Chapter Four

The first half of Eliphaz’s speech. 1–2. Introduction to the speech. 3–6. Motivation for speaking. 7–21. Eliphaz’s main theme: on earth only sinners are punished.

Job 4:1. And Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: Job 4:2. If we attempt to speak a word to you, will it be burdensome to you? Yet who can refrain from speaking! Eliphaz’s speech, in his conviction, will not only fail to comfort Job but will further grieve him. But however unpleasant the truth may be, it must be spoken. And Eliphaz, apologizing for the grief he brings to Job, cannot restrain himself from speaking.

Job 4:3. Behold, you have instructed many and supported the drooping hands, Job 4:4. your words have restored the falling, and you strengthened the bending knees. Job 4:5. But now it has come upon you, and you are exhausted; it has touched you, and you are dismayed. The first drop of bitterness in Eliphaz’s speech is a reproach to Job for his despair. This is all the more uncharacteristic of him, since he used to comfort and encourage people with words of comfort, and support those with “drooping hands” and “bending knees” — and those completely “falling,” that is, weak in spirit (2 Sam 4:1; Isa 13:7). One who encouraged others cannot encourage himself (verse 5), Eliphaz notes ironically (compare Matt 27:42).

Job 4:6. Should not your godliness be your hope, and the integrity of your ways be your confidence? Reproaching Job’s despair, Eliphaz sees in it sufficient reason and motivation to address the sufferer with the question: “Is not your hope in your piety? Is not your confidence in the integrity of your ways?” In Eliphaz’s view, Job’s murmuring and complaints stem from his assurance of his own piety. He murmurs and complains because he, a man of piety and integrity, considers himself unjustly punished. This false, in Eliphaz’s judgment, thought of Job, compelling him to address his friend in this way, predetermines his main position from the outset. In contrast to Job, Eliphaz asserts that misfortunes befall only sinners; consequently, Job, having been subjected to calamities, cannot consider himself pious, innocently punished.

Job 4:7. Remember, did any innocent ever perish, and where have the righteous ever been destroyed? Job 4:8. For as I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow evil reap the same; Job 4:9. from the breath of God they perish and from the spirit of his wrath they vanish. In confirmation of the justice of his view, Eliphaz first appeals to the experience and knowledge of Job himself, who has apparently never witnessed the ruin of a righteous person in the course of his life (verse 7); and second, to his own experience. The latter testifies that only those are punished who prepared the ground for evil (“those who plow iniquity”) and commit it (“sow evil”; compare Hos 10:13). The comparison of evildoers to farmers in their deeds suggests a corresponding image for expressing the thought of their punishment by divine wrath. The plants of evildoers perish, like the labor of farmers, from the scorching wind (verse 9; compare Jer 4:11; Ezek 17:10; Hos 13:15).

Job 4:10. The roar of the lion and the voice of the fierce lion are silenced, and the teeth of the young lions are broken; Job 4:11. the mighty lion perishes without prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. The destruction of an entire family of lions represents, in the opinion of exegetes, an allusion to the fate of Job’s household. Job 4:12-21. To lend greater conviction and authority to his view, Eliphaz appeals to a revelation that came to him, first describing the form in which it was communicated (verse 12), then the time of its reception (verse 13), the state he experienced in the process (verses 14–16), and finally its very content (verses 17–21).

Job 4:12. And behold, a word was brought to me secretly, and my ear received a whisper of it. Job 4:13. Amid troubled thoughts from night visions, when sleep falls upon men, The word communicated in the form of a whisper (Hebrew “semetz,” rendered in the Synodal text as “a whisper,” which Symmachus translates as “ψιθυρισμός,” and the Vulgate as “sussurus” — “a whisper”), which penetrated Job’s soul apart from his consciousness and will (“the word was brought to me secretly,” literally: “a word crept to me”), was received by Eliphaz “amid troubled thoughts from night visions.” The Hebrew “bishifim,” which corresponds to the Synodal “amid troubled thoughts,” properly means “branches” or “branches of thought,” in relation to mental activity “tangled thoughts,” “confusion of thought” (Dillmann). The revelation came at the time when Eliphaz awoke with his soul troubled by restless thoughts.

Job 4:14. terror seized me and trembling, and shook all my bones. Job 4:15. And a spirit passed before me; the hair of my flesh stood up. Job 4:16. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance — only a form was before my eyes; there was a still whisper, and I heard a voice: The immediate precursors of the revelation — the “spirit” that passed before Eliphaz — the wind (the “still whisper” of verse 16, compare 1 Sam 19:11; Acts 2:2) and the appearance of a mysterious being whose appearance could not be discerned — caused the usual feelings of terror and fear experienced in visions (Gen 15:12; Dan 7:15).

Job 4:17. Is a man more righteous than God? Is a mortal more pure than his Maker? Job 4:18. Behold, he puts no trust even in his servants, and finds fault with his angels: Job 4:19. how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is dust, who are destroyed more quickly than the moth. Job 4:20. Between morning and evening they are broken; they perish forever without anyone heeding it. Job 4:21. Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom. To the question asked by the one who appeared: “Is a man more righteous than God?” (“mezlach” — “before God” — see Num 32:22) he himself gives a negative answer. In the eyes of God, even angels are impure and imperfect, much more so man. He is sinful. The mark of his sinfulness is, first, the brevity of existence (“between morning and evening... they are broken,” compare Ps 89:6; “destroyed more quickly than the moth,” compare Job 13:28; Isa 50:9), and second, death in the state of ignorance: “they die, and that without wisdom,” that is, without the fear of God (Job 28:28). Both of these characteristics — the transience of life and death without being made wise — are attributed, chiefly, even exclusively, to sinners alone (Job 15:32; Ps 89:6-9; compare Ps 90:1; Prov 5:13).