Reading 3: Job Chapters 4 and 5 Eliphaz offers and Explanation and Corrective for Job's Tragic Circumstances

 Reading 3: Job 4:1-5:27  The First Speech of Eliphaz.

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

This begins a round of three responses from each of Job’s three friends. Job replies to each in turn.

      ² ‘If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended?
   But who can keep from speaking?

There is practically an apology built into this opening from Eliphaz. ‘Will you be offended, because that is what I am about to do.’

³ 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.

Eliphaz starts from Job’s strength, a man beloved of God, a man of blessing and riches, a man of power in the community. His was the voice that supported the community.

⁵ But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
   it touches you, and you are dismayed.

It is from that strength to this collapse that Eliphaz speaks, almost to say “Oh, how the mighty have fallen.”

⁶ Is not your fear of God your confidence,
   and the integrity of your ways your hope?

This draws back to the Divine Council, God calls Satan’s attention to the faith of Job, and Satan is seeking to undermine it. Eliphaz is questioning his foundation of faith.

⁷ ‘Think now, who that was innocent ever perished?
   Or where were the upright cut off?

The thesis of the reaction of the friends is here proposed. Those who have done nothing wrong, have they ever been affected by tragedy?

⁸ As I have seen, those who plough 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.

Tragic circumstances fall upon those who have sinned. It is by God’s ‘breath’ that they are punished, through God’s anger. The implication for Job is clear. God’s anger, his tragic circumstances, the cause and effect must be some sin he has committed.

¹⁰ The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion,
   and the teeth of the young lions are broken.
¹¹ The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,
   and the whelps of the lioness are scattered.

Here Eliphaz continues to develop the theme of God’s punishment, using the metaphor of the lion, powerful ‘king of beasts’, now reduced under the power of God alone.

¹² ‘Now a word came stealing to me,
   my ear received the whisper of it.
¹³ Amid thoughts from visions of the night,
   when deep sleep falls on mortals,
¹⁴ dread came upon me, and trembling,
   which made all my bones shake.
¹⁵ A spirit glided past my face;
   the hair of my flesh bristled.
¹⁶ It stood still,
   but I could not discern its appearance.
A form was before my eyes;
   there was silence, then I heard a voice:
¹⁷ “Can mortals be righteous before God?
   Can human beings be pure before their Maker?

What Eliphaz has implied, that tragedy is God’s punishment for sin, he is now making explicit, with a long introduction, step by step, considering the relationship of mortals to our God.

¹⁸ Even in his servants he puts no trust,
   and his angels he charges with error;

He continues to speak of the Lord, charging even his angels with error-a reference to the Divine Council where God points out to Satan that Satan is mistaken about Job’s faith?

¹⁹ how much more those who live in houses of clay,
   whose foundation is in the dust,
   who are crushed like a moth.
²⁰ Between morning and evening they are destroyed;
   they perish for ever without any regarding it.
²¹ Their tent-cord is plucked up within them,
   and they die devoid of wisdom.”

Eliphaz moves from the heavenly beings, the divine servants of God, back to humanity. How much more do we sinful beings cause our separation from our God? Put it all together, and Eliphaz is seeking to bring Job to realize that these tragic events are punishment for something that is Job’s own fault, because that ‘is the way of things’.

5‘Call now; is there anyone who will answer you?
To which of the holy ones will you turn?

Who will answer Job in his call to curse the day of his birth? The implication seems to be that they will not because Job is not innocent in this, but because tragedy is equated to punishment, he must be punished for something he did.

² Surely vexation kills the fool,
   and jealousy slays the simple.
³ I have seen fools taking root,
   but suddenly I cursed their dwelling.

Eliphaz seems to be poking at Job for daring to speak the words he did in his grief, that there is an implied arrogance that Job does not recognize his sin.

⁴ Their children are far from safety,
   they are crushed in the gate,
   and there is no one to deliver them.

Pointing out how Job’s children are part of the punishment.

⁵ The hungry eat their harvest,
   and they take it even out of the thorns;
   and the thirsty pant after their wealth.

To me, Eliphaz seems to be pointing out the loss of Job’s riches.

⁶ For misery does not come from the earth,
   nor does trouble sprout from the ground;
⁷ but human beings are born to trouble
   just as sparks fly upward.

God’s hand is seen as the cause of misery and trouble-that they are punishment, to which humans are born into. In theological terms, applying the notion of ‘original sin’ from Adam and Eve now upon all humanity.

⁸ ‘As for me, I would seek God,
   and to God I would commit my cause.
⁹ He does great things and unsearchable,
   marvelous things without number.
¹⁰ He gives rain on the earth
   and sends waters on the fields;

Eliphaz, if he were in Job’s position, could appeal to God, invoking the unsearchable power of God, the blessings he brings to the earth, the master of all.

¹¹ he sets on high those who are lowly,
   and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

God is the one who delivers those who mourn-like Job.

¹² He frustrates the devices of the crafty,
   so that their hands achieve no success.
¹³ He takes the wise in their own craftiness;
   and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end. ¹⁴ They meet with darkness in the daytime,
   and grope at noonday as in the night.

God is not going to be fooled, there is no tricking God. I see the implication that Job, in not confessing, is trying to get away with tricking God in the mind of his friend.

¹⁵ But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth,
   from the hand of the mighty.
¹⁶ So the poor have hope,
   and injustice shuts its mouth.

The mercy of the Lord is emphasized here. Job has but to confess and that mercy shall be his from the divine.

¹⁷ ‘How happy is the one whom God reproves;
   therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
¹⁸ For he wounds, but he binds up;
   he strikes, but his hands heal.
¹⁹ He will deliver you from six troubles;
   in seven no harm shall touch you.
²⁰ In famine he will redeem you from death,
   and in war from the power of the sword.
²¹ You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue,
   and shall not fear destruction when it comes.
²² At destruction and famine you shall laugh,
   and shall not fear the wild animals of the earth.
²³ For you shall be in league with the stones of the field,
   and the wild animals shall be at peace with you.
²⁴ You shall know that your tent is safe,
   you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.
²⁵ You shall know that your descendants will be many,
   and your offspring like the grass of the earth.
²⁶ You shall come to your grave in ripe old age,
   as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing-floor in its season.
²⁷ See, we have searched this out; it is true.
   Hear, and know it for yourself.’

Eliphaz concludes with a litany of the blessings of the Lord. If Job repents, God is merciful, and here are examples to illustrate what that mercy and protection will look like.

 Eliphaz has an explanation for the tragic occurrences that have befallen Job. Bad things happen by God’s hand to the sinful. It is not a permanent arrangement however, repentance will restore God’s mercy and God’s blessings. While Job is spending his time cursing the day of his birth, the implication is that what has happened is, in fact, Job’s own fault for sins as yet unconfessed.