaiming, What blood! What murders! What shall I do? I am lost for ever. Under Gods government, sin followed by suffering as a body by its shadow (Num. 32:23). Men constantly sowing either to the flesh or the spirit (Gal. 6:7-8). The crop according to the seed.
(Job. 4:9). The fate of the prosperous wicked. Cruelly held forth by Eliphaz as if to terrify Job and identify his case with theirs. The case of Job and his children terribly resembling it. Truth misapplied assumes the nature and produces the effect of error. By the blast (or breath) of God they perish. A mere breath of God sufficient for the destruction of the ungodly. Thou didst blow with thy wind, sung over the ruin of Pharaohs host and of the Spanish Armada. The whirlwind that overthrows the dwelling and wrecks the ship, but the breath of the Almighty. The wicked driven away by Gods breath as so much dust or chaff before the wind (Psa. 1:4). The breath that made the world can as easily destroy it (Psa. 33:6).By the breath of his nostrils are they consumed, like vegetation scorched and burnt up by the hot wind of the desert (Jer. 4:11; Eze. 17:10; Hos. 13:15). The life of the ungodly is
(1.) Laborious and painful in its efforts;
(2.) Often prosperous for a time in its results;
(3.) Miserable in its end. Consumed, by Divine judgments in this life, or by the experience of His wrath in the life to come. The former mainly intended by Eliphaz, without exclusion of the latter. True, as to what frequently happens. Examples,the Antediluvians, and the Cities of the Plain. Its universality implied by Eliphaz, but denied by Job (ch. Job. 21:7-14; Job. 12:6). Sentence against an evil work not always speedily executed (Ecc. 8:11). Some wicked men punished here, to save Gods providence; only some to save his patience and promise of future judgment [Augustine]. The preservation of the ungodly only a reservation. Gods forbearance no acquitance. Divine justice slow but sure. Has leaden heels but iron hands. The longer in drawing the arrow, the deeper the wound. [Brookes.]
(Job. 4:10). Same truth poetically set forth under another figure. The roaring of the lion and the voice of the fierce lion,supply is silenced. The threatening of the rich oppressor and the terror inspired by it come to an end. Lions used in Scripture as the symbol of cruel and rapacious men (Psa. 57:4; Jer. 1:17; Zep. 3:3). The figure common in Arab poetry for the rich and powerful. Furnished by the deserts of Arabia in which Eliphaz lived. The reference cruelly intended by him to Job and his three sons.The teeth of the young lions are broken. The means of wicked mens doing mischief and practising oppression ultimately taken from them. The teeth of the tyrant and persecutor sooner or later broken. Examples:Belshazzar (Dan. 5:22; Dan. 5:30); Herod (Act. 12:23); Nero (2Ti. 4:17). Heartless allusion to the condition of Job and his family.(Job. 4:11). The old lion perisheth. Various aspects, and perhaps species, of the lion indicated. Usual with Arab poets to express the same thing by several synonymous terms; each, however, with a variety of idea. Various forms and degrees of wickedness, and various classes of persecutors and oppressors; as lions differ in ferocity, age, and strength. Common with Scripture to represent moral character under the figure of various animals: cruelty by the lion and bear; rapacity by the wolf and the leopard; subtlety by the fox and the serpent; uncleanness by the swine and the dog; innocence by the dove; meekness by the lamb; industry by the ant. Some animals with natures and habits for imitation, others the reverse. The inferior creatures, in the variety of their natures and habits, the divinely-constituted symbols of the various characters and dispositions of men. The natural world a Divine mirror of the moral and spiritual.
VI. The vision (Job. 4:12)
Now a thing was secretly brought to me, &c. The vision related by Eliphaz:
(1.) To gain authority to his own reasoning and doctrine;
(2.) To reprove Jobs murmuring, and sinful reflection on the Divine procedure;
(3.) To humble his apparent self-righteousness, and convince him he was a sinner. The doctrine of the vision true but misapplied by the narrator. Visions frequently afforded: in patriarchal times in the absence of a written revelation (ch. Job. 33:15-16). One of the divers manners (Heb. 1:1). Such communications given secretly, in the absence of other parties, (Dan. 10:7-8). Eliphaz probably awake and revolving past midnight visions,in thoughts, &c. The description allowed to excel all others of a similar kind in sublimity and horror. Sublime without being obscure, circumstantial without being mean [Kitto]. Wonderful grouping of impressive ideas. Midnightsolitudedeep silenceapproach of the spectreits gliding and flitting motionits shadowy, unrecognisable formits final stationary attitudethe voicethe awful silence broken by the solemn question of the spiritthe chill horror of the spectatortrembling in all his limbsthe hair of his body standing up from fear. Much more connected with the earth than is ordinarily visible. Man surrounded with a countless invisible population of intelligent creatures. Myriads of spiritual beings walk the earth [Milton]. Man an object of intense interest both to good and bad spirits. Communication with the spirit world at present confined within narrow limits; partly through our physical nature, still more through our fallen condition. Man in his present state naturally alarmed at spiritual and supernatural appearances (Dan. 10:7-8). Special strength required to endure such appearances and receive such communications (Dan. 10:17-19). Flesh and blood unable to inherit the kingdom of God (1Co. 15:50). Mans natural body to be changed into a spiritual one to hold fellowship with the spirit world (1Co. 15:44).Mine ear received a little thereof; Heb., a whisper. The amount received, only a whisper as compared with a full outspoken speech. All we know of God, a mere whisper in comparison with mighty thunder (ch. Job. 26:14). Little of Divine truth communicated compared with what is to be known (1Co. 13:9). The greatest part of what we know, the least-part of what we know not Things heard by Paul in Paradise unlawful or impossible to be uttered (2Co. 12:4). Truth communicated only as we are able to receive it (Mar. 4:33; Joh. 16:12). Even in the Scripture, I am ignorant of much more than I know [Augustine].(Job. 4:16). There was silence and I heard a voice; or, Silence, and a voice I heard, i.e. a still small voice, as 1Ki. 19:12. Deep silence the result of the spectres appearance, and the preparation for its communication. Silence within the hearers soul as well as in the world without. Enjoined in the Divine presence and in receiving Divine communications (Hab. 2:20). Silence in heaven before the sounding of the seven trumpets (Rev. 8:1). The foot to be kept, and silent attention to be maintained in the house of God (Ecc. 5:1-2). Preparation of heart necessary for receiving Divine truth (Psa. 85:8; 1Sa. 3:9). Silence from
(1.) The voice of pride and self conceit;
(2.) The opinions and wisdom of the flesh;
(3.) The desires and cravings of corrupt nature;
(4.) The impatient clamourings of selfwill.
The Spectres Communication
(Job. 4:17). Shall mortal man be more just than God,or, be just before God? The object of the communication on the part of the spirit,
(1.) To silence mans murmurings against the Divine procedure, as if man were more just than God (ch. Job. 3:10-23; Job. 35:2; Job. 40:8). To murmur under trouble is to reflect on the Divine wisdom and goodness, and to make ourselves more righteous than God. In the view of Eliphaz, this the sin into which Job had fallen. The sin to which great and accumulated suffering especially exposes our fallen nature. That into which Asaph had nearly fallen (Psa. 73:2). God as righteous when he afflicts a good man as when he punishes a bad one. Jeremiahs Divine philosophy,Wherefore doth a living man complain? (Lam. 3:39). It is of Gods mercies that a saint as well as a sinner is not consumed (Lam. 3:22). One single sin, seen in its real character, enough to shut the mouth of every complainer. Just views of the character of God and of the nature of sin calculated to silence murmurs under heaviest troubles.
(2.) To humble mans pride, and to prove every man in Gods sight a sinner. The object of the first three chapters of the Epistle to the Romans. The lesson Job was intended to learn, and did learn (ch. Job. 42:5). Taught Isaiah by the vision of the Divine glory in the Temple (Isa. 6:1, &c.); and Peter by the miraculous draught of fishes (Luk. 5:8). The object of the Gospel to teach how a man may be just before God. The law-fulfilling and justice-satisfying work of Christ, Gods way of making a man righteous before Him. God justifies only the ungodly that believe in Jesus (Rom. 4:5; Luk. 18:10; Luk. 18:14). The reason obvious (Rom. 3:10; Rom. 3:23). To become righteous, a man must take the place of a sinner,his real character. The sinner becomes righteous before God in accepting the righteousness of another. RIGHTEOUS IN CHRIST,our peace in life, our joy in death, and our passport into the New Jerusalem (Jer. 23:5-6; Isa. 45:24; 1Co. 1:30; 2Co. 5:21). Job a perfect man according to law; but in order to evangelical perfection, his comeliness, like Daniels, to be turned into corruption in him (Dan. 10:8). The saints highest attainment to know himself a poor sinner, and Christ a rich Saviour. I a poor sinner am, but Jesus died for me, (Wesleys deathbed testimony).The believers perfection, thoroughly to know his absolute imperfection. Education, example, correction, and punishment, may do much for a man, but cannot make him a poor sinner [Krummacher]. A sinner is a sacred thing; the Holy Ghost has made him so [Hart].
Job. 4:18. Behold. Always indicating something important, and calling for special attention. Uncertain whether, in what follows, the spirit or Eliphaz himself is the speaker. The object,to humble man, and more especially Job, as in nature and character so much inferior to the angels. The constant aim of Jobs friends, to bring him down from his excellency (Psa. 62:4).He put no trust in his servants. Angels Gods servants by way of eminence (Psa. 103:20-21; Psa. 104:4). The highest honour of a creature is to be a servant of his Creator. Gods service not only our freedom, but our glory. Gods dominion over all created intelligences. The Seraphim his servants. Man as well as angel must serve; but he may choose his master.
Thou canst not choose but serve; mans lot is servitude.
But thou hast thus much choicea bad lord or a good.
God puts no trust in the angels, as being:
1. Mutable and unstable. Many of them fell; others might, but for sustaining grace. God alone unchangeable (Mal. 3:6; Jas. 1:17). Angels secure, like men, only by a Divine act of election (1Ti. 5:21).
2. Imperfect and liable to err. Fallibility and imperfection stamped on all creature-excellence. God only wise (Rom. 16:27); only holy (Rev. 15:4); only true (Joh. 17:3). Infallibility a Divine attribute, claimed by, the Pope while arrogating to himself, as the pretended head of the Church, the promise of the Holy Ghost made by Christ to His Apostles.His angels He charged with folly;
(1) allowed;
(2) marked;
(3) visited, sin in them. Angels, so called from their office as Gods messengers or agents. Sons of God, from their nature (see ch. Job. 1:6). Probable allusion in the text to the fall of some of them (Jud. 1:6);kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation (2Pe. 2:4). Rebellion against God the height of folly in man or angel. Sinning angels dealt with according to their folly (Jud. 1:6; 2Pe. 2:4). The fall of angels as possible and as likely as the fall of men. Their fall a mystery, but clearly revealed. Mans fall connected with that of angels which preceded it. Fallen intelligences, human or angelic, naturally the tempters of others.The angels fall a lesson of humility to man (Job. 4:19). How much less, i.e. can He trust men; or, how much more must He charge men with folly. The fallibility and imperfection of men argued from that of angels. Job pronounced and esteemed a perfect man. His spirit and conduct under his trials at first in accordance with this character. Conscious himself of his spotless life (ch. 29, 31). Too ready to glory in it (Job. 31:35-37). Appeared to maintain it in a way unbecoming in one who was a sinner (Job. 33:9; Job. 9:17; Job. 10:7). Needed to be taught more deeply the imperfection of his perfection. His perfection not even that of an imperfect angel, but of a man. The object of the Book of Job, as of Gods dealings in general, to hide pride from man (Job. 33:17). The dust the place of the highest and the holiest before his maker.
Poetical and affecting description of
Mans Condition and Circumstances
1. As inhabiting a frail and humble body(Job. 4:19). Who dwell in houses of day. Oriental houses of the poorer classes usually of clay or mud dried in the sun. These naturally of the frailest and humblest character. Contrasted with the houses of the great,usually of hewn stone. Mans fleshly body so spoken of (2Co. 5:1). Adam = red earth. Hence used as the name of the race (Gen. 2:15). Flesh a sign and cause of weakness (Isa. 31:3; Gen. 6:3; Psa. 78:39). Contrasted with the angels, who are spirits, and therefore strong (Isa. 31:3; Psa. 103:20). Mans present body as natural, contrasted with his resurrection body as spiritual (1Co. 15:42-44; 2Co. 5:1).
2. Formed out of the ground and returning to it. Whose foundation is in the dust. The elements of mans body those of the ground on which he treads. Man frequently reminded of his origin to keep him humble. His lowly origin an enhancement of redeeming love. Gods Son took not on Him (or, took not hold of) the nature of angels, but that of Abraham (Heb. 2:16). Man in his creation made lower than the angels;. in his regeneration, higher (Psa. 8:4, &c.; Rom. 8:16-17). His return to dust natural, but not necessary. The Divine sentence on Adams transgression (Gen. 3:19; Psa. 93:3; Ecc. 12:7). Hitherto but two authentic exceptions (Gen. 5:24; 2Ki. 2:11. Dust to dust concludes earths noblest song.
3. Weak and easily destroyed. Crushed before the moth. Crushed to death as easily as a moth is crushed between the fingers; or, crushed in presence of a moth, which can prove his death. Mans body so frail that the slightest accident can terminate his existence. Pope Adrian actually choked by a gnat. A dish of lampreys the death of an English king. Mans continued existence the result of Divine preservation ch. Job. 19:12). Strange that a harp of thousand strings, &c.
4. Constantly liable to death, and on the way to it (Job. 4:20). They are destroyed from morning to evening. Liable every moment to accident, disease and death. A continual tendency to dissolution. The seeds of disease and death inherent in mans frame. Death the immediate consequence of the fall (Gen. 2:17). Mans life itself is death in constant development. The moment we begin to live, &c. Man crushed between morning and evening. An insect life. Man an ephemeral; his life a day.
5. Cut off in death from the visible world without ability to return to it. They perish for ever. Mans death a finality. Only one life. Appointed once to die (Heb. 9:27). The bourne from whence no traveller returns. Man as water spilt upon the ground, not to be taken up again (2Sa. 14:14). Art can embalm and preserve the body, but not put life into it. Galvanism can move the limbs, but not restore the life. Resurrection here out of view. The text speaks of what is apparent, natural, and ordinary. Resurrection the result of a new dispensation and a second Adam. Jesus Christ the resurrection and the life. Christ the first fruits (1Co. 15:20; 1Co. 15:23). Specimens of bodily resurrection already afforded;
(1) In Christ himself;
(2) In those restored to life by Himself and by others through His power;
(3) In those who rose and left their graves after His resurrection (Mat. 27:52; Mat. 27:63). The resurrection of all believers at His second coming (1Co. 15:23; 1Th. 4:15-17). To be followed by a general resurrection (Rev. 20:5; Joh. 5:28-29). A new earth the habitation of risen saints (2Pe. 3:13).
6. Unnoticed in death by higher orders of beings. Without any regarding it;i.e., as to any appearance of it. No attempt made by angelic beings to prevent it. No expression heard of sorrow or concern on account of it. Man dies in silence from the other world as if unnoticed and disregarded. This, however, only in appearance (see Luk. 16:22; Psa. 72:14; Psa. 116:15).
7. Stripped of all the excellence possessed on earth (Job. 4:21). Doth not their excellence which was in them go away? Not only the best and most excellent thing which was with them,as riches, dignity, power, &c,but which was in them,as beauty and strength of body, powers and endowments of mind (Psa. 49:14; Psa. 49:17; Ecc. 9:10). True, however, only in appearance, and in regard to the body. The spirit returns to God who gave it (Ecc. 12:7). All excellence departs from the body, but not from the man. Excellencies of the spirit develope and bloom in a higher sphere. A holy character immortal, and survives the tomb. Grace the only glory that a man can carry with him into the spirit-world.
8. Dying without attaining to wisdom. They die, even without wisdom. Man attains in this life to comparatively little knowledge in natural things, and to still less in spiritual ones (1Co. 13:9-13). Sir Isaac Newtons death-bed estimate of his attainments in science,a little child gathering pebbles on the sea-shore, with the ocean of unexplored knowledge before him. The greatest part of what I know is the least part of what I know not [Augustine].
Most die without true and saving wisdom (Mat. 7:14; 2Ti. 3:15). Mans wisdom in life is rightly to prepare for death (Psa. 90:12; Deu. 32:29).
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
TEXT 4:111
4 Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
2 If one assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved?
But who can withhold himself from speaking?
3 Behold, thou hast instructed many,
And thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
4 Thy words have upholden him that was falling,
And thou hast made firm the feeble knees.
5 But now it is come unto thee, and thou faintest;
It toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.
6 Is not thy fear of God thy confidence,
And the integrity of thy ways thy hope?
7 Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent?
Or where were the upright cut off?
8 According as I have seen, they that plow iniquity,
And sow trouble, reap the same.
9 By the breath of God they perish,
And by the blast of his anger are they consumed.
10 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion,
And the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
11 The old lion perisheth for lack of prey,
And the whelps of the lioness are scattered abroad.
COMMENT 4:111
Job. 4:1Enters Eliphaz! Since Job has broken his silence, Eliphaz is now free to speak. He is presumably the oldest, thus the wisest, thus first speaker. He is also the most gracious and most eloquent. His deep esteem and profound sorrow for Job leaps from each phrase he utters. Eliphaz has been shocked at the fact that Job had wished death and has uttered no prayer for the recovery of prosperity and joi de vie (joy of life). Eliphaz asks Job, Could you bear it? (literally would you be weary?), i.e., Are you physically and psychologically able to hear my analysis of your condition? To Job, his misfortune was an enigmatic mystery; to Eliphaz the calamities have been sent to punish Job for some sin or sins (see John 9 and Jesus rejection of this standard Jewish, but not Old Testament, concept). Eliphaz has come to help Job examine his conscience.[61]
[61] Note this powerful insight into the relationship of truth, integrity, guilt, and healing, long before Freuds theory of repression was ever conceived. The scriptures sit in judgment on Freuds theory that all guilt is socially caused.
Job. 4:2Eliphaz declares that if only Job would repent of his sins he could regain Gods favor.[62] The speech regularly starts with a question and reference to Jobs words. Eliphaz introduces the Doctrine of Retribution, i.e., Retributive Justice.
[62] See K. Fullerton, Journal Biblical Literature 49, 1930, 32074; Psalms 32, 51 and see Chamberlains, Repentance (Joplin, MO: College Press reprint, 1972) with my bibliographical essay on repentance.
Job. 4:3First he gently appeals to Jobs own good advice to others in the past. But this type of counseling was already beside the point, because Job had already accepted the standard doctrine of retribution (Job. 29:18-20), but now is beginning to challenge its adequacy simply because it does not explain his present existential situation. With great delicacy and consideration Eliphaz has now opened the first cycle of speeches.[63] The root of the word translated instructed (ysr) means discipline and in Job. 5:17 the noun from this root means discipline by suffering (see Heb. 12:3 ff). Job has instructed many. His instruction has strengthened them, i.e., from weak hands which hang down in helpless despair (Isa. 35:3; Heb. 12:12).[64]
[63] For relationship of Job and Wisdom Literature, see H. Ranston, The Old Testament Wisdom Books and Their Teaching, 1930, p. 139; S. Rankin, Israels Wisdom Literature (T & T Clark, 1936); and G. van Rads Wisdom in Israel (Nashville: Abingdon E. T., 1972).
[64] See the penetrating analysis by M. Dahood, Biblica, 48,1967, 425.
Job. 4:4His words have also strengthened feeble knees (see same scriptures as above for imagery).
Job. 4:5It is easy for a well man to give sound advice. Some commentators see sarcasm in Eliphazs word; but the psychoanalysis of a dead author should capture only the absolute minimum of everyones time, both authors and readers.
Job. 4:6Literally, your fear of God should sustain you. He should have confidence in his past faithfulness to God. After all, Jobs piety and integrity are not being questionedyet. Job is blamelessJob. 1:1has confidence (keselconfidence, here the form is kislahJob. 8:4; Ecc. 7:25. This root has polarized meaning, i.e., opposite, eg. confidencefolly), and thus has integrity or consistency.
Job. 4:7Is Job an exception to the rule? It is only casuistry to reply that Job is not in the category with the wicked because God has spared his life (Psa. 37:25; Pro. 12:21; Ecc. 2:10). Yet each of us can appreciate the dilemma of Jobs comforters. Each comforter, in his own way, sought recovery for Job. There is still hope, since he is alive. If Job will only confess his guilt and seek Gods grace, recovery would follow. Many of the modern specialists in healing are not radically different in their method than Jobs friends. The power of confession (e.g. Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul) has long since been clinically proved. But the problem of theodicy is not thereby overcome. Why are some individuals signaled out for unbearably severe physical and spiritual torture? Suffering Servantwe turn to you! Help us to participate in the suffering of your fallen creation. Is suffering for discipline or destruction?[65]
[65] Concerning the problem of evil: For those philosophically inclined see the indispensable, though technical work, Alvin Plantinga, God and Other Minds (New York: Cornell University Press); C. S. Lewis, Problem of Pain for beginners; for those hostile to Christian theism, see E. H. Madden and P. H. Hare, Evil and the Concept of God (Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, Publ.; for best single survey see John Hick, Evil and the God of Love (New York: Harper & Row), now also in paperback.
Job. 4:8Those who plough iniquity are those persons who are wicked. They who cultivate sin and perform it with intentional glee, also reap the resultsHos. 10:13 and Gal. 6:7.
Job. 4:9The wicked perish. This doctrine says that misfortune is divine retribution. This teaching is at the heart of Americas Success Syndrome, i.e., if you are prospering, you are being blessed; if you are in destitute circumstances, it is Gods way of expressing retributive justice. Gods justice is likened to a scorching hot wind. Thanks be to God Jesus repudiates this blasphemous and heretical instruction, Luk. 13:1-5. The cross, the ten official Roman persecutions, the martyrdom of thousands of the faithful, if not millions, both in the classical church history and in the twentieth century, all speak against this doctrine.
Job. 4:10-11The image of the lion is common in Near Eastern Wisdom LiteraturePsa. 17:12; Psa. 22:14; Pro. 28:15; and Isa. 30:6. When the roar dies down and the teeth of the lion are broken, it is powerless and can no longer hold the prey.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
The First Course of the Controversy. Chaps. 4-14.
FIRST DISCOURSE OF ELIPHAZ, ch. 4, 5.
1. Eliphaz the Temanite He was the most sensible and discerning of the three friends, “and so modest, that in the first lesson which he aims to give Job he does not speak his own thoughts altogether, but communicates an oracle.” HERDER. Hebrews Poet., 1:117. His address was calm and dignified; his thoughts weighty with the experience of many years. Admitting his premises, his reasoning was just and impressive. Throughout all there was a strange lack of sympathy. Less was to be expected from the disputants as they warmed in debate. Certainly the first words might have been of solace, rather than cold compliment. The cry from out the depths, de profundis, was enough to have moved a heart of adamant. The heart of Job craved the bread of consolation, only to receive the cold stone of argument. The theory of Eliphaz is, that suffering is a necessary proof of previous sin. This proposition is implied in Job 4:7-8. This he illustrates
1.) By the death of the wicked, whom he compares to the lion, who, though he be the king of beasts, is powerless against the shafts of death. Job 4:8-11.
2.) By the disclosures of a vision, in which he had seen that all men are impure in the sight of God, which accounts for the ordinary sufferings of life. Job 4:12-21.
3.) By the acknowledged punishment of the wicked, involving even their children. Chap. Job 5:1-4.) Evil seems inwrought in man, which mystery, however, is to be referred to Him whose ways are unsearchable. Chap. Job 5:6 to Job 16:5.) Affliction is not fortuitous, but a blessing to man, in that it is remedial. Chap. Job 5:17; Job 18:6.) The subject enforces faith and trust in God from a twofold consideration first, his providential care of the good, Job 4:19-21; second, the certain prosperity of the righteous, Job 4:24-27. “The speech is exquisitely climactic, rising, as Ewald says, from the faint whisper and tune of the summer wind, to the loud and irresistible thunder of the wintry storm.” Davidson.
Job 4:2 If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?
Job 4:2 Job 4:3 Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
Job 4:3 Job 4:4 Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.
Job 4:5 Job 4:5 Job 4:6 Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?
Job 4:7 Job 4:8 Job 4:8 Gal 6:7, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
Job 4:9 By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.
Job 4:10 Job 4:11 Job 4:10-11 Job 3:24, “For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.”
Job 4:12-17 Eliphaz’ Vision In Job 4:12-17, Eliphaz describes his night vision to Job. Later in the book, Elihu will mention the fact that God speaks to men by dreams and visions (Job 33:15-16).
Job 4:18 Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:
Job 4:18 Job 4:19 How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?
Job 4:19 Job 4:19 “houses of clay…crushed before the moth” Comments – The phrase “houses of clay…crushed before the moth” may be a reference to Job’s own children being destroyed (Job 1:19; Job 5:4).
Job 1:19, “And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.”
Job 5:4, “His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, neither is there any to deliver them.”
Job’s Dialogue with Three Friends – Job 3:1 to Job 31:40, which makes up the major portion of this book, consists of a dialogue between Job and his three friends. In this dialogue, Job’s friends engage in three rounds of accusations against Job, with him offering three defenses of his righteousness. Thus, Job and his friends are able to confirm each of their views with three speeches, since the Scriptures tell us that a matter is confirmed in the mouth of two or three witnesses (2Co 13:1). The underlying theme of this lengthy dialogue is man’s attempt to explain how a person is justified before God. Job will express his intense grief (Job 3:1-26), in which his three friends will answer by finding fault with Job. He will eventually respond to this condemnation in a declaration of faith that God Himself will provide a redeemer, who shall stand on earth in the latter days (Job 19:25-27). This is generally understood as a reference to the coming of Jesus Christ to redeem mankind from their sins.
Job’s declaration of his redeemer in Job 19:23-29, which would be recorded for ever, certainly moved the heart of God. This is perhaps the most popular passage in the book of Job, and reflects the depth of Job’s suffering and plea to God for redemption. God certainly answered his prayer by recording Job’s story in the eternal Word of God and by allowing Job to meet His Redeemer in Heaven. I can imagine God being moved by this prayer of Job and moving upon earth to provide someone to record Job’s testimony, and moving in the life of a man, such as Abraham, to prepare for the Coming of Christ. Perhaps it is this prayer that moved God to call Abraham out of the East and into the Promised Land.
The order in which these three friends deliver their speeches probably reflects their age of seniority, or their position in society.
Scene 1 First Round of Speeches Job 3:1 to Job 14:22
Scene 2 Second Round of Speeches Job 15:1 to Job 21:34
Scene 3 Third Round of Speeches Job 22:1 to Job 31:40
Eliphaz’s First Speech Job 4:1 to Job 5:27 contains Eliphaz’s first speech to Job in which he attempts to answer Job’s question of suffering (Job 3:20-26). He approaches Job’s suffering by saying that God always delivers the poor, but judges the foolish. In Job 4:8 we see that Eliphaz quickly picked up on sowing and reaping as a reason for Job’s suffering.
Job 4:8, “Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.”
Eliphaz declares that God always judges the foolish (Job 5:1-7) and delivers the humble (Job 5:8-27).
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 assumption that Job must be guilty of some special fault or sin, and chide him accordingly.
v. 1. Then Eliphaz, the Temanite, answered and said, v. 2. If we essay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? v. 3. Behold, thou hast instructed many, v. 4. Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees, v. 5. But now it is come upon thee and thou faintest; v. 6. Is not this thy fear, v. 7. Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the righteous cut off? v. 8. Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, v. 9. By the blast of God they perish, v. 10. The roaring of the lion, v. 11. The old lion, v. 12. Now, a thing was secretly brought to me, v. 13. In thoughts from the visions of the night, v. 14. fear came upon me and trembling, v. 15. Then a spirit passed before my face, v. 16. it stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof, v. 17. Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker? v. 18. Behold, He put no trust in His servants, v. 19. much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, v. 20. They are destroyed, v. 21. Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? They die, even without wisdom, 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 Job 2:11).
Job 4:2
If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? rather, If one assay a word against thee‘ wilt thou be angry? Eliphaz feels that what he is about to say will be unwelcome, and, as it were, apologizes beforehand. Surely Job will not be angry if a friend just ventures a word. But who can withhold himself from speaking? Let Job be angry or not, Eliphaz must speak. It is impossible to hear such words as Job has uttered, and yet keep silence. God’s wisdom and justice have been impugned, and must be vindicated.
Job 4:3
Behold, thou hast instructed many; or, corrected many. When others have been afflicted and murmured, thou hast corrected them, and shown them that they were suffering only what they deserved to suffer. In so doing, thou hast strengthened the weak hands; “given moral strength,” i.e; “to those who were morally weak,” upheld them, saved them from impatient words and hard thoughts of God.
Job 4:4
Thy words have upholden him that was falling. Many a man, just on the point of falling, has been stopped in time by thy wise words and good advice to him. This is a strong testimony to Job’s kindliness of heart, and active sympathy with sufferers during the period of his prosperity. And thou hast strengthened the feeble knees; literally, the bowing kneesthose that were just on the point of collapsing and giving way through exhaustion or feebleness (comp. Isa 35:3).
Job 4:5
But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest. Now it is thy turncalamity has come upon thee‘ and all that thou weft wont to say to others is forgotten. The wise physician cannot heal himself. Instead of receiving thy chastisement in a right spirit, thou “faintest,” or rather, “thou art angry, art offended”as the same verb is also to be translated in the second verse. There is a tone of sarcasm about these remarks, which implies a certain hardness and want of real affection in the speaker, and which cannot but have been perceived by Job, and have detracted from the force of what Eliphaz urged. If one has to rebuke a friend, it should be done with great delicacy. Our “precious balms” should not be allowed to “break his head” (Psa 141:6). It toucheth thee, and thou art troubled; or, perplexed“confounded.”
Job 4:6
Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways? Translate, with the Revised Version, Is not thy fear of God thy confidence‘ and thy hope the integrity of thy ways? The verse is composed, as usual, of two clauses, balancing each other; and the meaning seems to be that, if Job is as convinced of his piety and uprightness as he professes to be, he ought still to maintain confidence in God, and a full expectation of deliverance from his troubles. If he does not, what is the natural inference? Surely, that he is not so confident of his innocence as he professes to be.
Job 4:7
Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? The heart of the matter is now approached. Job is called upon to “remember” the long-established moral axiom, that only evil-doing brings down upon men calamities, and that therefore, where calamities fall, them must be precedent wickedness. If he does not admit this, he-is challenged to bring forward examples, or even a single example, of suffering innocence. If he does admit it, he is left to apply the axiom to himself. Or where were the righteous cut off? Was the example of “righteous Abel” (Mat 23:35) unknown to Eliphaz? And had he really never seen that noblest of all sights, the good man struggling with adversity? One would imagine it impossible to attain old age, in the world wherein we live, without becoming convinced by our own observation that good and evil, prosperity and adversity, are not distributed in this life according to moral desert; but a preconceived notion of what ought to have been seems here, as elsewhere so often in the field of speculation, to have blinded men to the actual facts of the ease, and driven them to invent explanations of the facts, which militated against their theories, of the most absurdly artificial character. To account for the sufferings of the righteous, the explanation of “secret sins” was introduced, and it was argued that, where affliction seemed to fall on the good man, his goodness was not real goodnessit was a counterfeit, a shamthe fabric of moral excellence, so fair to view, was honeycombed by secret vices, to which the seemingly good man was a prey. Of course, if the afflictions wore abnormal, extraordinary, then the secret sins must be of a most heinous and horrible kind to deserve such a terrible retribution. This is what Eliphaz hints to be the solution in Job’s case. God has seen his secret sinshe has “set them in the light of his countenance” (Psa 90:8)and is punishing them openly. Job’s duty is to humble himself before God, to confess, repent, and amend. Then, and then only, may he hope that God will remove his hand, and put an end to his sufferings
Job 4:8
Even as I have seen; rather, according as I have seenso far, that is, as my observation goes (see the Revised Version, which is supported by Professor Lee and Canon Cook). They that plough iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same (comp. Pro 22:8; Hos 8:7; Hos 10:13; Gal 6:7, Gal 6:8). The words translated “iniquity” and “wickedness” express in the original both moral and physical evil. Men sew the one and reap the other. Eliphaz extends this general rule into a universal law, or, at any rate, declares that he has never known an exception. He has not, therefore, been grieved and perplexed, like David, by “seeing the ungodly in such prosperity” (Psa 73:3). He would seem not to have been a man of very keen observation.
Job 4:9
By the blast of God they perish; rather, by the breath of God, as in Job 37:10. The word used () means always, as Professor Lee observes,” a slight or gentle breathing.” The slightest breath of God’s displeasure is enough to destroy those against whom it is directed. And by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed. Here “blast” would be better than “breath,” for is a stronger word than . Similarly, is a stronger word than . The breath kills, the blast utterly consumes, transgressors.
Job 4:10
The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken. Wicked men, especially oppressors, are often compared to lions in Scripture (see Psa 7:2; Psa 10:9; Psa 17:12, etc.; Eze 19:3,Eze 19:5; Nah 2:12; Zep 3:3, etc.). The meaning of Eliphaz is that, within his experience, all classes of wicked men, young, or old, or middle-aged, weak or strong, have received in this life the reward of their iniquity. However fiercely they might roar, however greedily they might devour, their roaring has died away, their teeth have been broken in their mouths, vengeance has lighted on them in some shape or other; they have paid the penalty of their transgressions. Five classes of lions seem to be spoken of in this and the following verses:
(1) the whelp (Job 4:11);
(2) the half-grown lion, just able to make its voice heard;
(3) the young full-grown lion (cephir);
(4) the lion in full maturity (ariyeh); and
(5) the old lion which is growing decrepit (laish).
To these is joined (Job 4:11) labi, “the lioness.” Lions are still frequent in the Mesopotamian region, though no longer found in Palestine, nor in Arabia.
Job 4:11
The old lion perisheth for lack of prey. The human counterpart of the “old lion” is the oppressor whose strength and cunning begin to fail him, who can no longer carry things with a high hand, enforce his will on men by bluster and throats, or even set traps for them so skilfully that they blindly walk into them. Political charlatans whose role is played out, bullies whose nerve is beginning to fail, cardsharpers whose manual dexterity has de-sorted them, come under this category. And the stout lion’s whelps; rather, the whelps of the lioness (see the Revised Version). Are scattered abroad. Even the seed of ill-doers suffer. They are involved in their parents’ punishment (see Exo 20:5). Eliphaz darkly hints that Job may have been among the class of oppressors, or (at any rate) of transgressors, and that the untimely fate of his children may have been the consequence of his evil-doings.
Job 4:12-21
Eliphaz proceeds to narrate a spiritual experience of a very strange and striking character. It was night, and he had fallen asleep, when suddenly he was, or seemed to himself to be, awake. A horrible fear came over him, and all his limbs trembled and quaked. Then a spirit seemed to pass before his face, while every hair on his body rose up and stiffened with horror. It did not simply pass across him, but stood still, in a formless form, which he could see but not clearly distinguish. There was a deep hush. Then out of the silence there seemed to come a voice, a whisper, which articulated solemn words. “Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man,” etc.? Supernatural visitations were vouchsafed by God to many besides the chosen peopleto Laban, when he pursued Jacob (Gen 31:24), to Abimelech (Gen 20:6), to the Pharaoh of the time of Joseph (Gen 41:1-7), to his chief butler (Gen 40:9-11), and his chief baker (Gen 40:16, Gen 40:17), to Balaam the son of Beer (Num 22:12, Num 22:20; Num 23:5-10, Num 23:16-24; Num 24:3-9, Num 24:15-24), to Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 2:28-35; Dan 4:1-32), and others. The method and manner of these visitations raise a multitude of questions which it is impossible to answer, but are convincing evidence to all who believe Scripture to be true, that communications can pass between the spiritual and material worlds of a strange and mysterious character. The communication to Eliphaz may have been a mere vision, impressed upon his mind in sleep, or it may have been actually brought to him by a spiritual messenger, whom he could dimly see, and whose voice he was privileged to hear. Modern pseudo-science pronounces such seeing and hearing to be impossible. But poets are often clearer-sighted than scientists, and Shakespeare utters a pregnant truth when he says
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Job 4:12
Now a thing was secretly brought to me; rather, a word (or, a message) was brought to me stealthily. And mine ear received a little thereof; rather, a whisper thereof (see the Revised Version, and comp. Job 26:14, and the Vulgate, which gives susurrus). As the form of the vision was not distinct to Eliphaz’s eyes (Job 4:16), so neither were the words which were uttered distinct to his ears. He thinks himself able, however, to give the sense of them (see Job 4:17-21).
Job 4:13
In thoughts from the visions of the night; literally, in the perplexities of the visions of night; i.e. “in that perplexing time whenhow, they know notvisions come to men.” The word translated “thoughts” occurs only here and in Job 20:2. When deep sleep falleth on men. Something more than ordinary sleep seems to be meantsomething more approaching to what we call “trance” (comp. Gen 2:21; Gen 15:12; 1Sa 26:12, where the same word is used).
