Job 4

Job 4:1-21.

FIRST

SPEECH OF

ELIPHAZ.

1. Eliphaz--the mildest of Job's three accusers. The greatness of

Job's calamities, his complaints against God, and the opinion that

calamities are proofs of guilt, led the three to doubt Job's integrity.

2. If we assay to commune--Rather, two questions, "May we attempt a

word with thee? Wilt thou be grieved at it?" Even pious friends often

count that only a touch which we feel as a wound.

3. weak hands--

Isa 35:3;

2Sa 4:1.

5. thou art troubled--rather, "unhinged," hast lost thy self-command

(1Th 3:3).

6. Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, &c.--Does thy fear, thy

confidence, come to nothing? Does it come only to this, that thou

faintest now? Rather, by transposition, "Is not thy fear (of God) thy

hope? and the uprightness of thy ways thy confidence? If so, bethink

thee, who ever perished being innocent?"

[UMBREIT]. But

Lu 13:2, 3

shows that, though there is a retributive divine government even

in this life, yet we cannot judge by the mere outward

appearance. "One event is outwardly to the righteous and to the

wicked"

(Ec 9:2);

but yet we must take it on trust, that God deals righteously even now

(Ps 37:25;

Isa 33:16).

Judge not by a part, but by the whole of a godly man's life, and by his

end, even here

(Jas 5:11).

The one and the same outward event is altogether a different thing in

its inward bearings on the godly and on the ungodly even here. Even

prosperity, much more calamity, is a punishment to the wicked

(Pr 1:32).

Trials are chastisements for their good (to the righteous)

(Ps 119:67, 71, 75).

See Preface on the

DESIGN of this book (see

Introduction).

8. they that plough iniquity . . . reap the

same--

(Pr 22:8;

Ho 8:7; 10:13;

Ga 6:7, 8).

9. breath of his nostrils--God's anger; a figure from the fiery

winds of the East

(Job 1:16;

Isa 5:25;

Ps 18:8, 15).

10, 11. lion--that is, wicked men, upon whom Eliphaz wished to show

that calamities come in spite of their various resources, just as

destruction comes on the lion in spite of his strength

(Ps 58:6;

2Ti 4:17).

Five different Hebrew terms here occur for "lion." The raging of

the lion (the tearer), and the roaring of the bellowing

lion and the teeth of the young lions, not whelps,

but grown up enough to hunt for prey. The strong lion, the

whelps of the lioness (not the stout lion, as in

English Version) [BARNES and UMBREIT]. The various phases of wickedness are expressed

be hinted at by the lion, lioness, and whelps. The one verb, "are

broken," does not suit both subjects; therefore, supply "the roaring of

the bellowing lion is silenced." The strong lion dies of want at

last, and the whelps, torn from the mother, are scattered, and the race

becomes extinct.

12. a thing--Hebrew, a "word." Eliphaz confirms his view by a

divine declaration which was secretly and unexpectedly imparted to him.

a little--literally, "a whisper"; implying the still silence

around, and that more was conveyed than articulate words could utter

(Job 26:14;

2Co 12:4).

13. In thoughts from the visions of the night--[So WINER]. While

revolving night visions previously made to him

(Da 2:29).

Rather, "In my manifold (Hebrew, divided) thoughts,

before the visions of the night commenced"; therefore not a

delusive dream

(Ps 4:4)

[UMBREIT].

deep sleep--

(Ge 2:21; 15:12).

16. It stood still--At first the apparition glides before Eliphaz,

then stands still, but with that shadowy indistinctness of form which

creates such an impression of awe; a gentle murmur: not

(English Version): there was silence; for in

1Ki 19:12,

the voice, as opposed to the previous storm, denotes a gentle, still

murmur.

17. mortal man . . . a man--Two Hebrew words for "man" are used;

the first implying his feebleness; the second his strength. Whether

feeble or strong, man is not righteous before God.

more just than God . . . more pure than his maker--But this would be

self-evident without an oracle.

18. folly--Imperfection is to be attributed to the angels, in

comparison with Him. The holiness of some of them had given way

(2Pe 2:4),

and at best is but the holiness of a creature. Folly is the want of

moral consideration [UMBREIT].

19. houses of clay--

(2Co 5:1).

Houses made of sun-dried clay bricks are common in the East; they are

easily washed away

(Mt 7:27).

Man's foundation is this dust

(Ge 3:19).

before the moth--rather, "as before the moth," which devours a garment

(Job 13:28;

Ps 39:11;

Isa 50:9).

Man, who cannot, in a physical point of view, stand before the very

moth, surely cannot, in a moral, stand before God.

20. from morning to evening--unceasingly; or, better, between the

morning and evening of one short day (so

Ex 18:14;

Isa 38:12).

They are destroyed--better, "they would be destroyed," if God

withdrew His loving protection. Therefore man must not think to be

holy before God, but to draw holiness and all things else from God

(Job 4:17).

21. their excellency--

(Ps 39:11; 146:4;

1Co 13:8).

But UMBREIT, by an Oriental image from a bow,

useless because unstrung: "Their nerve, or string would

be torn away." MICHAELIS, better in accordance with

Job 4:19,

makes the allusion be to the cords of a tabernacle taken down

(Isa 33:20).

they die, even without wisdom--rather, "They would perish, yet not

according to wisdom," but according to arbitrary choice, if God were

not infinitely wise and holy. The design of the spirit is to show that

the continued existence of weak man proves the inconceivable wisdom and

holiness of God, which alone save man from ruin

[UMBREIT].

BENGEL shows

from Scripture that God's holiness (Hebrew, kadosh) comprehends all

His excellencies and attributes. DE WETTE loses the scope, in

explaining it, of the shortness of man's life, contrasted with the

angels "before they have attained to wisdom."