1And Eliphaz the Temanite made answer and said, 2If one says a word, will it be a weariness to you? but who is able to keep from saying what is in his mind? 3Truly, you have been a helper to others, and you have made feeble hands strong; 4He who was near to falling has been lifted up by your words, and you have given strength to bent knees. 5But now it has come on you and it is a weariness to you; you are touched by it and your mind is troubled. 6Is not your fear of God your support, and your upright way of life your hope? 7Have you ever seen destruction come to an upright man? or when were the god-fearing ever cut off? 8What I have seen is that those by whom trouble has been ploughed, and evil planted, get the same for themselves. 9By the breath of God destruction takes them, and by the wind of his wrath they are cut off. 10Though the noise of the lion and the sounding of his voice, may be loud, the teeth of the young lions are broken. 11The old lion comes to his end for need of food, and the young of the she-lion go wandering in all directions. 12A word was given to me secretly, and the low sound of it came to my ears. 13In troubled thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep comes on men, 14Fear came on me and shaking, and my bones were full of trouble; 15And a breath was moving over my face; the hair of my flesh became stiff: 16Something was present before me, but I was not able to see it clearly; there was a form before my eyes: a quiet voice came to my ears, saying: 17May a man be upright before God? or a man be clean before his Maker? 18Truly, he puts no faith in his servants, and he sees error in his angels; 19How much more those living in houses of earth, whose bases are in the dust! They are crushed more quickly than an insect; 20Between morning and evening they are completely broken; they come to an end for ever, and no one takes note. 21If their tent-cord is pulled up, do they not come to an end, and without wisdom?
Matthew Henry's Commentary
Eliphaz reproves Job. (1-6) And maintains that God's judgments are for the wicked. (7-11) The vision of Eliphaz. (12-21) 1-6 Satan undertook to prove Job a hypocrite by afflicting him; and his friends concluded him to be one because he was so afflicted, and showed impatience. This we must keep in mind if we would understand what passed. Eliphaz speaks of Job, and his afflicted condition, with tenderness; but charges him with weakness and faint-heartedness. Men make few allowances for those who have taught others. Even pious friends will count that only a touch which we feel as a wound. Learn from hence to draw off the mind of a sufferer from brooding over the affliction, to look at the God of mercies in the affliction. And how can this be done so well as by looking to Christ Jesus, in whose unequalled sorrows every child of God soonest learns to forget his own? 7-11 Eliphaz argues, 1. That good men were never thus ruined. But there is one event both to the righteous and to the wicked, #Ec 9:2|, both in life and death; the great and certain difference is after death. Our worst mistakes are occasioned by drawing wrong views from undeniable truths. 2. That wicked men were often thus ruined: for the proof of this, Eliphaz vouches his own observation. We may see the same every day. 12-21 Eliphaz relates a vision. When we are communing with our own hearts, and are still, #Ps 4:4|, then is a time for the Holy Spirit to commune with us. This vision put him into very great fear. Ever since man sinned, it has been terrible to him to receive communications from Heaven, conscious that he can expect no good tidings thence. Sinful man! shall he pretend to be more just, more pure, than God, who being his Maker, is his Lord and Owner? How dreadful, then, the pride and presumption of man! How great the patience of God! Look upon man in his life. The very foundation of that cottage of clay in which man dwells, is in the dust, and it will sink with its own weight. We stand but upon the dust. Some have a higher heap of dust to stand upon than others but still it is the earth that stays us up, and will shortly swallow us up. Man is soon crushed; or if some lingering distemper, which consumes like a moth, be sent to destroy him, he cannot resist it. Shall such a creature pretend to blame the appointments of God? Look upon man in his death. Life is short, and in a little time men are cut off. Beauty, strength, learning, not only cannot secure them from death, but these things die with them; nor shall their pomp, their wealth, or power, continue after them. Shall a weak, sinful, dying creature, pretend to be more just than God, and more pure than his Maker? No: instead of quarrelling with his afflictions, let him wonder that he is out of hell. Can a man be cleansed without his Maker? Will God justify sinful mortals, and clear them from guilt? or will he do so without their having an interest in the righteousness and gracious help of their promised Redeemer, when angels, once ministering spirits before his throne, receive the just recompence of their sins? Notwithstanding the seeming impunity of men for a short time, though living without God in the world, their doom is as certain as that of the fallen angels, and is continually overtaking them. Yet careless sinners note it so little, that they expect not the change, nor are wise to consider their latter end.