Job 4:14
Fear came upon me, and trembling; compare the “horror of great darkness” which fell upon Abraham (Gen 15:12). Our nature shrinks from direct contact with the spiritual world, and our earthly frame shudders at the unearthly presence. Which made the multitude of my bones to shake; or, which made my bones greatly to shake (so the LXX.‘ Professor Lee, and others).
Job 4:15
Then a spirit passed before my face. It has been argued (Rosenmuller) that “a breath of air,” and not “a spirit,” is intended; but, in that ease, how are we to understand the expressions in the following verse: “it stood still,” “the form thereof,” “an image”? A breath of air, the very essence of which is to be in motion, cannot stand still, nor has it any “form,” “appearance,” or “image.” Granted that the Hebrew ruakh () may meanlike the Greek , and the Latin spirituseither an actual spirit, or a breath, a wind, it follows that, in every place where it occurs, we must judge by the context which is meant. Here certainly the context points to an actual living spirit, as what Eliphaz intended. Whether a spirit really appeared to him is a separate question. The whole may have been a vision; but certainly the impression left on Eliphaz was that he had had a communication from the spirit-world. The hair of my flesh stood up. Not the hair of his head only, but every hair on his whole body, stiffened, bristled, and rose up on end in horror (see the comment on Job 4:14).
Job 4:16
It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof. Canon Cook quotes, very appositely, Milton’s representation of Death as a fearful shape,
“If shape it could be called that shape had none An image was before mine eyes; or, on appearance (LXX; ). There was silence; or, a hush“status aeris nullo motu turbati, et tranquillissimus” (Schulteus). And I heard a voice, saying. After a while the silence was broken by a voice, which whispered in Eliphaz’s ear (comp. Job 4:12).
Job 4:17
Shall mortal man be more just than God? Is it to be supposed that the ways of God can be rightly criticized and condemned by man? Surely not; for then man must be more penetrated with the spirit of justice than the Almighty. If our thoughts are not as God’s thoughts, it must be, our thoughts that are wrong. Shall a man be more pure than his Maker? Equally impossible. God alone is absolutely pure. The best man must be conscious to himself, as Isaiah was (Isa 6:5), of uncleanness.
Job 4:18
Behold, he put no trust in his servants; rather, he putteth no trust‘ or he putteth not trust. The” servants” intended are those that minister to him directly in heaven, the members of the angelic host, as appears from the parallelism of the other clause of the verse. Even in them God does not trust implicitly, since he knows that they are frail and fallible, liable to err, etc; only kept from sin by his own sustaining and assisting grace (setup. Job 15:15, where Eliphaz expresses the same belief in his own person). And his angels he charged with folly; rather, chargeth. The exact meaning of the word translated “folly” is uncertain, since the word does not occur elsewhere. The LXX. renders by , “crookedness;” Ewald, Dillmann, and others, by “error.” The teaching clearly is that the angels are not perfectthe highest angelic excellence falls infinitely short of God’s perfectness. Even angels, therefore, would be incompetent judges of God’s doings.
Job 4:19
How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay! rather, hew muck more cloth he not put trust in them that inhabit houses of clay! i.e. “earthly bodies,” bodies made out of the dust of the ground (Gen 2:7; setup, Job 33:6). Whose foundation is in the dust; i.e.” whose origin was the dust of the ground,” which were formed from it and must return to it, according to the words of Gen 3:19, “Dust thou art, and unto dust thou must return.” Which are crushed before the moth. This is somewhat obscure. It may mean, “which are so fragile that a moth, a fly, or other weak creature may destroy them,” or “which are crushed with the same ease with which a moth is crushed and destroyed.”
Job 4:20
They are destroyed from morning to evening. Human bodies undergo a continuous destruction. From the moment that we are born we begin to die. Decay of powers is coeval with their first exercise. Our insidious foe, Death, marks us as his own from the very first breath that we draw. Our bodies are machines wound up to go for a certain time. The moment that we begin to use them we begin to wear them out. They perish for ever. The final result is that Our” houses of clay “perish, crumble to dust, disappear, and come to nothing. They “perish for ever,” says Eliphaz, repeating what he believed the spirit of Job 4:15 to have said to him; but it is not clear that he understood more by this than that they perish and disappear for ever, so far as this life and this world are concerned. Without any regarding it. No one is surprised or thinks it hard. It is the lot of man, and every one’s mind is prepared for it.
Job 4:21
Doth not their excellency which is in them go away! “Their excellency” () would seem to mean that which is highest in themtheir spirit, or soul. It does not make much difference if we translate, with the Old Testament Revisers” their tent-cord,” since that would be merely a metaphor for the soul, which sustains the body as the tent-cord does the tent. What deserves especial remark is that the “excellency” does not perish; it goes away, departs, or is removed. They die, even without wisdom; literally, not in wisdom; i.e. not having learnt in the whole course of their lives that true wisdom which their life-trials were intended to teach them.
HOMILETICS
Job 4:1-11
Eliphaz to Job: the opening of the second controversy: 1. The relation of suffering to sin.
I. A COURTEOUS EXORDIUM. Eliphaz, the oldest and wisest of the friends, adopts an apologetic strain in replying to Job’s imprecation, representing the task assumed by him as:
1. Painful to Job; which it certainly was. In circumstances even the most favourable, it requires no little grace to receive admonition with equanimity; not to speak of counting it a kindness and esteeming it an excellent oil (Psa 141:5), and embracing its dispenser with affection (Pro 9:8); and much more when that admonition is not only felt to be undeserved, but spoken at a time when the soul, crushed beneath the burden of its misery, wants sympathy rather than reproof, and when, besides, the reproof is unfeeling in its tone and somewhat flavoured with self-complacency on the part of the giver. If to hear and accept rebuke be a sign of grace (Pro 15:5) and a pathway to wisdom (Pro 15:32) and honour (Pro 13:18), it is much more a mark of tender piety and fine Christian sagacity to be able to speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15), and to rebuke with long-suffering (2Ti 4:2). Reproof that lacerates seldom profits.
2. Distasteful to himself (Eliphaz). Charity dictates that the best construction, rather than the worst, should be put upon the conduct of the Temanite. Hence, instead of pronouncing his language coarse, haughty, arrogant, and violent, we regard it, especially in the introduction, as characterized by delicacy and consideration, hinting, as it manifestly does, that Eliphaz had entered on the office of Mentor to his friend with reluctance; and certainly an office so fitted to give pain, and so apt to produce harmful results, should never be engaged in except with palpable tokens of grief.
3. Required by cerise. “But who can withhold himself from speaking?” The impulse which Eliphaz confessed was not the kindling heat of poetic fire, but the moral constraint of duty.
(1) Duty to God (Le Job 19:17). A safe rule never to distribute censure except when so impelled. Only “compulsion from our own spirit should not be mistaken for impulsion from God’s.” Men who never speak but under a sense of duty, seldom speak unkindly or in vain.
(2) Duty to Job (Pro 27:5). Unless satisfied of our own sincerity in aiming at the good of those we censure, it is better to be silent; nay, it is wrong to speak.
(3) Duty to himself (Pro 28:23). The light possessed by Eliphaz would have made silence on his part both a gross dereliction of duty and an indirect participation in the sin of Job. If, therefore, he would keep his conscience clean, he must “assay to commune with his friend.”
II. A GENEROUS COMMENDATION. The piety of Job was acknowledged by Eliphaz to have been:
1. Conspicuous. “Behold!” Eminent piety can usually speak for itself, always secure attention, and seldom fails to elicit commendation. Even so should Christians let their light shine (Mat 5:16; 1Pe 2:12).
2. Philanthropic. Job’s piety was not simply intellectual and emotional, but also practical, aiming at the good of others. Like the great Exemplar (Mat 20:28; Act 10:38), of whom in some respects he was a type, this Arabian patriarch went about doing good (Job 29:12-17). So Christ instructs his followers to do (Mat 10:42; Luk 10:37; Joh 14:15; 1Co 14:1; Gal 5:14; Col 3:12-14). Where works of faith and labours of love are entirely absent, there is ground to suspect that genuine religion is not present (Gal 5:22; Jas 1:27; 1Jn 3:17).
3. Manifold.
(1) Instructing the ignorant (Job 29:21-23), giving counsel as a prince or magistrate in the gate, or as a friend and leader supplying directions for daily duty.
(2) Correcting the waywardaccording to another translationby either the infliction of penalties for wrong-doing or the administration of judicial reprimand.
(3) Sustaining the weak, upholding the sinking and fainting heart by kindly sympathy, and strengthening the feeble knees and hands by helpful succour.
4. Habitual. The tenses of the verbs indicate customary actions and lifelong habits. Isolated good deeds do not necessarily proceed from gracious hearts; there can be no better evidence of saintship than a lifetime of holy walking.
III. A DELICATE INSINUATION.
1. That Job‘s piety had failed where it ought to have stood. “But now it is come upon thee and, thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled” (verse 5). Either
(1) an expression of sincere astonishment that Job, who had so often and so efficiently ministered consolation to others, should have proved faint-hearted when like trouble fell upon himself,reminding us that it is easier to preach patience than to practise it, that they who counsel others should strive to illustrate their own precepts, and that the world is never slow in remarking the deficiencies of good men; or
(2) an utterance of keen invective (if we adopt the uncharitable view of Eliphaz’s language), as if he meant to taunt Job with doing the very thing for which he had so piously admonished others, exhibiting the same craven spirit in adversity against which he had warned them,an interpretation which, if it is correct, reminds us that good men are long in getting rid of their corruptions, that grace often finds a lodging in strange quarters, that the Horatian maxim of seeing and approving better things and yet following worse was not unknown to Eliphaz any more than to Paul; but on either hypothesis
(3) the record of a frequent experience, Job having been neither the first nor the last who has felt himself unequal to the task of practising what he has tried to preach.
2. That Job‘s confidence had stood where it ought to have failed. “Is not thy fear thy confidence? And thy hope, is it not the uprightness of thy ways?” (verse 6)
(1) Perhaps implying that Job had been previously resting with complacent satisfaction on his religious character, and deriving hope of Divine favour from the elevation of his piety, which, if Job had been doing, he had been living in egregious error, since “by the deeds of the Law shall no flesh living be justified;” but the statement of Eliphaz was a gratuitous slander, which one good man should always be careful in circulating, saying, or even thinking about another, since God alone can read the heart.
(2) Insinuating that this previous confidence on the part of Job had been ill grounded, inasmuch as his piety could not have been sincere, in which case Job must have been guilty of hypocrisy; but this, again, was a mere inference on the part of Eliphaz, and in point of fact was incorrect.
(3) Directing Job to find encouragement and hope in a return to the fear of God and to moral rectitude of lifean advice which, as addressed to Job, was not required, and, as given by Eliphaz, was a pure impertinence.
IV. A FALLACIOUS PHILOSOPHY.
1. That good men never perish. “Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?” (verse 7).
(1) An unkind statement, even if it had been true; considering Job’s situation. If there is “a time to speak,” there is also “a time to be silent;” and though it is unquestionably wrong to suppress or tamper with the truth, there is nothing in religion that requires one to proclaim all the truth irrespective of circumstances, or even to present truth under any circumstances in its most repulsive forms.
(2) An incorrect statement, as well as an unkind one. It was contradicted by the plainest facts of history, as Job maintained, and as the least competent observer might have perceived (Gen 4:8; Act 2:22, Act 2:23; Heb 11:37). Those who undertake to comfort sufferers, and those who propound philosophies of affliction (or, indeed, of anything), should be careful to adhere to truth.
2. That bad men always perish. “Even as I have seen, they that plough iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same” (verse 8); in which may be noted:
(1) The graphic description of wicked men, who are depicted
(a) metaphorically as ploughing iniquity and sowing wickedness, alluding, perhaps, to the deliberate purpose, mental activity, steady perseverance, onward progress, and eager expectation with which great criminals contrive and carry out their nefarious schemes; and
(b) analogically, being likened to a lion passing through the successive stages of its development, and increasing as it grows in strength, ferocity, and violence.
(2) The melancholy overthrow of wicked men, who are consumed
(a) in accordance with the natural laws of retribution, reaping the whirlwind where they have sown the wind (Pro 22:8; Hos 8:7; Hos 10:13; Gal 6:7, Gal 6:8);
(b) by the express visitation of God, perishing (as Job’s children did, is what he means) by the blast of God, and before the breath of his nostrils; and
(c) to the complete extinction of their former greatness, the providentially overtaken and divinely punished transgressor being compared to an old lioness, once formidable and powerful, roaring and devouring, but now lying helpless and impotent, toothless and voiceless, dying for lack of prey, and abandoned even by her whelps.
(3) The amount of truth in the representation, which is correct in so far as it describes individual cases; as e.g. the antediluvians, the cities of the plain, Adonibezek (Jdg 1:7), Belshazzar (Dan 5:22, Dan 5:30), Herod (Act 12:23); but incorrect in so far as it claims to be of universal application.
Learn:
1. To cultivate the habit of politeness of speech. Courtesy is a dictate of religion as well as an element of virtue.
2. To commend where we can, and reprove only where we must. To detect goodness in others is a higher attainment than to espy faults.
3. To beware of trusting in self-righteousness, as much after conversion as before. The saint’s trust should never be in himself, but always in his God.
4. To be cautious in making general deductions from what may, after all, be isolated facts. One man’s observation does not afford a basis broad enough for the construction of a philosophy of life.
5. To think about the harvests we shall reap before commencing to plough and sow. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap”
Job 4:6-8
Affliction.
I. THE SOURCE OF IT.
1. Negatively.
(1) It comes not without a cause. “The curse causeless shall not come” (Pro 26:2).
(2) It comes not for any cause; i.e. by haphazard, by accident, since the whole universe is under the dominion of law (Mat 10:29).
(3) It comes not from a material cause; it springs not from the ground; it is not the result of a man’s terrestrial environment
2. Positively.
(1) It comes from within man himself; it is the fruit of his own sin
(2) It comes in accordance with universal moral law, which connects sin and suffering together as cause and effect.
(3) It comes as an inseparable concomitant of man’s nature. Man, when he is born, finds himself introduced into a scene of trouble.
II. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF IT.
1. Universal. It is the portion, not of one man, or a few, or even of many, but of the race. It forms a portion of the birthright of humanity.
2. Certain. It is absolutely unavoidable. As surely as the sparks ascend, so surely will those sinful passions rage that entail suffering and misery.
3. Perpetual. Meeting man upon the threshold of his birth, it accompanies him throughout life till its close.
III. THE ESCAPE FROM IT.
1. Not by refractory rebellion. Not by behaving like the fool, or like Job, who cursed his day, and fumed and fretted against his misery.
2. But by patient submission. “Humble thyself beneath the hand of God, and he shall lift thee up.”
Job 4:12-21
Eliphaz to Job: 2. A message from the spirit-world.
I. THE DEVOUT SEER.
1. Reposing on his couch. A modern poet (Robert Buchanan, ‘Book of Orm.,’ 1.), depicting how “in the beginning, ere time grew,” the beautiful Maker of all things drew around his face, which has ever since been invisible to mortal eye, the wondrous veil of the firmament, represents that face as closest pressed in the daytime, when the sky is clearest, adding that at nightfall, when the darkness deepens and the stars swim out, and the evening wind begins to blow like the breath of God, that veil is backward drawn. It more, however, accords with universal experience that the unseen world seems in closest proximity to the human soul when it looks down through “the star-inwrought luminous folds of the wondrous veil.” That the light of garish day has a tendency, by shutting man into his own little world, to shut out from his apprehension the infinitudes above, is not more certain than it is that the finite spirit becomes more quickly conscious of the supernatural amidst the darkness and silence of night, than when these have been succeeded by the radiance and turmoil of day.
2. Wrapt in meditation. If day be the season for labour, unquestionably night is the time most congenial for the exercise of thought, especially for revolving the great problems of religion. As David meditated on God in the night-watches (Psa 63:6), and Asaph communed with his heart in the night, his wakeful spirit making diligent search into those brooding mysteries which oppressed his waking hours (Psa 77:6), and as a Greater than either spent whole nights among the Galilaean hills in prayer to God (Luk 6:12), so Eliphaz had “thoughts from the visions of the night.”
3. Raised into ecstasy. Disengaged from the activities and disturbances of waking existence, and soothed by the calming influences of night, the meditative prophet fell into a deep sleep, not simply such a profound slumber as steeps the senses in oblivion to all outward things, but such a supernatural repose as Adam was cast in before the creation of Eve (Gen 2:21), and Abraham at the making of the covenant (Gen 15:12). and Daniel on the banks of the Ulai (Dan 8:18), in which, while for the time the human spirit is severed from its physically conditioned life, it is yet in the innermost depths of its being possessed of a conscious existencea mode of being perhaps as nearly approaching what man’s disembodied state will be as anything we can think of.
4. Visited by revelations. The deep sleep just described having been that into which prophets and others were east when about to receive Divine communications (cf. Abraham, Gen 15:12; Jacob, Gen 28:12; Dan 2:19; Peter, Act 10:10; Paul, 2Co 12:2, 2Co 12:3). Eliphaz the entranced was honoured by a visitation from the unseen world of ghosts.
II. THE FORMLESS SPECTRE.
1. The premonition of its coming. “Fear came upon me, and trembling” (verse 14). Even good men are not always able to contemplate the supernatural with self-possession (cf. Mat 14:26; Luk 24:37). That man should evince a horror of visitors from the spirit-world is a melancholy proof of his fall, Innocence would not be discomposed by knowing that “millions of spirits walk this air, both when we wake and when we sleep” (Milton). But sinful man, being out of harmony with the Supreme Spirit and the entire circle of creation, universally feels afraid of the unseen world by which he is surrounded (cf. ‘Macbeth,’ act 3. sc. 4).
2. The manner of its coming. Gliding suddenly out of the darkness in which the entranced seer lay, flitting softly and noiselessly along upon the still, supernatural atmosphere with which the chamber was filled, moving steadily up till it came in full view of the dreamer’s open eye, it stood! The sleeper saw and was perfectly conscious of its presence, could discern there was an image, a dim shadowy nebulous appearance, but felt altogether incompetent to analyze its features. Yet there is no reason to suppose that, like Macbeth’s sword, this formless spectre was “a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain” (‘Macbeth,’ act 2. sc. 1). The Sadducees denied the existence of spirits (Act 23:8); but the language of Christ (Luk 24:39) implies that they were wrong, though, of course, it does not sanction either the ancient superstitious belief in ghost-stories or the modern delusion of spirit-rapping.
3. The effect of its coming. The terror of anticipation felt by Eliphaz deepened rote a nameless horror, in which “the hair of his flesh stood up” (verse 15), “like quills upon the fretful porcupine” (‘Hamlet,’ act 1. sc. 5), or rather like nails or spikes upon a wall, each individual bristle stiffening itself into a cold and chilling isolation.
4. The accompaniment of its coming. A still, small voice fell upon his ear, like a dead and stealthy whisper (cf. 1Ki 19:12).
III. THE SHADOWY VOICE.
1. A clear demonstration of the sinfulness of man.
(1) A question proposed: “Shall mortal man be mere just than God? shall a man be more pure than his Maker?” (verse 17). A great question, which, read as it stands (Calvin, Davidson, Cox, etc.), may be described as
(a) searching, going down into the foundations of man’s being, inquiring into the ideas he possesses of moral excellence and spiritual integrity, as well as the measures and degrees in which those ideas have been realized in his own personal existence;
(b) elevating, lifting man up into the serene altitudes of absolute purity in which God dwells, and setting him down with the dimmed lustre of his imperfect goodness beside the clear white light of God’s ineffable rectitude;
(c) discriminating, neither confounding the two things, man’s righteousness and God’s, as if they were one and the same, nor mistaking the one for the other, as if they almost rivalled one another in their splendour, but distinguishing each from the other as essentially diverse and apart, God’s righteousness and holiness being inherent, perfect, eternal, while that of man is derived, immature, capable of increase and diminution, mutable, and subject to decay; and
(d) challenging, demanding of sinful man whether he would dare to exalt himself, in respect of justice and purity, above the supreme God, his Maker? Formally, perhaps, no one would be guilty of the immeasurable presumption implied in asserting that he was equal to this; yet practically ever), sinner makes the claim of having stricter ideas of moral and spiritual integrity than God, when he impeaches either the equity of the Divine dealings with, Or the justness of the Divine sentence of condemnation against, himself.
(2) A premiss stated: “Behold, he puts no trust in his servants, and his angels he charges with folly [or, ‘imputeth to them wrong’]” (verse 18). The impious assumption that the creature might surpass the Creator in moral purity, the ghost quickly disposes of by showing that the former cannot possibly equal the latter, and this he does by establishing the moral inferiority to God of even the highest intelligences, the unfallen angels who serve him day and night in his celestial temple. Even they, beings of exalted dignity and radiant goodness, when brought up alongside of the light inaccessible and full of glory of the Divine character, appear to have their lustre tarnished. Whence the next step is inevitable.
(3) A deduction made: “How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay!” (verse 19). If man is inferior to the angels, then much more is he inferior to God; and man’s inferiority to angels the spirit next proves.
2. An affecting representation of human frailty. Contrasted with the angelic race, man is depicted as a creature
(1) whose origin is mean, being characterized as a dweller in a clay house, whose foundation is in the dust (verse 19), the allusion being to his corporeal frame, which, being composed of material elements, incontestably proclaims his inferiority;
(2) whose duration is short, he being an ephemerid who is” crushed before the moth” (verse 19) and “destroyed from morning to evening” (verse 20), i.e. in the course of a single day;
(3) whose importance is small, he being regarded with such contempt, not only by higher orders of intelligence, but by the members of his own race, that he is a]lowed to die unheeded, “to perish for ever without any regarding it” (verse 20);
(4) whose glory is evanescent, whatever grandeur or excellency man may attain on earth passing away with him when he dies: “Doth not their excellency which is in them go away?’ (verse 21); and
(5) whose failure is conspicuous, man commonly dying as he was born, “without wisdom'” i.e. without having attained to more than the alphabet of knowledge. Yet, affecting as this picture of man is, it is only half true. It exhibits only one aspect of man’s nature and condition. If a dweller in a house of clay, man is yet of Divine origin, being the breath of God’s Spirit, and an immortal whose existence shall not be counted by years, and of such importance in the universe that God parted with his Son in order to effect his redemption, and whose true glory (Isa 60:19) shall never fade, and whose ultimate attainment to wisdom shall be made good in a brighter and better world.
Learn:
1. That heaven is never far removed from the pious.
2. That those who think most about God obtain most communications from God.
3. That even good men may long remain, through fear of death and the unseen world, subject to bondage
4. That Divine voices seldom speak in tempests and hurricanes, but mostly in still, small voices.
5. That God, being higher than the highest, should be regarded by all his creatures with reverence and fear.
6. That man, even at his best state, is altogether vanity.
7. That, in the judgment of Heaven, no life is successful that terminates without having attained to wisdom.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Job 4:1-11
Eliphaz and Job: forgotten truths called to mind.
However misapplied to his particular case may have been the speeches of Job’s friends, there can be no dispute concerning the purity and the sublimity of the great truths for which they here appear as spokesmen. If not well directed to Job, they may be well directed to us. Each of the friends represents a certain aspect of the truths which relate man to God. In the speech of Eliphaz the main position taken is that man, in his ignorance and sinfulness, must be silent in presence of the all-just and all-holy God.
I. COMPARISON OF PAST WITH PRESENT EXPERIENCE. (Verses 1-6.) Job is reminded of what he was, and asked to account for what he is.
1. The appeal to memory. A bright, a radiant memory it was. He had been the director of many”guide, philosopher, and friend” to young and old in the perplexities of life. Again, he had been the comforter of the sorrowful and the weak; had strengthened the hands that hung down and the feeble knees: had led in straight paths the feet of those who erred. It is a beautiful picture of an amiable, benevolent, God-like career. He had not, like many, to look back upon a barren waste, a selfish and misspent life, but upon one filled with “deeds of light.” Thanks to God if any man can turn in the hour of despondency to memories so fair and green!
2. Expostulation with his present mood. How is it, then, now that pain and grief have touched his own person, that he is so utterly cast down? Why not apply the medicine and the balm for your own disease and hurt which were found so healing in the case of others? If the remedy was ever good for them, ’twas because it was first good for you. If the counsel and the comfort you were wont to offer to the sick and sad had not been proved by you, it was of no avail to press them upon others. But if they accepted it and were blessed, why can you not now prescribe for your own malady’? “Physician, heal thyself. Sink in thyself, then ask what ails thee at that shrine!”
3. Appeal to the power of religion and to the consciousness of innocence. The sixth verse would be better rendered, “Is thy religion [fear of God] not thy confidence? thy hope the innocence of thy ways?” Religion is a great mainstay in all the storms of the soul. So long as a man can say, “It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good,” he has a support which nothing can move. But so also is conscious integrity a grand spring of comfort, because of hope “hops that reaps not shame.” To sow the seeds of virtue in health and activity is to reap the harvest of hope in illness, enforced idleness, in weakness, and in death. Hope is the kind nurse of the ailing and the old; and why is Job without the angelic ministry of her presence now? Let us put these questions of Eliphaz to ourselves.
II. INFERENCES FROM SUFFERING. (Verses 7-11.) These Eliphaz proceeds to draw, Job still remaining silent at his first appeal. The inference is that there has been guilt to account for these great troubles. And the inference is justified by an appeal to the great teacher, experience.
1. General experience proves that calamity points to guilt. As a rule, it is not good men who sink, nor upright hearts that are utterly overwhelmed. There are, or seem to be, exceptions of which the philosophy of Eliphaz takes no account. But, indeed, how slight are upon the whole these seeming exceptions to the grand moral rule! As in grammar, so in life, the exceptions may be found, on closer examination, only to enlarge and illustrate our conception of the rule.
2. The teaching of experience is supported by that of nature. (Verse 8.) The laws of nature are constant. Every reaping implies a previous sowing, every harvest is the offspring of the early labour of the year. Thereforethis is the rigid reasoning of Eliphazthis trouble of his friend implies a previous sowing in the fields of sin. It is the rough, broad statement of a sublime principle in the government of God. It is given without exceptions, but it will be time enough to look at the exceptions when we have first mastered the rule.
3. Pictures from nature, which illustrate this moral law. (Verses 9, 10, 11.) Nature flashes back her light upon those truths which we have first learned from experience and conscience. Two such pictures are here sketched. One is that of the violent blast from heaven, which breaks the rotten tree, hurls the dry leaves into the stream, scatters the worthless chaff. Such is the fate of the worthless man, the mind devoid of principle and therefore of vitality and worth. The other pictureand it is less familiar, and perhaps still more powerfulis that of the fierce lion, toothless, vainly roaring, perishing at last for lack of prey, its young ones all dispersed l Such, again, is the fate of the bold, bed man. To this end his devouring lusts have brought him. The appetite for sin continuing to the lastthe food of appetite, nay, the very power to enjoy, at last withdrawn. Where, in the compass of so few lines, can we find so powerful an illustration of the wages and the end of sin? Side by side with this powerful image we may place some other pictures in which Scripture represents the doom of the unprincipled and godless man. He is like the chaff before the breeze, like the juniper in the desert, unwetted by the refreshing dew of heaven, like the tree all flourishing to-day, to-morrow feeling the stroke of the woodman’s axe, or like the dross which is consumed in the furnace where the true gold brightens, like the rapidly burning tow, or like a dream when one awakesan image, the unreality of which is destined to be discovered and scorned.J.
Verse 12-5:7
The oracle in a dream of the night.
Here we have the narration of one of those revelations in visions of the night, through which man so frequently learned in the elder time to know the will of the Eternal. Every line of the description is significant and impressive.
I. THE ASSOCIATIONS OF THE NIGHT.
1. It is the season of solitude. In the daytime we have many to keep us company, to encourage us, it may be, in false or idle thoughts, or divert us from those that are serious. Now at last we are alone, and must stand face to face with self, with truth, with God.
2. It is the season of silence. There is no noise, no confusion, drowning the still, small voices which otherwise might be heard.
3. It is the time of darkness. The eye is no longer filled with sights that divert the fancy and unbend the fixity of the mind’s direction. Pascal says that the reason why men pursue field sports and other amusements with so much eagerness is that they may fly from themselves, which is a night that none can bear. But the darkness, throwing a veil above the bright outer world, flings the man back upon himself, forces him into the inner chamber of conscience. Happy those who have learned to employ the wakeful hours in self-communion and in communion with God, and who find that “night visions do befriend, while waking dreams are fatal.”
II. THE STILNESS OF GOD‘S VOICE. This is a thought made very prominent in the description, as in the revelation to Elijah on Horebthe calmness and gentleness of the voice of the Unseen and the Divine. Eliphaz says the word “stole” upon him, and it was a “gentle sound” his ear received (Job 5:12). It was a “whispering voice” (Job 5:16), like the susurrus, or rustling of the leaves of a tree in the quiet air of night. For all who willingly listen, the voice of the great Father of spirits is calm, quiet, gentle, though strong and awful. Only upon the stubborn ear and obdurate heart does it peal in the end with thunder and menace.
III. THE EFFECT UPON THE HUMAN HEART OF GOD‘S VOICE. (Job 5:14.) It cannot be heard without awe and without terror. One tone of that voice vibrating through the whole consciousness awakens instantly all the sense of our weakness, our ignorance, and our sin. And here we have all the physical symptoms faithfully described which testify to the agitation of the soul in presence of the Unseen. There is a trembling and quivering of the whole frame in every limb. The hair stands on end. A materialistic philosophy, which either denies or ignores man’s relation to the Unseen, can never explain away these phenomena. They are involuntary witnesses to the reality of that power which besets us behind and before, which is “closer to us than our breathing, nearer than hands and feet,” from which we cannot flee.
IV. THE APPARITION. (Job 5:15, Job 5:16.) It is well to note in what vague and awful touches the presence of the Divine is hinted. A spirit passes before the sleeperit stands stillbut its form, its features, cannot be exactly discerned. There is the like vagueness in Moses’ vision, and in that of Isaiah in the temple. For no man can look upon the face of God, no man can receive aught but the dimmest and faintest impression of that inexpressible form. These descriptions yield us lessons as public teachers. They remind us that a tone of reserve, a simplicity of description, not overpassing the reverential bounds of Scripture, the suggestion of a vast background of mystery, should accompany all that we venture to speak to men concerning God.
V. THE ORACLE. (Verses 17-21.) It is a solemn rebuke to that spirit which Eliphaz thought he discerned in his friendthe assumption of innocence and righteousness in the presence of God. “For there is not a just man upon earth, which doeth good and sinneth not” (Ecc 7:20). Its contents may be summed up m the words of the psalm (Psa 143:2), “In thy sight shall no man living be justified.” Its meaning is echoed in such words as these: “Righteous, O God, art thou in thy judgments” (Jer 12:1); “Let God be true, and every man a liar, as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged” (Rom 3:4) There is no privilege of question, of criticism, of reproach, or complaint’ when man approaches the works of God. His part is to understand and to submit. The right of criticism implies some equality of knowledge; but how can this subsist between the creature and the Creator? “Who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?” (Rom 9:20). Criticism is silenced in the presence of overwhelming superiority. There are a few great works even of human art before which the tongue of cavil and fault-finding is hushed. Who dares to sit in judgment on the sculptures of a Phidias, or the paintings of a Raphael, or the poems of a Shakespeare? Admiration, study, have here alone place. At least, in these mere human works, the presumption ever is that the master is right and the critic is a fool. How much more must this be so in the relation between the ignorant creature and the omniscient Creator? But in the oracle, this great truth is supported, not by a comparison of ignorant man with great geniuses, but by a comparison of men with angels. They are the immediate servants of the Most High; they stand nearer to him than man. Yet they are imperfect, unworthy of the full confidence of their Divine Lord, liable to error and mistake. How much more so man, who is conscious of sin as they are notsin that disturbs his judgment, that clouds his perceptions! Again, the angels enjoy a life ever vigorous and young, that knows not decay nor death! But man inhabits a house of clay, an earthly tabernacle; he wears a “muddy vesture of decay,” and lives on “this dim spot of earth.” He is an ephemeral creature, living from dawn to sunset; easily crushed like a moth; living in dense ignorance, amid which death suddenly surprises him. This, it is true, is not the only aspect of human life. All is comparison. If man’s spiritual nature be contrasted with the shortness of his life and the feebleness of his powers, it rises into grandeur by the comparison. But if his mere intellect be brought into contrast with the Infinite Intelligence, then he must needs sink into insignificance. A true comparison will either teach us faith and hope, or humility; and both lessons are derived from the nearer view of the pro-founder knowledge of the greatness of God.
VI. INFERENCES FROM THE ORACLE.
1. The idleness of complaints against God.. (Job 5:1.) For the very angels, should Job apply to one of them, would in the consciousness of their relation to the Supreme, adopt no complaint of the kind.
2. Such complaining spirit is the sign of a fatal folly. (Verses 2, 3.) ‘Tis a sin which, if indulged, will slay the sinner. And here follows another powerful picture of the dread fatality attending upon the foolupon him who would in thought and life nourish a quarrel with Heaven. He may for a time appear prosperous and firmly rooted, but the doom will fall upon him and his house. “I knew such a case,” says Eliphaz, with emphasis. “Not blinded by the outward dazzle of his future, I, in abhorrence of his character, predicted his downfall; and it has come to pass. His sons, feeling all the weight of a father’s guilt, are thrust aside, and can obtain no justice at the hands of their fellows (verse 4). Those whom the father had oppressed seize, as in the hunger and thirst of the ‘wild justice’ of revenge, upon the property of the sons; they ravage and despoil, and snatch the vainly guarded harvest even from among the thorns” (verse 5).
CONCLUDING LESSON. There is a cause of every human suffering, and that cause is not external, but internal (verses 6, 7). Not external. Not accidental. Not like the weed that springs from the earth, and which can be rooted out at will. But internal. The cause of man’s sufferings is deeply seated in his nature. He is born to suffer. He is a native of the territory of woe. As certain this as any physical lawas that sparks should fly upward, and that stones should fall. Vain, then, these murmurs against the course and constitution of things. Whatever is, is best. If sorrow be a great part of our destiny, resignation is our wisdom and our duty. And he who has learned calmly to bow before the inevitable, and to submit to law, is prepared to listen to those sweet consolations which Eliphaz proceeds to unfold from the nature of him whose will is to bless, not curse; who follows out, by the very means of pain and sorrow, the eternal counsels of love.J.
Job 4:1-6
The teacher tested.
Throughout the words of Job’s friends many truths are to be found both accurately stated and beautifully illustrated; but in many casesalmost generallya wrong application of them is made. The friends designing to be comforters do, through imperfect views of the mystery of human suffering, indeed become accusers, and make the burden heavier which they proposed to lighten. But the words now under consideration are perfectly true. He who had formerly been the instructor of many, and the strengthener of them of feeble knees, is now himself smitten, and he faints; he is touched and troubled. The lesson is therefore to the teacher who can pour out words of instruction to others, and to the comforter who aims at consoling the sorrowful. His principles will one day be tested in his own experience, and he will in his own life prove their truthfulness or their falsity. Eliphaz insinuates, if he does not actually affirm, Job’s failure. “To be forewarned is to be forearmed;” and the wise teacher will become a learner in presence of these words. We may, then, say
I. TRUTH MAKES ITS GREATEST DEMANDS ON ITS EXPOSITORS. They ally themselves with it. They proclaim it. They declare their faith in it. They vouch for it. The more really a man is a teacher the more is he a disciple. It is the perfect alliance of the teacher with the truth he teaches that gives him power over others in its exposition. Upon him, then, the greatest demand is made that the truth he has affirmed should find its highest illustration in his own lifethat his life should not give the lie to his lips. It is thus that
II. THE TEACHER OF TRUTH HAS THE BEST OPPORTUNITY OF BECOMING ITS MOST EFFECTUAL EXPOSITOR. Eliphaz could not yet see how Job, holding fast his integrity, would present a brilliant example of the truthfulness of his doctrine. To expound truth with the lips is possible to the simulator and hypocrite. He may say, and do not. He may declare the authority of a truth, and contradict that authority and his own saying by disobedience. Such were the Pharisees of our Lord’s time. From them truth received the highest homage by verbal acknowledgment, but they proved themselves untrue and unfaithful disciples of truth by the discredit they threw upon it by their disobedience to its requirements. The teacher of truth, making the truth his own by a thorough embrace of it, and a real and unfeigned sympathy with it, teaches more by his life than by his lips; for the one men discredit, but the other is undeniable. Fidelity in the teacher is the highest proof of his faith in his doctrine, and by it he pays the utmost tribute to the doctrine that he is able to pay.
III. THE SUPREME DUTY OF THE TEACHER IS FIDELITY TO HIS DOCTRINE. By his faithfulness his scholars are confirmed in their belief and steadfastness. It is a black crime for a man to proclaim a truth or a teaching that affects the life and hope of his fellow-men, and yet prove a traitor to it by unfaithfulness. The foundations of the hope of many have been shaken and even uprooted by such conduct. By how much the truth a man proclaims is important, by so much is the responsibility of his own treatment of that truth great. Job was a bright example of fidelity, though severely tried.
