Job 4:5

5 But now when trouble strikes, you lose heart. You are terrified when it touches you.

Job 4:5 Meaning and Commentary

Job 4:5

But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest
The affliction and evil that he feared, ( Job 3:25 ) ; or rather the same trials and afflictions were come upon him as had been on those whom he had instructed and reproved, and whose hands and hearts he had strengthened and comforted; and yet now thou thyself "faintest", or "art weary" F26, or art bore down and sinkest under the burden, and bearest it very impatiently F1, quite contrary to the advice given to others; and therefore it was concluded he could not be a virtuous, honest, and upright man at heart, only in show and appearance. Bolducius renders the words, "God cometh unto thee", or "thy God cometh"; very wrongly, though the sense may be the same; God cometh and visits thee by laying his afflicting hand upon thee:

it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled;
suggesting that it was but a touch, a slight one, a light affliction; thereby lessening Job's calamity and distress, or making little and light of it, and aggravating his impatience under it, that for such a trial as this he should be so excessively troubled, his passions should be so violently moved, and he be thrown into so much disorder and confusion, and be impatient beyond measure; no bounds being set to his grief, and the expressions of it; yea, even to be in the utmost consternation and amazement, as the word F2 signifies.


FOOTNOTES:

F26 Defatigaris, Cocceius.
F1 (alt) aegre tulisti, Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus; "impatienter fers", Schmidt, Michaelis, Piscator.
F2 (lhbt) "consternaris", Mercerus, Cocceius, Schmidt, Michaelis, Schultens.

Job 4:5 In-Context

3 “In the past you have encouraged many people; you have strengthened those who were weak.
4 Your words have supported those who were falling; you encouraged those with shaky knees.
5 But now when trouble strikes, you lose heart. You are terrified when it touches you.
6 Doesn’t your reverence for God give you confidence? Doesn’t your life of integrity give you hope?
7 “Stop and think! Do the innocent die? When have the upright been destroyed?
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