Eliphaz (4:1-5:27): PURPOSE: TO PROVE THAT JOB IS SINFUL
Eliphaz is the most sympathetic comforter. He initially affirms Job, reminding him of his past involvement with those who suffer (4:3-4) and urging him to practice in his sufferings that which he previously taught others (v.5). In his later presentations, he will challenge Job’s integrity, but now he recognizes it (v.6) and suggests that Job need not despair. Job can anticipate a speedy intervention by God.
See, you have instructed many;
you have strengthened the weak hands.
4 Your words have supported those who were stumbling,
and you have made firm the feeble knees.
But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
it touches you, and you are dismayed.
6 Is not your fear of God your confidence
and the integrity of your ways your hope?
It is at this point that Eliphaz divulges his theology of suffering. Using the analogy of agriculture, he states that those who suffer have cultivated sin (4:8). Calamities do not happen without a cause. Life is lived in a world of cause and effect, of stimulus and response. Moving from effect back to cause, Eliphaz, in subsequent presentations, will find it necessary to establish that Job has sinned.
As I have seen, those who plow iniquity
and sow trouble reap the same.
9 By the breath of God they perish,
and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.
Eliphaz’s source for his theological position was a dream (4:12-13). His reference to and description of the dream produce an expectation of a profound revelation. But it is only a simple truism: A mortal cannot be more righteous than God (v.17).
Reference: Asbury Bible Commentary Copyright © 1992 by The Zondervan Corporation.
Eliphaz (15:1-35): PURPOSE: TO DEFEND TRADITIONAL (AND PERSONAL) THEOLOGY
While Eliphaz remains the most courteous comforter, there is a marked decline in his politeness. He dismisses Job’s words as hot air and nonsense (vv. 2-3). But Job’s words are not simply useless, they are harmful. Job is undercutting religion! He is discouraging devotion to God (v.4). His words are not only sinful in themselves, they are symptomatic of a deep awareness of guilt (vv. 5-6). His protestations are prompted by his guilt.
“Should the wise answer with windy knowledge
and fill themselves with the east wind?
3 Should they argue in unprofitable talk
or in words that can do no good?
But you are doing away with the fear of God
and hindering meditation before God.
5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
6 Your own mouth condemns you, not I;
your own lips testify against you.
Through several questions addressed to Job (vv. 7-9), Eliphaz seeks to show Job his arrogance (vv.12-13) and his delusion relative to his innocence (vv.14-16).
“Are you the firstborn of the human race?
Were you brought forth before the hills?
8 Have you listened in the council of God?
And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9 What do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that is not clear to us?
Why does your heart carry you away,
and why do your eyes flash,[a]
13 so that you turn your spirit against God,
and let such words go out of your mouth?
14 What are mortals, that they can be clean?
Or those born of woman, that they can be righteous?
God puts no trust even in his holy ones,
and the heavens are not clean in his sight;
16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
one who drinks iniquity like water!
Obviously, Eliphaz is more concerned with his traditional theology than with Job. Eliphaz again presents his favorite theme—the ultimate fate of the wicked (vv.17-35). What is that fate? Suffering and pain. Any prosperity is at best temporary (vv.27-29) and is not fully enjoyed because of the realization that retribution is imminent (vv.22-24).
17 “I will show you; listen to me;
what I have seen I will declare—
18 what sages have told
and their ancestors have not hidden,
19 to whom alone the land was given,
and no stranger passed among them.
20 The wicked writhe in pain all their days,
through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.
21 Terrifying sounds are in their ears;
in prosperity the destroyer will come upon them.
22 They despair of returning from darkness,
and they are destined for the sword.
23 They wander abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
They know that a day of darkness is ready at hand;
24 distress and anguish terrify them;
they prevail against them like a king prepared for battle.
Not only is Eliphaz’s tirade here irrelevant and inapplicable, it is clearly incorrect. All too often the wicked prosper while the righteous suffer.