IV. THE HONOURABLENESS OF A FAITHFUL ADHESION TO A GREAT TRUTH. He who links himself with great truths is exalted by them. They honour him who houours them. They bring him to glory and true renown.R.G.
Job 4:7-11
The consequences of evil-doing.
The New Testament teaching is, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” It is precisely as the present verses. “They that plough iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.” So does the testimony of the ages warn evil-doers. This rule is inevitable; it is just; it is natural; it is admonitory.
I. THIS ORDER IS INEVITABLE. He who has ordained the laws of nature, fixed, calm, indestructible, has also ordained that the doer of evil shall reap the fruit of his ill-doing. An inevitable Nemesis follows the steps of every offender against Divine laws. Sooner or later judgment is passed. No skilfulness can evade the omnipotent rule. “Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished.” Minutely did our Lord lay down the same teaching: “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” One may as well try to throw off the law of gravitation. It holds us all fast in its firm grip. So does this Divine law framed by the same hand.
II. THIS LAW IS JUST. The wise and holy Ruler of all”the Creator of all worlds, the Judge of all men”will do right, does do right in the administrations of his holy laws. He is not vindictive. His anger is holy anger; his wrath is as truly just as his love is tender. He has laid the foundations of human life in righteousness. He is just; for he rendereth to every man according to his deeds. Without doubt he takes note of all the circumstances in which every one is placed, and neither accuses the guiltless nor excuses the guilty. Men find in their own acts the cause of their sufferings, and the justification of the righteous judgment of God. In every breast the most painful conviction will be the assurance of the perfect righteousness of the Divine ways, and the justice of every Divine infliction. The inward reflection of the Divine judgment of condemnation is the most painful of all judgments.
III. THE OPERATION OF THIS LAW IS PERFECTLY NATURAL. Consequences follow causes with the same regularity of law in the moral as in the material world. A wrong thought gives a wrong bias to the mind, and leaves it so much the more liable to be influenced in a wrong direction; so of every word or deed of evil. Each wrong act is a seed cast into the ground, and it bears its fruit after its own kind to him Who sows it, Of evil, good cannot spring up. So every man by his wrong-doing treasures up for himself wrath against the day of wrath. He receives his reward in his character, in the condition of mind and life to which he is reduced by evil or elevated by goodness.
IV. THIS LAW IS ADMONITORY TO ALL. There is no escape by mere law from the ill consequences of any bad act. The inevitable consequences which follow all wrongdoing should warn men off from forbidden paths. “By the blast of God they perish” is the warning threat against the sowers of wickedness and them that “plough iniquity.” Though men rage as the fierce lions, their roaring is broken; they perish, and their seed is scattered abroad.R.G.
Job 4:12-21
The condemnation of man in presence of the Divine holiness.
With a figure of great boldness and grandeur Eliphaz urges his words upon Job. He is trying to illustrate the great principle of the righteous retributions of the Divine government. In the visions of the night there appeared a spirit to pass before his face, and in the dead silence he heard a voice saying, “Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his Maker?” It cannot be. And the vision of Eliphaz finds its fulfilment in Job himself, who in the end is bowed down to the earth in self-abasing shame and condemnation.
I. ALL MEN MUST OF NECESSITY BE SELF–CONDEMNED IN PRESENCE OF THE DIVINE HOLINESS. Alas! we are all sinful; our best deeds are faulty, and the element of sinfulness mingles with all our acts as truly as the element of imperfectness. We cannot stand in the presence of the absolutely Perfect One. Even the rudest vanity must be appalled and humbled in his sight.
II. THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE DIVINE HOLINESS A SALUTARY CHECK TO SELF–CONFIDENT BOASTING. In the absence of a true and lofty standard of right, men boast themselves of their goodness. Measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, they are led to the proud assumption of fancied righteousness. The standards are faulty; even the faulty ones, therefore, reach them. He is wise who can say, “But now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
III. THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE DIVINE HOLINESS A STIMULUS TO LOWLY, HUMBLE, RELIGIOUS FEAR. This fear is the beginning of wisdom; and the highest attainments of wisdom do not depart from this fear. It is the beginning and the consummation of holy wisdom.
IV. THE PUREST AND MOST EXALTED BEINGS ARE ABASED IN THE DIVINE PRESENCE. “His angels he charged with folly.” How much more, therefore, the children of the dust,”them that dwell in houses of clay”!R.G.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY
Job 4:1
Eliphaz the visionary.
After Job has broken the seven days’ silence, each of his friends assays to comfort him, with that most irritating form of consolationunsolicited advice. Although, perhaps, some of the critics have thought they detected greater differences Between the three friends than are really apparent from the narrative, we cannot but notice certain distinctive features. What they have in common is more pronounced than their points of difference. Thus they all three are friends of Job, who really desire to show their sympathy and help the sufferer. They all tender unasked counsel. They all assume an irritating position of superiority. They all adhere to the prevalent dogma that great calamity is to be accounted for as the punishment of great sin. They all believe in the justice of God and his readiness to forgive and restore if Job will but confess his sins and humble himself. But they manifest certain interesting differences. The first friend to speak is Eliphaz, who appears as a seer of visions.
I. THERE ARE MEN WHO SEEM TO BE NATURALLY IN AFFINITY WITH THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. All men are not able to see the sights with which these men are familiar. They are the seers of visions. Too often such men are visionaries and nothing else. They are so wrapt up in the excitement of their experiences of another world that they have no interest or capacity left for the discharge of present earthly duties. It would go ill with us if there were many such unpractical people among us. But even these men have their sphere, and there are higher visionaries to whom we should be pro-roundly grateful. It is a great descent from Paul the apostle in the third heavens to “Sludge the medium” at a seance. The follies of spiritualism should not blind us to the revelations of true seers. Even the half-mad visions of a Blake have given the world some wonderful fruits of imagination, that would never have grown on the stock of conventional worldly experience.
II. TRUTH IS NOT ALWAYS FOUND WITH THE SEER OF VISIONS. God’s seer will see God’s truth. If the veil is lifted from before the unseen world, some genuine revelations must appear. God has given us truths of the Bible in some cases through the visions of his prophets. But the mere affirmation of a vision is no voucher for the truth of what is said. The seer may be a deceiver, he may be a deluded fanatic, or he may see a vision of “lying spirits.” Therefore what he says must be tested, and should not be accepted on the mere authority of his vision. Here was the mistake of Eliphaz, who thought to overawe and silence Job by the recital of his vision. It is safer to turn from all such pretensions to the clear “word of prophecy’ and the historical revelation of Christ. Our religion is based, not on visions, but on historical facts.
III. IT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO CULTIVATE SYMPATHY WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. If we are not visionaries, we need not be materialists. Though we do not look for spiritualistic manifestations, we need not be Sadducees who believe in no spirits. There is a vision of God for the pure in heart, which can deceive none, and which is the inspiration of this world’s highest service.W.F.A.
Job 4:2
Irrepressible speech.
Eliphaz says,” Who can withhold himself from speaking?” He utters his own sentiment, but it is a very common onefar more common than the honest admission of it with which Eliphaz justifies his address to Job.
I. IRREPRESSIBLE SPEECH SPRINGS FROM VARIOUS INFLUENCES, Sometimes it is difficult to find words. What, then, are the things that break open the fountains of speech?
1. Natural temperament. Some are naturally loquacious, others as naturally taciturn. No man is responsible for his original constitution; his responsibility begins with his use of it.
2. Wealth of ideas. It is not only verbal fluency that runs into a volume of speech. One who thinks much will have the materials for talking much. Coleridge meditated deeply; Macaulay read enormously, and remembered all he read; and both were great talkers.
3. Depth of feeling. Passion elves eloquence to the least gifted person. Sympathy will seek for words. So the long contemplation of Job’s sufferings urged Eliphaz to speak.
4. Provocation. Eliphaz was shocked at Job’s cursing the day of his birth. Unable to enter into the tragic depths of the sufferer’s grief, he could easily perceive the highly improper tone of the language used. Controversy rouses the least beautiful, but often the most vigorous, kind of eloquence.
5. Vanity. To many people there is a strange charm in the sound of their own voices.
II. IRREPRESSIBLE SPEECH MAY BE A SOURCE OF GREAT EVIL, The talker rarely seems to consider how keen a weapon he is wielding. He does not appear to remember that his words are like arrows, and that the bow drawn at a venture may inflict a mortal wound; that they are as seeds which may spring up and bear hitter fruit long after the sower has forgotten when and where he threw them broadcast over the earth. Certain points in particular need to be noticed.
1. Irrepressible speech lacks due reflection. It is hasty and ill-judged. Thus it may say far more than the speaker intended, and it may even convey a very false impression. Spoken without due thought, the hurried word may make a suggestion which mature consideration would utterly repudiate. Words lead to deeds, and thus irrepressible speech becomes an unalterable act. “Volatility of words,” says Lavater, “is carelessness in actions; words are the wings of actions.”
2. Irrepressible speech is likely to be inconsiderate of the feelings of others. Surely Job’s three comforters could not have known what cruel barbs their words were, or they would scarcely have tormented the sufferer as they did. It is so easy to wound with the tongue, that if we talk hastily and without thought, it is most likely that we shall do so even without intending it.
3. Irrepressible speech is a slight on the mission of silence. Those seven days of silence served as a healing ministry, or at least they were days of unadulterated sympathy on the part of the three friends. Why, then, should the good men change their tactics? Evidently they had not enough faith in silence.
4. Irrepressible speech needs the preservation of Divine grace. Great talkers should especially look for help from above, that their speech may be “seasoned with salt.” He who spake as never man spake is a model of wise, laconic utterance. To be safe in the use of the tongue we need to be much in company with Christ, often in converse with Heaven.W.F.A.
Job 4:3-5
The teacher at fault.
After one brief word of apology for breaking the seemly silence of mourning, Eliphaz plunges in medias res, and at once commences to reproach Job by reminding him of his former conduct, and contrasting his present state with it as an evidence of glaring inconsistency. Job could teach others how to conduct themselves, but no sooner is the test brought home to himself than he fails. The teacher cannot pass the examination for which he has been preparing his pupils.
I. THE MISSION OF INSTRUCTING OTHERS IS ONE OF HONOUR AND USEFULNESS. No greater work can be conceived than that of forming character. Thomas Carlyle pointed out the absurdity of heaping honours on the soldier which we deny to the schoolmaster. He thought the cane was a token of greater dignity than the sword. There is no happier result of a life’s work than to see those one has influenced growing in wisdom and goodness and strength of character. It was well, indeed, that Job was one who strengthened the weak. This was wholly good, whatever might be his subsequent character.
II. HE WHO INSTRUCTS OTHERS IS EXPECTED TO FOLLOW HIS OWN PRECEPTS. The eyes of the world are upon him; his own scholars watch him narrowly. Teaching which is not backed up by example soon becomes quite ineffective. The Christian minister can often do more good by his exemplary life than by his most excellent sermons. If his walk and conversation among men do not adorn the gospel he proclaims, they will mar and mutilate it. The world refuses to separate the preacher from the man. It declines to believe that clerical vestments transform a slovenly, shifty, self-indulgent person, whom no one can respect, into a herald from heaven. The Sunday school teacher whose business reputation is low has no right to expect that his lofty words will train up a noble life in the young people whom he instructs.
III. IT IS POSSIBLE TO BE AN INSTRUCTOR OF OTHERS AND YET FAIL ONE‘S SELF, The charge of Eliphaz was unfair, for it took no account of the unparalleled troubles of Jobnone had been tried like this manor rather it assumed that he must have been an exceptionally bad man or he would not have suffered such a tremendous reverse of fortune. Thus it suggested that the venerated leader and teacher had been a hypocrite all along. This was doubly unfair. It is possible to have been in earnest while teaching, and yet afterwards to fall before unexpected temptations without having been a hypocrite; for good men are fallible, and no one knows how weak he is till he has been tried. Moreover, in the present case the teacher had not fallen as his censor supposed. Still, there is great force in his warning. Unfortunately, the world is not wanting in men to whom it is only too applicable. There is a great danger of delusion in the faculty of teaching. All of us who instruct others are tempted to confuse our knowledge with our attainments, and our language with our experience. Thus intellectual and professional familiarity with holy things may be mistaken for that vital communion with them which perhaps is not to be found accompanying it. There has only been one perfect Teacher whose conduct was as lofty as his instructions. All others may well learn to walk humbly while teaching the most exalted lessons.W.F.A.
Job 4:8
A true principle falsely applied.
We have now reached the kernel of the controversy with which Job and his friends are to be engaged. Whileas the prologue showsthe primary purpose of the Book of Job is to refute Satan’s low, sneering insinuation implied in the words, “Doth Job serve God for nought?” and to prove that God can and does inspire disinterested devotion, the long discussion among the friends is concerned with the problem of suffering, and the old orthodox notion that it was just the punishment of sin, showing the inadequacy of that notion, and the deep mystery of the whole subject. Now we are introduced to this perplexing question. It comes before us in the form of a principle that is undoubtedly true, although the application of it by Job’s friends turned out to be egregiously false.
I. THE TRUTH OF THE PRINCIPLE.
1. This is communicated in the New Testament by St. Paul, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal 6:7).
2. This is in accordance with experience. Eliphaz had seen it. We need not suppose that he had been deceived by some strange hallucination. We must all have observed how men make or mar their own fortunes. We know what will be the end of the career of the idle and dissipated. We are constantly watching the triumph of diligence and prudence.
3. This is after the analogy of nature. Then the harvest is according to the sowing, and it is determined by absolute laws. But there is no chaos in the human sphere. Moral causation works there as strictly as physical causation in the outer world. There is no escaping from the natural consequences of our deeds. He who sows the wind will most assuredly reap the whirlwind.
4. This is just. Job’s friends were right in feeling that the wicked ought to suffer and that the good ought to be blessed. The attempt to evade the great law of causation in the spiritual sphere is as immoral as it is futile. Why should any one expect to be saved firm the harvest which he has himself sown?
II. THE FALSE APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLE. The whole Book of Job demonstrates that Job’s friends were wrong in applying this principle to the case of the patriarch. But why was it not applicable?
1. They anticipated the harvest. The harvest is the end of the world. Some firstfruits may be gathered earlier; often we see the evil consequences of misdeeds ripening rapidly. But this is not always the case. Meanwhile we can judge of no life until we have seen the whole of it. In the end Job reaped an abundant harvest of blessings (Job 42:10-17).
2. They ignored the variety of causes. It is a recognized rule of logic that while you can always argue from the cause to the effect, you cannot safely reverse the process and reason back from the effect to the cause, because the same effect may come from any one of a number of causes. Job might bring calamity on himself, and if he did wrong he would bring itin the long run. But other causes might produce it. In this case it was not Job, but Satan, who brought it. It was not the husbandman, but an enemy, who sowed tares in the field.
3. They mistook the nature of the harvest. The man who sows iniquity will not necessarily reap temporal calamity. He will get his natural harvest, which is corruption, but he may have wealth and temporal, external prosperity on earth. And the man who sows goodness may not reap money, immunity from trouble, etc.; for these things are not the natural products of what he sows. They are not “after its kind.” But he will reap “eternal life.” Nothing that had happened to Job indicated that he would not gather that best of all harvests.W.F.A.
Job 4:12-16
An apparition.
The visionary now tells the thrilling tale of his vision. He thinks that he will overawe Job with a message from one who was no mortal man. All the details and circumstances of the vision are graphically narrated, that the horror of it may add to the weight of its authority.
I. THE REALITY OF THE APPARITION. There is every reason to believe that Eliphaz spoke in good faith. He does not appear before us as a deceiver, though he is certainly capable of making a great mistake. Therefore it cannot be doubted that he narrated his genuine experience. But then we may naturally askWhat did really happen?
1. Possibly a subjective illusion. The apparition may have been only a creature of the visionary’s excited imagination. “Seeing” should not be always “believing.” We are not justified in invariably trusting our senses. A diseased or a merely disordered brain will evolve visions. Perhaps without derangement the brain’s very exaltation may help it to create phantasms.
2. Possibly a real spiritual manifestation. It is not scientific to deny the possibility of any such thing. Science is growing conscious of the endless varieties of existence and of the boundless potentialities of nature. We cannot say that there are no spirits but our own, nor can we say that no other spirits ever do make themselves manifest to men. There may be no external, material presence; the spiritual contact may be internal, and the vision thrown out from it through the brain of the seer; and yet there may be a something in contact with the soula real spiritual presence.
II. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE APPARITION.
1. In solitude. The thing was “secretly brought to” Eliphaz. Some may say, as there were no spectators to check the accuracy of his vision, the whole scene was a delusion. But on the other hand, solitude would be most suitable for a revelation of the other world. The pressure cf earthly things shuts out the very thought of the unseen.
2. In the night. Here, again, the darkness of the material surroundings might give an opportunity for the appearance of the immaterial.
3. In meditation. “In thoughts from the visions of the night.” This shows that Eliphaz was in a condition to receive spiritual impressions. The extraordinary writings of Lawrance Oliphant indicate that some kind of peculiar experience is attained by those who think themselves into the preparation necessary for it. This may only lead to the quagmire of “Spiritualism.” But it is too much for a “Philistine” scepticism to say that no good influences have ever come in this way.
III. THE EFFECT OF THE APPARITION.
1. A shock of terror. Eliphaz describes most graphically the horror of his experience. The figure was vague, shapeless, nameless, impersonal, and described by the visionary as “It.” He felt something pass him, his limbs trembled beneath him, his hair stood up on end! Men dread the supernatural. Some attribute this dread to the guilt of conscience; but the strange, the unknown, the unnatural, suggest fearful possibilities of danger. It is happier to live in the sunshine with children and flowers than in gloom with ghosts. The pursuit of “Spiritualism,” even if it is not following a delusion, entails an unhealthy and melancholy fascination.
2. A voice of truth. “It” gave Eliphaz a message. God has revealed truth in dream and vision. The message of the apparition was great and important. Yet that message was not new; and it was liable to misapplication by Eliphaz. We shall be very foolish if we forsake Christ and the Scriptures for spirit-voiceswhich now generally appear to talk nonsense in bad grammar. It is foolish to make conscience and reason subject to any unauthenticated vision.W.F.A.
Job 4:17-21
A message from the unseen.
The apparition spoke and this is what “It” said. No one can gainsay the truth of the words uttered. The only question is how they applied to Job. Eliphaz assumed that Job’s position was thereby condemned Leaving this out of account, however, we may see how lofty, true, and important the words that came in the Temanite’s vision were.
I. THE OBVIOUS FACTS. One would have thought that no ghost was wanted to make such self-evident facts as are here narrated clear to everybody. As we look at the vision of Eliphaz we are tempted to suspect a pompous pretentiousness in it. And yet, though the facts referred to are obvious and unquestionable, they cannot be too impressively insisted on or too profoundly felt. Therefore it may be well that they are brought before us shrouded in the awe of an apparition. These facts concern the littleness of man compared with the greatness of God. At the end of the poem God himself appears and brings them home to Job with a force that is not found in the vision of Eliphaz, partly because God’s dealings with Job himself are wise and fair, while the conduct of Eliphaz is unreasonable and unjust. Note three regions in which man’s littleness is contrasted with God’s greatness.
1. Moral. One man may be more pure or more just than another man. But who can surpass God? Before him the best men shrink and own their utter unworthiness.
2. Intellectual. Some men are more discerning and wise than others, but the height of human capacity is but folly before God.
3. Vital. Man’s life is frail and brief. His ephemeral existence is as nothing compared to the eternity of God. All these truths are trite; their importance lies in the application of them.
II. THEIR JUST EFFECTS. The tremendous mistake people make is to admit the obvious facts, and then to live exactly as if they did not exist. But if they are they should have great effects upon conduct. Note some of the results they should work in us.
1. Humility. We may not understand God, but we should not venture to judge One so infinitely greater than ourselves. Reverence is our right attitude before the mysteries of Providence.
2. Contrition. We may defend ourselves among men, but we cannot do so in the presence of God. Not only can we conceal nothing from Godwe should not wish to do thatbut further, we see a higher standard in God than that which prevails among men, and judged by that standard the saint is a sinner.
3. Patience. God is infinitely just; he knows all; he cannot fail. We do not know what he is doing, nor why he acts. But we can wait.
4. Trust. This goes beyond patience. We have a right to confide in so just, wise, and strong a God. His greatness strikes terror in the rebellious soul; but when one is reconciled to God, that very greatness becomes a mighty, invincible rock of refuge.
5. Obedience. Our duty is to do more than submit without a murmur, and wait patiently for God. He is our Master, our King, and our business is to follow his great authority. Sin is self-will, pride, distrust, disobedience. The Christian life is one of active service; it is treading humbly in the way which our infinite God assigns to us. His greatness justly commands implicit obedience.W.F.A.
CHAP. IV.
Eliphaz reproves Job, who, having consoled others in adversity, nevertheless desponds himself. He affirms, that it was a thing unheard of, for an innocent man to perish; on the contrary, that the wicked perish at the blast of God, and are destroyed for ever.
Before Christ 1645.
Job 4:1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite The three friends who came to comfort Job, disgusted, as it seems, with the bitterness of his complaint, change their purpose, and, instead of consolation, vent the severest reproaches against him. The eldest of these three extraordinary comforters condemns his impatience; desires Job to recollect himself; not to give way to fruitless lamentations, but to put in practice those lessons which he had often recommended to others; Job 4:3-6. He reminds him of that (as they thought) infallible maxim, that “those who reap misery must have sown iniquity;” a maxim which he confirms by his own particular experience, and which he supposes was assented to by all mankind: and, in the display of this maxim, he throws in many of the particular circumstances attending Job’s calamity; intimating, that he must have been a great, though secret oppressor, and that therefore the breath of God had blasted him at once, Job 4:7-11; and he confirms the truth of his principles by a revelation which he says was made to him in a vision; Job 4:12 to the end. See Bishop Lowth and Heath.
FIRST SERIES OF CONTROVERSIAL DISCOURSES
THE ENTANGLEMENT IN ITS BEGINNING
Job 4-14
I. Eliphaz and Job: Chap. 47
A.The Accusation of Eliphaz: Man must not speak against God like Job
Job 4-5
1. Introductory reproof of Job on account of his unmanly complaint, by which he could only incur Gods wrath:
Job 4:2-11
1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
2If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved?
but who can withhold himself from speaking?
3Behold, thou hast instructed many,
and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
4Thy words have upholden him that was falling,
and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.
5But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest;
it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.
6Is not this thy fear, thy confidence,
thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?
7Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent?
or where were the righteous cut off?
8Even as I have seen, they that plough iniquity,
and sow wickedness, reap the same.
9 By the blast of God they perish,
and by the breath of His nostrils are they consumed.
10The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion,
and the teeth of the young lions are broken.
11The old lion perisheth for lack of prey,
and the stout lions whelps are scattered abroad.
2. An account of a heavenly revelation, which declared to him the wrongfulness and foolishness of weak sinful mans raving against God:
Job 4:12 to Job 5:7
12Now a thing was secretly brought to me,
and mine ear received a little thereof,
13in thoughts from the visions of the night,
when deep sleep falleth on men
14fear came upon me, and trembling,
which made all my bones to shake.
15Then a spirit passed before my face;
the hair of my flesh stood up!
16It stood, but I could not discern the form thereof:
an image was before mine eyes; 17Shall mortal man be more just than God?
shall a man be more pure than his Maker?
18Behold, He put no trust in His servants;
and His angels He charged with folly:
19how much less in them that dwell in houses of clay,
whose foundation is in the dust, 20They are destroyed from morning to evening;
they perish forever without any regarding it.
21Doth not their excellency which is in them go away?
they die, even without wisdom.
Job 5:1Call now, if there be any that will answer thee;
and to which of the saints will thou turn?
2For wrath killeth the foolish man,
and envy slayeth the silly one.
3I have seen the foolish taking root;
but suddenly I cursed his habitation.
4His children are far from safety,
and they are crushed in the gate, neither is there any to deliver them:
5whose harvest the hungry eateth up,
and taketh it even out of the thorns, 6Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust,
neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;
7yet man is born unto trouble,
as the sparks fly upward.
3. Admonition to repentance, as the only means by which Job can recover Gods favor and his former happy estate:
Job 5:8-27
8I would seek unto God,
and unto God would I commit my cause;
9which doeth great things and unsearchable,
marvellous things without number;
10who giveth rain upon the earth,
and sendeth waters upon the fields;
11to set up on high those that be low,
that those which mourn may be exalted to safety.
12He disappointeth the devices of the crafty,
so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.
13He taketh the wise in their own craftiness,
and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.
14They meet with darkness in the day-time,
and grope in the noonday as in the night.
15But He saveth the poor from the sword, from their mouth,
and from the hand of the mighty.
16So the poor hath hope,
and iniquity stoppeth her mouth.
17Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth;
therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty.
18For He maketh sore, and bindeth up;
He woundeth, and His hands make whole.
19He shall deliver thee in six troubles;
yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.
20In famine He shall redeem thee from death,
and in war from the power of the sword.
21Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue,
neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.
22At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh;
neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
23For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field,
and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.
24And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace;
and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin.
25Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great,
and thine offspring as the grass of the earth.
26Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age,
like as a shock of corn cometh in his season.
27Lo this, we have searched it, so it is:
hear it, and know thou it for thy good.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Job 4:1. Then answered Eliphaz, and said.It is beyond question the poets aim in this first discourse of Eliphaz to put forward as the first arraigner of Job a man venerable through age and experience, calm and dispassionate, godly after his manner, but at the same time entangled in a one-sided eudemonism and theory of work-righteousness. It is a genuine sage who discourses here: not indeed another Job, but still a character of marked superiority over his two associates, Bildad and Zophar, in experimental insight and sterling personal worth, who here with the self-confident pathos of age and the mien of a prophet communicates his experiences, annexing thereto warnings, exhortations and admonitions. [He, the oldest and most illustrious, the leader and spokesman, appears here at once in his greatest brilliancy. What a fullness in the argument, which at first sight seems unanswerable! How well he knows how to produce illustrations and proofs from revelation and from experience, from among the inhabitants of heaven and of earth! And what poetic beauty irradiates it all! How he strikes with equal skill each various chord of mild reproach, of self-assured conviction, of the awful, of the elevated, of calm instruction, of friendly appeal! How clearly and sharply marked are its divisions, alike as to thought and poetic form! Every strophe is a rounded completed whole in itself: and with what freedom, and, at the same time, with what internal necessity does one strophe link itself to another! One might say that as an artistic discourse this part is the completest in the whole book of Job, that it seems as though the poet wished to show at the very beginning the perfection of his art. Schlottmann. The speech is wonderfully artistic and exhaustive, unmistakably manifesting the speakers high standing and self-conscious superiority, and his conviction of Jobs guilt, yet showing a desire to spare him, even while being faithful with him, and to lead him back to rectitude and humility rather by an exhibition of the goodness of God than of his own sin. The speech is exquisitely climactic, rising, as Ewald says, from the faint whisper and tune of the summer wind to the loud and irresistible thunder of the wintry storm. Dav.]
The discourse opens with a sharp attack on Jobs comfortless and hopeless lamentation, as something which was adapted to bring down on him Gods wrath, which, as experience shows, is visited on every ungodly man (Job 4:2-11). He strengthens this admonition by describing a heavenly vision which had appeared to him during the night, and which had spoken to him, teaching him how foolish and how wrong it is for man to rebel against God (Job 4:12 to Job 5:7). The close of his discourse consists of a kindly admonition to Job to return accordingly to God in a spirit of prayer and penitent humility, in which case God would certainly deliver him out of his misery, and exalt him out of his present low estate (Job 5:8-27).1 The first and shortest of these three divisions forms at the same time the first of the five double strophes, into which the entire discourse falls. The two following divisions are subdivided each into two double strophes of almost equal length, as follows: Div. Job 2 : a. Job 4:12-21; b. Job 5:1-7.Div. Job 3 : a. Job 5:8-16; b. Job 5:17-27.
2. First Division and Double Strophe: Introductory reproof of Jobs faint-hearted lamentation, whereby he could only call down on himself Gods anger: Job 4:2-11.
First Strophe: Job 4:2-6. Retrospective reference to Jobs former godly and righteous life.
Job 4:2. Should one venture a word to thee, wilt thou be grieved?[The friendly courtesy of these opening words of Eliphaz is worthy of note. They are at once dignified, sympathetic and considerate. At the same time, as Dillmann observes, there is a certain coldness and measured deliberation about them, which not improbably grated somewhat on Jobs sensibilities, yearning, as his heart now did, for more tangible and soulfull sympathy. Eliphaz speaks less as a sympathizing friend, than as a fatherly adviser, and a benevolent but critical sage.E.] The interrogative particle , referring to the principal verb , is prefixed to the first word of the sentence. [See Green, Gr. 283, a.] It is immediately followed by an elliptical conditional clause, (comp. the same construction in Job 4:21; also in Num 16:22; Jer 8:4), forming an antecedent clause to the principal verb. To be rendered accordingly: Wilt thou find it irksome, take it hard, will it offend thee, if one attempts a word to thee? is most simply regarded as third pers. sing. Piel of , tentare, after Ecc 7:23. It is less natural, with Umbreit, etc., to take it as Pret. Niph. in the same sense, or following the old versions, to see in it a variant form of (comp. Psa 4:7), as though it were , to speak a word: Job 27:1; Psa 15:3; Psa 81:3. In the latter case the word must be taken either as 3d sing. Niph. in the passive sense (should a word be spoken) or, more probably, as 1st plur. Imperf. Kal (should we speak), in which latter case again two interpretations are possible, namely either: wilt thou, should we speak a word against thee, take offence (Rosenm., etc., comp. the Ancient Versions)? or: shall we speak a word against thee, with which thou wilt be offended (Ewald, Bib. Jahrb. ix. 37; Bttcher)? Against the first rendering may be urged the unusual construction of an Imperf. in an elliptical conditional sentence; against the latter the unheard of transitive rendering which it assumes for . [In favor of taking here in the sense of: to attempt, to venture, it may be said: (1) This meaning is entirely legitimate. (2) It is more expressive. (3) It is more in harmony with the courtesy which marks these opening words of Eliphaz. Hengstenbergs rendering is somewhat different from any of those given above: Shall one venture a word to thee, who art wearied? But the elliptical construction thus assumed seems less simple and natural than the one adopted above.E.] And yet to hold back from words [or speaking] who is able? For the use of with , to hold back from [or, in respect to] anything, comp. Job 12:15; Job 29:9. For the sharpened form instead of , see Ew. 245, b., Aram. plur. ending (comp. Job 12:11; Job 15:13) of , which occurs in our book thirty times, whereas occurs but ten times in all.
Job 4:3. Behold, thou hast admonished many., lit. thou hast chastised, disciplined, namely, with words of reproof and loving admonition. The Perf. here points back to Jobs normal conduct in former days when revered by all, and thus furnishes the standard by which the time of the following Imperf. verb is to be determined. The general sense of Job 4:3-4 is: Thou wast wont formerly to conduct thyself in regard to the sufferings of others so correctly and blamelessly, to show such a proper understanding of the cause and aim of heavy judgments inflicted by God, to deal with sufferings in a way so wise and godlike! But now when suffering has overtaken thyself, etc. And slack hands hast thou strengthened.Slack hands: a sensuous figure representing faint-heartedness and despondency, as also in 2Sa 4:1; Isa 35:3. In the last member of Job 4:4 the expression stumbling [lit. bowing, i.e. sinking] knees is used in essentially the same sense (and so in Heb 12:12).
Job 4:5. Because it is now come to thee, to wit, suffering, misfortune. This construction of the impersonal or neutral is suggested by the context, [and this indefinite statement of the subject is at once more considerate and impressive than if it had been expressed.E.] is construed by Hirzel, Hahn, Schlottmann, Delitzsch, etc., as a particle of time: Now when it is come to thee. But the position, favors rather the causal rendering of the first particle, because now, etc. Comp. Dillmann. [Others explain by supplying an omitted clause: e.g. I say these things because, etc. Ewald: How strange that thou now faintest. The adversative use of , (but now), except after a negative clause, is too doubtful to be relied on here.E.] It toucheth thee ( , comp. Isa 16:8; Jer 4:10; Mic 1:9), and thou art confounded. , lit. art seized with terror, and thereby put out of countenance; comp. Job 21:6; Job 23:15. [It is unfair to Eliphaz to suppose that he utters his wonder with any sinister toneas if he would hint that Job found it somewhat easier to counsel others than console himself; his astonishment is honest and honestly expressed that a man who could say such deep things on affliction, and things that reached so far into the heart of the afflicted, that could lay bare such views of providence and the uses of adversity, and thus invigorate the weak, should himself be so feeble and desponding when suffering came to his own door. Dav. Doubtless the words express surprise on the part of Eliphaz, and were spoken with a kind intent; but also with a certain severity, a purpose to probe Jobs conscience, to lead him to self-examination, and to the discovery of the hidden evil within, of the existence of which Eliphaz, with his theodicy, could have no doubt.E.]
Job 4:6. Is not thy godly fear thy confidence? thy hopethe uprightness of thy ways? The order of the words is chiastic [decussated, inverted]: in the first member the subject, , stands at the beginning; in the second member it is found at the end, , evidently synonymous with . A similar case is found in Job 36:26. Altogether too artificial and forced, and too much at variance with the principles which govern the structure of Hebrew verse, is the explanation attempted by Delitzsch: Is not thy piety thy confidence, thy hope? And the uprightness of thy ways? (viz. and is not the uprightness of thy ways thy confidence and thy hope?) Eliphaz twice again makes use of the ellipsis for in his discourses (Job 15:4; Job 22:4 : and comp. , Hos 4:6 for ). [The word fear is the most comprehensive term for that mixed feeling called piety, the contradictory reverence and confidence, awe and familiarity, which, like the centripetal and centrifugal forces, keep man in his orbit around God. Dav.] , confidence, assurance (the same which elsewhere=, Job 8:14; Job 31:24), not folly (LXX.). [The Vav in the second member is the Vav of the apodosis, or of relation. See Green, Gr. 287, 3.The rendering of E. V.: Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways? overlooks the parallelism, and is unintelligible. Some (Hupfeld, Merx) cut the knot by transposing to the end of the verse. The construction as it stands is certainly peculiar, yet not enough so to justify any change. Moreover it seems to have escaped all the commentators that the very harshness and singularity of the construction is intentional, having for its object to arrest more forcibly the attention of Job, to stir up his consciousness on the subject of his piety and rectitude, and thus to further the process of probing his soul on which Eliphaz is in this part of his discourse engaged.E.]
Job 4:7-11 Second Strophe: More explicit expansion of Job 4:6, wherein it is shown as the conclusion of experience that the pious never fall into dire affliction, whereas on the contrary the ungodly and the wicked do so often and inevitably.
Job 4:7. Remember now! who that was innocent has perished? [It would be unfair to Eliphaz (as well as quite beside his argument, the purpose of which is to reprove Jobs impatience, and lead him back by repentance to God), to suppose that he argued in this way: Who ever perished being innocent? Thou hast perished; therefore thy piety and the integrity of thy ways have been a delusion. On the contrary his argument is: Where were the pious ever cut off? Thou art pious: why is not thy piety thy hope? Why fall, being a pious man, and as such of necessity to be finally prospered by God, into such irreligious and wild despair? Eliphaz acknowledges Jobs piety, and makes it the very basis of his exhortation; of course, though pious, he had been guilty (as David was) of particular heinous sins, which explained and caused his calamities. The fundamental axiom of the friends produced here both positively and negatively as was meet for the first announcement of it by Eliphaz is, that whatever appearance to the contrary and for a time, yet ultimately and always the pious were saved and the wicked destroyed. Dav.] The annexed to the gives greater vivacity to the question; comp. Job 13:19; Job 17:3; also the similar phrase (Gesen. 122, 2).
Job 4:8. So far as I have seen, they who plough mischief and sow ruin reap the same. , not when (or if) I saw (Vaih., Del.), for this construction of does not allow the omission of the Vav Consec. before the apodosis. But either the whole sentence is to be taken as a statement of the comparison with that which precedes, to which it is annexed, thus: As I have seen: they who plough reap the same (Hirz., Schlott. [Con.]). Or we are to explain with most of the later commentators; So far as I have seen, i.e. so far as my experience goes (Rosenm., Arnh., Stick., Welte, Heiligst., Ew., Dillm. [Dav., Merx], etc.). , lit. nothingness, then sin, wickedness, mischief. as in Job 3:10. The agricultural figure of sowing (or ploughing) and reaping, emphatically representing the organically necessary connection of cause and effect in the domain of the moral life; to be found also in Hos 8:7; Hos 10:13; Pro 22:8; Gal 6:7 seq.; 2Co 9:6, and often.
