The first speech of Eliphaz
4
📚Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, 4:1 Apparently Eliphaz was the leading spokesman for the three friends of Job. He speaks first, and he uses “we” in Job 5:27, indicating that the other two shared his opinions. Also he has far more to say than the other two combined. Eliphaz came from Teman, a place later renowned for wisdom (Jer 49:7; Oba 8-9). According to Elihu, who appears toward the end of the book, these three friends are old and wise (Job 32:6; 34:2). Certainly much of what they say is true and good, and some of their remarks and words of advice would no doubt have fit the case of many people. But, for the most part, their words were not appropriate for Job’s case. Actually they misjudged Job altogether and could bring no answer to his problem and no comfort to his heart. It will take some wisdom on our part to discern what is true and good in the speeches of these friends, and what is mistaken.⚜
2 📚“If one attempts a word with you, will you be grieved? But who can keep himself from speaking?
3 📚Look, you have instructed many, and have strengthened weak hands.
4 📚Your words have held up him who was falling, and you have strengthened feeble knees.
5 📚But now it has come on you, and you faint. It touches you, and you are troubled.
6 📚Is not your fear of God your confidence, your hope, and the uprightness of your ways?
4:2-6 Eliphaz begins very politely. He sees Job’s great suffering and does not wish to add to it. But he feels some things must be said even though they may cause Job more pain. Eliphaz soon reveals that he has strong doubts about Job’s character and piety. Job, he says, taught others but could not teach himself. And if Job’s piety is real why has he abandoned all hope and confidence? He does not yet say that Job’s piety is not real (as he does later – Job 15:4-6; 22:4-6). But plainly he doubts it.⚜
7 📚“Please remember, who ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the righteous ever cut off?
8 📚As I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
9 📚By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils they are consumed.
4:7-9 Eliphaz reveals here what he believes is God’s principle of governing the world – if God sends great calamities it is because of great guilt on the part of those who suffer them. Job’s ten children were not innocent and upright, Eliphaz thinks, and that is why they were destroyed. He is willing for the time to give Job the benefit of the doubt – since Job hasn’t perished yet he may not have sinned so greatly as to be worthy of destruction.
Are Eliphaz’s views on the matter completely correct? They are not. It is true that God sometimes sends calamities on the wicked and destroys them (Gen 6:5-7; 19:24-25; 2 Chron 36:15-16). But in natural disasters such as cyclones and earthquakes, and in times of war, the innocent and righteous sometimes die together with the guilty and wicked. And troubles, losses, and difficulties come to both good people and bad. Indeed sometimes the wicked have less trouble on this earth than the righteous and die at ease in ripe old age (see Job’s remarks at Job 21:7-13).⚜
10 📚The roaring of the lion and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken.
11 📚The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
4:10-11 God knows how to deal with those who are cruel and bloodthirsty as lions. Eliphaz does not yet apply this directly to Job and still may be doubting whether Job is like that. He becomes more clear in his charges against Job in his second and third speeches (chapters 15 and 22).⚜
12 📚“Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it.
13 📚In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
14 📚Fear and trembling came on me, which made all my bones shake.
15 📚Then a spirit passed before my face. The hair of my body stood up.
16 📚It stood still, but I could not discern its shape. An image was before my eyes. There was silence; and I heard a voice, saying,
4:12-16 In this frightening and mysterious experience that came to him Eliphaz believes God sent him a message and that this message fits Job’s case exactly. But it did not. Just because a man thinks he has been inspired by God does not make it so.⚜
17 📚‘Can a mortal be more just than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?
18 📚Consider, he puts no trust in his servants, and he charges his angels with error.
19 📚How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth?
20 📚They are destroyed from morning to evening; they perish forever without anyone regarding it.
21 📚Does not their abundance which is among them go away? They die, still without wisdom.’
4:17-21 The message Eliphaz gives Job is this: all are weak and sinful, including Job, and when punishment comes because of wrongdoing no one should be surprised or try to defend himself (Job 5:1). He implies that all that has happened to Job and his family was because of some sins or other they had committed. Eliphaz believes that Job in his opening remarks (chapter 3) should have confessed his sin and begged God for mercy, instead of raging against his fate and complaining about God’s dealings with him. Eliphaz is right when he says all men are sinners and that God punishes the wicked. Many verses of the Bible teach the same thing. But he is wrong in thinking that what has happened to Job was God’s punishment for his sins.⚜