“Job's three companions-Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had come to him to sympathize with him and comfort him (Job 2:11). No doubt their motives were pure, their intentions honest. Their weeklong silence expressed their sympathy as well as their bewilderment and grief. Then when Job broke the silence w... [ Continue Reading ]
"IF ONE VENTURES. WORD WITH YOU, WILL YOU BECOME IMPATIENT?": In light of Job's outburst in chapter 3, Eliphaz wonders if Job will lash out at him for anything that he says. In addition, is Job physically and psychologically able to bear his advice? "BUT WHO CAN REFRAIN FROM SPEAKING?": He fears an... [ Continue Reading ]
"BEHOLD YOU HAVE ADMONISHED MANY, AND YOU HAVE STRENGTHENED WEAK HANDS, YOUR WORDS HAVE HELPED THE TOTTERING TO STAND, AND YOU HAVE STRENGTHENED FEEBLE KNEES, BUT NOW IT HAS COME TO YOU, AND YOU ARE IMPATIENT" Eliphaz commends Job for helping and comforting others in the past, but in this complime... [ Continue Reading ]
"IS NOT YOUR FEAR OF GOD YOUR CONFIDENCE, AND THE INTEGRITY OF YOUR WAYS YOUR HOPE?": "Literally, your 'fear' of God should sustain you. He should have confidence in his past faithfulness to God. After all, Job's piety and integrity are not being questioned---yet" _(Strauss p. 38)._ This is either.... [ Continue Reading ]
"REMEMBER, NOW, WHO EVER PERISHED BEING INNOCENT? OR WHERE WERE THE UPRIGHT DESTROYED?": This is his theory on suffering. Whoever heard of an innocent man suffering? Yet this theory is false. Abel was innocent and he was killed (Genesis 4). The Israelites were God's people, yet they suffered in bond... [ Continue Reading ]
"ACCORDING TO WHAT. HAVE SEEN, THOSE WHO PLOW INIQUITY AND THOSE WHO SOW TROUBLE HARVEST IT": Eliphaz will often base his arguments on experience. Three times he will say, "I have seen" (Job 4:8; Job 5:3; Job 15:17). It is true that what. person sows he will reap (Hosea 10:13; Galatians 6:7). But El... [ Continue Reading ]
The idea here might be that though lions are strong, their teeth can be broken, and they can perish. In like manner, Job, who used to be strong, was broken and his children lost.... [ Continue Reading ]
"NOW. WORD WAS BROUGHT TO ME STEALTHILY": Eliphaz now seeks to strengthen his case by relating. dream that he has allegedly experienced. In this dream. voice whispered to him (verse 17). Here is the claim that God spoke to him in. still, quiet voice. Jackson rightly notes that this section reveals t... [ Continue Reading ]
Here we have. good description of what people call. nightmare. Such an experience was so frightening that he was shaking all over and his hair stood up on end (Job 4:14-15). Then he claims that. spirit passed by, actually stood still (Job 4:16), and then spoke to him. While this all sounds impressiv... [ Continue Reading ]
"CAN MANKIND BE JUST BEFORE GOD? CAN. MAN BE PURE BEFORE HIS MAKER?" Supposedly this is what the "spirit" said to him in the above dream. Eliphaz's argument appears to be that no man can stand pure before God, including Job. Therefore, Job must have sinned in some way to deserve such suffering. "No... [ Continue Reading ]
"HE PUTS NOT TRUST EVEN IN HIS SERVANTS; AND AGAINST HIS ANGELS HE CHARGES ERROR" This indicates that Job and his friends understood the Biblical truth that some angels had sinned in the past (2 Peter 2:4).... [ Continue Reading ]
"HOW MUCH MORE THOSE WHO DWELL IN HOUSES OF CLAY, WHOSE FOUNDATION IS IN THE DUST, WHO ARE CRUSHED BEFORE THE MOTH!" If God even charges the angels with error, how much more moral man. "Man's mortality is pictured in several ways: He lives in mere perishable houses made of clay and built on dust,... [ Continue Reading ]
"THEY DIE, YET WITHOUT WISDOM": "Job obviously is not. wise person according to Eliphaz" _(Bible Knowledge Comm. p. 726)._ "To die without ever finding wisdom was the ultimate disaster for. wise man of the East" _(Zuck p. 33)._... [ Continue Reading ]