Job 4:9. By the breath of Eloah they perish: like plants, which a burning hot wind scorches (Gen 41:6). The discourse thus carries forward the preceding figure. On the use of the divine name in our poem, see Introd. 5. The is in b. still more specifically defined as , lit. breath of his nostril, i.e. blast of his anger. Both synonyms are still more closely bound together in Psa 18:16. [As the previous verse describes retribution as a natural necessity founded in the order of the world, so does this verse trace back this game order of the world to the divine causality. Schlott. Lee, criticising the A. V.s rendering of in the first member by blast, says: I know of no instance in which the word will bear this sense. It rather means a slight or gentle breathing. The sentiment seems to be: they perish from the gentlest breathing of the Almighty .. It is added: and from the blast of his nostril, or wrath, they come to an end. From the construction here, blast or storm is probably meant. See Psa 11:6; Hos 13:15, etc., and if so, we shall have a sort of climax here.]
Job 4:10-11. From the vegetable kingdom the figurative representation of the discourse passes over to that of animal life, in order to show, by the destruction of a family of lions, how the insolent pride of the wicked is crushed by the judgment of God.The cry of the lion, and the voice of the roaring lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken; the strong [lion] perishes for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered.[Merx rejects these two verses as spurious; but their appropriateness in the connection will appear from what is said below.E.] Not less than five different names of the lion are used in this description, showing the extent to which the lion abounded in the lands of the Bible, and especially in the Syro-Arabian country, which was the scene of our poem. The usual name stands first; next follows the purely poetic designation, , the roarer (Vaih.), comp. Job 10:16; Job 28:8; Psa 91:13; Pro 26:13; Hos 5:14; Hos 13:7; then in Job 4:10 b comes the standard expression for young lions, , comp. Jdg 14:5; Psa 17:12; Psa 104:21; then follows in Job 4:11 a, the strong one, from , to be strong, found again in Pro 30:30, and being thus limited to the diction of poetry, and finally in Job 4:11 b the no less poetic , which here, as well as in Job 38:29; Gen 49:9; Num 24:9, denotes the lioness, for which, however, we have also the distinctive feminine form in Eze 19:2. [The young lions are mentioned along with the old in order to exemplify the destruction of the haughty sinner with all his household. Schlott.] (from , frangere, conterere, an Aramaizing alternate form of , comp. Psa 58:7) signifies: are shattered, are dashed out; an expression which, strictly taken, suits only the last subject , but may by zeugma be referred to both the preceding subjects, to which such a verb as are silenced would properly correspond. Observe the use of the perf. in making vividly present the sudden destruction of the rapacious lions, which is then followed in Job 4:11, first by a present partic. (), then by a present Imperf. (), describing them in their present condition, shattered, broken in strength, and restrained in their rage. [Delitzsch remarks that the partic. is a stereotype expression for wandering about prospectless and helpless, a definition which here, as well as in the passages to which he refers, would considerably weaken the sense. See Hengsten. in loco.E.] , for the lack of; the same as without; comp. Job 4:20; Job 6:6; Job 24:7-8; Job 31:19. [From wicked man his imagination suddenly shifts to his analogue among beasts, the lion, and there appears before him one old and helpless, his teeth dashed out, his roar silenced, dying for lack of prey, and being abandoned by all his kind; a marvellous picture of a sinner once powerful and bloody, but now destitute of power, and with only his bloody instincts remaining to torture and mock his impotency. Dav.]
3. Second Division: describing a heavenly revelation which declared to him the wrongfulness and the folly of frail, sinful mans anger against God.a. Second Double Strophe: the heavenly revelation itself, introduced by a description of the awful nocturnal vision through which it was communicated: Job 4:12-21.
First Strophe: Job 4:12-16. The night-vision.
Job 4:12. And to me there stole a word.Lit. and to me there was stolen, there was brought in a stealthy, mysterious manner. The imperf. is ruled by the following imperf. consec. [The speaker is thrown back again by the imagination into the imposing circumstances of the eventful night. The Pual implies that the oracle was sent. Dav.] The separation of the which properly belongs to the verb , but which is placed here, at the beginning of the verse, before [because he desires, with pathos, to put himself prominent, Del.] rests on the fact that that which is now about to be related, and especially the which came to Eliphaz, is hereby designated as something new, as something additional to that which has already been observed. [This separation is quite often met with in poetry. Comp. Psa 69:22; Psa 78:15; Psa 78:26; Psa 78:29, etc. See Ew. Gr. 346 b.] And mine ear caught a whisper therefrom:i.e., proceeding therefrom, occasioned by that communication of a mysterious . The in (poetic form, for , Ew. 263 b) is therefore causative, not partitive, as Hahn and Delitzsch regard it. signifies here, as in Job 26:14, a faint whisper, or lisp [or murmur], , susurrus, not a little, a minimum, as the Targ., Pesh., the Rabbis [and the Eng. Ver.] render it. The word is to be derived either from , thus denoting a faint, indistinct impression on the ear (Arnheim, Delitzsch), or from the primitive root, ,, to which, according to Dillmann, who produces its thiopic cognate, the idea attaches of lip-closing, dumbness, and low-speaking. [Here the word is designed to show the value of such a solemn communication, and to arouse curiosity. Del. The whole description of the way in which the communication was made indicates, perhaps, the naturalness and calmness and peace of the intercourse of mans spirit and Godshow there is nothing forced or strained in Gods communication to manit droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneathand at the same time mans impaired capacity and receptiveness and dullness of spiritual hearing. Dav. The word was too sacred and holy to come loudly and directly to his ear. Del.
Job 4:13-16 present a more specific description of that which is stated generally in Job 4:12.
Job 4:13. In the confused thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men.Whether with most expositors we connect these words with the verse preceding, as a supplementary determination of the time, or as a preliminary statement of time connected with what follows (Umbreit, Dillmann, Conant, etc.), matters not as to the sense. are here, as also in Job 20:2, thoughts proceeding like branches from the heart as their root, and intertwining themselves (Delitzsch). [The root, according to Del. and Frst, is , to bind; according to Ges., Dav., etc., it is for , to split; hence here and Job 20:2 fissures, divisions, divided counsels (1Ki 18:21), thoughts running away into opposite ramifications, distracting doubts. Dav.] The following indicates that these thoughts proceed from visions of the night, i.e., dream-visions; from which, however, it does not follow that Eliphaz intends to refer what he is about to narrate purely to the sphere of the life of dreams. For the determination of the time in our verse is altogether general, as the second member in particular shows. Hengstenbergs position that Eliphaz includes himself among the men designated here as those on whom deep sleep falls, and that he accordingly represents his vision as literally a dream-vision, has no foundation in the context. (Comp. still further Passavants remark on Job 4:13 under the head Homiletical and Practical). [There are three things contained in the genetic process or progress towards this oracle. First, visions of the night, raising deep questions of mans relation to God, but leaving them unsolved, short flights of the spirit into superhuman realms, catching glimpses of mysteries, too short to be self-revealingthese are the visions. Second, the perturbed, perplexed, and meditative condition of the spirit following these, when it presses into the darkness of the visions for a solution, and is rocked and tossed with fear or longingthe thoughts from the visions. And third, there is the new revelation clearing away the doubts and calming the perturbation of the soul, a revelation attained either by the spirit rising convulsively out of its trouble, and piercing by a new divinely-given energy the heart of things before hidden; or by the truth being communicated to it by some Divine messenger or word. Dav. The oracle was conveyed by a dream, because in the patriarchal age such oracles were of most frequent occurrence, as may be seen, e.g. in the book of Genesis. Ewald]. For , deep sleep, such as is wont to be experienced about the hour of midnight, in contrast to ordinary sleep, , and to the light, wakeful slumber of morning, , comp. Gen 2:21; Gen 15:12; 1Sa 26:12; also below, Job 33:15, where Elihu has a description imitative of the passage before us. [ is the deep sleep related to death and ecstasy, in which man sinks back from outward life into the remotest ground of his inner life. Del. Per contra Davidson says: is used generally of ecstatic, divinely-induced sleep, yet not exclusively (Pro 19:15, and verb, Jon 1:5), and not here. The meaning is that the vision came, not at the hour when prophetic slumber is wont to fall on men (and that El. was under such), but simply at the hour when men were naturally under deep sleep. El. was thus alone with the vision, and the solitary encounter accounts for the indelible impression its words and itself left on him.]
Job 4:14. Shuddering [fear] came upon me (, from =, to meet, befall, come upon, comp. Gen 42:38), and trembling, and sent a shudder through the multitude of my bones: the subject of being the shuddering and the trembling, not the ghostlike something (as Delitzsch says), of which Eliphaz first proceeds to speak in the following verse. [The perf. vbs. in this verse are pluperf. A terror had fallen upon me, like a certain vague lull which precedes the storm, as if nature were uneasily listening and holding in her breath for the coming calamity. So Davidson. in poetry is often used for , all. The terror striking through his bones indicates how deeply and thoroughly he was agitated. Bones, as elsewhere in similar passages, for the substratum of the bodily frame.E.]
Job 4:15. And a spirit passed before me; lit.: passes before me (, glides, flits); for the description as it grows more vivid introduces in this and the following verse the imperf. in place of the introductory perf. For in the sense of a spirit, the apparition of a spirit or an angel, comp. 1Ki 22:21. So correctly the ancient Versions, Umbreit, Ewald, Heiligstedt, Hahn [Good, Lee, Wem., Ber., Noy., Bar., Carey], etc. On the other hand [Schult.], Rosenm., Hirzel, Bttcher, Stickel, Delitzsch, Dillmann [Schlott., Ren., Rod,, Merx] render: and a breath [of wind] passed over me, a current of air, such as is wont to accompany spirit-communications from the other world (comp. Job 38:1; 1Ki 19:11; Act 2:2, etc.). The description in the following verse, however, does not agree with this rendering, especially the , which is unmistakably predicated of the in the sense of an angel, a personal spirit. [It needs no argument to prove that the spirit here introduced is a good spirit, although it may be mentioned in passing that Codurcus, the Jesuit commentator, followed by some others, regards him as an evil spirit. This notion is advanced in the interest of the theory that Jobs friends are throughout to be condemned.E.]The hairs of my body bristled up., Piel intensive, to rise up mightily, to bristle up. , elsewhere the individual hair (capillus), here a collective word (coma, crines), of the same structure as , Job 3:5. [The expression , lit.: the hair of my flesh, shows that the terror, which in Job 4:14 thrilled through all his bones, here creeps over his whole body.E.]
Job 4:16. It stood there, I discerned not its appearanceThe subj. of is not the unknown something of the preceding verse (Rosenm., etc.), but the spirit, as it is already known to be, which has hitherto flitted before Eliphaz, but which now stands still to speak (comp. 1Sa 3:10).An image before mine eyes;, the word which in respect to spiritual phenomena is most nearly expressive of form. In Num 12:8; Psa 17:15 it is used of the or of God. Here it is very suitably used to describe the spiritual or angelic apparition, fading into indefiniteness; for it refers back to , the true subject of , being placed after it in apposition to it.A murmur and a voice I heard., a lisping murmur and a voice, a hendiadys, signifying a murmur uttering itself in articulate tones, a murmuring or whispering voice (Hahn). [So Ges., Frst, Words., Dillm., Del., Dav.]. Umbreit (1st Ed.), Schlottmann [Eng. Ver., Good, Lee, Con., Carey, Ren.] take , but unsuitably, in the sense of silence. For the true sense comp. 1Ki 19:12. [Of those who take in the sense of silence there are two classes, the one, represented by the English Version and commentators, separates between the silence and the voice: first the silence, then the voice, as Renan: in the midst of the silence I heard a voice; the other, represented by Schlottmann and Hengstenberg, combine the two terms as a hendiadys, a commingling of both, a faint, muffled voice (Hengst.) Schlottmann quotes from Gersonides as follows: And I heard his wonderful words as though they were compounded of the voice and of silence. Burke in his Treatise on the Sublime and Beautiful has the following remarks on this vision: There is a passage in the book of Job amazingly sublime, and this sublimity is principally due to the terrible uncertainty of the thing described. We are first prepared with the utmost solemnity for the vision; we are first terrified before we are let even into the obscure cause of our emotion; but when this grand cause of terror makes its appearance, what is it? is it not wrapt up in the shades of its own incomprehensible darkness, more awful, more striking, more terrible than the liveliest description, than the clearest painting, could possibly represent it?E.]
Second strophe, Job 4:17-21. The contents of the revelation communicated through the vision.
Job 4:17. Is a mortal just before Eloah, or before his Maker is a man pure?Already in this question is contained the substance of the revelation; Job 4:18-21 only furnish the proof of this proposition from the universal sinfulness of men. here is not comparative, more just than (Vulg., Luth. [E. V.], etc.), but from the side of any one [Gesenius: marking the author of a judgment or estimate: here in the judgment or sight of God.] Hence is a man just from the side of God? i.e., from Gods stand-point; or, more briefly: before God (LXX.: ). In the same sense with this = coram (for which comp. Num 16:9; Num 32:22), we find in Job 9:2; Job 25:4; and in Job 15:15; Job 25:5. [According to the other (the comparative) rendering, the sentiment is: Whoever censures the course of Providence, by complaining of his own lot (as Job had done), claims to be more just than God, the equity of whose government he thus arraigns. See Conant, Davidson, etc.]
Job 4:18. Lo, in His servants He trusteth not; and to His angels He imputes error.Servants () and angels () are only different designations of the same superhuman beings, who in Job 1:6 are called sons of God. Eliphaz refers to them here in order to introduce a conclusion a majori ad minus. , lit.: to place anything in one, i.e., to ascribe anything to one, imputare. Comp. 1Sa 22:15. is most correctly explained by Dillmann, after the Ethiopic, as signifying error, imperfection (so also Ewald [Frst, Delitzsch], and still earlier Schnurrer, after the Arabic). The derivation from , according to which it would mean folly, presumption (Kimchi, Gesenius [Schlottmann, Renan], etc.), is etymologically scarcely to be admitted [on account of the half vowel, and still more the absence of the Daghesh. Del.] The ancient versions seem only to have guessed at the sense (Vulg., pravum quid; LXX., ; Chald., iniquitas; Pesch, stupor). Hupfeld needlessly attempts to amend after Job 24:12, where the parallel word is given as the object of . [It is not meant that the good spirits positively sin, as if sin were a natural necesary consequence of their creature-ship and finite existence, but that even the holiness of the good spirits is never equal to the absolute holiness of God, and that this deficiency is still greater in man, who is both spiritual and corporeal, who has earthiness as the basis of his original nature. Del.]
Job 4:18. How much more they who dwell in houses of clay. here introducing the conclusion of the syllogism a majori ad minus, begun in Job 4:18, and so = (Job 9:14; Job 15:16; Job 25:6); here, as in 2Sa 16:11, to be translated by quanto magis, because a positive premise (Job 4:18 b.) precedes; comp. Ewald, 354, c. Those who dwell in houses of clay are men generally. There is no particular reference to those who are poor and miserable. For the expression does not point to mens habitations, but to the material, earthly, frail bodies with which they are clothed, their (comp. Job 33:6; Wis 9:15; 2Co 5:1, as well as the Mosaic account of creation which lies at the foundation of all these representations; see Gen 2:7; Gen 3:19). It may be said further that the figurative and indefinite character of the language here justifies no particular deductions either in respect to the nature and constitution of angels (to wit, whether in Eliphazs conception they are altogether incorporeal, or whether they are endowed with supra-terrestrial corporeality), nor in respect to the doctrine which he may have entertained concerning the causal nexus between mans sensuous nature (corporeity) and sin.The foundation of which is in the dust;viz.: of the houses of clay, for it is to these that the suffix points in ; comp. Gen 3:19.Which are crushed as though they were moths.The suffix in again refers back to the houses of clay, only that here those who dwell in them, men, are included with them in one notion. The subj. of is indefinite; it embraces everything that operates destructively on the life of man. , not sooner than the moth is destroyed (Hahn), nor: sooner than that which is devoured by the moth (Kamphsn.), nor: more rapidly than a moth destroys (Oehler, Fries), nor: set before the moth [or worm, after Jarchi] to be crushed (Schlottmann), but: like moths, as though they were moths (LXX: ). accordingly means the same here as in Job 3:24, and the tertium comparationis is the moths frailty and powerlessness to resist, and not its agency in slowly but surely destroying and corroding, to which allusion is made in Hos 5:12; Isa 1:9; Isa 51:8; also below in Job 13:28 of our book. [To the latter idea the verb used here is altogether unsuited, the meaning being to crush, not to consume in the manner of the moth.]
Job 4:20. From morning to evening are they destroyed;i.e., in so short a space of time as the interval between morning and evening they can be destroyed, one can destroy them (, potential and impersonal, like in Job 4:19). For the use of this phrase, from morning till evening, as equivalent to in the shortest time, comp. Isa 38:12; also our proverbial saying: well at morning, dead at night, as well as the name day-fly [comp. day-lily, ephemeron.]Before any one marks it they perish forever. , scil. (comp. Job 1:8; Job 23:6; Job 24:12), without there being any one who gives heed to it, who regards it, and hence the same as unobserved, unawares; not in folly, without understanding (Ewald).
Job 4:21. Is it not so:if their cord in them is torn away, they die, and not in wisdom?The construction is the same as in Job 4:2; the words are an elliptical conditional clause, intercalated in the principal interrogative sentence. (which Olshausen needlessly proposes to amend to , their tent-pin), is neither their residue (Vulgate, Rabb., Luther, etc.); nor their best, their chief excellence (De Wette, Amheim, Schlottmann [Davidson, Barnes, Noyes, E. V.], etc.); nor their bow-string (the string which is drawn out in them as in a bow, and which is unloosed to make the bow useless; Umbreit); [nor their abundance, excess, whether of wealth or tyranny, and which passes away with them (Lee), which does not suit the universality of the description; nor their fluttering round is over with them (Good, Wemyss; taking as a verb, to pass away, and as a noun, fluttering; two forced interpretations)E.]; butthe only interpretation with which the verb , to be torn away, agrees (comp. Jdg 16:3; Jdg 16:14; Isa 33:20)their tent-cord, the thread of their life, here conceived as a cord stretched out and holding up the tent of the body; comp. Job 30:11; Isa 38:12; also Job 6:9; Job 27:8; and especially Ecc 12:6, where this inward hidden thread of life is represented as the silver cord, which holds up the lamp suspended from the tent-canvass (see comment on the passage). This, the only correct construction of the passage (according to which =, tent-cord), is adopted by J. D. Michaelis, Hirzel, Hahn, Delitzsch, Kamphsn., Dillmann [Wordsworth, Renan, Rodwell, Gesenius, Frst]. [ is neither superfluous nor awkward (against Olsh.), since it is intended to say that their duration of life falls in all at once like a tent when that which in them corresponds to the cord of a tent (i.e., the ) is drawn away from it. Del.]And not in wisdom; with, out having found true wisdom during their life, living in short-sightedness and folly to the end of their days; comp. Job 36:12; Pro 10:21 (Dillmann).
b. Third Double Strophe. Application of the contents of the heavenly revelation to Jobs case, Job 5:1-7.
First Strophe. Job 5:1-5. [The folly of murmuring against God asserted and illustrated].
Job 5:1. Call now! is there any one who will answer thee? and to whom of the holy ones wilt thou turn?That is to say: forasmuch as, according to the interpretation of that Voice from God in the night, neither men nor angels are just and pure before God, all thy complaining against God will be of no avail to thee; not one of the heavenly servants of God in heaven, to whom thou mightest turn thyself, will regard thy cry for help, not one of them will intercede with God for thee, and spare thee the necessity of humbling thyself unconditionally and penitently beneath the chastening hand of God. [The question is somewhat ironical in its tone. If thou art disposed to challenge Gods dealings with thee, make the attempt; enter thy protest; but before whom? the angels, the holy ones of heaven? Behold they are not pure before God, and being holy, they are conscious of their inferiority; will they entertain thy appeal? Where then is thy plea to find a hearing? Here as elsewhere in this book, call and answer seem to be law terms, the former denoting the action of the complainant, the latter that of the defendant. Noyes; and so Umbreit.E.] , holy ones [saints, E. V., is misleading, on account of its association with the holy among men], here for angels (as in Job 15:15; Psa 89:6 (5), 8 (7); Dan 4:14 (17); Zec 14:5); thus called with a purpose, because their very holiness, which causes them to subordinate themselves unconditionally to God (comp. Job 4:18), prevents them from entertaining such complaints as those of Job. How little the Roman Catholic commentators are justified in finding in this verse a locus classicus in favor of the invocation of angels and saints under the Old Dispensation needs no proof. Schlott.]
Job 5:2. For grief slayeth a fool. furnishes a reason for the negative thought contained in the preceding verse [complaints against Gods administration will meet with no favorable response from the holy ones of his court, for they are of a character to destroy the fool who utters themE.]; hence it may be properly rendered rather [so far from calling forth sympathy, they will much rather destroy the complainerE.]; comp. Job 22:2; Job 31:18. The before is after the Aramaic usage, introducing the object which is emphatically placed first: quod attinet ad stultum [as for the fool], etc.; so also in Job 21:22; Isa 11:9 (comp. Ewald, 292, e; 310, a). [Denied by Hengstenberg, who explains it as a poetic modification of the sense of the verb: stulto mortem affert, but favored by the position and the accounts.E.] The here is naturally one who impatiently murmurs against God because of his destiny, and presumptuously censures Him; such a one as Job must have seemed to Eliphaz to be in view of his lamentations and curses in Job 3. As synonymous with we have in the second member , the simple one, without understanding [open to evil influences, a moral weakling. Dav.], while to , grief [=unmanly repining] in the first member, we find to correspond in the second , properly zeal, here in the bad sense, insolent murmuring, a rancorous feeling toward God. For the form [peculiar to Job], instead of the usual form, , comp. Job 6:2; Job 10:17. [Some (e.g. Barnes) refer and here to the wrath and jealousy of God against the sinner. But it is certainly better to apply the words here to the emotions of the fool; his own passion and jealousy ruin him. (1) We have then the proper autonemesis of sin; its violence brings no help but only destruction to itself, which is the nerve of all Eliphaz is saying (Job 5:6-7). (2) Job refers to these bitter words of Eliphaz with evident pain in the very opening of his reply (Job 6:2): would God that my were but weighed! (3) The words fit well Jobs state of mind. Dav.]
Job 5:3-5. An example in proof of the statement just made about the destruction of him who murmurs against God.
Job 5:3. I myself have seen a fool taking root, to wit, like a thriving plant, growing in fruitful soil, and hence in a state of prosperity which promised to endure and to increase; compare Psa 1:3; Isa 27:6, etc.Then I cursed his habitation suddenly, i.e., when I perceived how altogether unstable and superficial was his prosperity, and what a fearful judgment all at once burst over his head by the decree of God. It is to the moment of the descent of this judgment that refers, and . to curse, is not to be understood as a prophetic prediction of the ruin which is hereafter to overtake one in prosperity (Ewald, Schlottmann, etc.), but as a recognition accompanying the event, a subjective human echo, so to speak, of Gods curse, which has already actually overtaken its object. [The word suddenly points as with the finger to the catastrophe by which at one stroke Jobs prosperity was laid in the dust, to the Chaldeans and Sabeans, to the lightning and the storm. Hengst. I cursed his habitation suddenly, means accordingly; when sudden destruction smote his habitation, I felt and declared that it was cursed of God.E.] , habitation, abode [homestead, Carey], including the pasture-land belonging to it, not simply the pasturage, or grazing-place of the herds. Comp. Job 5:24; Job 18:15; also , Job 8:6.
Job 5:4. His sons were far from help, and were crushed in the gate without deliverance.The Presents (Imperfects) in this and the following verse, describe the consequences of the judgment on the fool as they extend into the present. , help, deliverance, as in Job 5:11. , Imperf. Hithp., lit.: they must allow themselves to be crushed, viz.: by their unjust accusers and persecutors in the court of justice, before the tribunal; for it is to this that reference is made in ; comp. Job 29:7; Job 31:21; also the same exact form of expression, excepting the Piel instead of the Hithp. in Pro 22:22 : oppress not the poor in the gate. See Com. in loco. [Davidson and Rodwell take the verb in the reflex sense: And crushed each other in the gate. On the uses of the gate of an oriental city, see Smiths Bib. Dict., art. Gate.]
Job 5:5. He whose harvest the hungry devour., not a conjunction, because, or while (Delitzsch), but a relative pronoun, whose; comp. Job 20:22; Job 31:8. The description of the judgment, begun in the preceding verse, is here accordingly continued, with special reference to the property of him who is cast down from the height of his prosperity.And take it away even out of a thorn-hedge, i.e., they are not kept off even by hedges of thorn, hence they carry on their plundering in the most daring and systematic manner. before is here the same as : adeo e spinis (comp. Job 3:22) [and see Ewald, 219, c]And the thirsty swallow up his wealth [lit.: their wealth; the plural suffix indicating that the children are here included]. Instead of , it is better, following out the hint which lies in in the first member, as well as following the lead of almost all the ancient versions, to read , or , perhaps even the singular . So Rosenm., Umbreit, Ewald [who in his Gram., 73, c. suggests that the omission of the may be due to its location between two vowel sounds], Hirzel, Vaihinger, Stickel, Welte, Ezra [Dillmann, Renan, Wordsworth, Barnes, Elzas, Merx]. etc. To this subject, moreover, the verb is best suited, which signifies to snap, greedily to drain, to lap, or sip up anything [Ges. and Frst: to pant; Renan: to look on with longing, couve des yeux ses richesses]. According to the Masoretic text, , the translation should be: and a snare catches their wealth [Dav. and Con.: a snare gapeth for their substance]. , from , nectere = snare, gin, might indeed be used here tropically for fraud, robbery (not, however, for robbers, as the Targ. and some of the Rabbis [also E. V., sing, robber] take it, nor for intriguer, as Delitzsch [Carey, Wemyss] have it). [The meaning snare is adopted by Ges., Frst, Noyes, Con., Dav., Schlottm., Hengsten.] This rendering, however, would be rather harsh, especially in connection with the verb , which favors rather the interpretation we have given above.
Second Strophe. Job 5:6-7. [Human suffering founded on a Divine ordinance].
Job 5:6. For evil goes not forth from the dust, and trouble does not sprout up out of the ground;i.e., the misfortune of men does not grow like weeds out of the earth; it is no mere product of nature, no accidental physical and external ingredient of this earthly life; but it has its sufficient cause, it originates in human sin; God decrees and ordains it for the punishment of sin; whence it follows that the proper remedy against it is the renunciation of sin, and not a gloomy frowardness and mournfulness. and precisely as in Job 4:8.
Job 5:7. But [ adversative, and so Schlott., Dillm., Dav., Del., Ren., Hengst., etc.] man is born to trouble;i.e., it lies in human nature, through sin to bring forth misery (Hirzel, Dillmann, etc.); as man he is now not pure, but impure, not righteous, but unrighteous (comp. Job 4:17), and for that very reason he cannot avoid manifold suffering and hardship, the divinely ordained consequence of sin. Observe how gently Eliphaz seeks to bring home to Job the truth that his suffering is also the consequence of his sin. [ is by some regarded as Pual Perf., the short shureq written with Vav (Green, Gr., 43, b); by others as Hoph. Imperf. (Ewald, 131, c.); while others would point it , as Niph. Imperf. (Merx)].As the sparks of the flame fly upward; lit.: and the sparks, etc.comparationis, as in Proverbs 25-29 often; comp. Job 22:11; Job 14:12; Job 14:19 [otherwise also called Vav adquationis; see Green, Gr. 287, 1]. , sons of the fire, children of the flame (comp. Son 8:6), are naturally neither birds of prey ( , LXX.; comp. the aves of the Vulg. So also J. D. Michaelis, Gesenius [Frst], Vaihinger, Heiligstedt [Umbreit, Good, Wemyss, Conant, Noyes, Renan, Rodwell], etc.; nor angels (Schlottmann, who refers to Jdg 13:20; Psa 104:4); nor angry passions (Bttcher, and similarly Stickel); but simply fire-sparks (Ewald, Hirzel, Hahn, Ebrard, Delitzsch, Dillmann [Wemyss, Conant, Davidson, Barnes, Carey, Merx]). Only of these can it be properly said that they fly upwards by a law of necessity, which constitutes here the tertium comparationis. , lit.: they make high their flight, they fly far up on high, fly unceasingly upwards ( for , Ewald, 285, a.) [It has been objected to the rendering sparks that the expression make high their flight is too strong to be applied to them, being more suitable to the lofty soaring of birds, or angels, or arrows. But an appeal may confidently be taken on this point to the poetic sensibility of the reader who has ever watched the upward flight of sparks by night, when relative altitudes are but vaguely determined, and when these sons of the flame seem literally to soar and vanish among the stars.E.]
[The central thought of the above strophe is that the connection between sin and suffering is a Divine ordinance. In Job 5:1-2 this is presented in the way of warning to Job as a truth against which he can take no appeal to any higher court, and as one of which he is in danger of realizing in his own case the extreme consequences; for the special sin of murmuring against God would infallibly bring about his ruin. In Job 5:3-5 the same truth is vividly enforced by an illustration drawn from actual life. In Job 5:6-7 it is presented in the form of a general law, which, in the statement here given of it is a binary law, consisting of two parts, or propositions, which are complementary of each other; the first (Job 5:6), negative, the second (Job 5:7), positive. The misery which follows sin in general, and in particular the special example of misery following sin mentioned in Job 5:3-5 is a Divine Ordinance: because (, Job 5:6) evil is not from without, not from the earth, not from the material constitution of things, for (, Job 5:7) Man ( emphatic by position) is the cause of his own trouble, being born to it, a sufferer by an internal, not an external necessity, by a law of his own existence; a law as necessary, too, as that which compels the sparks to fly upward. According to this view of the connection the in Job 5:7 is argumentative as well as that in Job 5:6. The source of misery is not without, forMan himself is the source of it. As regards the tense of it follows that if Imperf. (Niph., or more probably Hoph.) the two propositions are co-ordinated in time; evil is not wont to spring from the earth, for man is wont to be born to trouble. If Perf. (Pual), which seems preferable, the internal necessity of suffering in man himself is conceived as logically antecedent to the relation of man to the external world. His afflictions came not from without, for he was born under a law which subjects him to it.
Elzas renders Job 5:7 a: For then man would be born to trouble. But this is to miss the point of Job 5:6, which is to deny not the natural and necessary character of suffering (for that is implied in Job 5:7), but the internality and materiality of its cause.E.]
4. Third Division. Exhortation to repentance, as the only means whereby Job could be restored to the Divine favor, and to the enjoyment of his former prosperity, Job 5:8-27.
a. Fourth Double Strophe. Job should trustfully turn to God, the helper in every time of need, and the righteous Judge, Job 5:8-16.
First Strophe. [Job encouraged to turn trustfully to God by a description of the beneficent operations of God in nature and among men], Job 5:8-11.
Job 5:8. Nevertheless II would turn to God.[Now comes a new turn in this magnificent discourse of Eliphazthe hortatory part.. El. for the first time fully conceives as a whole Jobs attitude. Jobs complaints and murmurs against God terrify and distress him, and with the recoil and emotion of horror he cries: But I would have recourse unto God! The antithetic transition here is as strong as possible, being made by three elements, the particle of opposition (, Job 1:11; Job 2:5), the addition by the pronoun I, and these two intensified and made to stand out with solemn emphasis in utterance, by being loaded with distinctive accents. Dav.] For the conditional sense of , comp. Ges. 127 [Conants Ed., 125], 5 [Green, Gr. 263, 1]. with , sedulo adire aliquem, to turn to any one with entreaty, supplicating help; comp. Deu 12:5; also Job 8:5 of our book.To the Most High would I commit my cause.As in the preceding part of the verse God is called (the strong, the mighty one), as here He is called , for the first time by Eliphaz. In regard to the significance of this change, comp. Del.: is God as the mighty one; is God in the totality of His variously manifested nature. , causa, plea, as elsewhere (comp. on Job 3:4).
Job 5:9-11. A description of the wondrous greatness of God, as a ground of encouragement for the exhortation contained in Job 5:8.
Job 5:9. Who doeth great things which are unsearchable.[El.s object is now to present God under such aspects as to win Job, and his description of Him is Infinite power directed by Infinite goodness. Dav.] in which there is no searching, i.e., which are not to be searched out; comp. , Job 5:4.
Job 5:10. Who giveth rain on the face of the land [and sendeth water on the face of the fields]., lit.; all that is without, the open air [colloquial English: out of doors], in contrast with that which is covered, enclosed. Hence it means either a street, court, market-place, when the stand-point of the speaker is within a house, or the open country, field, plain, when the stand-point is within a city or a camp. The latter is the case here, as also in ch, Job 18:17. [According to Ges. (Lex. 1, b) the contrast between and is that of tilled land and the deserts. To this Conant makes two valid objections: (1) There is nothing to indicate such a limitation of (tilled land); (2) the distinctive meaning of is obscured. Hence it is best to take generally, of the earth at large, in a more limited sense, the fields.] The agency of rain-showers and of spring-water (, comp. Psa 104:10) in making the earth fruitful is an image of frequent occurrence with Oriental writers in general, and with the writers of Scripture in particular, to illustrate the wonderful exercise of Gods power and grace in helping, delivering, and restoring life; comp. Psa 65:10 seq.; Psa 147:9 seq.; Jer 14:22, as also the more comprehensive description in Jehovahs discourse, Job 38:25. [He who makes the barren places fruitful can also change suffering into joy. Del.]
Job 5:11. To set the low in a high place, and the mourning raise up to prosperity.This being the moral purpose of those mighty beneficent activities of God; comp. Psa 74:15; Luk 1:52, etc. is not simply a variation for , as the LXX., Vulg, and several modern commentators, e.g., Heiligstedt, Del. [Con.], explain; at the same time it does not need to be resolved (as by Ewald and Hahn) into: inasmuch as he sets; it is simply declarative of purpose, like the examples of the telic infinitive several times occurring in the Hebraistic Greek of Zachariass song of praise, Luk 1:72-73; Luk 1:77; Luk 1:79 ( , , etc.) [The issue of all the Divine proceeding in nature, unsearchable, uncountable though its wonders were, was ever to elevate the humble and save the wretched. Dav.] In the second member this infinitive construction with is continued by the Perf. precisely as in Job 28:25 (Dillmann [Because the purpose is not merely one that is to be realized, but one that has often been realized already, the Inf. is continued in the Perf. Dillm.], comp. Ewald, 346 b.) To set in a high place, to exalt to a high position, as in 1Sa 2:8; Luk 1:52. , lit.: dirty, squalidi, sordidi, i.e., mourners; comp. Job 30:28; Psa 35:14 [13]; Job 38:7 [6]. , lit., to mount, or climb up to prosperity, a bold poetic construction of a verb in itself intransitive with an accusative of motion.
Second Strophe. Job 5:12-16. Continuation of the description of the exalted activity of God as a helper of the needy, and a righteous avenger.
Job 5:12. Who brings to nought the devices of the crafty. (Partic. without the art., as in Job 5:9), lit., who breaks to pieces, , as in Job 15:5, the crafty, cunning, twisted (from , to twist, to wind).So that their hands cannot do the thing to be accomplished., so that not (comp. Ewald, 345, a.). [, with vowel written defectively in the tone-syllable. Comp. Ewald, 198, a; and Ges., 74, Kal., Rem. 6]. , lit., essentiality, subsistence, firmness (from ), hence the opposite of , well-being and wisdom in one; a favorite notion of the authors of the Old Testament Chokmah-Literature; comp. my Com. on Proverbs, Introd., p. 5, also on Job 2:7 (p. 54). As may be seen from the translation of the Sept., which is essentially correct, , the passage may be translated: so that their hands shall bring about nothing real, nothing solid. (comp. Hahn, Delitzsch, Dillmann [Carey, Merx]).
Job 5:13. Who captures the wise in their craftiness. denotes here those who are wise in a purely worldly sense, who are wise only in their own and in others estimation, who are therefore . 1Co 1:20; comp. Job 3:19, where the idea conveyed by the expression is explained by a special reference to the passage under consideration. The translation of the passage there presented is more correct than that of the LXX., especially in the rendering of by . For (comp. Exo 21:24; Pro 1:4; Pro 8:5), or even the masculine form , which is found indeed only in the passage before us, unmistakably signifies cunning, shrewdness, in the bad sense, not simply sagacity (, LXX.) [He captures them in their craftiness means according to most: He brings it to pass, that the plans, which they have devised for the ruin of others, result in ruin to themselves. So Grotius: suis eos retibus capit, suis jugulat gladiis. According to this view is of the instrument. Better, however, is: in their craft, or in the exercise of their craftiness. He captures the wise not when their wisdom has forsaken them, and they make a false step, but at the very point where they make the highest use of it. Hengst.]And the counsel of the cunning is overset; lit., is precipitated, pushed over (, 3 Perf. Niph.), and so made void, to wit, by Gods judicial intervention.
Job 5:14. By day they run against darkness, and as in the night they grope at noonday.[, they strike upon, stumble on, run into, i.e., they encounter darkness]. , as in the night, i.e., as though it were night. Similar descriptions of a blindness, judicially inflicted by God, of an obscuration of the soul in ungodly men may be seen in Job 12:24 seq.; Isa 19:13 seq.; Isa 59:10; Deu 28:29 (comp. the typical fundamental passage in Gen 19:11; also 2Ki 6:18; Wis 19:16).
