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Texts -- Job 4:1-18 (NET)

Context
Eliphaz Begins to Speak
4:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered : 4:2 “If someone should attempt a word with you, will you be impatient ? But who can refrain from speaking ? 4:3 Look , you have instructed many ; you have strengthened feeble hands . 4:4 Your words have supported those who stumbled , and you have strengthened the knees that gave way . 4:5 But now the same thing comes to you, and you are discouraged ; it strikes you, and you are terrified . 4:6 Is not your piety your confidence , and your blameless ways your hope ? 4:7 Call to mind now : Who , being innocent , ever perished ? And where were upright people ever destroyed ? 4:8 Even as I have seen , those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same. 4:9 By the breath of God they perish , and by the blast of his anger they are consumed . 4:10 There is the roaring of the lion and the growling of the young lion , but the teeth of the young lions are broken . 4:11 The mighty lion perishes for lack of prey , and the cubs of the lioness are scattered .
Ungodly Complainers Provoke God’s Wrath
4:12 “Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear caught a whisper of it. 4:13 In the troubling thoughts of the dreams in the night when a deep sleep falls on men , 4:14 a trembling gripped me– and a terror !– and made all my bones shake . 4:15 Then a breath of air passes by my face ; it makes the hair of my flesh stand up . 4:16 It stands still , but I cannot recognize its appearance ; an image is before my eyes , and I hear a murmuring voice : 4:17 “Is a mortal man righteous before God ? Or a man pure before his Creator ? 4:18 If God puts no trust in his servants and attributes folly to his angels ,

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Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

  • What this book is all about has been the subject of considerable debate. Many people think God gave it to us to provide His answer to the age-old problem of suffering. In particular, many believe it is in the Bible to help us...
  • I. Prologue chs. 1-2A. Job's character 1:1-5B. Job's calamities 1:6-2:101. The first test 1:6-222. The second test 2:1-10C. Job's comforters 2:11-13II. The dialogue concerning the basis of the divine-human relationship 3:1-42...
  • The writer composed the prologue and epilogue of this book in prose narrative and the main body (3:1-42:6) in poetry. The prologue and epilogue form a frame around the main emphasis of the revelation, the poetic section, and ...
  • The two soliloquies of Job (chs. 3 and 29-31) enclose three cycles of dialogue between Job and his three friends. Each cycle consists of speeches by Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar in that order interspersed with Job's reply to e...
  • Eliphaz's first speech has a symmetrical introverted (chiastic) structure that emphasizes the central section."AOpening remark (4:2)BExhortation (4:3-6)CGod's dealings with men (4:7-11)DThe revelation of truth (4:12-21)C'God'...
  • Eliphaz began courteously but moved quickly to criticism. He commended Job for having encouraged others in the past but rebuked him for not encouraging himself in the present. He did not offer encouragement to his distressed ...
  • This is one of the clearest expressions of Eliphaz's view of why people suffer and his view of the basis for the divine human relationship (v. 7). He believed good people always win and the bad always lose. He was asserting t...
  • Eliphaz's authority was a vision (v. 12). It seems that his vision was not a revelation from God for the following reasons. He did not say that it was from the Lord. God normally identified revelations from Himself as such to...
  • Bildad agreed with Eliphaz that God was paying Job back for some sin he had committed, and he believed God would show Job mercy if he confessed that sin. However, Bildad built his conclusions on a slightly different foundatio...
  • Job began his response to Bildad by acknowledging that much of what his friends had said was true (v. 2). Many of Job's speeches began with sarcasm or irony. He then turned to a question that Eliphaz had raised earlier (4:17)...
  • Perhaps Eliphaz wanted to scare Job into repenting with these words. As before, Eliphaz's authority was his own observations (v. 17; cf. 4:8). To this he added the wisdom of their ancestors (vv. 18-19; cf. 8:8). Probably vers...
  • Job said his visitors had said nothing new to help him (v. 1). He picked up Eliphaz's word (translated "mischief"in 15:35) and used it to describe him and his companions as "sorry"comforters (v. 2). Eliphaz's words had not br...
  • The brevity of this speech reflects the fact that Job's companions were running out of arguments. Job's responses were at least silencing them if not convincing them.Bildad seems to have abandoned the earlier theme of the wic...
  • Elihu began by voicing his respect for Job's three friends (vv. 6-10). They were older than he, and for this reason he said he had refrained from speaking until now. However he had become convinced that advancing age does not...
  • "Obadiah's discussion nicely interweaves the themes of divine intervention and human instrumentality."21v. 8 The repetition of "declares the Lord"(cf. v. 4) reemphasizes Yahweh's initiative in this judgment. "That day"points ...
  • 13:1 Luke linked this incident chronologically with the preceding one. Apparently messengers from Jerusalem had just arrived with news about Pilate's act. This is the usual force of the Greek verb apaggello, translated "repor...
  • The writer now focused on the issue of sacrifice."The argument moves a stage further as the author turns specifically to what Christ has done. The sacrifices of the old covenant were ineffectual. But in strong contrast Christ...
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