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Texts -- Job 4:1-8 (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.

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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...
  • 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...
  • 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...
  • 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...
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