Job 4:1-10

1 Then Eliphaz, the Themanite, answered, and said:

2 If we begin to speak to thee, perhaps thou wilt take it ill; but who can withhold the words he hath conceived?

3 Behold thou hast taught many, and thou hast strengthened the weary hands:

4 Thy words have confirmed them that were staggering, and thou hast strengthened the trembling knees:

5 But now the scourge is come upon thee, and thou faintest: It hath touched thee, and thou art troubled.

6 Where is thy fear, thy fortitude, thy patience, and the perfection of thy ways?

7 Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent? or when were the just destroyed?

8 On the contrary, I have seen those who work iniquity, and sow sorrows, and reap them,

9 Perishing by the blast of God, and consumed by the spirit of his wrath.

10 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of the whelps of lions, are broken:

Job 4:1-10 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.