Job 4:1-11

1 Then Eliphaz the Thaemanite answered and said,

2 Hast thou been often spoken to in distress? but who shall endure the force of thy words?

3 For whereas thou hast instructed many, and hast strengthened the hands of the weak one,

4 and hast supported the failing with words, and hast imparted courage to feeble knees.

5 Yet now pain has come upon thee, and touched thee, thou art troubled.

6 Is not thy fear in folly, thy hope also, and the mischief of thy way?

7 Remember then who has perished, being pure? or when were the true-hearted utterly destroyed?

8 Accordingly as I have seen men ploughing barren places, and they that sow them will reap sorrows for themselves.

9 They shall perish by the command of the Lord, and shall be utterly consumed by the breath of his wrath.

10 The strength of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the exulting cry of serpents are quenched.

11 The old lion has perished for want of food, and the lions' whelps have forsaken one another.

Job 4:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 4

Job's sore afflictions, and his behaviour under them, laid the foundation of a dispute between him and his three friends, which begins in this chapter, and is carried on to the end of the thirty first; when Elihu starts up as a moderator between them, and the controversy is at last decided by God himself. Eliphaz first enters the list with Job, Job 4:1; introduces what he had to say in a preface, with some show of tenderness, friendship, and respect, Job 4:2; observes his former conduct in his prosperity, by instructing many, strengthening weak hands and feeble knees, and supporting stumbling and falling ones, Job 4:3,4; with what view all this is observed may be easily seen, since he immediately takes notice of his present behaviour, so different from the former, Job 4:5; and insults his profession of faith and hope in God, and fear of him, Job 4:6; and suggests that he was a bad man, and an hypocrite; and which he grounds upon this supposition, that no good man was ever destroyed by the Lord; for the truth of which he appeals to Job himself, Job 4:7; and confirms it by his own experience and observation, Job 4:8-11; and strengthens it by a vision he had in the night, in which the holiness and justice of God, and the mean and low condition of men, are declared, Job 4:12-21; and therefore it was wrong in Job to insinuate any injustice in God or in his providence, and a piece of weakness and folly to contend with him.