Job 4:12-19

12 “A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it.
13 Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on people,
14 fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake.
15 A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end.
16 It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice:
17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker?
18 If God places no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error,
19 how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth!

Job 4:12-19 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.

Cross References 17

  • 1. ver 17-21; Job 32:13; Jeremiah 9:23
  • 2. Job 26:14
  • 3. Job 33:14
  • 4. Job 33:15
  • 5. Job 21:6; Psalms 48:6; Psalms 55:5; Psalms 119:120,161; Jeremiah 5:22; Habakkuk 3:16; S 2 Corinthians 7:15
  • 6. Jeremiah 23:9; Daniel 10:8; Habakkuk 3:16
  • 7. Daniel 5:6; Daniel 7:15,28; Daniel 10:8; Matthew 14:26
  • 8. S 1 Kings 19:12
  • 9. Job 9:2; Job 13:18; Psalms 143:2
  • 10. Job 8:3; Job 10:3; Job 14:4; Job 15:14; Job 21:14; Job 25:4; Job 31:15; Job 32:22; Job 35:10; Job 36:3,13; Job 37:23; Job 40:19; Psalms 18:26; Psalms 51:5; Psalms 119:73; Proverbs 20:9; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Isaiah 51:13; Malachi 2:10; Acts 17:24
  • 11. Hebrews 1:14
  • 12. Job 15:15; Job 21:22; Job 25:5
  • 13. Job 10:9; Job 33:6; Isaiah 64:8; Romans 9:21; 2 Corinthians 4:7; 2 Corinthians 5:1
  • 14. Job 22:16
  • 15. S Genesis 2:7
  • 16. Job 5:4
  • 17. Job 7:17; Job 15:16; Job 17:14; Job 25:6; Psalms 22:6; Isaiah 41:14
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