Job 5:15. And so He saveth the needy from the sword out of their mouth, and from the hand of the strong., Imperf. consec., as in Job 3:21 [Vav consec. introducing the ultimate residuum of all this commotion and confusion, the result of the whole combined Divine efficiency, when the Divine tendency has reached its object; so He saves. Dav.] (instead of which some MSS. read: , from the sword of their mouth) is equivalent to: from the sword which goes forth out of their mouth; comp. Psa 57:5 (4); Psa 59:8 (7); Psa 64:4 (3); and other passages in which swords, or spears, or arrows of the mouth appear as a figurative expression for maliciously wicked slanders or injurious assaults on the good name of others [and comp. Job 5:21 below, showing that Eliphaz regards this as one of the evils most to be dreaded. The explanation here given is adopted by Umbreit, Delitzsch, Hengstenberg, Merx, Renan, Bernard, Barnes, Wordsworth, Noyes, Rodwell, although there is some variation in regard to the relation of the two expressions; some taking the second in apposition to the first, from the sword, even from their mouth, others, like Zckler, regarding the second as qualifying the first: the sword which goeth out of their mouth. Others view the second as explanatory of the first, which is taken as the leading term: from the sword, which is their mouth, which is their organ of devouring, is to them what his mouth is to a wild beast, Davidson, and so substantially Schlottmann and Lee. Others, e.g., Hirzel, take sword, mouth, hand, as three independent terms, designating the instruments and organs of the wicked.E.] In addition to the violation of the ninth commandment referred to in the first member, the second member of the verse mentions acts of violent oppression, or assaults on the liberty and life of men, violations, therefore, of the sixth commandment, as that from which God would deliver. The before seems to be superfluous, and producing as it does a harsh construction, it has led to various attempts at emendation, e.g., , desolated, ravaged by misfortune (L. Capellus, Ewald [Good, Carey, Conant, Elzas and Dillmann favorably inclined. Delitzsch argues against it that it is un-Hebraic according to our present knowledge of the usage of the language, for the passives of are used of cities, countries, and peoples, but not of individual men]). Others would read instead of (so some MSS.; also the Targ. and Vulg.). These suggestions, however, are unnecessary; and the same may be said of Bttchers explanation: without a sword, i.e., without violence or bloodshed [will God save].
Job 5:16. Thus there is hope (again) to the poor [ from , to hang down, and so to be lax, languid, feeble, according to Gesenius: to wave, to totter, and so to be tottering loose, wretched, according to Frst], but iniquity shuts her mouth.For the absolute construction of hope, to wit, to hope for deliverance and exaltation through Gods assisting power and grace, comp. Job 14:7; Job 19:10. In regard to the etymology of , the standard word for hope in the Old Testament, comp. my Dissert.: De vi ac notione voc.in N. To. (1856), p. 5 seq., the full-toned form, with double fem. ending, for , which also stands for (Psa 92:10). Comp. Ewald, 173 g. [also 186, c., Ges., 79, f., Green, 61, 6, a.] For the phrase , to be dumb, i.e., to be ashamed, to own oneself vanquished, comp. the repetition of the present passage in Psa 107:42; also Isa 52:15, and Job 21:5.
[Schlottmann: The beginning of this strophe: But I would turn to God, is again in appearance courteous, friendly, mild. But even here we see lurking in the background that self-sufficient hardness of Eliphaz which has already been noticed. Baldly and sharply expressed the relation of this strophe to the one which precedes and the one which follows is this: Third StropheThy way is wrong; Fourth StropheMy way is right; Fifth StropheIt will be well for thee if thou followest me.]
b. Fifth Double Strophe. Job will have occasion to regard his present suffering as a blessing, if, being accepted as wholesome chastisement, it should result in his repentance, and thus in the restoration even of his external prosperity, Job 5:17-27.
First Strophe. Job 5:17-21. [The happy results of submission to the Divine chastisement, principally on the negative side, as restoration and immunity from evil].
Job 5:17. Lo, happy the man whom God correcteth.The same thought expressed, and derived perhaps from this passage, in Pro 3:11 seq. (Heb 12:5 seq.), and Psa 94:12. Comp. Elihus further expansion of the same thought of the wholesomeness of the Divine chastisements in Job 33. and seq. , to reprove, admonish, to wit, through the discipline of actual events, through suffering and providential dispensations: comp. Job 13:10Therefore despise not the chastening of the Almighty, of which one may be guilty by perverse moroseness and rebelliousness, by refusing to accept the needed and salutary teaching of the Divine dispensation, and in general by a want of submission to Gods will. by poetic abbreviation for , Gen 17:1. Comp. the remarks of the editor on the passage.
Job 5:18. For He woundeth and also bindeth up,etc.Comp. the similar passages in Hos 6:1; Deu 32:39; Lam 3:31 seq. he, i.e., one and the same. The form is made as though it were derived from a verb, =; comp. Ges., 75 [ 74], Rem. 21 c. [Green, 165, 3].
Job 5:19. In six troubles He will deliver thee, and in seven no evil shall befall thee;i.e., of course provided thou wilt really be made better by thy chastisement. The further promises of Divine help, Job 5:20 seq., are also subject to the same condition. To the number six seven is added in order to remove the definiteness of the former, and to make prominent only the general idea of multiplicity. Similar enumerative forms of expression are to be found in Amos 1, 2.; also in Pro 6:16; Pro 30:15; Pro 30:18; Pro 30:21; comp. also Mic 5:5; Ecc 11:2.
Job 5:20. In famine He redeems thee from death., lit., he has redeemed thee. Perf. of certainty (Gesen., 126 [124], 4), which is immediately followed by verbs in the Imperf., as in Job 11:20; Job 18:6, etc. In the second member, out of the hands of the sword ( ) is equivalent to out of the power of the sword, or from its stroke (Delitzsch). Compare Isa 47:14; Jer 18:21; Psa 63:11. [The word hands should not be left out. Poetry personifies everything, invests everything with form and life As here hands are attributed to the sword, so elsewhere are a mouth, Exo 17:3, a face, Lev 26:37. Hands are in the Old Testament assigned to the grave, to lions, bears, to the dog, the snare, the flame. Hengstenberg].
Job 5:21. In the scourging of the tongue thou art hidden;i.e., when thou art slandered and reviled (comp. Job 5:15; Jer 18:18; Psa 31:21 (20). Instead of , which we might certainly expect here (with Hirzel), the poet, anticipating the of the second member, which would resemble it altogether too much in sound, has written , in the scourge, i.e., in the stroke of the scourge. [ might be taken as the Infinitive of the verb, as is done apparently by Ewald, who translates: when the tongue scourges.The tongue is here compared with a scourge, as elsewhere with a knife, a sword, arrows, or burning coals (Psa 120:4), because evil speaking hurts, wounds, and works harm. Hengst. We believe that, in introducing this expression the poet has a definite purpose. There lies a certain irony in the fact that Eliphaz should mention as one of the chief evils from which his friend is one day to be preserved that, same calamity which he is now inflicting on him. Schlott.]And thou fearest not destruction when it cometh., which in the following verse is written , a form etymologically more correct, from , signifies any catastrophe, or devastation, whether by flood, or hail, or storm, etc. The word forms an assonance with , as in Isa 28:15, a passage which is perhaps an imitation of the one before us. Substantially the same thought is expressed in Psa 32:6.
Second Strophe. [The happy results of submission to chastisement still further described, principally on the positive side, as involving security, prosperity, peace, etc.]. Job 5:22-26 (Job 5:27 being subjoined as a conclusion, standing properly outside of the strophe).
Job 5:22. At destruction and at famine thou shalt laugh.[The promises of El. now continue to rise higher, and sound more delightful and more glorious. Del.] A continuation of the description of the new state of happiness to which the sufferer will be promoted on condition of a contrite submission to the Divine chastisement. with , to laugh, or mock at anything, as in Job 39:7; Job 39:18; Job 41:21., Aram. equivalent to , famine, dearth; comp. Job 30:3.And thou shalt not be afraid before the wild beasts of the land. [Thou needest not be afraid, , different from (Job 5:21), the latter is objective, merely stating a fact, the former subjective, throwing always over the clause the state of mind of the speaker as an explanation of itexpressing both the statement and the mental state of feeling or thought out of which the statement issued. As Ew. (Lehrb. 320, 1, a.) accurately puts it, , like , denies only according to the feeling or thought of the speaker, thou shalt have no reason to, needest not (Con.) fear. Dav.] Wild beasts were in ancient times the object of far graver terror in the east, and a scourge of far more frequent occurrence than to-day. Comp. Gen 37:20; Gen 37:33; Gen 44:28; Lev 26:6; Pro 22:13; Pro 26:13, etc.; also Ezekiels well-known combination of the four judgments: the sword, famine, wild beasts, and the pestilence (Eze 5:17; Eze 14:21).
Job 5:23. For with the stones of the field thou hast a league, and the wild beasts of the field are become friends to thee.The first half of the verse is a reason for the first member of Job 5:22; the second half in like manner a reason for the second member. Thou hast a league with the stones of the field (lit., thy league is with the stones, etc.; equivalent to ), i.e., storms cannot injure thy tillage of the soil, they shall be far removed from thy fields (comp. Isa 5:2; 2Ki 3:19; 2Ki 3:25). [The stones are personified; they conclude a treaty with the reformed Job, and promise not to injure him, not to be found straying over his tilled land. Hengst.] As regards the contents of the entire strophe, compare the similar ideal descriptions of the paradisaical harmony that is one day to exist between men and the animate and inanimate creation, Hos 2:20 [18], 23 [21] seq.; Isa 11:6 seq. [The view, entertained among others by Barnes, that the verse describes security in travelling (it is to be remembered that this was spoken in Arabia where rocks and stones abounded, and where travelling from that cause was difficult and dangerous), is at variance with the picture here given, which is that of security and happiness in a settled, stationary condition; the picture of a prosperous proprietor of fields, pastures, flocks, not of a travelling Bedouin chiefE.]
Job 5:24. And thou knowest (findest out by experience) that thy tent is peace., Perf. consec. with the tone on the last syllable, connected with Job 5:22. Thy tent is peace, i.e., the state of all thy possessions and household (comp. Job 8:22; Job 11:14; Job 12:6, and often) is one of peace. is predicate, emphatic by position (comp. Mic 5:4, ), and for that reason a substantive. It is weakening the beautiful, rounded, complete idea to take the word either as an adjective, or as an adverbial accusative in the sense of well, safe, uninjured, as, e.g., Ewald, Dillmann, and Hahn, etc., do. [The same remark applies to the use of the preposition, in peace, E. V., Con., etc. The simple rendering is peace is more forcible and expressive.E.]And when thou reviewest thy estate thou missest nothing. as in Job 5:3 [Zckler: Sttte, place, the habitation of himself and his flocks; by most, however, is taken here rather of the pasture of the flocks]. , lit., and thou wilt not miss thy way, i.e., thou wilt miss nothing (Pro 8:36). At variance with the usage of the words, and against the connection, is Luthers translation: and thou wilt care for thy household, and not sin, following the Vulg.: et visitans speciem tuam non peccabis [Eng. Ver.: and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin. Hengstenberg, adopting this rendering, explains: in looking over thy possessions thou shalt find thou art not treated by God as a sinner, but as a friend, being richly blessed by Him; an explanation which involves a needless constraint of the expression.E.] The thought is rather the same with that expressed in Schillers fine lines:
Er zhlt die Hupter seiner Lieben, [In negative sentences, where the object of the verb is wanting, may be rendered nothing. See Ewald, 303, c.]
Job 5:25. And thine offspring as the green herb of the earth, used here of the issue of the body, as in Job 21:8; Job 27:14. Comp. the like promise in Psa 72:16 b. [The word found only in Isaiah and Job].
Job 5:26. Thou shalt go into the grave in a ripe old age., etymologically related to , to be full, to be completed (to which it stands related as a variation, with a somewhat harsher pronunciation, just as , in Job 39:16, stands related to ), signifies, according to the parallel expression in the second member, the full ripeness of the life-period, the complete maturity of age. It is used somewhat differently in Job 30:2, where it denotes the full maturity of strength, complete unbroken vigora sense which Fleischer in Delitzsch (II. 138, n.) quite inappropriately assigns to it here also. [So Frst. Merx gives the same sense to the passage, but reads .E.]As sheaves are gathered in their season. , lit., as the heap of sheaves mounts up, is gathered up, to wit, into the threshing-floor, which was an elevated place; comp. 2Sa 24:16; Psa 1:4, etc. The rendering of Umbreit and Hahn: as the sheaves are heaped up, is unsuitable, and at variance with the true meaning of the figure, as describing the ingathering of ripe sheaves. , in its season, i.e., when the ears are fully ripened, a most striking simile to illustrate old age when satiated with life; comp. Job 42:17; Gen 15:15; Gen 25:8; Gen 35:29.
Job 5:27. Lo, this we have searched out; so it is: hear it, and mark it well for thyself!A closing verse of warning, which, because it refers back to all that has been said by Eliphaz, stands outside of the last strophe. Comp. the similar short epiphonemas, or epimythions in Job 18:21; Job 20:29; Job 26:14; also the short injunctions of the New Testament, enjoining men to mark and ponder that which is said, such as Mat 11:15; Mat 13:9; Rev 2:7; Rev 13:18; Rev 22:2, etc. The Plur. , because Eliphaz speaks not in his own name alone, but also in that of his two friends, younger indeed than himself, but of whom he knows that their experience has been the same with his own.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
The writer is certainly far from being disposed to put forth Eliphaz in the preceding discourse as an advocate of views which are decidedly untrue, and opposed to God, or as a propounder of diabolical wisdom ( , Jam 3:15; comp. 1Ti 4:1). If it had been his purpose to represent him as one who made common cause with Satan, as an advocatus diaboli, or the Evil Ones armor-bearer, he would certainly have made some such sentiment as that of Job 2:9renounce God and diethe fundamental theme of his remarks. But this tone of remark is limited to Jobs wife (and the fact is strongly indicative of the attitude of an unregenerate woman, who simply follows the impressions of her own nature), who had lost alike her patience and resignation to the will of God. The poet does not introduce any one of Jobs friends as sympathizing with itleast of all Eliphaz, whose superiority to the experimental stand-point of the other two friends, and to the entire circle of their ethical and intellectual insight, is so definitely and significantly apparent. Even in respect of its formal sthetic structure he has impressed on the discourse the characteristics which mark it as the product of a genuine devout oriental sage, a Chakam of the same category with Solomon, Heman, Ethan, Chalcol, Darda, etc. This is shown by the numerous correspondences of expression between this discourse and the noblest products of the Old Testament Chokman-literature as elsewhere to be met withcorrespondences which appear in part in the subject-matter, such as the emphasis laid on the fear of God and Gods remedial discipline (Job 4:6; Job 5:8; Job 5:17) as fundamental conditions of true prosperity, the use of the term fools (Job 5:2 seq.) in characterizing the wicked: in part in the language, as in the use of such expressions as (Job 4:21), (Job 5:12), or of such poetic forms as the numeral expressions in Job 5:19, or of such figures and similes as sowing and reaping, taking root and growing, the soaring sparks, the inward cord (Job 5:21), the sword of the mouth, and the scourge of the tongue, etc. In general it may be said that all that profound, physiological, or rather physico-theological Wisdom which forms the background of the discourse, and which accounts for the brilliant tints and fragrant aroma which are spread over the whole of it, evince the writers purpose to represent the speaker as intellectually akin to Solomon, the student of nature among the sages (1Ki 4:29 seq.; Job 5:12), and as possessing a knowledge of God which if not accurate, such as belonged to the theocracy, was nevertheless truly monotheistic, such as belonged to the pious of the patriarchal world.
2. As regards the theological contents of this first discourse of Eliphaz, there is really scarcely anything to be pointed out in it which contradicts the true Old Testament religion of Jehovah, and the purity of the moral principles which rest on it.3 A confessor of Eloah, of Shaddai, he speaks altogether like a member of the theocracy, like a pious man belonging to Jehovahs commonwealth. He is apparently right in everything; and it is certainly with full, conscious purpose that the poet introduces him into the discussion with precisely such a discourse as the present; for only thus could a real entanglement arise with Job, and only thus could the attention of readers be secured for Jobs opponents (Dillm.) What Eliphaz holds up before Job, who, although indeed he does not blaspheme, does nevertheless utter imprecations, and, in a state of extreme dejection, curses himself, consists almost without exception of beautiful and profound religious and ethical truths, to which Job can successfully oppose only one thingthat they do not touch him, who is just as firmly convinced of their correctness as his opponents, that they cannot apply to his peculiar condition. So e.g. the position that Gods sentence of destruction falls not on the innocent but only on the wicked: a general fundamental truth of religion, which is not only most strikingly confirmed by the issue of Jobs own history, but is also often enough emphasized by him in his subsequent discourses, and is expressed in a manner altogether similar to what we find in so many of the holy songs of the Psalter, beginning with the first Psalm, the Motto of the entire collection. The same is no less true of the proposition concerning the universal sinfulness of all men, and indeed concerning the impurity even of the angels, when compared with the absolute holiness of God; a proposition which, presupposing, as it certainly does, the influences of a revolution from above (comp. Job 4:12 seq.), was the common property of all the pious and the wise of the Old Testament, and is one of the most conspicuous marks distinguishing the religious and moral knowledge, thought, and activity of those men from what is found in the heathen world. So again the affirmation of the necessity of disciplinary and purifying suffering for every man; the stern rebuke of the presumptuous discontent of him who will not submit to this rigid and yet loving, mild law of the Divine administration; the friendly counsel to the sorely tried Job to turn to God, and to take refuge only with Him (Job 5:8 seq.); finally the promise that his happiness would be gloriously renewed if he should rightly improve his calamities, and derive from them the benefits properly connected with them, which again seems to indicate the complete harmony of the speakers views with those of the poet, and to have a strictly prophetic relation to the final account of Jobs restoration and glorious vindication in the Epilogue.
3. Notwithstanding this it is hardly correct to say with Delitzsch (I. 105) that there is no doctrinal error to be discovered in the speech of Eliphaz. A certain work-righteousness may be found in it, notwithstanding the solemn emphasis with which it makes the universal sinfulness of all mankind the central point of the discussion. The way in which Job is exhorted, as in Job 4:6, to trust in his fear of God, and in the uprightness of his ways, and on account of the same to cherish hope in God, has doubtless something analogous in many expressions found in the Psalms (comp. Psa 18:20 seq.; Psa 119:168); but the connection of the passage, especially that which immediately follows, shows distinctly that the fundamental propositionif pious, then prosperous; if unfortunate, then wickedis here handled with a certain harsh one-sidedness and superficiality, which might easily develop into unjust judgments concerning the sorely tried sufferer, and in which accordingly was contained the germ of that difference which subsequently waxed more and more violent between the friends and Job. Still more doubtful than this tendency towards an external conception of the doctrine of retribution, a tendency which manifests itself but slightly and timidly, is the absolute silence of Eliphaz in respect to the possibility that Jobs extraordinarily severe sufferings might nevertheless have another cause than particular sins of corresponding magnitude. Herein he shows his ignorance in regard to those deeper spiritual perceptions and experiences, by virtue of which pious persons, even before the coming of Christ, were able to recognize, in addition to the suffering inflicted for chastisement, and to that inflicted for purification, a suffering inflicted simply to try men. Such suffering they recognized as possible, and as sometimes decreed by God in His wisdom, as is sufficiently evident from such passages as Deu 8:2; Deu 8:16; Pro 17:3; Psa 66:10; Jer 6:27 seq.; Eze 22:22; Zec 13:9; also Sir 2:1 seq. (Of suffering borne as testimony, martyrdom, nothing needs to be said here, its necessity being first clearly recognized in the New Testament, after Christ had suffered on the cross). Finally, there lies a departure from the doctrine, which is clearly taught everywhere else in the Old Testament Revelation, in the statements of Job 5:6-7, where not only mans punishment for sin, but sinning itself is represented as something which attaches necessarily to human nature as such. In other words, it is here implied that to be a man and to commit sin are two things which are by no means to be separated from each other, being thus regarded, as in the doctrinal system of Schleiermacher and the majority of the critical rationalistic theologians of to-day as something that attaches to mans sensuous nature (see exeg. remarks on the passage).From what has been said it follows that Eliphaz cannot indeed be regarded as a Pelagian before Pelagius; the poet has, however, unmistakably intended to set forth a certain theory of the holiness of works, and a legal narrowness in the circle of his ethical and religious perception, as lying at the foundation of his views. He has purposed to present him as a representativeone of the noblest, most thoughtful and profound indeedbut still a representative of the doctrine of external retribution, which was the popular opinion of antiquity before the coming of Christ, and has succeeded in expressing with a masterly skill which no one can question the fine shading by which that which is erroneous in his views, as compared with the profounder truth which afterwards comes gradually into prominence, is outlined forth. If we were to compare his Eliphaz with any ecclesiastical representative of one-sided theories, and more particularly of those in the department of anthropologic soteriology, which teach a legal righteousness of works, instead of turning our attention to Pelagius and Pelagianism, it would be decidedly more correct to think of such fathers as Jerome, the Gregories, Cassianus, etc. Especially does Jerome, the zealous champion of the proposition of universal sinfulness in opposition to Pelagius, who, however, had sunk almost as deeply as that heresiarch into an external self-righteousness and legality, give evident tokens of intellectual affinity with our sage. A point which, it would seem, would tend to lend special interest to any attempt to elaborate more fully the parallel between Eliphaz and Jerome, is the remarkable similarity which the description of the nocturnal spirit-vision (Job 4:12 seq.) with its emotional vividness and presentative power, bears to the celebrated Anti-Ciceronian Vision of Jerome in the Epistle to Eustachius (comp. my Jerome, p. 45 seq.), a similarity which is more than simply external, or accidental, as the closely related ethical tendencies of both visions show.
4. That which injures the religious and moral value of the speech of Eliphaz more than all these weak and one-sided doctrinal features, which emerge into but slight prominence, and which would be scarcely noticed by an untrained eye, is a series of defects which lead us to infer in the speaker a defective character rather than an erroneous theory. The discourse, with all the beauty and truth of the greater part of its thoughts, is nevertheless heartless, haughty, stiff and cold. It dwells self-complacently on general truths, known as well to Job and acknowledged by him, which are presented not without rhetorical pathos, but which are not brought into anything like a tenderly considerate, or profoundly apprehended relation to the special circumstances of him who is addressed. (1) It exhibits not a trace of genuine sympathy with the extraordinarily high measure of misery which has overwhelmed the unhappy sufferer; instead of consoling him, it goes off into moralizing reflections, which bring him no comfort, which serve rather to embitter him. (2) It unqualifiedly identifies his complaint with that of a fool, i.e., of a man of abandoned wickedness and ungodliness (Job 5:2 seq.; comp. Job 4:8 seq.), without the slightest effort to make a critical examination of the question, whether his essential character is not incomparably purer and more godly than that of a despairing blasphemer. (3) It assumes on his part hypocrisy, defective self-knowledge, entanglement in a self-righteous delusion, and seeks to cure these defects by bringing forward that night-oracle, but by this very course he betrays a serious deficiency in knowledge of men, and in the power of a finer psychological observation. (4) It takes no account whatever of the great fact of the former purity of his life, and of his uncomplaining patience, and thus coarsely (not to say maliciously) makes no distinction between Job and the great mass of men. (5) Worst of all, it is not free from disingenuousness and deception; back of what it openly says, it suggests the existence of something worse yet, of which it regards Job as capable, if not as being already guilty, and thus deprives even that in it which seems adapted really to minister comfort, refreshment, and a wholesome stimulus (e.g., the description in Job 5:17 seq. of the blissful blossoming anew of the prosperity of him who repents and is reconciled with God), of its beneficent influence on the feelings of the sorely tempted sufferer. These indirect suggestions of certain defects in the disposition and character of Eliphaz (which, like those one-sided, doctrinal peculiarities, present a striking parallel with Jerome; comp. the work cited above, p. 332 seq., 391 seq.) are whatchiefly at leastaccording to the poets purpose, furnish the occasion for further controversy, and incite Job to the comparatively passionate reply which he makes.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The homiletic expositor, especially if he treats the discourse of Eliphaz not as a unit, as the theme of one sermon, but only in detached passages (and it is scarcely possible that he should treat it otherwise), need not have the enjoyment, which its many glorious passages minister, marred by the manifold features which tend to quench and disturb it, and which indicate the one-sidedness of the stand-point occupied by the speaker. As opportunity offers it may be shown that Eliphaz is not a representative of the complete truth of Scripture, but is the champion of a party-doctrine, which later is expressly condemned by God as one-sided and erroneous; especially might it be indispensable to call attention to this in the passages found in Job 4:6; Job 5:6 seq, according to what has been said above (Doctrinal and Ethical Remarks, No. 3). But why it should be necessary to make anxious mention of the heterodoxy of the speaker in connection with all that Eliphaz says in harmony with all the other wise men of God under the Old Testament, all which does not contradict the analogia fidei of the Old Testament, and which immediately commends itself by its truth, beauty, and inward powerwhy this should be necessary is certainly not apparent. All requirements of this sort will be sufficiently satisfied if it be shown in the Introduction to the Sermon, or Meditation, that the text under consideration belongs to a discourse by a man who, as is evident from the fact that he is finally rebuked and censured by God, does not present the truth of Scripture in its fulness and entireness, but who none the less belongs to the class of divinely-enlightened sages and saints of the Old Testament, and whose utterances, in so far as they accord with those of other representatives of this class, such as Solomon, Asaph, the author of Ecclesiastes, etc., must be recognized as equally important and valuable with those; nay, more, whose words, in so far as they express (if not directly, still indirectly) the poets objective opinion, have the same right to be regarded as inspired as those of his counterpart, Job, who in truth falls often enough into one-sided views and grievous errors.
In a detached treatment of the text the Second Division (Job 4:12 to Job 5:7) and the Third (Job 5:7-26) stand forth as pericopes of some length, which are suitably defined as to their limits. In view of the richness of their contents, however, the division of both into smaller sections may be recommended, in which case it will be most natural, or indeed unavoidable, to be governed by the preceding division into strophes.As respects the formal statement of themes and the more specific arrangement, the following remarks on particular passages, taken from the older homiletic treatments of the book, will supply suggestive hints:
Job 4:2 seq. Starke: A friend can indeed reprove another, if he has seen or heard anything wrong on his part (Sir 20:2); but he must not put the worst construction on everything. We should hear the admonitions and reproofs of our neighbor patiently, and take them for our improvement (Psa 141:5).
Job 4:7 seq. Brentius: It is not so much absurd, as impious, for human reason to infer from afflictions that God is angry. Rather, as a father chastises his son whom he loves, and spares not the rod, so God crucifies those whom He elects together with His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord Eliphaz discourses truly, but he interprets the case according to his own carnal judgment of it; for the innocent, although they do not perish, are nevertheless afflicted; they are not destroyed, but they are oppressed.Hengstenberg: The proposition which Eliphaz puts at the foundation of his argument: that true spiritual rectitude and complete destruction cannot accompany each other, is true. Instead, however, of taking for granted what he does in regard to Job, he ought to have done him the friendly service of controverting the assumption. He should have set out before him that often when the need is greatest, succor is nearest. He should have furnished him the right clue to his suffering by propounding the proposition: Whom God loveth He chasteneth. He was not, however, prepared to do this, as long as he, in common with Job, was wanting in the right perception of sin.
Job 4:12 seq. Zeyss: God taught the ancients His will by visions and dreams, and by such a revelation did for them that which He has since done by His word, written and preached (Gen 28:12; Num 12:6). He has revealed Himself thus even to the heathen (Gen 20:3). Hence they are without excuse (Rom 1:20).Passavant (in his work on Vital Magnetism, 2d Ed., p. 131): In the dreams of a deep, sound sleep (comp. Job 5:13) the soul seems to put forth a higher form of activity, and it may be that all significant dreams belong to this very condition, which seems furthest removed from the working consciousness.
Job 4:17 seq. Cramer: God has concluded all under sin, in order that He might have mercy upon all, that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world be guilty before God, in order that by the works of the law no flesh should be justified in His sight (Rom 3:20).Wohlfarth: Erroneous as was the opinion of Eliphaz, that sinners only are punished here on account of their sins, no less true is the commnication here made to him by a Divine revelation, that no man is pure before God, Gen 8:21; Ezek. 4:18; Mat 15:19; 1Co 2:14, etc.
Job 4:19 seq. Brentius: This thought should be treasured up in the depth of our minds, in order that by it we may cast down the arrogance of our flesh. For why should you be proud of your noble lineage, your wealth, power, royal majesty? Consider, I pray you, what you were, what you are, and, what you will be, and cease to stick up your crest; you were clay, you are a dung-hill, you will be corruption and the food of wormswhy then should you boast (1Co 1:31)?Cramer: Death sends no messenger, but when men least expect him, he enters all doors, even those of palaces (Jer 9:21; Luk 12:20).
Job 5:3 seq. Brentius: This passage teaches parents the fear of God, for who does not desire for his children everything that is best, and the most ample inheritance? Take care, therefore, to live piously, and to bring up your children in piety and in the admonition of the Lord. You cannot leave them a more ample patrimony than this; whereas if you live wickedly, and your children fill up the measure of the iniquity which they have derived from you, not only will you be cursed, but your children also will inherit their fathers curse.
Job 5:6-7. Seb. Schmidt: This remarkable passage contradicts the notion of mans free will in spiritual matters, and not only proves original sin, but also that by virtue of it there is no man who does not sin.Hengstenberg: To sin is just as much a property of human nature as it is of sparks to fly upward. The doctrine of innate corruption, which rests on Gen 3:4; Gen 5:3 is already expressed here. (Is the statement here given of it, however, absolutely correct, and free from all one-sided admixture? Zckler.See above in the Critical and Doctrinal Remarks).
Job 5:8 seq. Seb. Schmidt: When we commend anything to God we do it by prayer, and hope or trust in God: so that although prayer is not expressly mentioned here, it is nevertheless implied in the words, and must not be neglected (1Pe 5:7).
Job 5:10. Starke: Although the rain has its own purely natural causes, we must still look up in connection with it to God, as the One who has so established nature, that the rain can fall, the sun shine, etc. (Jer 14:22).
Job 5:17 seq. Cramer: The dear cross [das liebe Kreuz, the affliction, adversity, whose uses are sweet] has great benefits connected with it (Rom 5:3 seq.; Jam 1:2 seq.); we come by means of it to the knowledge of our sins (Psa 119:67); we stop sinning (1Pe 4:1), we learn to give heed to the Word, and to pray diligently (Isa 28:19), we become satiated with the world (Php 1:23), and are made conformable to the example of Christ (Rom 8:29).Compare Fr. de la Motte. Fouqus poemGods Chastisements (especially 3d and 4th stanzas).
Job 5:19. Brentius: The Lord delivers in six afflictions (i.e., in every time of trouble), not by taking away the cross from our shoulders, but by ministering strength and patience to bear it. But in the seventh affliction (i.e., when the season of trial is over) He gives deliverance both by taking away the cross, and by giving pure and unalloyed happiness (comp. 1Co 10:13).Zeyss: There is no distress so great so strange, so manifold, but God can deliver His people out of it (Psa 91:14 seq.; Isa 43:2; Dan 3:17; Dan 6:16; Dan 6:22).
Job 5:20 seq. Brentius: He enumerates the blessings of the godly man, who takes hold by faith of the Lords hand. For the godly man, possessing the Lord by faith, remains perfectly serene in the face of all calamities, fearing neither famine, nor sword, nor rumors of war, nor desolation, nor the beasts of the earth. Yea, even though the heavens should fall, and the earth be wrecked, the ruins would smite him undismayed.Cocceius: If any one should think that Eliphaz said these things in the spirit of prophecy about Job, as the type of Christ in obedience, afflictions, patience and exaltation, I should not, be disposed to blame him. He who should maintain this would say that the present and the future are blended and treated as present; seeing them in the Spirit he depicts them as present.For the limitation and partial correction of this typical and Messianic interpretation, comp. further Seb. Schmidts remarks on the passage: But who can believe that Eliphaz with all his recriminations against Job, would have prophesied good concerning him, nay, have made him even a type of Christ? (The passage could thus be regarded only as an involuntary prophecy, like that of Balaam, or of Caiaphas).
Footnotes:
[1]In all essentials Cocceius had already recognized these three divisions in the discourse of Eliphaz, both as regards the lines of separation between them and the significance of their contents.
[2]
The heads he numbers of his darlings, [3]Comp. Cocceius: The first discourse of Eliphaz, if you except the charge of impatience brought against Job (although that is stated mildly, and is not altogether without cause), and the offensive interpretation put on the words of Job, has in it nothing that is not holy, true, and excellent, and which is not most admirably adapted to strengthen patience, etc.
CONTENTS
This chapter opens with the controversy between Job and his friends, which runs through the whole book, until, at the close of it, GOD settles the dispute. Eliphaz begins, and his expostulation with Job is pursued through all this chapter.
Job 4:1
(1) Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
This Eliphaz was of Teman, the seed of Esau. Let the Reader remark this in the opening of the controversy, it will throw some light upon the subject. We find the enemy, Satan, had given over. His charge Job had refuted. Satan had said Job would prove himself a hypocrite, by cursing GOD. This had proved a lie. Now Eliphaz comes forward to the charge.
Job 4:1
If he had been a fool he would never have been dear to Job, nor would he have been one of the three amongst all Job’s acquaintances who came to him from afar…. Eliphaz is partly a rhetorician, and, like all persons with that gift, he is frequently carried off his feet and ceases to touch the firm earth…. A certain want of connexion and pertinence is observable in him. A man who is made up of what he hears or reads always lacks unity and directness. Confronted by any difficulty or by any event which calls upon him, he answers not by an operation of his intellect on what is immediately before him, but by detached remarks which he has collected, and which are never a fused homogeneous whole.
Mark Rutherford in The Deliverance.
Suddenly a fresh thought came, and she prayed that, through whatever suffering, she might be purified. Whatever trials, woes, measureless pangs, God might see fit to chastise her with, she would not shrink, if only at last she might come into His presence. Alas! the shrinking from suffering we cannot help. That part of her prayer was vain.
Mrs. Gaskell in Ruth (chap. XXIII).
Job 4:8
Would that I had a folio to write, instead of an article of a dozen pages. Then might I exemplify how an influence, beyond our control, lays its strong hand upon every deed which we do, and weaves its consequences into an iron tissue of necessity.
N. Hawthorne.
Job 4:13 f
There is a passage in the book of Job amazingly sublime, and this sublimity is principally due to the terrible uncertainty of the thing described: ‘ In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up: it stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying, shall mortal man be more just than God?’ We are first prepared with the utmost solemnity for the vision; we are first terrified before we are let even into the obscure cause of our emotion; but when this grand cause of terror makes its appearance, what is it? Is it not wrapt up in the shades of its own incomprehensible darkness, more awful, more striking, more terrible, than the liveliest description, than the clearest painting, could possibly represent it?
Burke, On the Sublime and the Beautiful, iv.
In his life of Dr. John Donne, Isaak Walton observes that ‘most of our world are at present possessed with an opinion that Visions and Miracles are ceased’. ‘I am well pleased,’ he adds ‘that every Reader do enjoy his own opinion. But if the unbelieving will not allow the believing Reader of this story [i.e. a dream of Dr. Donne’s], a liberty to believe that it may be true; then I wish him to consider many wise men have believed that the ghost of Julius Caesar did appear to Brutus, and that both St. Austin and Monica his mother had visions in order to his conversion. And though these, and many others too many to name have but the authority of human story, yet the incredible Reader may find in the Sacred Story that Bildad, in the book of Job, says these words; “a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my head stood up; fear and trembling came upon me, and made all my bones to shake” before which words I make no comment, but leave them to be considered by the incredulous Reader.’
Job 4:16
Did you ever see the ‘Jacob’s Dream’ in the Dulwich Gallery? He is a Dutchman, and an old clothes’ man, for any refinement that he has about him. But what a vision he sees! A scrap of desert a distant hill a stunted bush shaking at intervals with the night wind is all the material he has about him; but in the dream and vision of the night he sees shapes which hardly separate themselves from the pensive glory and the rolling volume of cloud. Neither bird white-plumaged, nor angel white-winged, nor any other shape distinguishable in member, joint or limb and yet a shape sealing instruction as unutterable as the form is dim. ‘It stands still; he cannot discern the form thereof; an image is before his eyes; there is silence?’ It is like a passage out of the deep book of Job.
Smetham’s Letters, pp. 267-268
The Argument of Eliphaz. I.
