Job 4 · The Lantern

Eliphaz: The Innocent Prosper

And Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

What does Eliphaz say? "Have you often spoken in your suffering?" By "suffering" the Scripture may signify "sin," as it states, "Under his tongue is mischief." Eliphaz did not say, Have you committed any evil action? Eliphaz asks, "Have you spoken?" Indeed the fame of Job's life shone everywhere, and many still testified to Job's virtue.

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? It has been already declared above, what there is set forth in the interpretation of these names. Therefore, because we are in haste to reach the unexamined parts, we forbear to unfold again what has been already delivered.

The friends of Job who came to console him, who had kept silence up to now because the acuteness of his pain, after Job had finished undertook the boldness to speak. First Eliphaz the Temanite speaks. He had not taken Job's words in the spirit in which they were spoken.

If one ventures a word to you, will you be weary? But who can hold back from words?

Look, you have instructed many, and you would strengthen slack hands.

Your words would raise up the stumbling, and you would brace bending knees.

But now it comes to you, and you are weary; it touches you, and you are dismayed.

Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the blamelessness of your ways your hope?

While Scripture's spirit witnesses on behalf of Job that he has not committed any folly against God, Eliphaz incorrectly understands the reason behind what has been imposed upon Job. Eliphaz believes that Job suffers because of trespasses, and he thinks the words Job has spoken were motivated by his unacceptable behavior.

Where is thy fear, thy strength, thy patience, and the perfectness of thy ways? All which same he makes to succeed that sentence which he set before, saying, But now a stroke is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.

He also exaggerated the subsequent impatience which appeared in Job from his past life. For virtue which fails so quickly in trial does not seem true because, as it is written in Sirach, "Gold and silver are proved in fire; men are proven in the crucible of humility." (2:5) A man is preserved by many virtues so that he does not fail in trials.

Remember, please: who that was innocent ever perished? And where were the upright ever effaced?

As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap it.

By the breath of God they perish, and by the wind of his nostrils they come to an end.

The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion — and the teeth of the young lions are broken out.

The writer mentions natural things, that is, nothing that is new or unusual. Certain laws regulate everything, and nothing has changed. Indeed, if what concerns wild beasts remains the same, even more so what concerns us remains unchanged. If it is not possible to restrain "the strength of the lion," then the righteous also cannot be prevented from talking frankly.

The author signifies by "the lion" those powerful men who inspire people with fear, as lions do. By "lioness" he means their wives, who were evil and inspired fear simply by speaking. In the same manner, their children were arrogant and quite cruel. All these have perished. They were extinguished instantly.

But the fact that the children and family should suffer for the sins of the parents seemed to go contrary to the opinion of Eliphaz since he intends to defend the opinion that adversities in this world are punishments for sin.

The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

And to me a word was stolen, and my ear took a whisper of it.

In the present case Eliphaz wants to suggest, in my opinion, that Job has often spoken such words either, perhaps, to drive others to jealousy or with a different intention. You that ask such questions, see whom you resemble. Indeed, if Eliphaz has spoken so in these circumstances without obtaining forgiveness, it will be the same for us.

Now a hidden word was spoken to me. For the invisible Son is called 'the hidden Word,' concerning Whom John saith, In the beginning was the Word. Which he the same person teaches to be 'hidden' in that he adds, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Because Eliphaz had accepted that adversities in this life only happened to someone because of his sin, he wanted from this to accuse Job and his family of being subject to sin. As exactly the contrary was clearly the case for Job and his family, he wanted to show that neither Job nor his family was immune from sin.

In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,

dread met me, and trembling, and it made all my bones dread.

And a spirit passed over my face; the hair of my flesh bristled up.

It stood still — but I could not recognize its appearance. A form was before my eyes. There was silence, and I heard a voice:

“Can a mortal be righteous before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?

And do not think, Eliphaz says, that I am speaking these words to you reproachfully. No person, in fact, is totally blameless, and if he can hide his sins from people, he does not hide them from God's all-seeing eye that knows everything accurately. This indicates what is contrary to the Lord.

Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker? Human righteousness compared with the righteousness of God is unrighteousness, for even a candle is seen to shine bright in the dark, but being set in the ray of the sun its light is darkened.

Finally, he expresses the words which he asserts were revealed to him when he says, "Can mortal man be righteous before God?" He introduces these words to confirm his opinion which he already touched on (v. 7), namely, that adversities do not happen to someone in this life except because of sin.

Look, in his servants he does not trust, and against his messengers he charges error —

how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth.

Between morning and evening they are shattered; without anyone regarding it, they perish forever.

Eliphaz, still clinging to the same principle … that Job's critical circumstances were due to Job's own sins, adds these words, "Since they could not help themselves through virtue by repenting of their evils, these afflictions befell them." And Eliphaz suggests that he fully comprehends this situation.

They shall be cut off from morning to evening. For the sinner is 'cut off from morning to evening,' in that from the beginning of his life to the end thereof he is ever getting wounded by the commission of sin. For the reprobate by increase in wickedness are at all times redoubling blows upon themselves, cut off by which, they may fall headlong into the pit.

This can also refer to violent death for he says next, "Between morning and evening they will be destroyed," for trees are cut down by a cause outside the tree itself.

Is not their tent-cord pulled up within them? They die, and not in wisdom.”

Job4

Eliphaz: The Innocent Prosper