Because they stretched out their hands against God
and bid defiance to the Almighty,[b]
26 running stubbornly against him
with a thickly bossed shield;
27 because they have covered their faces with their fat
and gathered fat upon their loins,
28 they will live in desolate cities,
in houses that no one should inhabit,
houses destined to become heaps of ruins;
29 they will not be rich, and their wealth will not endure,
nor will they strike root in the earth;[c]
30 they will not escape from darkness;
the flame will dry up their shoots,
and their blossom[d] will be swept away by the wind.
31 Let them not trust in emptiness, deceiving themselves,
for emptiness will be their recompense.
32 It will be paid in full before their time,
and their branch will not be green.
33 They will shake off their unripe grape, like the vine,
and cast off their blossoms, like the olive tree.
34 For the company of the godless is barren,
and fire consumes the tents of bribery.
35 They conceive mischief and bring forth evil,
and their belly prepares deceit.”
Reference: Asbury Bible Commentary Copyright © 1992 by The Zondervan Corporation.
Eliphaz (22:1-30): PURPOSE: TO REVEAL THE NATURE OF GOD
Eliphaz now insists that a person’s piety is of no benefit to God. He portrays God as unaffected by human actions and is therefore apathetic (vv. 2-3). Such a concept is out of keeping with the biblical portrayal of God (cf. Luke 15:7). Further, it is not helpful to Eliphaz’s argument. If God is indifferent to piety, must he not also be indifferent to wickedness? Following his cataloging of Job’s sins (vv.4-11),
“Can a mortal be of use to God?
Can even the wisest be of service to him?
3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty[a] if you are righteous,
or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?
4 Is it for your piety that he reproves you
and enters into judgment with you?
5 Is not your wickedness great?
There is no end to your iniquities.
6 For you have exacted pledges from your family for no reason
and stripped the naked of their clothing.
7 You have given no water to the weary to drink,
and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
8 The powerful possess the land,
and the favored live in it.
9 You have sent widows away empty-handed,
and the arms of the orphans you have crushed.[b]
10 Therefore snares are around you,
and sudden terror overwhelms you,
11 or darkness so that you cannot see;
a flood of water covers you.
Eliphaz accuses Job of taking advantage of God’s transcendence (vv.12-14) and thereby associates him with the wicked men of old (vv.15-18).
“Is not God high in the heavens?
See the highest stars, how lofty they are!
13 Therefore you say, ‘What does God know?
Can he judge through the deep darkness?
14 Thick clouds enwrap him, so that he does not see,
and he walks on the dome of heaven.’
Will you keep to the old way
that the wicked have trod?
16 They were snatched away before their time;
their foundation was washed away by a flood.
17 They said to God, ‘Leave us alone,’
and ‘What can the Almighty[c] do to us?’[d]
18 Yet he filled their houses with good things—
but the plans of the wicked are repugnant to me.
As in his first speech (5:17-27), Eliphaz appeals to Job to repent (vv.21-23). His call for Job to love God rather than gold (vv. 24-25) may indicate a belief that Job’s sufferings were due at least in part to his love of wealth.
“Agree with God,[e] and be at peace;
in this way good will come to you.
22 Receive instruction from his mouth,
and lay up his words in your heart.
23 If you return to the Almighty,[f] you will be restored,
if you remove unrighteousness from your tents,
if you treat gold like dust
and gold of Ophir like the stones of the torrent bed,
25 and if the Almighty[g] is your gold
and your precious silver,
While such an assumption was wrong, Eliphaz’s call (vv. 26-27) is in keeping with the biblical attitude toward wealth. (If Job repents (i.e., gives up his wealth), then …)
then you will delight yourself in the Almighty[h]
and lift up your face to God.
27 You will pray to him, and he will hear you,
and you will pay your vows.
Benefits of repentance:
You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you,
and light will shine on your ways.
29 When others are humiliated, you say it is pride,
for he saves the humble.
30 He will deliver even those who are guilty;
they will escape because of the cleanness of your hands.”[i]
Reference: Asbury Bible Commentary Copyright © 1992 by The Zondervan Corporation.