Job 4
We must remember that the three comforters who came to Job in the hour of his great grief probably never heard such a speech as that which Job poured forth when after seven days and seven nights he opened his mouth, and cursed his day. Who could reply to such a speech? It may be that Eliphaz was the oldest and the chief of the comforters who came to the suffering patriarch, and therefore he began the conversation. The best comment upon his speech, as indeed upon the whole Book of Job, is not a critical handling of the individual words and sentences, but a paraphrase, a turning of the grand old controversy into modern forms and present-day applications. It has been customary to sneer at the comforters of Job. Surely there is nothing to sneer at in the great speech of Eliphaz? It might be so read as to appear to be cold, haughty, reproachful, bitter, so as to turn Eliphaz himself into an insufferable Pharisee; but it may also be so read as to disclose in Eliphaz a Christian by anticipation, a philosophical comforter, a man whose condolence was not the utterance of vapouring sentiment, but the balm of sanctified philosophy and reason. Better read it so. Why should these men have sprung all at once into reproachful critics? They had heard of their friend being impoverished, smitten down, crushed almost to death; they came from various quarters and from long distances to condole with him: what was there to turn them instantly into sourness, and to embitter their spirit? They themselves were so overcome by what they had seen of Job’s grief and desolation that for a whole week, in and out, they could not speak a word to him. Strange, passing all credulity, that they should instantly turn themselves into sour critics, and throw stones at the sufferer, with pharisaic self-conceit and haughtiness. There is nothing of this kind in the opening of the conversation. What there may be by-and-by we shall discover. Evidently, however, the case was wholly new to Eliphaz. He was a somewhat ponderous speaker slow, deliberate, majestic. Whilst he is talking we feel that he is looking round about the case, trying to discern its meaning; for it is wholly novel, and it comes upon him so as to create surprise. He has certain great principles with which he never parts; he has based his life upon certain solid philosophies, and whatever happens he will try everything by these great conclusions. But he talks slowly, and whilst he is talking he is thinking, and whilst he is thinking he is endeavouring to discern something in the case that will be as light upon a mystery, or a key to a stubborn lock. This kind of experience never occurred before: what wonder if some mistakes were made? and what wonder if Job resented even balm and cordial and music in such enfeebled distress? There are agonies which will not bear the utterance of words, even on the part of sympathising friends: well-meant remarks only seem to drive the iron farther into the quivering life. A broad view, therefore, must be taken of the whole situation, and taking that broad view it may happen that we shall change our whole appreciation of this history of Job, and find in it things that we had hitherto left undiscovered.
Eliphaz approaches the suffering man with an “if,” and with a double interrogation: “If we assay, or attempt, to speak, will it add to thy grief? If so, we will still hold our peace. Yet who can withhold or restrain himself from speaking? It is a poor thing to do; still, who can resist the impulse? Understand us: we do not want even to breathe upon thy pain, lest the breathing should increase its agony; yet, if we went home without saying a word, without endeavouring to present another view of the case than that which has darkened upon thy poor life, it would seem as if we were judging thee, and even by silent judgment increasing an intolerable pain. That, O poor suffering friend, is our position. We are afraid to speak, and yet we must speak. We could not have uttered a word if thou hadst not begun to speak thyself, but seeing that thou hast taken to speaking, may we follow thee? It may be that in talking out all these thousand problems relief may come. Let us then reverently and tenderly betake ourselves to a contemplation of the marvellous drama and tragedy of human life.” He begins as if he meant to succeed. He loses nothing by this apparent weakness. It is the beginning of his strength. If he were feebler he would be more furious: it is because he is strong that he can afford to be slow. Then he, with a master’s skill, proceeds to a positive declaration: “Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands. Thy words have upholden him that was fallen, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees” ( Job 4:3-4 ). Sometimes an encouraging word by way of review helps a man to listen, to think, and to pray. All the beneficent past was not forgotten, the comforters knew the former status of Job the chief man in the land, the prime counsellor; a very fountain of consolation; a man who was asked for and sought for when the whole horizon darkened with thunder. Sometimes we need to be reminded of our better selves. It may do us good to be told that once we were good, brave, wise, tender. A reference of that kind may bring tears to a strong man’s eyes, and make him say in his heart “If you think of me so kindly as all that, God helping me, I will pluck up courage and try again to be as good a man as you have supposed me to be.” We lose nothing in our education of men by words of encouragement, seasonably and lovingly spoken. What is appropriate to a sufferer is sometimes appropriate to a prodigal. Tell him that once he was the bravest in the whole set at school, whose face would have gathered up into unutterable scorn at the bare mention of a lie or a thing mean and cowardly; tell him of the days when his name was a charm, a watchword, which had only to be spoken and at once it would symbolise honour, integrity, unselfishness. Let us try that species of medicament when we attempt to heal wounds that are gaping and bleeding, and that mean swift death.
Eliphaz is now entitled to say, “But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled” ( Job 4:5 ). I see no taunt in these words. The man is rather called to recollection of what he himself would have said to other men, and, in the sixth verse, “Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?” simply means, in a broad sense: Recall thine own principles; hasten to thine own sureties, and strong towers, and refuges; thou didst point them out with eloquence and unction to other men, now will they not be enough for thyself? Flee unto them, and accept sanctuary at the hands of God. Then Job was but human, for he did quail under desolations, and losses, and torments, concerning which he had comforted other men. If he live to get out of this, he will comfort them as he never comforted them before. We cannot tell (reading the history as if we had not read it before) what will become of this man; but if he survive this night all nights grouped into one darkness he will speak as he has never spoken before; he will be but a little lower than the angels.
In the seventh verse Eliphaz appears to be reproachful and bitter, and to suggest that Job had been playing the part of a hypocrite: “Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the righteous cut off.” How easy it would be to spoil that music by one rough tone; and how difficult it is to lift those words into music such as one strong man could communicate to another, more than his equal once in strength and dignity. But apart from the immediate application to Job’s case, here is a sublime historical testimony. Leaving Job for a moment, here is a challenge to the men who have read history “Who ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the righteous cut off?” Eliphaz knew of no such case, and Eliphaz, by his own talk, whoever he was, was not a little man, judging by his words, judging by the handling of his language. For the moment forgetting all about inspiration and theology, and taking the speech as a piece of literature, we are bound to say that the speaker is no contemptible person. He, having established his authority to speak by the very manner of his speech, challenges men to say when innocence perished, and where righteousness was cut off. The usual rendering has been: Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent, if thou hadst been innocent thou wouldst not have been in this condition; remember, I pray thee, where were the righteous cut off, if thou hadst been righteous every son and daughter would have been living today, and the hills would have been alive with thy flocks. But who reads it so? Surely not the brave, gentle soul inhabited by the angel of Charity or the angel of Justice. Read it in some other tone; then its meaning will be this: Job, remember who ever perished, being innocent? And we all know the life you have led: you have been eyes to the blind, ears to the deaf, a tongue to the dumb, a home to the homeless; you have lived amongst us a spotless character: do not fear, therefore, you will not be driven to destruction: the strife is very heavy; all the winds of heaven seem to have conspired in one furious gust and to be driving thee away, but remember your integrity, and take comfort: from the fact that innocence was never utterly destroyed: where were the righteous cut off? Job, there lives not a man who could charge you with unrighteousness; were any witness suborned to tell this lie, we would all rise up against him, and convict him of high treason against the law of truth and righteousness: that being the case, stand upon this grand broad fact, that God will not allow the righteous man to be cut off. Thus what appeared to be a harsh criticism is turned into a noble argument for the consolation and sustenance of a desolated and impoverished soul.
Eliphaz is not afraid to look at the other side of the case:
“Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed” ( Job 4:8-9 ).
Then he falls into the images of the lions, so difficult to put into our language, because we have to help ourselves by epithets to give the full meaning of the metaphor of the lion. But the whole meaning of Eliphaz is this: Wickedness does perish: men that plough iniquity reap the black harvest; when they appear to come to the mountain-top it is that they may be the farther blown away into the infinite void. Thus the great comforter puts both cases before Job, intimating by the last metaphor that it would have gone hard with him if he had been either wanting in innocence or in righteousness; then surely God would have been severe with him, and would not have given him time to curse the day of his birth, but would have crushed him ere he had begun the eloquent malediction. That Job had been spared so far was part of the argument of Eliphaz, that something was to come out of this trial which at present was not discernible by human foresight.
Now he changes his whole method of speech. He was surely a master in the treatment of human distress. Is there anything finer in all history than what follows from Job 4:12-19 ? It is only due to the Bible, whoever wrote it, to say that scholars learned in every tongue have confessed the sublimity of this representation of the revelation of God to the human soul. Let us read it:
“Now a thing was secretly brought to me” literally, Now a thing was stealthily brought to me; or, more literally still, Now a thing was stolen for me: a spirit put forth, as it were, a felonious hand, and brought something down from heaven to me; this is no idea of my own which I am now about to tell thee, Job; I will show thee a secret or stolen truth “and mine ear received a little thereof”: there was much more that I could not follow; our words are such poor little vessels they cannot hold all heaven’s rain; my vessels gave out, not God’s revelation, but what I did catch I will hand over to thee, poor sufferer. “In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men” when distance is nothing, when time is nothing, when we are our winged selves, when we can rise above the earth, and float through the air, or fly across seas, or complete the circuit of the horizon: in the mysteries of the night, when we can believe anything, however unusual, about ourselves; when we are so great, so wise, so far-sighted: when we seem to be in possession of the liberty of creation “fear came upon me, and trembling”: I was melted, I was dissolved: fear “which made all my bones to shake”: so that this is no bravery, or audacity, or presumption on my part: I received this revelation when I was hardly able to receive it, as to the consciousness of mere strength. This is God’s way. He strikes great Saul to the earth, and when the man lies weakly on his back he brings heaven’s gospel to him. “When I am weak, then am I strong.” Lying there, in the wilderness of the night, in the desolation of darkness, in the weakness of fear, “then a spirit passed before my face” what are “spirits”? who was the first man to invent the impossible, to conceive the non-existent? His name should be famous in the world “the hair of my flesh stood up” as we ourselves have felt the rising in times of blank fear. The spirit “stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof”: if shape it had, that shape had none. “An image was before mine eyes” a shapeless image as if the darkness had brought itself into a shapeless shape: “there was silence”: I heard the silence; my breathing in it was like a tempest oh that silence! “and I heard a voice” a whisper, as if all eternity had humbled itself into the smallest tone “saying, Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?” These are not invented words. They bear their own seal upon them that they are a language from a higher place. There is an odour in them belonging to the gardens of paradise; there is a sublimity in them belonging to the throne of justice; there is an augustness in them as if they were embodied heavens. “Behold, he putteth no trust in his servants,” for he knows they are but a breath, a vapour, frail even in their strength, “and his angels” his firstborn, the beings that began the mystery of finiteness “he chargeth with imperfection”: he calls them short lives, pieces of a whole, atoms of an infinite integer, broken fractions, sparks struck off. “How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?” He treats them according to their capacity; he is not harsh with them even in his judgments; he says they are but of yesterday: what can they know? They are built upon clay: how high can they rise? The poor weak clay would be crushed, and the whole tower would totter and fall.
That is part of the speech of Eliphaz: beginning with a question, proceeding to a tribute, advancing to an argument, and now approaching a great spiritual revelation which is of a moral kind. What if all morality be a revelation? What if we know nothing about justice and purity but what some spirit has “stolen” for us, or stealthily brought to us? What if our boasted talk about ethics and morals and good conduct be but an ungrateful forgetfulness that all we do know we have received from heaven?
How self-testing is revelation, according to the speech of Eliphaz!
“Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker” ( Job 4:17 ).
This is the test of all messages. Say that a spirit has spoken to you, and we have a right to ask, What message did he deliver? Put that question in regard to this communication from the spirit-land. Say to Eliphaz, If a spirit spoke to thee, tell us his words, and by the words we will judge the quality and character of the spirit. Was it some frivolous communication he made? Let the communication speak for itself “Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?” When a spirit speaks such words we know that the spirit is of God. To this test we would subject the Bible, always and everywhere. What does it say? What is the burden of its song? What is the purport of its message? If it be a book of frivolous anecdote, of maundering, pointless sentiment, of dream without practical value, of consolation that never touches the broken heart, then the world will be the richer for its banishment from all study; but if the book be self-evidencing, if it speak to us as if it knew us, if it can touch the wound without hurting it, if it can sit up with us all night, however long the night is, and speak to us in a language the heart can understand, then the world will not let it go. Let us have no fear as to the place of the Bible in civilisation and in the world at large: the hearts that owe it everything owe it preservation. Is there anywhere a finer description of human nature than these words “mortal man?” We have read them so often that by our familiarity with them their originality is destroyed, and the vigour of the conception they represent “Mortal man” little, frail, dying man: call him king you do but decorate death; call him ruler and prince and captain of a thousand hosts you cannot by your epithets block out the infinite disadvantage of his mortality. Yet here is, to me at least, a sign that immortality was not unknown to the ancient patriarchal mind. It is too often forgotten that to have such a God as is revealed in the Bible is to have immortality. We cannot have the one without having the other. Eliphaz, by his very grip of things, by his large reasoning, by his seizure and realisation of great things, is immortal. There are certain conclusions which follow without being named, without submitting to the degradation of words. Here, somewhere between the days of Abraham and Moses; here, at an assignable point in historic time, is a speaker who, looking over all he has seen of the world’s story, calls man proud man calls him “mortal man.” This is a humiliation in the one aspect, but an exaltation in the other: the mortal is the fleshly, the visible, the palpable, and the ponderable; but if spirit can speak to man, then man has in him an answering spirit. We have, therefore, here in the sleeping Eliphaz, the disabled man, his bones shaking, his bodily strength all gone, we have something left that can hold communion with heaven. Whatever that is, it could not die.
A very fine figure is given in the twentieth verse. Speaking of men, whom he has referred to as “mortal,” he says, “They are destroyed from morning to evening,” literally, They are destroyed betwixt morning and evening. Morning and evening are as two great iron plates gone is a man when they close upon him! He steps upon no eternities, he does not live from generation to generation, in his little personality, proud, mighty, royal, rich: he will die somewhere “betwixt “morning and evening.” Lord, teach us to know ourselves; Lord, teach us to know ourselves to be but men: so teach us to number our days as to apply our hearts unto wisdom. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place from one generation to another; continue to open the doors of thine eternity to our mortality; and when the eventide comes, in all its shadow and blackness, may this mortality be swallowed up of life!
Prayer
Almighty God, we are thine, and would be bondmen unto thee, and live evermore in the slavery of love. Sweet the bondage, light the yoke, which thou dost impose: without them we should have no liberty; thine is a liberty that is glorious. The Son hath made us free, and therefore we are free indeed: how great the freedom of those who live in God, who are one with Christ, who yield themselves to the daily ministry of the Holy Ghost! We have learned, through unimaginable suffering, to say, Not my will, but thine, be done; and ever since we gave up our own will we have begun to live in heaven. This is the miracle of God; this is the triumph of the Cross; this is the mystery of all spiritual culture. Save us from ourselves! In every sense we are of yesterday, and know nothing; thou art from everlasting to everlasting, and there is no secret to thine eyes. O thou who knowest what is best, fittest, wisest for us, undertake our whole life, and set it out in portion and division, and let us feel how good thou art in permitting us to live. May our life be hidden with Christ in God, and thus become a double life, rooted so that it can never be eradicated, stablished, strengthened, settled, so that it never can be disturbed. Great peace have they that love thy law. Oh that we had hearkened unto thy commandments, and followed in the way of thy precepts; for then had our peace flowed like a river, and our righteousness as the waves of the sea. But we are filled with sorrow, our hearts are cast down with self-reproach; heal us lest we die, save us with daily salvation, that so our faithfulness may be kept alive. Go before us in all the way of life: it is difficult, it is steep, it is too much for our poor frail strength; but we can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us. O thou who art the Son of the Everlasting Father, the Brother of man, the Saviour of the world, come to us, and give us to know how good a thing it is to stand in thy strength, and to believe in thy grace. Amen.
(See the Job Book Comments for Introductory content and general conclusions and observations).
V
THE FIRST ROUND OF SPEECHES
Job 4-14.
This debate extends from Job 4-31 inclusive. There are three rounds of speeches by all the four except that Zophar drops out in the last round. Each round constitutes a scene in Act II of the drama.
In this chapter we will discuss Scene I and commence with the first speech of Eliphaz (Job 4-5) the points of which are as follows:
Introduction (Job 4:1-2 ). In his introduction he deprecates grieving one so afflicted but must reprove Job,
1. For weakness and inconsistency. The one who had instructed, comforted, and strengthened others in their troubles, faints when trouble comes to him (Job 4:3-5 ).
2. Because Job had neither the fear of God nor personal integrity, for the fear of God gives confidence, and integrity gives hope, but Job’s complaint implies that he had neither confidence nor hope, therefore he must be devoid of the fear of God and of integrity (Job 4:6 ).
3. Because the observation of the general trend of current events argued Job’s guilt. The innocent do not perish; those who reap trouble are those who have sowed trouble and plowed iniquity. Ravening lions, though strong and terrible, meet the hunter at last (Job 4:7-11 ).
4. Because revelation also convicts him. Eliphaz relates one of his own visions (Job 4:12-17 ), very impressively, which scouted the idea that mortal man could be more just than God, or purer than his maker. But Job’s complaint seemed to embody the idea. Eliphaz argues from his vision that a pure and just God crushes impure and unjust men and suggests the application that Job’s being crushed reproves his impurity and injustice (Job 4:18-21 ).
5. Because Job’s outcry against God was foolish and silly, and since no angels would hear such complaint, or dare to avert its punishment (Job 5:1-2 ) there can be no appeal from the supreme to the creature.
6. Because observation of a particular case illustrates Job’s guilt (Job 5:3-5 ). The circumstances of this case seen by Eliphaz, make it parallel with Job’s case; a certain foolish man took root and prospered for a while, but the curse smote him suddenly and utterly; his children perished, his harvest was eaten by the hungry, and all his substance was snatched away.
7. Because these results are not accidental, nor of earthly origin, but must be attributed to God who punishes sin. Because man is a sinner he is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward (Job 5:6-7 ).
The remedy suggested to Job by Eliphaz is as follows:
1. Take your case to God confession of sin and repentance are suggested (Job 5:8 ) who will exalt the penitent (Job 5:11 ) as certainly as he has frustrated their craftiness (Job 5:12-14 ) and so the poor may have hope after the mouth of their iniquity is stopped (Job 5:15-16 ).
2. Instead of murmuring, count yourself happy in receiving this punishment, and after penitence expect restoration of prosperity (Job 5:17-27 ).
On comparing this analysis with that given by Dr. Tanner (see his Syllabus on the speech of Eliphaz) it will be noted that the author here differs widely with Tanner in his analysis and interpretation of this speech. Tanner presents Eliphaz as assuming the position that Job was a righteous man and that God would deliver him. The author presents Eliphaz as taking the position that Job had sinned, which was the cause of his suffering and that he should confess and repent; that he should count himself happy in receiving this punishment, and thus after penitence expect the restoration of prosperity. It will be recalled here that the author, in commending the Syllabus of Dr. Tanner noted the weakness of his analysis at this point.
There are several things notable in this first speech of Eliphaz, viz:
1. The recurrence in all his speeches of “I have seen,” “I have seen,” “I saw,” showing that the experience and observation of a long life constituted the basis of his argument.
2. The good elements of his arguments are as follows: (1) He refers to the natural law of sowing and reaping (Cf. Gal 6:7 ); (2) the sinner’s way to happiness is through confession and repentance; (3) chastisement of an erring man should be recognized as a blessing, since it looks to his profit (Cf. Pro 3:11 and the use made of it as quoted in Heb 12:5 ).
3. The bad elements in his speech are as follows: (1) His induction of facts ignores many other facts, particularly that all suffering is not penal; (2) He fails in the application of his facts, since the case before him does not come in their classification; in other words, through ignorance he fails in his diagnosis of the case, and hence his otherwise good remedies fall short of a cure.
4. The exquisite simplicity and literary power of his description of his vision, makes it a classic gem of Hebrew poetry.
The following points are noted in Job’s reply (Job 6-7) :
1. The rash words of my complaint are not evidence of previous sins, but the result of immeasurable calamities from the hand of God. They cannot be weighed; they are heavier than the sandy shores which confine the ocean; they are poisoned arrows from the quiver of the Almighty which pierce my very soul and rankle there; they are terrors marshalled in armies by the Almighty (Job 6:1-4 ).
2. The braying of an ass and the lowing of an ox are to be attributed to lack of food, not meanness. Let the favorable construction put upon the discordant noise of hungry animals be applied to my braying and lowing (Job 6:5 ), for in my case also there is the hunger of starvation since the food set before me is loathsome and without savor (Job 6:6-7 ).
3. I repeat my prayer to God for instant death, because I have not the strength to endure longer, nor the wisdom to understand (Job 6:8-9 ; Job 6:11-13 ) but while exulting in the pain that slays me, my consolation still is, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One (Job 6:10 ).
4. Instead of moralizing on the causes and rebuking suspected sins, friends should extend kindness to one ready to faint, even though he forsake the fear of God (or lest he forsake, Job 6:14 ). This is like the story of the drowning boy who asked the moralizing man on the bank to help him out first and then inquire into the causes of his mishap.
5. In your treatment of me, ye are like a deceitful brook, roaring with water only while the snow on the mountains is melting, but being without springs, directly you run dry. The caravans from the desert that come to it hoping, turn aside from its dusty channels and perish. So you that seemed like a river when I was not thirsty, put me to shame by your nothingness now that I thirst. Compare “Wells without water . . . clouds without rain” in Jud 1:12-13 .
6. Is it possible that you condemn me because you apprehend that otherwise I might ask you for help? In your moralizing are you merely hedging against the expectation of being called on to help a bankrupt sufferer, by furnishing a reward or ransom for the return of my stolen flocks and herds? Do you try to make me guilty that you may evade the cost of true friendship (Job 6:21-23 )? I have asked for no financial help, but for instruction. How forcible are right words !
7. But you, instead of explaining my calamities have been content to reprove the words of my complaint, extorted by the anguish of my calamities, words that under the circumstances should have been counted as wind, being only the speeches of one that is desperate.
8. The meanness of such treatment in your case would prompt in other cases to cast lots for the orphans of the dead and make merchandise out of a stranded friend by selling him as a slave (Job 6:27 ). This is a terrible invective, but more logical than their argument, since history abundantly shows that some believers in their creed have done these very things, the argument being that thereby they are helping God to punish the wicked.
9. He begs them to turn from such injustice, look on his face and behold his sincerity, concede his ability to discern a thing which is wicked, and accept his deliberate statement that he is innocent of the things which they suspect (Job 6:28-30 ).
10. He laments his case as hopeless (Job 7:1-10 ). Here Job asks if there is not a warfare to man and his days like the days of a hireling. His waiting for relief was like a hireling waiting for his wages, during which time he is made to pass months (moons) of misery. In this hopeless condition he longs for relief and would gladly welcome death from which there is no return to the walks of this life.
11. Job now lifts his voice in complaint to God (Job 7:11-21 ). In the anguish of his spirit he could not refrain from complaining that God had set a watch over him and terrified him with dreams and visions. He was made to loathe his life and again to wish for death. Then he closes this speech by raising the question with the Almighty as to why he would not pardon him if he had sinned (as his accusers had insinuated) and take away his iniquity. Here he addresses God as a “watcher of men”; as one who had made him a target for his arrows. Now we take up the first speech of Bildad, the Shuhite (Job 8 ).
The substance of this speech is as follows:
1. He charges that Job seeks to make himself better than God, then he hints at the sins of his children and insinuates that Job does not pray, for prayer of the right sort brings relief (Job 8:1-7 ).
2. He exhorts Job to learn the lesson from the past. The wisdom of the fathers must be good. Therefore, learn the lesson of the ancients (Job 8:8-10 ).
3. He contrasts the fate of the wicked and that of the righteous, reasoning from cause to effect, thus insinuating that Job’s condition was the result of a cause, and since (to him) all suffering was the result of sin, the cause must be in Job (Job 8:11-22 ).
The substance of Job’s reply is,
1. True enough a man cannot be righteous with God, since he is unable to contend with him. He is too wise and powerful; he is invincible. Who can match him (Job 9:1-12 )?
2. Praying does not touch the case. He is unjust and proves me perverse. Individual righteousness does not avail to exempt in case of a scourge. He mocks at the trial of the innocent and the wicked prosper. Then Job says, “If it be not he, who then is it?” This is the climax of the moral tragedy (Job 9:13-24 ).
3. There is no daysman betwixt us, and I am not able to meet him in myself for Judgment (Job 9:25-35 ).
4. I will say unto God, “Why? Thou knowest I am not wicked.” Here it will be noted that a revelation is needed in view of this affliction (Job 10:1-7 ).
5. God is responsible for my condition; he framed and fashioned me as clay, yet he deals with me as milk or cheese; it is just the same whether I am wicked or righteous; changes and warfare are with me (Job 10:8-17 ).
6. Why was I born? or why did I not die at birth? Then would I have escaped this great suffering, but now I must abide the time until I go into the land of midnight darkness (Job 10:18-22 ).
The substance of Zophar’s first speech is this:
1. What you have received is not as much as you deserve; you are full of talk and boastful; you are self-righteous and need this rebuke from God (Job 11:1-6 ).
2. You cannot find out God; he is far beyond man; he is all-powerful and omniscient; man is as void of understanding as a wild ass’s colt (Job 11:7-12 ).
3. Put away your wickedness; you need to get right and then you will be blessed; you should set your heart and house in order, then all will clear up; then you will be protected from the wicked (Job 11:13-20 ).
Job’s reply to the first speech of Zophar embraces three chapters, as follows:
1. No doubt you are the people and wisdom will die with you; I am not inferior to you; you mock and do not help; I, though upright, am a laughingstock and you, who are at ease, have contempt for misfortune; God brought this about (Job 12:1-6 ).
2. Learn the lessons from nature; the beasts, the birds, the earth, and the fishes can teach thee; everybody knows these things; the ear tries words and the palate tastes food, and wisdom is learned by age (Job 12:7-12 ).
3. God is the source of wisdom and power; he deals wisely with all men; he debases and he exalts (Job 12:13-25 ).
4. I understand it all as well as you; ye are forgers of lies; ye are physicians of no value; your silence would be wisdom; you speak wickedly for God, therefore your sayings are proverbs of ashes and your defenses are defenses of clay (Job 13:1-12 )
5. Why should I take my life in my hand thus? I want to be vindicated before I die; “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him”; I know that I am righteous; therefore I have hope (Job 13:13-19 ).
6. He pleads his cause with God; he asks two things of God, viz: (1) that he would put an end to his bodily suffering and (2) that he would abstain from terrifying him; then he challenges God to call him; then he interrogates God relative to his sins, God’s attitude toward him and his dealings with him; and finally charges God with unjust dealings with him (Job 13:20-28 ).
7. Man that is born of woman is frail and sinful; man’s weakness should excite pity with the Almighty; that which is born of an unclean thing is unclean and since a man’s days and months are numbered, why not turn from him as an hireling and let him rest (Job 14:1-6 ).
8. The hope of a tree, though it be cut down, is that it will sprout again but man’s destiny to lie down in death and rise no more till the heavens pass away should be a cause for mercy from God (Job 14:7-12 ).
9. In despair of recovery in this life Job again prays for death; that God would hide him in the grave till his wrath be past; that he would appoint him a day, in the hope that if he should die he would live again; his destiny is in God’s hands and therefore he is hopeless for this life (Job 14:13-17 ).
10. Like the mountain falling, the rock being removed out of its place and waters wearing away the stones, the hope of man for this life is destroyed by the providences of God; man is driven by them into oblivion; his sufferings become so great that only for himself his flesh has pain and only for himself his soul mourns (Job 14:18-22 ).
In this round of speeches the three friends have followed their philosophy of cause and effect and thus reasoning that all suffering is the effect of sin, they have, by insinuations, charged Job of sin, but they do not specify what it is. Job denies the general charge and in a rather bad spirit refutes their arguments and hits back at them some terriffic blows. He is driven to the depths of despair at the climax of the moral tragedy where he attributes all the malice, cunning, and injustice he had felt in the whole transaction to God as his adversary. They exhort him to repent and seek God, but he denies that he has sinned; he says that he cannot contend with the Almighty because he is too high above him, too powerful, and that there is no umpire, or daysman, between them. Here Job is made to feel the need of a revelation from God explaining all the mysteries of his providence. In this trial of Job we have ‘Satan’s partial victory over him -where he led Job to attribute the evils that had come upon him to God. This is the downfall in Job’s wrestle with Satan. He did not get on top of Job but gave him a great deal of worry. We will see Job triumphing more and more as he goes on in the contest.
QUESTIONS 1. What the points of Eliphaz’s first speech?
2. What things are notable in this first speech of Eliphaz?
3. What the points of Job’s reply (Job 6-7)?
4. What the substance of Bildad’s first speech?
5. What the substance of Job’s reply?
6. What the substance of Zophar’s first speech?
7. What Job’s reply?
8. Give a summary of the proceedings and results of the first round.
Job 4:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
Ver. 1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite ] Then, when Job had laid about him in this sort; and, giving his tongue too much liberty to lash out, had uttered words little better than blasphemous and contumelious against God; then Eliphaz, Temanites ille, the first born of Esau, Gen 36:4 (saith R. Salomon), brought up in the bosom of Isaac, and so inured to revelations from on high. Others think he descended of Teman, nephew to Esau, &c. A man of great wisdom he was, and of great discourse; one that could speak his mind fitly, and did it freely. He seems to have been the chief of the three for age and authority, and therefore begins; pretending to be moved thereunto by zeal for God’s glory, not a little impaired by Job’s impatience savouring of hypocrisy, and arguing eum ficto fucatoque cordo fuisse, that he had been little better than a dissembler. A causeless and uncharitable charge; enough to have driven him into desperation. The Rabbis speak so well of Job’s three friends, that they used to say in a Proverb ( Bava bathra Perech 1 ), Let a man either get him such friends as Job had, or else get him out of the world (like as Chrysippus was wont to say, Aut mentem, aut restim comparandam ). But Gregory the Great saith, that these three, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, do fitly set forth heretics, who begin to speak smoothly at first, as if they meant no harm to him to whom they speak, but only good, to purchase his benevolous attention, but soon come to speak words which much hurt the hearer, and greatly trouble him, &c.
Job Chapter 4
Chap. 4: 1-8. I shall not read more now, because we shall have it gradually before us. But here the great debate commences, founded upon Job’s outbreak, who was now perfectly overcome through the calamity that God had allowed to fall upon him. As a pious man, Job knew very well that God could have prevented it, if He had not a purpose in it of which he himself was wholly ignorant. But it is well to take notice of this before I say more, that Satan completely disappears. He had been utterly foiled. He had been allowed first of all to destroy all that Job possessed, even to his children – his sons and his daughters – all his property was completely swept away. There is hardly a Christian who would not feel that to be a tremendous trial. And there was a greater trial to follow; for when Satan saw that he failed to move Job against God by the destruction of all his possessions and of his family, he was allowed another opportunity for his malice, and that was to inflict the deepest agony upon the person of Job. It would have been a great relief to Job if Satan had been permitted to kill him. Job had no fear at all of what would be after death, but the trial was to be made in this world.
It was not at all a question of what would be hereafter; but Job had to learn – and to teach others by the lesson – that things are not all according to God now; that the foundations are out of course; that some things that are allowed of God are not at all the will of God. Nor are they for the glory of God, except that God, in result, makes them always to subserve His wisdom and His goodness, though outwardly everything appears to go wrong. Now the friends of Job took the totally opposite ground, that it was not at all a bad sort of world, and that on the contrary what happened now was a very good means of judging how God felt about it; that if they were walking well, nothing could harm those who professed to be His followers and servants. No doubt they were men in a comfortable position of life themselves, and did not know much about trial; in point of fact they would not at all have served the purpose of God. God chose a much better man than all three put together. God chose a man whom He loved specially for his integrity; but nevertheless Job had to learn what he was. It was not to be a question of what he had done. They never could get beyond “what a man has done.” In their minds there must have been something very bad. Nobody, it is true, could see it; but that only showed – they did not like to say it at first – that he must be a hypocrite. They judged of Job by the trial that he was called to endure; whereas the truth emerges, gradually, very slowly, but at last it comes out very fully; though Job had no idea what the end would be. Job’s one thought now was to die, no longer to be put to this torment. It was breaking a man upon worse than a wheel; it was wearing him out with the most dreadful tortures and agony; and how could such a God as he knew do such a thing? Yet he believed it was God, so that all this made him writhe; and what brought it out was not Satan – it was his friends!
What a solemn lesson that is! Our friends may sometimes do us the worst turn possible. That is what they did to Job. Nevertheless God never fails; and God was going to make all this turn to Job’s greater blessing. But he knew nothing at all about it – how it was to be – all he knew was that, as far as appeared, there never was a righteous man who was called to suffer as he did. And how was it thus if God loved him? and he had always thought so, he fully believed it, he was quite certain that he loved God – he could not make out how it was possible. And yet it was a very possible thing, because the world is what it is; because human nature is what it is; and because the devil is what he is; and also because even the dearest friends that Job had, only aggravated his misery instead of helping him in the very slightest degree. Well, that was a most complicated web, and that is really the Book of Job. So that it is a grand Book in its way, and peculiar, and all the more full of instruction because it was before the law. If the law had come in it would not have mended matters in the smallest way, because the law was a system of divine government for a people on earth, under which, if they walked well, all would be well, and if they walked ill, trouble would come upon them from God. That would have been very much like what the friends of Job insisted upon. But what we learn is that these thoughts are natural to the heart of man, which believes that God deals with us now according to what we deserve. Job perfectly well knew that it would not be so in the other world; he had no doubt about that. It is true that he had not anything like the same ground of knowledge that we have in having Christ – the same Christ who has made redemption a blessed and a fixed certainty, a condition into which we are brought by divine grace, and which abides for ever. But it is not merely that. Christ is the One who brings us to know God for every day – for everything that comes across our path every day, and for everything that can try the heart or the conscience every day. It is the same perfect law of God that is found in Christ; and our great wisdom is to learn how to apply Christ to every difficulty.
Well, that could not be yet; but the remarkable thing is that it was his dear friends – for they were dear to him, and he had always been dear to them before – who began to look askance. They heard poor Job in his passionate outcry at this terrible suffering that came upon his person. Oh! he could have borne it if they had not been there; he could have borne it if there had been none to look upon him. He might have groaned and cried unto God, and he would surely have done so; but what formed the crisis was his three friends. There they sat for seven long days, looking at the unhappy man! listening to his shrieks, and thinking that after all he ought to be quiet! They had no idea what he was suffering; they were very cool indeed; they were very calm; and they thought they were the men! But God thought otherwise; and Job knew in his heart that they had made a profound mistake, and that they had misconstrued not only Job but God Himself. He was quite right about that; and one thing that he never allowed in all the debate was that it was because of any hidden wickedness, that it was because of the smallest tinge of hypocrisy. No, no, no; they were all wrong about that, and he would never give it up until cockle turned into barley. He knew perfectly well that that could not be. And so it was. He would stick to it, and fight for it; and so he did.
Now, all this brought out what was not at all comely, the deep resentment that Job felt against the injustice of his friends. He could not help knowing they were all wrong, and he could not help feeling that, unless indeed he was one who had no love for them and no respect; but it was just exactly because he had, that it all came so painfully upon him. He knew perfectly well that their glum silence meant that there was no proper sympathy in their hearts toward him. There they were, thinking their bad and dark thoughts about Job all the time, and yet afraid to let them out. But at last Eliphaz picks up courage, and, being the eldest of them, he certainly has much more calmness and dignity and self-restraint than the others that follow. He ventures to speak with a kind of apologetic tone. He says when he hears of this, “If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?” It was so very shocking that Job should let out so strongly! “Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands. Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.” He allowed the excellent character of his dear friend in the past, but what was the meaning of all this violence new? Well, he was so changed that the first sight of him made them rend their clothes and cast themselves upon the ground. They were astonished at him. It appears that from head to foot he was covered with everything that showed the awful inflammation and the workings of what seemed to be deadly corruption covering his body – so much so that even worms were appearing all over, and clods of earth. Had he not thrown himself upon the ash-heap to get something or other to relieve this terrible sting? Besides, all his comforts were gone everything that he once had to alleviate him.
It was all very well for them; they were comfortable; they were not in pain; and they could not in the least degree enter into this terrible suffering of the godly Job. And now Eliphaz allows that he had been a good man towards others, but how was it that he could not teach himself now? Now that this terrible affliction had come, he ought to be a model! Yes, we ought all to be models; we ought all to be like Christ; and we ought all to be like Christ particularly when we are in the depth of affliction, and when we are suffering in the most terrible way; but it is not always so even with the Christian. At any rate, Job could not avoid an expression of his agony – it must come out in some way or another – cries and tears and shrieks as the pain entered most deeply into his nature. Well, there was One who suffered without a murmur; One who always bowed submissively. There was One who accepted from God the most utter contempt and bitter persecution, even to being called Beelzebub; One who had not a house of His own; One who was entirely dependent upon other people – some of them poor fishermen, and others women who followed as they so often did, seeking in that way to serve Him.
