Job 4:1-7

1 Then Eliphaz (the) Temanite answered, and said,

2 If we begin to speak to thee, in hap thou shalt take it heavily (perhaps thou shalt take it personally); but who may hold (back) a word (once) conceived?

3 Lo! thou hast taught full many men, and thou hast strengthened hands made faint.

4 Thy words have confirmed men doubting, and thou hast comforted knees trembling. (Thy words have confirmed men who were doubting, and thou hast strengthened trembling knees.)

5 But now a wound is come upon thee, and thou hast failed, (or fainted); it hath touched thee, and thou art troubled.

6 Where is thy dread (Where is thy fear/Where is thy reverence), thy strength, and thy patience, and the perfection of thy ways?

7 I beseech thee, have thou mind, what innocent man perished ever, either when rightful men were done away? (I beseech thee, remember, did an innocent person ever perished, or were the upright ever done away with?)

Job 4:1-7 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.