Job 4 · ESV Study Bible

Eliphaz Speaks: The Innocent Prosper

JOB 4 [†]Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

2 “If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?

Yet who can keep from speaking?

3 Behold, you have instructed many,

and you have a strengthened the weak hands.

4 Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,

and you have a made firm the feeble knees.

5 But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;

it touches you, and you are dismayed.

6 b Is not your fear of God [1] your c confidence,

and the integrity of your ways your hope?

7[^] “Remember: d who that was innocent ever perished?

Or where were the upright cut off?

8[†] As I have seen, those who e plow iniquity

and sow trouble reap the same.

9 By f the breath of God they perish,

and by g the blast of his anger they are consumed.

10[†] The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion,

h the teeth of the young lions are broken.

11 The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,

and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

12[†] “Now a word was brought to me stealthily;

my ear received i the whisper of it.

13 Amid j thoughts from k visions of the night,

when k deep sleep falls on men,

14 dread came upon me, and trembling,

which made all my bones shake.

15[^] A spirit glided past my face;

the hair of my flesh stood up.

16 It stood still,

but I could not discern its appearance.

l A form was before my eyes;

there was silence, then I heard m a voice:

17[^][†] n ‘Can mortal man be in the right before [2] God?

Can a man be pure before his Maker?

18 Even in his servants o he puts no trust,

and his angels he charges with error;

19[†] how much more those who dwell in houses of p clay,

whose foundation is in q the dust,

who are crushed like r the moth.

20 Between s morning and evening they are beaten to pieces;

they perish forever t without anyone regarding it.

21 Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them,

u do they not die, and that without wisdom?’

JOB—NOTE ON 4:1–14:22 First Cycle. Although Eliphaz begins this round of dialogues with a fairly gentle tone (4:3–4), sympathy for Job rapidly fades. The character of Job is consistently probed under the assumption that his moral failures account for his present plight (by Eliphaz in chs. 4–5, Bildad in ch. 8, and Zophar in ch. 11). Job responds in kind: bewildered by his suffering, he angrily argues (chs. 6–7), legally disputes (chs. 9–10), and resolutely rejects (chs. 12–14) the counsel of his friends.

JOB—NOTE ON 4:1–25:6 The Friends and Job: Can Job Be Right before God? The main section of the book contains the dialogue between Job and the three friends that opens with Job’s initial lament (3:1–16) and then alternates between speeches by each friend (Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar) and responses by Job. The dialogue consists of two full cycles containing a speech by each friend and response by Job (4:1–14:22; 15:1–21:34). Job appears to cut off Bildad in the midst of his third speech (22:1–25:6), which is followed by a lengthy section of Job’s final argument (26:1–31:40). In his opening response, Eliphaz initiates what will become a recurring question and theme for the speeches of the friends: “Can mortal man be in the right before God?” (4:17; see also 9:2; 15:14; 25:4). The friends assume that both Job’s circumstances and his response to them are indications that he is in the wrong before God and needs to acknowledge and repent of his sin. However, Job will insist not only that he is not guilty of some hidden iniquity but that it is God who ultimately has allowed and governed his circumstances.

JOB—NOTE ON 4:1–5:27 Eliphaz: Can Mortal Man Be in the Right before God? Eliphaz opens his first response with a brief affirmation of Job’s character (4:2–4) before asserting what he knows to be true about how God works (4:7–5:16) and articulating the core of the friends’ argument: in light of Job’s circumstance, he cannot be in the right before God (see 4:17). In light of his confidence that his description and inferences are correct, Eliphaz suggests that Job accept his circumstance as God’s reproof in order that he might be delivered (5:17–27). When the dialogue with the three friends is finished, Elihu will suggest something quite similar to Eliphaz, even if he takes a slightly different approach (see 32:1–37:24; and 36:7–21 in particular).

JOB—NOTE ON 4:17–18 The opening questions of v. 17 present an interpretative difficulty: what do they mean and what is their function in the dialogue? Are they Eliphaz’s way of reminding Job that all creation has been affected by sin? Are they Job’s questions (see note on vv. 12–21) asking whether it is possible to live in such a manner as to receive only good things from God? Neither of these possibilities appears fully satisfying: the first because Eliphaz would then be arguing that what has happened to Job is a consequence that should be expected by all people, including himself; the second because it is not the purpose of Job’s lament to ask whether it would have been possible so to live as to avoid his circumstances. A literary key for answering the question is found in the function of the prologue. The content of the heavenly dialogues (1:8; 2:3) and the comments of the narrator (1:1–5, 22; 2:10) place the evaluation of Job’s character at the forefront for interpreting the book as a whole. In the dialogue of chs. 3–31, the friends are seeking to judge the nature of the very thing to which the reader has been made privy: God’s evaluation of Job. The tension of the dialogue begins with Eliphaz’s vision, which functions as a response to Job’s initial lament (3:1–26): How can you presume that you are in the right? Eliphaz argues that if even angels are found at fault before God, then the fact of compounded and devastating suffering should lead Job, a mortal man, to seek God for help rather than presuming the right to protest against him (see 5:8).

JOB—NOTE ON 4:8 those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. At the opening of his speech, Eliphaz states the dictum that the friends will relentlessly defend throughout the dialogue. For them this proverb is unequivocal—it is true in all circumstances in the same way. Character can be judged by circumstances.

JOB—NOTE ON 4:19–21 Eliphaz follows the opening question to Job with an extended description to illustrate his greater-to-lesser argument. If angels are held guilty (see v. 18), then how much more so are mortals who dwell in houses of clay (v. 19), who perish forever without anyone regarding it (v. 20), and who die … without wisdom (v. 21)?

JOB—NOTE ON 4:10–11 Typical of wisdom exponents, Eliphaz turns to nature to demonstrate his truth. Even an animal as mighty as the lion is incapable of altering the operation of natural law to protect its own young. A man like Job cannot alter the function of moral law any more than the lion can alter natural law.