So it was with the Lord. He would know what the feeling of a man is about that. You know very well that any man of what is called the least spirit likes to be independent, and that it is the most galling thing to be entirely dependent upon, what is called, other people’s charity. There was the Lord of glory – and when it came to be the time of personal suffering, we can measure a little what it was going to be upon the cross by that which the Lord passed through in the anticipation of it, because He never hardened his heart to shut out what was coming; He went always through the trial before the trial came. We try not to think about it. Sometimes, also, people take means of strengthening the body against the feeling of these trials and pangs; but not so the Lord Jesus. No; He would take the vinegar, but He did not take the potion that was meant to deaden feeling – that He refused. There was a cup given, out of human mercy for the ordinary criminal, to deaden pain, to be a kind of opiate, as we call it. But the Lord would not allow that. No, no; He allowed no ansthetics for Himself. It is all very well; men and women try to get a little ansthetic even for taking out a tooth, and yet there was all this unparalleled suffering that came upon the Lord Jesus. Nevertheless, there it is: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” But there was in Him no such thing as the fighting spirit of Job.
No doubt Job’s friends were exceedingly provoking men, and that was a thing that did provoke him; but still the Lord was the complete contrast of it all. And this is a very instructive thing to carry with us, as we read the Book of Job, and look at it more particularly than I can afford to do in the lectures that I now purpose – i.e., the reading of it privately, phrase by phrase, and word by word. I can only pretend to give a helpful sketch – time would not allow me to attempt more. But the contrast is very admirable between the best of men put into a position which was nevertheless nothing to be compared with the sufferings of Christ. And yet there Job was, an object of contempt in a measure and of deep suspicion to the three friends of his, who were not to be named with himself.
Well, now, Eliphaz comes to it; he says, “But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.” Yes, no doubt! it did not trouble Eliphaz very much. He was very sorry, no doubt – that is easily said. “Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?” That is a phrase very badly given indeed in our version. It consists only of two clauses. The true meaning of it is, “Is not thy fear, thy confidence” (i.e., “thy pious fear of God”)? “Is not thy fear [of God] thy confidence? thy hope, the uprightness of thy ways?” There are these two clauses, and only these two clauses in it, and that is the real connection. He is astonished that Job should forget his fear and also his hope which he formerly had. He could not speak about faith in redemption, because there was nothing at all of that; all the blessing for an Old Testament saint was in what was coming. But meanwhile the fear of God gave him confidence that God would take care of him, and there hope was something far better than what he said. “The uprightness of his ways” – yes, he was not a hypocrite; but that is a poor ground after all, when we think of a Christian. Why? Christ is our ground. It is not our upright ways that are our great spring of hope; it is not anything but Christ which gives us firm confidence before God. So that Eliphaz only speaks according to that mixture that was constant, unless God gave a revelation, in the Old Testament.
But there was always a mixing of their fidelity with the faith of the Christ that should come – the hope of Christ who was coming. That is the reason why there could not be certain peace. There are a good many people in that state now, they mix up their own personal fidelity with Christ; and what is the effect of it? The mixture of self with Christ has always a disintegrating effect – always injures and darkens the ground of our peace. I must have a peace entirely outside myself. I must have a confidence based upon Him who has no flaw at all, and who has done a work that gives me to be without a flaw before God. That is exactly what Christ has done.
Yet the time was not come to have that clear. But as the phrase stands in our version of 1611, I really could not pretend to understand it, and I very much doubt if anybody else could. In fact, it is very imperfectly rendered, and our translators, I am persuaded, did not understand it. That is not uncommon in the Book of Job, where are more of these misrenderings, I think, than in almost any other Book of Scripture. First of all, the language is very ancient. Of course, I know that the Germans say the contrary, but that is their fashion; they love to contradict what every true believer accepts; they love to unsettle all the foundations of the faith, and when that is done, they can say, ‘Away with the Bible!’ That is what is coming; that will be the end. So that they are not much help, whatever be their profession.
“Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished” – now he comes to his false comfort. “Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent?” Well, what about Abel? I am beginning early enough in the Bible, and I am beginning with a clear example in the Bible. “Who ever perished, being innocent?” Well, there was Abel that perished. We are speaking about perishing in this world; Job never had a question about the next; and they were looking not at the next world but at this. It is not at all a question of faith; it was a question of sight; they were drawing all their conclusions from what they saw. That is always a false ground for a believer. “Who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?” There it was again. Abel was righteous, and he was cut off by the unrighteous man; Abel was entirely guiltless; it was because Jehovah accepted Abel’s offering, that Cain could not endure it. So, therefore, he perished as far as life in this world is concerned; and that is the only question that is discussed in these passages of Job.
That was the great question between him and his friends. It was what was going on now; they drew from that that God had a very serious charge against Job. Nothing of the kind. God was the very One who looked with admiration on him; and brought out Satan’s earnest plan and subtle way to try and make Job speak against God – to curse God, as it is called – but he failed, and he had to be off, and he never appears again. No, it was through another way, the last that anybody could expect; it was through his friends that God did bring Job into – not cursing God – but cursing his own day, that he had been allowed to live; and if he had not been allowed to die before this came upon him, that God should not now take him away – that was Job’s complaint. He did not see what God was going to do; he had not yet learnt the lesson that God meant him to learn. Eliphaz shows in a very animated and striking manner what is a general modern principle – “Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.” But it is not an absolute rule. There are those who have sown and plowed iniquity too, and yet they have reaped a good deal in this world, and have laid up wealth and honour in the highest degree; they have become kings and emperors and all the rest of it. Well, that is the very thing. It was extremely short-sighted to talk as he did. “By the blast of God they perish” – sometimes. That is true, and Job never denied that, without making it an absolute truth or an absolute falsehood – “and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.”
Then he brings in the lions as a figure to show that, however strong and great and matchless a lion may be, still he may be broken – and so it is with men who play the lion in the world. And now he brings in a vision of the night. He was very serious. And God has often used visions of the night. It is true we have something a great deal better; we have the vision of the day; we have the great vision of Christ manifested in flesh; we have the vision of God showing Himself, and God speaking and acting for us in this world of sin and death. But he refers to what he saw or heard then. “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. Fear came upon me, and trembling” – it was evidently not enough of grace that he had; grace does not make people fear in this kind of way. It is judgment that does so, and this is what these good men are full of; they were full of the spirit of judgment.
And yet that is the very thing we are called not to do. “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” When there is evil found on the part of one who bears the name of the Lord we are bound to judge him; but there was no evil found on the part of Job at all. And when evil is not found we are bound not to judge; we are not to yield to our own thoughts; we are to wait upon God to make it all plain. Look at the way the Lord bore with Judas. He knew it, but they did not; and the Lord would not act upon this; it came out for them to judge. Well, this spirit, he says, passed before his face; “the hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof; an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying, Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker? Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly. How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth? They are destroyed from morning to evening; they perish for ever without any regarding it. Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom.” Well, all that is very true, but it did not apply to the case at all. It was a very good lesson for Eliphaz; how ever he may have learnt it is another thing. But there is a great deal more to learn, and that is what had to come out – that behind all the trouble, behind all the affliction, behind everything that can be brought by the malice of the devil upon God’s children in this world, there is a God of grace; and more than that, that God locks for the sense of grace to fill our hearts too; and that is what He accomplished with Job. How much more ought it to be in us, who have seen by faith the Son of God! who have learnt by faith what Jesus suffered that we might be brought into stable, everlasting and blessed relationship with God even now! That, of course, was beyond Job, or any in Old Testament times.
answered and said = replied and said. The idiom (App-6) requires that the first verb (where nothing has been as yet said) must be rendered according to the context: “spake”, “prayed”, “began”, “concluded”, &c. Here it = replied and said. See note on Deu 1:41.
Chapter 4
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? [He said,] Behold, you have instructed many people, you have strengthened weak hands. Your words have held up the person who was falling, and you have strengthened feeble knees. But now when it comes to you, you faint; it touches you, and you are troubled ( Job 4:3-5 ).
Uh-oh, those are nice words to hear, aren’t they? From a friend who has come to comfort you in all your misery. “Well, you know, great one you are. You were counseling and lifting up others. Your words held them up and all and you were going around doing this. But now it comes to you, look what happens, man, you faint. You go under.”
Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways? Remember, I pray thee, what innocent man ever perished? ( Job 4:6-7 )
You see, already he’s beginning to get the knife out. “Job, you’re not innocent. What innocent man ever perished?” Well, let me tell you this. Many innocent men have perished. There’s not really good logic to what Eliphaz is saying at all. In fact, the most innocent of all men was crucified. So there really isn’t sound wisdom in what Eliphaz is saying. It’s just the argumentations of men which often lack real wisdom.
Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same ( Job 4:8 ).
So Job, you’re just getting what you reap, what you sowed. You’re reaping it now. Those that sow iniquity and wickedness, they reap the same.
By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils they are consumed. The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken. The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lion’s whelps are scattered abroad ( Job 4:9-11 ).
Now, he said, he gets all mystic.
Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a little of it. In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep had fallen upon men, Fear came upon me, and trembling, it made all my bones shake. A spirit passed before my face; and the hair on my flesh stood up: And it stood still, but I could not discern the form of it: an image was before my eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying, Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his Maker? Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly ( Job 4:12-18 ):
So the guy comes off now super spiritual. Have you ever had those people come around super spiritual, you know, when you’re in trouble? And you know, visions and dreams and voices of angels, and spirits and all, and this oohh thing, you know. So here is old Eliphaz, “When other men were asleep, a deep sleep in the night, the spirit passed by. I could tell it was there. I couldn’t tell the form. Began to speak, you know. He charged his angels with folly.”
How much less in those that dwell in houses of clay ( Job 4:19 ),
Interesting and picturesque phrase of our body, a house of clay. But in the New Testament it said, “We have a treasure in this earthen vessel” ( 2Co 4:7 ). Same thing. In this house of clay there’s a fabulous treasure, for God is dwelling in this house of clay. “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you?” ( 1Co 3:16 ) And we have this glorious treasure, he said, in these earthen vessels. That the glory… God has put a lot of treasure in this dumb clay pot in order that the glory will always go to God, not to the clay pot. I’m just the vessel, but I have the capacity to contain the wealthiest treasure in the world, even God will dwell within my life. But it is ridiculous; it is ludicrous to put something of such great value in such a common container. Just a clay pot. But God has done it, that the glory will not be in the vessel but in the contents. Now, it is always pathetic and sad and tragic when the clay pot tries to get the glory and tries to draw attention and glory to itself, rather than to the One who dwells within doing the work. So I love this, it’s very picturesque. Men who dwell in houses of clay, talking about our body.
whose foundation is the dust, which are crushed before the moth? They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it. Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom ( Job 4:19-21 ). “
Job 4:1-5
Job 4
Introduction
ELIPHAZ’ FIRST SPEECH:
THE VAIN DOCTRINE OF ELIPHAZ OFFERS ONLY VAIN COMFORT
This chapter and the next record the first speech of Eliphaz, loaded with the false wisdom of his day, “It merely poured vinegar, rather than oil, upon Job’s wounds.” Out of the whirlwind, God Himself declared that Job’s friends, “Had not spoken of God the things that were right” (Job 42:7); and the very first word that God spoke out of the whirlwind blasted the long-winded diatribes of Job’s comforters, as “Darkening counsel by words without knowledge” (Job 38:2); and, therefore, the very worst mistake that anyone could possibly make in studying the speech of Eliphaz (or any of the rest of Job’s comforters) would be the acceptance of what he said as the truth. In the light of that fact, we shall limit our comments on those speeches. God Himself has already made the only comment that one needs in studying these speeches.
Job 4:1-5
ELIPHAZ BEGAN WITH A COMPLIMENT TO JOB
“Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said:
If one assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved?
But who can withhold himself from speaking?
Behold, thou hast instructed many,
And thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
Thy words have upholden him that was falling,
and thou hast made firm the feeble knees.
But now it is come unto thee, and thou faintest;
It toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.”
In short, Eliphaz here says, “Look, why don’t you take some of that good advice you have always been giving to other people? These words were a wound and not a comfort to Job. Eliphaz was totally ignorant of the unique suffering of Job, which was not due to his sins at all; and his self-righteous speech to Job must have sorely aggravated Job’s miseries. Eliphaz, apparently the oldest of Job’s comforters, and allowed by the others as the wisest of them, would go on and on with his “comfort.”
E.M. Zerr:
Job 4:1. It should be remembered all the way through the book that these friends of Job were not inspired men. They will speak much truth and also much error. The report of their speeches is inspired, but the speeches themselves will not be so. I shall comment as far as seems necessary on their language, but wish the reader to keep constantly in mind the fact that they spoke on their own authority and that their main theory was false. All through the conversations between them and Job their position was to the effect that God never afflicts a righteous man; that Job was afflicted; therefore, Job was not a righteous man at the time of their consideration. Such was the formula if stated logically and the argument throughout will be on that basis. Job denied the theory and offered as proof the known fact that good men as well as bad were seen to be afflicted sometimes. That being the case, it follows that afflictions are not proof that the victim was unrighteous, and therefore his afflictions must be attributed to some other cause. This statement of the respective positions of the three friends on one side and Job on the other will be referred to frequently and the reader is requested to take full notice of it for his information as the story proceeds.
Job 4:2. Eliphaz made a sort of apology for speaking to Job but declared that he just had to speak.
Job 4:3-4. This paragraph was to remind Job of the teaching he had given to others. The purpose was to present a basis for accusations against him; that he had no excuse for the sins that had brought his present distress upon him.
Job 4:5-6. The idea thrown at Job is that he did not have the courage to “take his own medicine.” Is not this thy fear, etc., was a taunt for Job meaning that such was all that his professions of confidence amounted to.
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 fourteen. In it each of the three friends speaks to Job, and is answered by him.
The first speaker, Eliphaz, commenced with a courteous apology for speaking at all, and yet a declaration that he could not withhold himself. After expressing surprise at Job’s complaint, and asking if his integrity ought not to be a sufficient guarantee of his safety, he proceeded to a general explanation of the problem of suffering, declaring it to be God’s punishment of wickedness, a harvest for which there must have been a previous sowing. He argued the truth of this by insisting on the fact of man’s sin in the sight of God. This had been revealed to him in a solitary hour, in the dead of night, by a mystic presence, a form. The inference of this is that Job’s suffering was the result of Job’s sin.
Shall Mortal Man Be More Just than God?
Job 4:1-21
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 was the sign of special sin. Jobs calamities, in the light of that thought, seemed to prove that he who had been considered a paragon of perfection was not what they had supposed. According to their philosophy, if only he would confess his sin, all would be well and the sun would shine again upon his path.
Eliphaz recounts a visitation, in a night vision, from the unseen world, which is described with marvelous power. Emphasis is laid on the infinite distance between God and man, and on the impossibility of a mortal being accounted just in the presence of divine purity. Of course the suggestion is that Job was suffering the penalty of sin which, though it had eluded human eyes, was naked and open before God. An angel seems dark against Gods pure light, and if an angel is deficient, how much more man!
Job 4:13-17
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 word here used for thought comes from a root signifying the boughs of a tree, and it has been rendered, “in the high places of the forests of thought.” The mind was wandering amazed; the labyrinthine way stretched out on every hand; the mind trod the dark pathways. (2) Fear anticipated the vision. Fear unbolts the bars of the room and admits the spectre to our presence. Our world is a house full of fears, because the Fall has removed us into the night, away from God.
II. Notice, next, the question. The ghost’s question touches very appropriately and comprehensively the whole topic also of the book of Job. (1) How large is the field of thought the message covers. It is the assertion of the purity and universality of Divine Providence. Rising from the small circle of interests, beyond the boundary of our time, the spirit suggests the sweep of Providence. (2) But the ghost’s question had another department-it was directed to the defectibility of man. Consider God, but consider thyself-thy littleness, thy narrowness, the limited sphere of thy vision. These two thoughts face each other with mute aspects of despair and power. This is all they will say: Man is weak, God is strong; God is omnipotent, man is helpless. (3) Hitherto the ghost only crushed; it was not the purpose of the spectre to do more. It asked of man the question which had its root only in the eternal and illimitable will. It referred all to God. But the message of the ghost, no doubt, included the following chapter, which must be read along with it.
III. The ghost is asking this question still: “Shall mortal man be more just than God?” Our age is baffled by the same perplexities which alarmed Job and his friends. It is from God Himself that man derives the terrors which scare him. The alarm, the fear, the awe, the moral misery-these are the assertion of the Divine within the soul. To the alarmed conscience now God comes by the Saviour, not by an apparition. The conscience is calmed amidst its highest terrors by the “blood of sprinkling” and by the night-breezes of Gethsemane. From the darkness of Calvary comes a consolation to dispel all evil spirits and all night fears.
E. Paxton Hood, Dark Sayings on a Harp, p. 261.
References: Job 4:15-17.-H. Melvill, Sermons on Less Prominent Facts, vol. ii., p. 60. Job 4:18.-E. Monro, Practical Sermons, vol. i., p. 1. Job 4-A. W. Momerie, Defects of Modern Christianity, p. 93. Job 4-5-S. Cox, Expositor, 1st series, vol. iv., p. 321; Ibid., Commentary on Job, p. 76. Job 5:6, Job 5:7.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 314.
CHAPTERS 4-5 The First Address of Eliphaz
1. He rebukes Job (Job 4:1-5)
2. The righteous are not cast off (Job 4:6-11)
3. An awe-inspiring vision (Job 4:12-21)
4. Experience and exhortation (Job 5:1-16)
5. Happy is the man whom God correcteth (Job 5:17-27)
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 lengthy speech of chapters 27-31 in which he gives a summary of what he contended for, namely, his own integrity, but the problem of his suffering remains unexplained.
The controversy is progressive. The thought which the three friends follow is that all suffering is the result of the justice of God and therefore punitive. For this principle they contend in a dogmatic way. As the controversy continues they become more harsh, suspicious and finally almost abusive. Jobs answers are first marked by despair; then hope enters in. In a measure he rises above his sufferings in answering his friends in a sharp way. He has the last word, but, as already stated, the mystery and problem of his suffering is not cleared up.
Eliphazs address is first in the series of controversies in which each maintains the punitive character of suffering and each answer given by Job (chapters 6-7; 9-10; 12-14) is filled with despair reflecting the state of his mind. After these preliminary remarks we briefly examine each address and Jobs answers.
Job 4:1-5. Eliphaz is the most dogmatic of the three friends and in his first address makes much of the greatness and justice of God. He had come to comfort; but little comfort could he bring to the afflicted one. He begins very politely. If one replied to thee (to Jobs lament) wouldst thou be grieved? But who can refrain from speaking? But at once he stabs Job to the heart.
Behold thou hast instructed many
And thou hast strengthened the weak hands
Thy words have upholden him that was stumbling;
And thou hast strengthened oft the feeble knees.
But now it is come upon thee and what grief?
Because it toucheth thee, thou art troubled.
Hath not thy piety been thy confidence,
And the perfection of thy ways thy hope?
All this was of course perfectly true. But he did not understand what Job needed in his suffering. The words of Eliphaz, the wise man from Teman, must have acted upon Job like an application of an irritant to a bleeding wound. What Job needed was tender sympathy, a good Samaritan, to pour oil and to give him wine. But Eliphaz reveals in this at once the harshness of his nature, the lack of discernment between the suffering of the righteous and the wicked, and finally he develops into a false accuser.
Job 4:7-11. Eliphaz had told Job he was a pious and righteous man (verse 6). And now he tells him: Remember I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? Or when were any righteous ones cut off? Only those that plow iniquity and sow wickedness reap what they have sown. God makes such to perish in His wrath. They are cut off even if they were like strong lions. What dogmatic logic! Job, if thou art righteous and suffering thus, then God is destitute of all justice; but if God is justice, then thou hast plowed iniquity and sown wickedness and all thy suffering is thine own harvest.
Job 4:12-21. The words which follow, describing a vision which Eliphaz had, are so sublime that we must quote them.
Now a thing was brought secretly to me,
Mine ear did catch a whispering thereof
In thoughts from visions of the night
When deep sleep falleth upon men:
Great fear came upon me, and trembling too,
It made my very bones to shake.
Then a spirit passed before my face;
The hair of my flesh stood up–
I stopped–but nothing could I then discern–
I looked, and lo, I saw a form
Silence: and then I heard a voice–
Shall mortal man be more just than God?
Shall a man be purer than his Maker?
In His own servants He trusteth not,
His angels He chargeth with folly.
How much more than they that dwell in houses of clay
Whose foundation is the dust,
Who are crushed as the moth!
From morning to evening are they smitten
They perish utterly, without any regarding it.
Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them?
They die and without wisdom.
This vision describes the greatness and majesty of God and of course is again true. That it was a real vision cannot be doubted. Mans punity, his utter nothingness, is thus made known in this vision. But did this meet the need of afflicted Job? It could not explain the reason of Jobs suffering. And something like this is suggested by these words–Job, you are just like other men before God; your present experience of affliction testifies to this. You thought you were right with God and that He blessed and protected you, but as He is holy and just, your suffering shows, you are reaping the consequences of your sin, as others do.
Job 5:1-16. He gives Job next a bit of experience, which is very true indeed. But the insinuation is wrong. He reasons from experience that suffering is the lot of the wicked, and therefore Job must belong to that class. The advice he gives to Job is in full keeping with his dogmatic assertion.
For man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upwards.
But as for me I will seek unto God,
And unto God commit my cause;
Who doeth great things and unsearchable,
Marvellous things without number.
But the advice, while good, is most subtle, for it is built upon wrong premises. He maintains his previous assertion that Job was an ungodly sinner, reaping what he had sown; with this in view he spoke these words.
Job 5:17-27. The first address of Eliphaz closes with a marvellous climax upon the same wrong premises, that Job had sinned, that he must seek God, but Job had not renounced God; he had not left Him. Otherwise this final utterance of Eliphaz tells out the gracious power of the Almighty in a most blessed way. Read these verses and get the help and comfort which they breathe.
Eliphaz
Eliphaz is a religious dogmatist whose dogmatism rests upon a mysterious and remarkable experience Job 4:12-16. Did a spirit ever pass before Job’s face? Did Job’s hair of his flesh ever stand up? Then let him be meek while one so superior as Eliphaz declares the causes of his misfortunes. Eliphaz says many true things (as do the others), and often rises into eloquence, but he remains hard and cruel, a dogmatist who must be heard because of one remarkable experience.
Eliphaz: Job 2:11, Job 15:1, Job 22:1, Job 42:9
answered: Job 3:1, Job 3:2, Job 6:1, Job 8:1
Reciprocal: Gen 36:15 – duke Teman Job 42:7 – Eliphaz Jer 49:7 – Teman
The Philosophy of Eliphaz
Job 4:1-21
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 the Temanite has opened his mouth to answer Job.
1. The effort of human wisdom to fathom the ways of God. Philosophy has a place where it can walk in all assurance, but there are realms where philosophy meets a maze and a mist which it cannot pierce.
The Word of God says:
“For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God” (1Co 2:11).
The wisdom of man must ever remain foolishness with God, because God moves in a realm where human wisdom cannot walk. Human eye hath not seen, human ear hath not heard, and into the human heart there hath not entered the things which God has prepared for those that love Him. Thus it is that “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1Co 2:14).
The Book of Ecclesiastes is God’s demonstration of the utter failure of human wisdom to comprehend and to know God. In reading various passages, we see set forth wisdom’s search, grief, failure, limitations, quest, and incomprehension. The conclusion is that over human wisdom, with all of its glitter and glow, there must finally be written the words of earth’s wisest man, “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, * * all is vanity.”
The first speech made by Eliphaz, will demonstrate how far short these men of mind came in their endeavor to fathom the cause and effect of Job’s dire misery.
God, Himself, as recorded in the last of the Book of Job, said, “The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.”
With the folly of human wisdom thus laid before us, and with God’s rebuke against the speeches of the three friends of Job, let us beware lest we quote from these speeches as though they were carrying the mind and purpose of God.
We must remember that under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit the Prophets and Seers of old were led to record not only the words spoken by false prophets, but also the words spoken by Satan himself. Let us, therefore, rightly divide the Word of Truth.
2. The revelation of human conceptions based upon human philosophy in the days of the ancients. The speech of Eliphaz, and of Bildad, and of Zophar, give us an insight to human lore as it existed in the days that were, doubtless, contemporary with Abraham. We are interested in these words, even though they do not rightly convey the mind of God. They do give us an insight into conceptions far back in history. These conceptions are not so far removed, either, from the carnal thought of our present day.
Job’s three friends took the position that sickness and suffering were always the result of sin on the part of the afflicted.
Sickness and trouble may come, to be sure, as a result of Divine chastisement, but more frequently they come as a result of man’s own folly. In the case of Job they came from neither of these, but in order that God might vindicate the faith and the fidelity of His trusted servant against the slander and calumny of Satan had they come.
I. THE PREFACE TO THE WORDS OF ELIPHAZ (Job 2:11-13)
When the three friends of Job heard of the evil that was come upon him, they came by appointment to mourn with Job, and to comfort him. That they mourned with him, we know; that they comforted him, we do not know.
We wonder if there is not a suggestion in all of this as to how we should not approach the sick and the afflicted.
1. They came with lamentations. When they lifted up their eyes afar off and knew not Job, they lifted up their voices and wept; they rent every one his mantle, they sprinkled dust upon their heads toward Heaven.
We doubt if the lifting up of the voice, and the crying, and the tearing of garment, and the throwing of dust, helped to comfort Job.
2. They came with amazement. The very attitude of these friends showed that they were startled, and amazed. They marveled that their friend of the old days could have come to such a plight. This did no more than to accentuate the grief of Job.
3. They came with condemnation. Not a word of tender sympathy and of loving helpfulness came from the lips of Eliphaz and his two comrades. They acknowledged at times Job’s former glory, but they only condemned him for his present wretchedness. What Job needed was compassion, and not carping criticism.
When we enter the presence of those bowed down with grief let us carry sunshine, and not shadows; kind words, and not bitter epithets. Let us hold high the star of hope, and not the blackness of despair. If a sense of sin and the retribution of sin lies like a pall over the head of the afflicted, let us tell them of a Saviour, plenteous in mercy, who will not always chide, nor hold wrath forever. Let us tell them that the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he hath committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
II. THE RECOGNITION OF JOB’S BENEVOLENT PAST (Job 4:1-4)
It was impossible for Eliphaz to fail to concede Job’s former greatness, and the glory of his former noble deeds. Men could not fail to recognize the wonderful past of Job. We wish you to note, however, that in the three good things said of Job by his friends, none of them compare to God’s estimate of him. God said, that Job was “perfect and upright,” “one that feared God, and eschewed evil.”
Let us notice the complimentary statements of Eliphaz.
1. “Thou hast instructed many.” This is an illuminating view of Job’s past history. He had not been satisfied merely in the directing of his own life, and of that of his own household. He had felt a responsibility toward the many. He had instructed them in the way that they should go. He had taught them to shun the paths of the wicked, and to walk in the ways of righteousness.
2. “Thou hast strengthened the weak hands.” When Job found a man down and out, he sought to lift him up. When he found one too weak to work out his own way, he strengthened him. In all of this Job was not living for himself, but for others.
3. “Thy words have upholden him that was falling.” When Job found one who was ready to give up the fight, he gave him encouragement; he spoke words of cheer: he showed him the way out of his difficulties. This is the spirit that should dominate every believer. One who is falling does not need a kick, he needs the helping hand; he does not need a curse, he needs words which invigorate and encourage.
4. “Thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.” There is a Scripture in Hebrews twelve, which says, “Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees.” Those who are running life’s “race need to be cheered along their way. They need to feel that the eyes of others are upon them, and that their arm is reached out to aid them.
III. THE REBUKE OF ELIPHAZ (Job 4:5)
Eliphaz is about to give Job a rebuke that has fangs to it. He tells him in effect that he who strengthened the weak hands of others, can not strengthen his own hands; that he who had upholden others, can not uphold himself; that he who had steadied other feeble knees, can not steady his own.
Behold, the heinousness of all of this. Eliphaz paraded Job’s former greatness for the express purpose of prodding him to despair.
Mark the words of Eliphaz in our key verse.
“But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.”
What is Eliphaz seeking to show? 1. He is showing a comforter, left comfortless. 2. He is showing an instructor, uninstructed. 3. He is showing one who strengthened others, lying prostrate and weak. 4. He is showing one who upheld the fallen, as utterly cast down.
We can almost see the mockers as they surrounded the Cross of Christ and railed upon Him, saying, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save.” This cry of the rabble against Christ is an epitome of what Eliphaz said to Job.
IV. THE IMPUTATION OF INSINCERITY (Job 4:6)
There are four things that Eliphaz impugned to Job.
1.”Is not this thy fear?”
2.”Is not this * * thy confidence?”
3.”Is not this * * thy hope?”
4.”Is not this * * the uprightness of thy ways?”
What Eliphaz evidently meant was that Job had lost his fear, his confidence, his hope, and his uprightness.
1. That Job’s fear of the Lord had waned. You know, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” This does not mean that we should be afraid of God, but that we should live in the fear of disobedience. This Job had always done. He had not sinned against his God in any willful way. Now that God had seemingly laid His hand upon Job, and judgment had fallen; Eliphaz insisted that Job had lost his fear of God, and had become a trembling culprit before God.
2. That Job’s confidence in God had vanished. Job, according to Eliphaz, had come to the place where his confidence was gone. He did not longer walk in the light of the Lord’s countenance. He had lost his trust.
3. That Job’s hope had taken wings, Hope is akin to faith, but Eliphaz insists that Job had no longer the “day star of coming good” shining in his sky.
4. That Job’s uprightness had forsaken him. He may once have boasted of being right, but now he was corrupt, and his way was perverse before God.
We do not doubt the sincerity of Eliphaz in thus impugning Job, but we do know that after the sore trial of Job had passed, that God said that Job was more right than was his accuser.
Of one thing we are certain, we should not judge others harshly, nor speak that which we do not know against any man.
Mark how Eliphaz put his charges into the form of a question. This is the way Satan did when he said to Eve, “Yea, hath God said?” Satan also sought to swerve Christ by putting a question mark over against His hallowed relationships with the Father.
V. THE CONDEMNATION OF THE GUILTLESS (Job 4:7-9)
1. A question asked. Eliphaz said, “Who ever perished, being innocent?” He also said, “Where were the righteous cut off?” We know, in spite of such a query, that many who are innocent have perished, that many who were righteous have been cut off. Satan, indeed, is always most active against the pure and the true. He centers his strategies against those who are right with God. If this were not so, why should he thus have set himself against Job.
Persecution has always made its swing against the innocent, and has always sought to slay the righteous. The Blood of the Lord as well as the blood of the martyrs is abundant proof of this.
2. A charge stated. Eliphaz now says, “They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.” These words carry strong weight, for God has plainly said, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
However, Eliphaz was making a statement that is ultimately true; true in the finished harvest; but not always true in seed sowing time. Eliphaz also stated only a onesided truth. God went on to say, “He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”
What Eliphaz failed to see was that Job’s affliction was only an eddy, a temporary period of testing. Eliphaz judged from effect back to cause. He contended that Job had plowed in iniquity, and had sown in wickedness, because his “harvest” of grief and penury pointed that way. He failed utterly to recognize that Satan was going about seeking to devour Job. He knew nothing of the fact that it was Job’s righteousness, and not his sin, that had brought on his day of anguish.
VI. THE STORY OF A SPECTRAL DREAM (Portion of Job 4:12-21)
Eliphaz now attempts to terrify Job (a man who was already at his wit’s end in suffering and grief), by relating a horrible dream.
1. The dream exploited. Eliphaz tells of “visions of the night.” He explains how fear possessed him, and how his bones began to shake. Then a spirit passed before him, and his hair stood up. All of this goes to prove the heartlessness of Job’s would-be comforters. It also proves the source from which they obtained their words.
For our part, we do not doubt but that these “comforters” were a part of Satan’s plan to effect, if possible, the shattering of the faith of Job. Who fails to see back of this dream of Eliphaz the weird passing of some demon form, purporting to be an angel from Heaven, and uttering a part truth, as Satan ever was wont.
There is nothing too vile for the wicked one to undertake against one of God’s holy ones.
2. The dream elucidated. Eliphaz dreamed that the spirit said, “Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his Maker? Behold, He put no trust in His servants; and His angels He charged with folly: how much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?”
These words and those that follow carry in them the devil’s own reminiscences of his past. Satan is charging God with guiltiness in dethroning and casting down no less a personality than himself; and of casting down with him many sinning angels. He says God could not trust His Heavenly servants, and “charged” His angels with folly; how much more will He not trust men who dwell in houses of clay upon the earth.
Satan knew the dream was false in any application to Job; for God was trusting Job, and Satan was maligning him.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Satan is still at work against God’s children:
“All over the vast extent of territory where the Soviet Government exercises sway, hundreds of churches are being closed down. In the Soviet Russia paper Trud (Labour) for December, 1929, it is stated with callous glee and satisfaction; ‘Religion is struggling for life like an animal which is hard pressed in the chase. It is being ruthlessly persecuted, and this will continue. In Moscow, there used to be 675 churches, now there are only 287. In 1928, throughout the U. S. S. R., 542 chapels, 445 churches, 59 synagogues, and 38 mosques were closed. By the 1st of January, 1930, we hope the number will have risen to 1,000 churches for the year. Bells tinkle in a melancholy way, but this policy will continue to be relentlessly pursued.’
All through 1930, this drastic closing down of churches has proceeded, in a determined attempt to stamp out organized religion. A new campaign for the extirpation of Bibles, Testaments, and all religious books has been entered upon. No longer are editions of the Bible permitted to be printed. No religious books are allowed in from outside countries. The ikons which served the Russian people in many cases as a kind of illustrated Bible have been destroyed by the cart-load.
ATHEISM: THE NATIONAL RELIGION
Atheism has been declared to be the national religion. Children are being instructed in the principles of Atheism, and are being formed into leagues to spy upon their parents, and to report if any of their friends show the slightest interest in the Gospel. They are rewarded with prizes in accordance with their success in thus acting as spies. Even personal torture is in progress. Not a few are shot for their faith, on the ground that to be a Christian is to be an anti-Communist. Many prominent churchmen have been confined in concentration camps on the shores of the White Sea, and on the slightest pretext, and often with no pretext at all, they have been made to lie down in shallow graves which they themselves have dug, and there freeze to death.”
FIRST SERIES OF THE DEBATE
The first series of the debate may be outlined as follows:
1. With Eliphaz (chaps. 4-7) a. Speech of Eliphaz (chaps. 4-5) b. Reply of (chaps. 6-7) 2. With Bildad (chaps. 8-10) a. Speech of Bildad (chap. 8) b. Reply of Job (chaps. 9-10) 3. With Zophar (chaps. 11-14) a. Speech of Zophar (chap. 11) b. Reply of Job (chaps. 12-14) It is thought the debate may have occupied several days, by which supposition some of the difficulties of the book are removed. In the first place, this leads to the opinion that the addresses were not impromptu, but that each speaker had time for the composition of his finished utterances in reply to the one who went before him.
In the second place, it throws light on the authorship of the book, because all the author had to do was to prepare the introductory and concluding historical statements, and then collect and arrange the speeches that had been actually made. These speeches would be preserved in the memory, and the
work of the editor would be rather that of a compiler than an original author, although he may have been as inspired for the one work as for the other.
The debate is occasioned by the complaints of Job recorded in chapter 3, and up to which time his friends had been silent.
ELIPHAZ AND JOB
Eliphaz commences with delicacy and candor, showing the inconsistency of a good mans repining under disciple, and advances the position that the truly righteous are never overthrown, while the wicked are always dealt with according to their sins. He establishes his position by a vision, and while he does not apply all he has said to Job, he yet leaves no doubt that it was intended for him, advising him to turn to God that he may find happiness and come to an honored old age.
Job replies justifying himself for complaining. He wishes he might die. His friends have disappointed him. They are a deceitful brook, but if they would use reasonable arguments he would listen to them. He describes his sufferings as one pursued of God, exhibiting much impatience.
BILDAD AND JOB
Bildad, who is provokingly severe, replies in chapter 8. Job is wicked and his children have been cut off for their wickedness. He exhorts him to repent and enforces his exhortations by the opinions of other men.
Jobs reply covers chapters 9-10, and being calm at first he acknowledges Gods supremacy and admits his own imperfection. The arguments of his friends, however, cannot be defended. He refers to his sorrows again and complains that God treats him as if he were a guilty man. His excitement grows until he again expresses the desire for death.
ZOPHAR AND JOB
Zophar, like Bildad, is somewhat violent. In his eyes Job has no sense, whom he rebukes for maintaining innocence before God. Zophars language is magnificent when he treats the supremacy of God, but like the others, he exhorts Job to acknowledge his sins that he may find prosperity and peace.
The debate is closed by Job, who groups his opponents and answers them as a whole. He is sarcastic. He follows their example in quoting a number of proverbial sayings. He attacks their motives. Their arguments were unsound. They were mocking God by defending His government in such a way as they had done. They had cause for fear and trembling in consequence of this. He wishes that he might present his case directly before God rather than the tribunal of man. He would ask of God only two things, that He would withdraw His hand from him and not overawe him by His great power. His calamities are overwhelming, and he concludes with a pathetic description of the frailty and uncertainty of human life.
QUESTIONS
To those using these lessons in classes, the author recommends that they employ each reference to any of the speeches as a basis for a question or questions on the text of the chapter as follows:
1. How does Eliphaz show delicacy of speech? How does he allude to the inconsistency of repining under discipline in the case of a good man? In which verses does he advance the position that the righteous are never overthrown? In which does he teach the opposite to this concerning the wicked? Can you give the details of his vision? Name the verses in chapter 5 in which he exhorts Job to turn to God. Name the verses in which he encourages him to do this.
2. How does Job express his desire for death in chapter 6? In what language does he express his feelings towards his friends? How is his impatience with God illustrated?
3. Give some illustrations of Bildads severity. In what verses of chapter 8 does he draw comparisons from earlier authorities?
4. Give some illustrations of Gods supremacy in chapter 9.
5. Give some illustrations of Jobs sense of imperfection. Give some illustrations of his increased excitement towards the close of chapter 10.
6. Why should Zophar be described as violent? Give two or three illustrations of Zophars magnificent description of God. In what language does he exhort Job to acknowledge his sins?
7. Indicate Jobs sarcasm in chapter 12. How does he attack the motives of his opponents and the unsoundness of their arguments? In what language does he warn them? Give the verse in chapter 13 where he appeals directly to God. What language in chapter 14 justifies the last sentence in the text of our lesson?
Job 4:1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered Jobs three friends reasoning on the principles of an equal providence, and supposing that affliction could happen only in the way of punishment, which necessarily inferred guilt, and thinking his complaints exceeded the bounds of decency, the eldest of them, Eliphaz, here interposes. He desires Job to recollect himself, not to give way to fruitless lamentations, but to put into practice those lessons he had often recommended to others. He reminds him of that, as he thought, infallible maxim, that those who reaped misery must have sowed iniquity, a maxim which he confirms by his own particular experience, and which he supposes was assented to by all mankind. And, in the display of this maxim, he throws in many of the particular circumstances attending Jobs calamity, intimating, that he must have been a great, though secret oppressor, and that, therefore, the breath of God had blasted him at once. He confirms also the truth of this principle by a revelation, which, he says, was made to him in a vision. He urges further, that supposing he, Job, had been guilty of no very atrocious crime; yet the common frailties of human nature were abundantly sufficient to account for any afflictions which it should please God to inflict on man; but takes care, as he proceeds, (as may be seen in the next chapter,) to let him know, they had a far worse opinion of him; representing him as wicked and foolish, and a proper object of divine wrath.
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 that Job, as a preacher, was a son of consolation.
Job 4:6. Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, the uprightness of thy ways, and thy hope? The reading of the Vulgate very much relieves this passage: Where is thy fear, thy fortitude, thy patience, and the perfection of thy ways?
Job 4:7. Who ever perished, being innocent? Does not God break the teeth of the lions, the wicked, who hunt and persecute them?
Job 4:9. By the blast of God they perish. Even lions are terrified with the louder storms of thunder, and their young ones are so frighted that they hide themselves; so in like manner shall the scourges and visitations of heaven appal the wicked. The constant reference to wild beasts and cattle designates the remotest antiquity of the book of Job.
Job 4:15. Then a spirit passed before my face. Hebrews ruach. The Messiah, the divine person, an angel, the wind. These are the comments of critics. The terrors of Eliphaz, and the erection of his hair, agree with the horror of great darkness which fell on Abraham, Gen 15:12. And with those of Job 42:6, who, on seeing God, abhorred himself in dust and ashes. They agree with those of Elijah, who on hearing the still small voice, wrapped himself in his mantle. Awful darkness, wind, and flame, are the wonted symbols of divine communications. Our conclusion is, to agree with those critics who are decided that the glorious Being who spake to Eliphaz was really the Messiah, who spake in times past by various symbols to the fathers.
REFLECTIONS.
Eliphaz having received the storm of anguish uttered by Job, reproaches him who had consoled others, for fainting when the bitter cup was handed to him. And though ignorant of Jobs real case, he uses great discrepancy of argument. Enlightened and holy people often form very different views of providence, because they view it from different points. Hence as they grow wiser, having discovered the errors of confident youth, they become more sober and often diffident in age. Both David and Asaph allow that their faith was shook for a moment, when they saw the wicked fat and prosperous; and they were saved from their mistake by viewing the end of the ungodly. So also we are taught in the case of the rich man and Lazarus. Here Eliphaz erred: he spake before he had seen the end of the Lord. Well, he was now come to a great school: for the angels themselves were looking on to learn.
The vision which Eliphaz introduces is highly instructive. It indicates that he had laboured under many doubts and scruples of a moral and religious nature: the vision therefore had in view the gracious objects of self knowledge, and the abasement of human pride. Shall a mortal be more righteous than his Maker? If God puts no trust in angels; if he takes them not into his council, nor reveals to them even that greatest of affairs, the time of the day of judgment; what is man that he should arrogate to himself a language which arraigns the justice of his Maker? He is lower than the angels, he dwells in a house of clay, he is subject to vanity and death. In this delicacy of language, sanctioned by a vision with which he had been indulged for his own humiliation, Eliphaz intimates to Job that, as a sinner, he should not make those loud and bitter complaints against the wise and holy strokes of providence.
Job 4:1-11. Eliphaz is provoked to reply, in spite of his unwillingness, by the tone of Jobs 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 Jobs 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 Gods 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 Gods behaviour to man, but only with mans behaviour to God. Eliphaz, therefore recalls Job to the fear of God, whence he has fallen by his unsuitable complaints. He should know (Job 4:7 that the righteous never perish, as do the wicked (Job 4:8). If God sends trouble to the righteous, then its function can be disciplinary only. This is the explanation of Jobs trouble which Eliphaz suggests. The friends at first assume that Job is not a wilful sinner such as God punishes, but one whom God chastens to purify from unintentional sin, and who by humbling himself before God, can be restored again to prosperity. The fundamental opposition between the friends and Job is that they invariably find the cause of misfortune in man, while Job, at least as concerns himself, finds it in God. In fact the one cause of suffering is for them in sin: suffering is either chastisement or punishment, according as it is visited upon the righteous or the unrighteous. The friends begin by making the more charitable supposition in Jobs case. In Job 4:7 f. Eliphaz guilelessly states his accepted theory as a fact of experience (cf. Act 28:4). The figure of the lion in Job 4:10 f. suggests both the strength and the violence of the wicked.
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 thought he would help Job by his remarkable knowledge and ability in speaking, but his diagnosis of Job’s ailment was totally wrong. He begins gently and kindly, “If one attempts a word with you, will you become weary? But who can withhold himself from speaking? (v.12). Then he rightly reminds Job that he (Job) had instructed many, he had strengthened weak hands, his words had supported those who stumbled, he had strengthened the feeble knees (vv.3-4). Since this was true, should Eliphaz not have given due weight to such excellent character on Job’s part, and expressed some genuine appreciation of it?
Instead, Eliphaz virtually thrust a sword into Job’s soul by criticising him for being depressed when trouble comes to him (v.5). Why did Eliphaz not do as he says Job had done in the past, strengthening the weak hands and upholding those who stumbled? It is easy for us to discern what we think is wrong in another without providing for him what might be for his help. He asks Job, “Is not your reverence your confidence?” Because Job had true reverence toward God he had confidence in regard to all his former life. Also he speaks of Job’s integrity (which he knew to be true) being his hope, that is, that Job had a right to look forward to the future because of his integrity.
ELIPHAZ INFERS THAT JOB HAD SINNED
(vv.7-11)
Eliphaz therefore comes quickly to the conclusion that Job must have badly compromised his reverence and his integrity, since he was now reduced to a pathetic state. He had absolutely no evidence that Job had sinned but he considered Job’s condition evidence enough that he must have sinned. He says, “Who ever perished being innocent?” But Job had not perished.” “Where were the upright ever cut off?” But Job was not cut off. God might indeed cut off a wicked man because he continued to refuse God’s reproofs, as Pro 29:1 tells us, “He who is often rebuked and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, And that without remedy.” But there was not the slightest indication that this applied to Job, whom God said was “a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil” (Job 1:8).
In verse 8 Eliphaz appeals to his own observation as though this was a final authority. He had seen that those who plough iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. This was true enough, but had he seen Job ploughing iniquity or sowing trouble? Certainly not! But he assumed that since Job was suffering trouble, he must have secretly engaged in evil. He does not even consider the difference between a believer and an unbeliever in the way in which God deals toward them. An unbeliever, because of his sin, may perish by the blast of God and by the breath of His anger. The strength of this evil may be compared to the roaring of a lion, but even the teeth of the young lions would be broken. Since Job could be compared to a lion in the previous strength of his wealth, now he was like a lion that perishes or the lioness losing her cubs. Eliphaz does not say this to encourage Job, however, but to imply that Job must have brought this calamity on himself by secret sin.
A SOUL-STIRRING VISION
(vv.12-21)
Eliphaz describes in most graphic language a night vision he had experienced in quiet secrecy that had a profound effect upon him. He was evidently in a deep sleep when he was shaken by a paroxysm of fear and trembling (v.14). A spirit passed before his face, causing his hair to stand up. A form was present, but undiscernible in its appearance. No doubt God intended by this to awaken the serious attention of Eliphaz, and He succeeded.
The vision was not the most vital thing here, but the message to which the vision drew attention. After a brief silence, Eliphaz heard a voice, “Can mortal man be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker? If He puts no trust in His servants, if he charges His angels with error, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before a moth? They are broken in pieces from morning to evening; they perish forever, with no one regarding. Does not their own excellence go away? They die, even without wisdom” (vv.17-21).
How true and applicable are such words to all of mankind, but Eliphaz was applying it only to Job, not to himself, because Eliphaz did not consider himself “crushed before a moth” and “broken in pieces.” This had happened to Job, so that Eliphaz considered his vision as applying directly to Job. But a vision or dream is intended to apply directly to the one who has it, and Eliphaz missed that one important fact. Similarly, we may hear good ministry which we think to be more applicable to others than to ourselves. Eliphaz could see that Job’s excellence was going away, but the fact was that the excellence of Eliphaz would go away too, as in the case of all men. It appeared to him that Job’s condition was such that he was about to die, but death would eventually claim Eliphaz also. Job did not die until years later, yet “it is appointed unto all men once to die” (Heb 9:27). If Eliphaz had learned the lesson God intended, he would not have spoken to Job the way he did.
1. Eliphaz’s first speech chs. 4-5
Eliphaz’s first speech has a symmetrical introverted (chiastic) structure that emphasizes the central section.
"A Opening remark (Job 4:2)
B Exhortation (Job 4:3-6)
C God’s dealings with men (Job 4:7-11)
D The revelation of truth (Job 4:12-21)
C’ God’s dealings with men (Job 5:1-16)
B’ Exhortation (Job 5:17-26)
A’ Closing remark (Job 5:27)" [Note: Andersen, p. 111.]
B. The First Cycle of Speeches between Job and His Three Friends chs. 4-14
The two soliloquies of Job (chs. 3 and 29-31) enclose three cycles of dialogue between Job and his three friends. Each cycle consists of speeches by Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, in that order, interspersed with Job’s reply to each address. This pattern continues through the first two cycles of speeches (chs. 4-14 and 15-21) but breaks down in the third when Zophar failed to continue the dialogue.
"Now the discussion begins. Soon it will become a debate, then a dispute; and the Lord will have to intervene to bring matters to a head." [Note: Wiersbe, p. 15. Cf. Hartley, pp. 38, 42.]
"There are two basic lines of interaction which run through Job-Job’s crying out to God and Job’s disputations with his three friends. The absence of the third speech of Zophar is consistent with the fact that each of the speeches of the three friends is progressively shorter in each cycle and that Job’s responses to each of the friends (which also are progressively shorter) are longer than the corresponding speech of the friends. This seems to signify Job’s verbal victory over Zophar and the other two friends. It is also indicative of the bankruptcy and futility of dialogue when both Job and the three friends assume the retribution dogma (which for the friends implies Job’s guilt and for Job implies God’s injustice). Consequently, this structural design marks a very gradual swing toward a focus on Job’s relationship and interaction with God in contrast to the earlier primary interaction between Job and his friends." [Note: Parsons, p. 140.]
Throughout the three cycles of speeches, Job’s friends did not change their position. They believed that God rewards the righteous and punishes sinners in this life, the theory of retribution. [Note: See Sarles, pp. 329-52.] They reasoned that all suffering is punishment for sin, and since Job was suffering, he was a sinner. They believed that what people experience depends on what they have done (cf. Joh 9:2). While this is true often, it is not the fundamental reason we experience what we do in life, as the Book of Job proceeds to reveal.
"At the heart of the debate between Job and his three friends is a question, Who is wise? Who has the correct insight into Job’s suffering? Both Job and the friends set themselves up as sources of wisdom and ridicule the wisdom of the other (Job 11:12; Job 12:1-3; Job 12:12; Job 13:12; Job 15:1-13). As we will see, this question, ’Who is wise?’ dominates the whole book." [Note: Longman and Dillard, p. 229.]
As the speeches unfolded, Job’s friends became increasingly vitriolic and specific about Job’s guilt. This was true of Eliphaz (cf. Job 5:8; ch. 15; Job 22:5-9), Bildad (cf. Job 8:6; ch. 18; Job 25:5-6), and Zophar (cf. Job 11:14; ch. 20).
In several of his speeches, Job affirmed his innocence of great sin (Job 6:10; Job 9:21; Job 16:17; Job 27:6). In his first five responses he charged God with afflicting him (Job 6:4; Job 9:17; Job 13:27; Job 16:12; Job 19:11). In each of his first three replies in the first cycle he asked, "Why?" (Job 7:20; Job 10:2; Job 13:24). In six of his speeches he longed to present his case to God (Job 9:3; Job 13:3; Job 16:21; Job 19:23; Job 23:4; Job 31:35).
Job’s friends each emphasized a different aspect of God’s character, though they all saw Him as a judge. Eliphaz pointed out the distance between God and man, His transcendence (Job 4:17-19; Job 15:14-16), and stressed God’s punishment of the wicked (Job 5:12-14). Bildad said God is just (Job 8:3), great (Job 25:2-3), and that He punishes only the wicked (Job 18:5-21). God’s inscrutability impressed Zophar (Job 11:7), who also stated that God punishes the wicked quickly (Job 20:23).
Eliphaz spoke to Job with the most respect and restraint, Bildad was more direct and less courteous, and Zophar was the most blunt and brutal. Eliphaz based his arguments on experience (Job 4:8; Job 5:3; Job 15:17), Bildad on tradition (Job 8:8-10), and Zophar on mere assumption or intuition (Job 20:1-5). Eliphaz viewed life as a mystic, Bildad as an attorney, and Zophar as a dogmatist. Bildad and Zophar picked up themes from Eliphaz’s speeches and echoed them with slightly variant emphases (cf. Job 5:9 and Job 22:12 with Job 8:3; Job 8:5; Job 22:2 a with Job 11:7; Job 11:11; Job 15:32-34 with Job 18:16 and Job 20:21-22; and Job 5:14 with Job 18:5-6; Job 18:18 and Job 20:26).
"A consideration of the dramatic framework of the book of Job offers great insight into the book’s message. The author penetrates deeply into the issue of human suffering by setting up many sharp contrasts. The interplay of these contrasts gives dramatic movement to the story.
"The basic tension is between one’s belief in God and one’s personal experience." [Note: Hartley, p. 43.]
Eliphaz’s rebuke of Job 4:1-6
Eliphaz began courteously but moved quickly to criticism. He commended Job for having encouraged others in the past, but rebuked him for not encouraging himself in the present. He did not offer encouragement to his distressed friend. It is unclear whether Job 4:6 is an ironic rebuke or a subtle reminder.
VII.
THE THINGS ELIPHAZ HAD SEEN
Job 4:1-21; Job 5:1-27
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 friends had always been that God, as righteous Governor of human life, gives felicity in proportion to obedience and appoints trouble in exact measure of disobedience. Job himself, indeed, must have held the same creed. We may imagine that while he was prosperous his friends had often spoken with him on this very point. They had congratulated him often on the wealth and happiness he enjoyed as an evidence of the great favour of the Almighty. In conversation they had remarked on case after case which seemed to prove, beyond the shadow of doubt, that if men reject God affliction and disaster invariably follow. Their idea of the scheme of things was very simple, and, on the whole, it had never come into serious questioning. Of course human justice, even when rudely administered, and the practice of private revenge helped to fulfil their theory of Divine government. If any serious crime was committed, those friendly to the injured person took up his cause and pursued the wrong doer to inflict retribution upon him. His dwelling was perhaps burned and his flocks dispersed, he himself driven into a kind of exile. The administration of law was rude, yet the unwritten code of the desert made the evildoer suffer and allowed the man of good character to enjoy life if he could. These facts went to sustain the belief that God was always regulating a mans happiness by his deserts. And beyond this, apart altogether from what was done by men, not a few accidents and calamities appeared to show Divine judgment against wrong. Then, as now, it might be said that avenging forces lurk in the lightning, the storm, the pestilence, forces which are directed against transgressors and cannot be evaded. Men would say, Yes, though one hide his crimes, though he escape for long the condemnation and punishment of his fellows, yet the hand of God will find him: and the prediction seemed always to be verified. Perhaps the stroke did not fall at once. Months might pass; years might pass; but the time came when they could affirm, Now righteousness has overtaken the offender; his crime is rewarded; his pride is brought low. And if, as happened occasionally, the flocks of a man who was in good reputation died of murrain, and his crops were blighted by the terrible hot wind of the desert, they could always say, Ah! we did not know all about him. No doubt if we could look into his private life we should see why this has befallen. So the barbarians of the island of Melita, when Paul had been shipwrecked there, seeing a viper fasten on his hand, said, “No doubt this is a murderer whom, though he hath escaped from the sea, yet justice suffereth not to live.”
Thoughts like these were in the minds of the three friends of Job, very confounding indeed, for they had never expected to shake their heads over him. They accordingly deserve credit for true sympathy, inasmuch as they refrained from saying anything that might hurt him. His grief was great, and it might be due to remorse. His unparalleled afflictions put him, as it were, in sanctuary from taunts or even questionings. He has done wrong, he has not been what we thought him, they said to themselves, but he is drinking to the bitter dregs a cup of retribution.
But when Job opened his mouth and spoke, their sympathy was dashed with pious horror. They had never in all their lives heard such words. He seemed to prove himself far worse than they could have imagined. He ought to have been meek and submissive. Some flaw there must have been: what was it? He should have confessed his sin instead of cursing life and reflecting on God. Their own silent suspicion, indeed, is the chief cause of his despair; but this they do not understand. Amazed they hear him; outraged, they take up the challenge he offers. One after another the three men reason with Job, from almost the same point of view, suggesting first and then insisting that he should acknowledge his fault and humble himself under the hand of a just and holy God.
Now, here is the motive of the long controversy which is the main subject of the poem. And, in tracing it, we are to see Job, although racked by pain and distraught by grief-sadly at disadvantage because he seems to be a living example of the truth of their ideas-rousing himself to the defence of his integrity and contending for that as the only grip he has of God. Advance after advance is made by the three, who gradually become more dogmatic as the controversy proceeds. Defence after defence is made by Job, who is driven to think himself challenged not only by his friends, but sometimes also by God Himself through them.
Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar agree in the opinion that Job has done evil and is suffering for it. The language they use and the arguments they bring forward are much alike. Yet a difference will be found in their way of speaking, and a vaguely suggested difference of character. Eliphaz gives us an impression of age and authority. When Job has ended his complaint, Eliphaz regards him with a disturbed and offended look. “How pitiful!” he seems to say; but also, “How dreadful, how unaccountable!” He desires to win Job to a right view of things by kindly counsel; but he talks pompously, and preaches too much from the high moral bench. Bildad, again, is a dry and composed person. He is less the man of experience than of tradition. He does not speak of discoveries made in the course of his own observation; but he has stored the sayings of the wise and reflected upon them. When a thing is cleverly said he is satisfied, and he cannot understand why his impressive statements should fail to convince and convert. He is a gentleman, like Eliphaz, and uses courtesy. At first he refrains from wounding Jobs feelings. Yet behind his politeness is the sense of superior wisdom-the wisdom of ages, and his own. He is certainly a harder man than Eliphaz. Lastly, Zophar is a blunt man with a decidedly rough, dictatorial style. He is impatient of the waste of words on a matter so plain, and prides himself on coming to the point. It is he who ventures to say definitely: “Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth,”-a cruel speech from any point of view. He is not so eloquent as Eliphaz, he has no air of a prophet. Compared with Bildad he is less argumentative. With all his sympathy-and he, too, is a friend-he shows an exasperation which he justifies by his zeal for the honour of God. The differences are delicate, but real, and evident even to our late criticism. In the authors day the characters would probably seem more distinctly contrasted than they appear to us. Still, it must be owned, each holds virtually the same position. One prevailing school of thought is represented and in each figure attacked.
It is not difficult to imagine three speakers differing far more from each other. For example, instead of Bildad we might have had a Persian full of the Zoroastrian ideas of two great powers, the Good Spirit, Ahuramazda, and the Evil Spirit, Ahriman. Such a one might have maintained that Job had given himself to the Evil Spirit, or that his revolt against providence would bring him under that destructive power and work his ruin. And then, instead of Zophar, one might have been set forward who maintained that good and evil make no difference, that all things come alike to all, that there is no God who cares for righteousness among men; assailing Jobs faith in a more dangerous way. But the writer has no such view of making a striking drama. His circle of vision is deliberately chosen. It is only what might appear to be true he allows his characters to advance. One hears the breathings of the same dogmatism in the three voices. All is said for the ordinary belief that can be said. And three different men reason with Job that it may be understood how popular, how deeply rooted is the notion which the whole book is meant to criticise and disprove. The dramatising is vague, not at all of our sharp, modern kind like that of Ibsen, throwing each figure into vivid contrast with every other. All the authors concern is to give full play to the theory which holds the ground and to show its incompatibility with the facts of human life, so that it may perish of its own hollowness.
Nevertheless the first address to Job is eloquent and poetically beautiful. No rude arguer is Eliphaz, but one of the golden-mouthed, mistaken in creed but not in heart, a man whom Job might well cherish as a friend.
I.
The first part of his speech extends to the eleventh verse. With the respect due to sorrow, putting aside the dismay caused by Jobs wild language, he asks, “If one essay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved?” It seems unpardonable to add to the sufferers misery by saying what he has in his mind; and yet he cannot refrain. “Who can withhold himself from speaking?” The state of Job is such that there must be thorough and very serious communication. Eliphaz reminds him of what he had been-an instructor of the ignorant, one who strengthened the weak, upheld the falling, confirmed the feeble. Was he not once so confident of himself, so resolute and helpful that fainting men found him a bulwark against despair? Should he have changed so completely? Should one like him take to fruitless wailings and complaints? “Now it cometh upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art confounded.” Eliphaz does not mean to taunt. It is in sorrow that he speaks, pointing out the contrast between what was and is. Where is the strong faith of former days? There is need for it, and Job ought to have it as his stay. “Is not thy piety thy confidence? Thy hope, is it not the integrity of thy ways?” Why does he not look back and take courage? Pious fear of God, if he allows himself to be guided by it, will not fail to lead him again into the light.
It is a friendly and sincere effort to make the champion of God serve himself of his own faith. The undercurrent of doubt is not allowed to appear. Eliphaz makes it a wonder that Job had dropped his claim on the Most High; and he proceeds in a tone of expostulation, amazed that a man who knew the way of the Almighty should fall into the miserable weakness of the worst evildoer. Poetically, yet firmly, the idea is introduced:-
Bethink thee now, whoever, being innocent, perished,
And where have the upright been destroyed
As I have seen, they who plough iniquity
And sow disaster reap the same.
By the wrath of God they perish,
By the storm of His wrath they are undone.
Roaring of the lion, voice of the growling lion,
Teeth of the young lions are broken;
The old lion perisheth for lack of prey,
The whelps of the lioness are scattered.
First among the things Eliphaz has seen is the fate of those violent evildoers who plough iniquity and sow disaster. But Job has not been like them and therefore has no need to fear the harvest of perdition. He is among those who are not finally cut off. In the tenth and eleventh verses (Job 4:10-11) the dispersion of a den of lions is the symbol of the fate of those who are hot in wickedness. As in some cave of the mountains an old lion and lioness with their whelps dwell securely, issuing forth at their will to seize the prey and make night dreadful with their growling, so those evildoers flourish for a time in hateful and malignant strength. But as on a sudden the hunters, finding the lions retreat, kill and scatter them, young and old, so the coalition of wicked men is broken up. The rapacity of wild desert tribes appears to be reflected in the figure here used. Eliphaz may be referring to some incident which had actually occurred.
II.
In the second division of his address he endeavours to bring home to Job a needed moral lesson by detailing a vision he once had and the oracle which came with it. The account of the apparition is couched in stately and impressive language. That chilling sense of fear which sometimes mingles with our dreams in the dead of night, the sensation of a presence that cannot be realised, something awful breathing over the face and making the flesh creep, an imagined voice falling solemnly on the ear, -all are vividly described. In the recollection of Eliphaz the circumstances of the vision are very clear, and the finest poetic skill is used in giving the whole solemn dream full justice and effect.
Now a word was secretly brought me,
Mine ear caught the whisper thereof;
In thoughts from visions of the night,
When deep sleep falls upon men,
A terror came on me, and trembling
Which thrilled my bones to the marrow.
Then a breath passed before my face,
The hairs of my body rose erect.
It stood still-its appearance I trace not.
An image is before mine eyes.
There was silence, and I heard a voice-
Shall man beside Eloah be righteous?
Or beside his Maker shall man be clean?
We are made to feel here how extraordinary the vision appeared to Eliphaz, and, at the same time, how far short he comes of the seers gift. For what is this apparition? Nothing but a vague creation of the dreaming mind. And what is the message? No new revelation, no discovery of an inspired soul. After all, only a fact quite familiar to pious thought. The dream oracle has been generally supposed to continue to the end of the chapter. But the question as to the righteousness of man and his cleanness beside God seems to be the whole of it, and the rest is Eliphazs comment or meditation upon it, his “thoughts from visions of the night.”
As to the oracle itself: while the words may certainly bear translating so as to imply a direct comparison between the righteousness of man and the righteousness of God, this is not required by the purpose of the writer, as Dr. A.B. Davidson has shown. In the form of a question it is impressively announced that with or beside the High God no weak man is righteous, no strong man pure; and this is sufficient, for the aim of Eliphaz is to show that troubles may justly come on Job, as on others, because all are by nature imperfect. No doubt the oracle might transcend the scope of the argument. Still the question has not been raised by Jobs criticism of providence, whether he reckons himself more just than God; and apart from that any comparison seems unnecessary, meeting no mood of human revolt of which Eliphaz has ever heard. The oracle, then, is practically of the nature of a truism, and, as such, agrees with the dream vision and the impalpable ghost, a dim presentation by the mind to itself of what a visitor from the higher world might be.
Shall any created being, inheritor of human defects, stand beside Eloah, clean in His sight? Impossible. For, however sincere and earnest any one may be toward God and in the service of men, he cannot pass the fallibility and imperfection of the creature. The thought thus solemnly announced, Eliphaz proceeds to amplify in a prophetic strain, which, however, does not rise above the level of good poetry.
“Behold, He putteth no trust in His servants.” Nothing that the best of them have to do is committed entirely to them; the supervision of Eloah is always maintained that their defects may not mar His purpose. “His angels He chargeth with error.” Even the heavenly spirits, if we are to trust Eliphaz, go astray; they are under a law of discipline and holy correction. In the Supreme Light they are judged and often found wanting. To credit this to a Divine oracle would be somewhat disconcerting to ordinary theological ideas. But the argument is clear enough, -If even the angelic servants of God require the constant supervision of His wisdom and their faults need His correction, much more do men whose bodies are “houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth”-that is, the moth which breeds corrupting worms. “From morning to evening they are destroyed”-in a single day their vigour and beauty pass into decay.
“Without observance they perish forever,” says Eliphaz. Clearly this is not a word of Divine prophecy. It would place man beneath the level of moral judgment, as a mere earth creature whose life and death are of no account even to God. Men go their way when a comrade falls, and soon forget. True enough. But “One higher than the highest regardeth.” The stupidity or insensibility of most men to spiritual things is in contrast to the attention and judgment of God.
The description of mans life on earth, its brevity and dissolution, on account of which he can never exalt himself as just and clean beside God, ends with words that may be translated thus:-
“Is not their cord torn asunder in them? They shall die, and not in wisdom.”
Here the tearing up of the tent cord or the breaking of the bow string is an image of the snapping of that chain of vital functions, the “silver cord,” on which the bodily life depends.
The argument of Eliphaz, so far, has been, first, that Job, as a pious man, should have kept his confidence in God, because he was not like those who plough iniquity and sow disaster and have no hope in Divine mercy; next, that before the Most High all are more or less unrighteous and impure, so that if Job suffers for defect, he is no exception, his afflictions are not to be wondered at. And this carries the further thought that he ought to be conscious of fault and humble himself under the Divine hand. Just at this point Eliphaz comes at last within sight of the right way to find Jobs heart and conscience. The corrective discipline which all need was safe ground to take with one who could not have denied in the last resort that he, too, had
“Sins of will, Defects of doubt and taints of blood.”
This strain of argument, however, closes, Eliphaz having much in his mind which has not found expression and is of serious import.
III.
The speaker sees that Job is impatient of the sufferings which make life appear useless to him. But suppose he appealed to the saints-holy ones, or angels-to take his part, would that be of any use? In his cry from the depth he had shown resentment and hasty passion. These do not insure, they do not deserve help. The “holy ones” would not respond to a man so unreasonable and indignant. On the contrary, “resentment slayeth the foolish man, passion killeth the silly.” What Job had said in his outcry only tended to bring on him the fatal stroke of God. Having caught at this idea, Eliphaz proceeds in a manner rather surprising. He has been shocked by Jobs bitter words. The horror he felt returns upon him, and he falls into a very singular and inconsiderate strain of remark. He does not, indeed, identify his old friend with the foolish man whose destruction he proceeds to paint. But an instance has occurred to him-a bit of his large experience-of one who behaved in a godless, irrational way and suffered for it; and for Jobs warning, because he needs to take home the lesson of the catastrophe, Eliphaz details the story. Forgetting the circumstances of his friend, utterly forgetting that the man lying before him has lost all his children and that robbers have swallowed his substance, absorbed in his own reminiscence to the exclusion of every other thought, Eliphaz goes deliberately through a whole roll of disasters so like Jobs that every word is a poisoned arrow:-
Plead then: will any one answer thee;
And to which of the holy ones wilt thou turn?
Nay, resentment killeth the fool,
And hasty indignation slayeth the silly,
I myself have seen a godless fool take root;
Yet straightway I cursed his habitation:-
His children are far from succour,
They are crushed in the gate without deliverer
While the hungry eats up his harvest
And snatches it even out of the thorns,
And the snare gapes for their substance.
The desolation he saw come suddenly, even when the impious man had just taken root as founder of a family, Eliphaz declares to be a curse from the Most High; and he describes it with much force. Upon the children of the household disaster falls at the gate or place of judgment; there is no one to plead for them, because the father is marked for the vengeance of God. Predatory tribes from the desert devour first the crops in the remoter fields, and then those protected by the thorn hedge near the homestead. The man had been an oppressor; now those he had oppressed are under no restraint and all he has is swallowed up without redress.
So much for the third attempt to convict Job and bring him to confession: It is a bolt shot apparently at a venture, yet it strikes where it must wound to the quick. Here, however, made aware, perhaps by a look of anguish or a sudden gesture, that he has gone too far, Eliphaz draws back. To the general dogma that affliction is the lot of every human being he returns, that the sting may be taken out of his words:-
“For disaster cometh not forth from the dust,
And out of the ground trouble springeth not;
But man is born unto trouble
As the sparks fly upward.”
By this vague piece of moralising, which sheds no light on anything, Eliphaz betrays himself. He shows that he is not anxious to get at the root of the matter. The whole subject of pain and calamity is external to him, not a part of his own experience. He would speak very differently if he were himself deprived of all his possessions and laid low in trouble. As it is he can turn glibly from one thought to another, as if it mattered not which fits the case. In fact, as he advances and retreats we discover that he is feeling his way, aiming first at one thing, then at another, in the hope that this or that random arrow may hit the mark. No man is just beside God. Job is like the rest, crushed before the moth. Job has spoken passionately, in wild resentment. Is he then among the foolish whose habitation is cursed? But again, lest that should not be true, the speaker falls back on the common lot of men born to trouble-why, God alone can tell. Afterwards he makes another suggestion. Is not God He who frustrates the devices of the crafty and confounds the cunning, so that they grope in the blaze of noon as if it were night? If the other explanations did not apply to Jobs condition, perhaps this would. At all events something might be said by way of answer that would give an inkling of the truth. At last the comparatively kind and vague explanation is offered, that Job suffers from the chastening of the Lord, who, though He afflicts, is also ready to heal. Glancing at all possibilities which occur to him, Eliphaz leaves the afflicted man to accept that which happens to come home.
IV.
Eloquence, literary skill, sincerity, mark the close of this address. It is the argument of a man who is anxious to bring his friend to a right frame of mind so that his latter days may be peace. “As for me,” he says, hinting what Job should do, “I would turn to God, and set my expectation upon the Highest.” Then he proceeds to give his thoughts on Divine providence. Unsearchable, wonderful are the doings of God. He is the Rain-giver for the thirsty fields and desert pastures. Among men, too, He makes manifest His power, exalting those who are lowly, and restoring the joy of the mourners. Crafty men, who plot to make their own way, oppose His sovereign power in vain. They are stricken as if with blindness. Out of their hand the helpless are delivered, and hope is restored to the feeble. Has Job been crafty? Has he been in secret a plotter against the peace of men? Is it for this reason God has cast him down? Let him repent, and he shall yet be saved. For
Happy is the man whom Eloah correcteth,
Therefore spurn not thou the chastening of Shaddai.
For He maketh sore and bindeth up;
He smiteth, but His hands make whole.
In six straits He will deliver thee;
In seven also shall not evil touch thee.
In famine He will rescue thee from death,
And in war from the power of the sword.
When the tongue smiteth thou shalt be hid;
Nor shalt thou fear when desolation cometh.
At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh;
And of the beasts of the earth shalt not be afraid.
For with the stones of the field shall be thy covenant;
With thee shall the beasts of the field be at peace.
So shalt thou find that thy tent is secure,
And surveying thy homestead thou shalt miss nothing
Thou shalt find that thy seed are many,
And thy offspring like the grass of the earth;
Thou shalt come to thy grave with white hair,
As a ripe shock of corn is carried home in its season.
Behold! This we have searched out: thus it is.
Hear it, and, thou, consider it for thyself!
Fine, indeed, as dramatic poetry; but is it not, as reasoning, incoherent? The author does not mean it to be convincing. He who is chastened and receives the chastening may not be saved in those six troubles, yea seven. There is more of dream than fact. Eliphaz is apparently right in everything, as Dillmann says; but right only on the surface. He has seen that they who plough iniquity and sow disaster reap the same. He has seen a vision of the night, and received a message; a sign of Gods favour that almost made him a prophet. He has seen a fool or impious man taking root, but was not deceived; he knew what would be the end, and took upon him to curse judicially the doomed homestead. He has seen the crafty confounded. He has seen the man whom God corrected, who received his chastisement with submission, rescued and restored to honour. “Lo, this we have searched out,” he says; “it is even thus.” But the piety and orthodoxy of the good Eliphaz do not save him from blunders at every turn. And to the clearing of Jobs position he offers no suggestion of value. What does he say to throw light on the condition of a believing, earnest servant of the Almighty who is always poor, always afflicted, who meets disappointment after disappointment, and is pursued by sorrow and disaster even to the grave? The religion of Eliphaz is made for well-to-do people like himself, and such only. If it were true that, because all are sinful before God, affliction and pain are punishments of sin and a man is happy in receiving this Divine correction, why is Eliphaz himself not lying like Job upon a heap of ashes, racked with the torment of disease? Good orthodox prosperous man, he thinks himself a prophet, but he is none. Were he tried like Job he would be as unreasonable and passionate, as wild in his declamation against life, as eager for death.
Useless in religion is all mere talk that only skims the surface, however often the terms of it may be repeated, however widely they find acceptance. The creed that breaks down at any point is no creed for a rational being. Infidelity in our day is very much the consequence of crude notions about God that contradict each other, notions of the atonement, of the meaning of suffering, of the future life, that are incoherent, childish, of no practical weight. People think they have a firm grasp of the truth; but when circumstances occur which are at variance with their preconceived ideas, they turn away from religion, or their religion makes the facts of life appear worse for them. It is the result of insufficient thought. Research must go deeper, must return with new zeal to the study of Scripture and the life of Christ. Gods revelation in providence and Christianity is one. It has a profound coherency, the stamp and evidence of its truth. The rigidity of natural law has its meaning for us in our study of the spiritual life.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb,
Or substance might be called that shadow seemed.”
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying,
which are crushed before the moth?
and the robber swalloweth up their substance.
Und sieh, ihm fehlt kein theures Haupt.2
And, lo! no precious head is missed.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary