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href="../job/4-2.htm" title="Job 4:2">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="topverse">Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,</div><div id="jump">Jump to: <a href="/commentaries/barnes/job/4.htm" title="Barnes' Notes">Barnes</a> • <a href="/commentaries/benson/job/4.htm" title="Benson Commentary">Benson</a> • <a href="/commentaries/illustrator/job/4.htm" title="Biblical Illustrator">BI</a> • <a href="/commentaries/cambridge/job/4.htm" title="Cambridge Bible">Cambridge</a> • <a href="/commentaries/clarke/job/4.htm" title="Clarke's Commentary">Clarke</a> • <a href="/commentaries/darby/job/4.htm" title="Darby's Bible Synopsis">Darby</a> • <a href="/commentaries/ellicott/job/4.htm" title="Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers">Ellicott</a> • <a href="/commentaries/expositors/job/4.htm" title="Expositor's Bible">Expositor's</a> • <a 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Knowledge">TSK</a></div><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="comtype">EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)</div><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/benson/job/4.htm">Benson Commentary</a></div><span class="bld"><a href="/job/4-1.htm" title="Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,">Job 4:1</a></span>. <span class="ital">Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered — </span>Job’s three friends reasoning on the principles of an equal providence, and supposing that affliction could happen only in the way of punishment, which necessarily inferred guilt, and thinking his complaints exceeded the bounds of decency, the eldest of them, Eliphaz, here interposes. He desires Job to recollect himself, not to give way to fruitless lamentations, but to put into practice those lessons he had often recommended to others. He reminds him of that, as he thought, infallible maxim, that those who reaped misery must have sowed iniquity, a maxim which he confirms by his own particular experience, and which he supposes was assented to by all mankind. And, in the display of this maxim, he throws in many of the particular circumstances attending Job’s calamity, intimating, that he must have been a great, though secret oppressor, and that, therefore, the breath of God had blasted him at once. He confirms also the truth of this principle by a revelation, which, he says, was made to him in a vision. He urges further, that supposing he, Job, had been guilty of no very atrocious crime; yet the common frailties of human nature were abundantly sufficient to account for any afflictions which it should please God to inflict on man; but takes care, as he proceeds, (as may be seen in the next chapter,) to let him know, they had a far worse opinion of him; representing him as wicked and foolish, and a proper object of divine wrath.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="mhc" id="mhc"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/mhc/job/4.htm">Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary</a></div>4:1-6 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?<a name="bar" id="bar"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/barnes/job/4.htm">Barnes' Notes on the Bible</a></div>Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered - See the notes at <a href="/job/2-11.htm">Job 2:11</a>. <a name="jfb" id="jfb"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/jfb/job/4.htm">Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary</a></div>CHAPTER 4<p>Job 4:1-21. First Speech of Eliphaz.<p>1. Eliphaz—the mildest of Job's three accusers. The greatness of Job's calamities, his complaints against God, and the opinion that calamities are proofs of guilt, led the three to doubt Job's integrity.Eliphaz speaketh, though it will grieve Job, <span class="bld"><a href="/job/4-1.htm" title="Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,">Job 4:1</a>,2</span>. Job had instructed and strengthened others in their sorrows, but now fainted himself, <span class="bld"><a href="/context/job/4-3.htm" title="Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands....">Job 4:3-5</a></span>. Eliphaz reproacheth him with his confidence in his uprightness, which he now suspecteth; for that God’s judgments were not against the righteous, but the wicked, <span class="bld"><a href="/context/job/4-6.htm" title="Is not this your fear, your confidence, your hope, and the uprightness of your ways?...">Job 4:6-11</a></span>. His fearful visions, <span class="bld"><a href="/context/job/4-12.htm" title="Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a little thereof....">Job 4:12-16</a></span>. The righteousness of God; the angels charged with folly; the vanity of man, <span class="bld"><a href="/context/job/4-17.htm" title="Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?...">Job 4:17-21</a></span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span> No text from Poole on this verse. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="gil" id="gil"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/gill/job/4.htm">Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible</a></div>Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said. When Job was done cursing his day, and had finished his doleful ditty on that subject, then Eliphaz took the opportunity of speaking, not being able to bear any longer with Job and his behaviour under his afflictions; Eliphaz was one of Job's three friends that came to visit him, <a href="/job/2-11.htm">Job 2:11</a>; very probably he might be the senior man, or a man of the greatest authority and power; a most respectable person, had in great esteem and reverence among men, and by these his friends, and therefore takes upon him to speak first; or it may be it was agreed among themselves that he should begin the dispute with Job; and we find, that in the close of this controversy the Lord speaks to him by name, and to him only, <a href="/job/42-7.htm">Job 42:7</a>; he "answered"; not that Job directed his discourse to him, but he took occasion, from Job's afflictions and his passionate expressions, to say what he did; and he "said" not anything by way of condolence or consolation, not pitying Job's case, nor comforting him in his afflicted circumstances, as they required both; but reproaching him as a wicked and hypocritical man, not acting like himself formerly, or according to his profession and principles, but just the reverse: this was a new trial to Job, and some think the sorest of all; it was as a sword in his bones, which was very cutting to him; as oil cast into a fiery furnace in which he now was, which increased the force and fury of it; and as to vinegar an opened and bleeding wound, which makes it smart the more. <a name="gsb" id="gsb"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/gsb/job/4.htm">Geneva Study Bible</a></div><span class="cverse2">Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,</span></div></div><div id="centbox"><div class="padcent"><div class="comtype">EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)</div><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/cambridge/job/4.htm">Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges</a></div><span class="bld">1–11</span>. First, Eliphaz wonders that Job, who had comforted so many in trouble, and who was a righteous man, should fall into such despair under his afflictions, forgetting the great principle that the righteous never perish under affliction. Calamity destroys only the wicked; the affliction of the righteous is designed to have a very different issue.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">12–5:7</span>. Second,—proceeding with deeper earnestness—he must advert to Job’s murmurs against Heaven and warn him from them. For can any man have right on his side in complaining of God? Only the ungodly resent the dealing of God with them. By their impatience under affliction they bring down God’s final anger upon them, so that they perish.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Ch. <a href="/context/job/4-1.htm" title="Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,...">Job 4:1-11</a>. Eliphaz wonders that Job, who had comforted so many in trouble, and was a righteous man, should fall into such despair under his afflictions<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Eliphaz would gladly have kept silence in the circumstances of his friend, but the tone of Job’s words constrains him to speak (<span class="ital"><a href="/job/4-2.htm" title="If we assay to commune with you, will you be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?">Job 4:2</a></span>). He wonders at the despondency of Job, one who had shewn himself so skilful in comforting other good men in affliction (<span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/4-3.htm" title="Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands....">Job 4:3-4</a></span>), and who was himself a righteous man. He should place confidence in his righteousness, and remember that the righteous never <span class="ital">perish</span> under affliction. God does not send trouble upon them to destroy them, but for very different ends (<span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/4-6.htm" title="Is not this your fear, your confidence, your hope, and the uprightness of your ways?...">Job 4:6-7</a></span>). It is only the wicked whom He chastises unto death, and causes to reap the trouble which they sow (<span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/4-8.htm" title="Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same....">Job 4:8-9</a></span>), and perish like beasts of prey (<span class="ital"><a href="/context/job/4-10.htm" title="The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken....">Job 4:10-11</a></span>). Eliphaz’s doctrine of the meaning of suffering or evil comes out in the very forefront of his remonstrance with Job.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="pul" id="pul"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/pulpit/job/4.htm">Pulpit Commentary</a></div><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 1.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said</span> (see the comment on Job 2:11). Job 4:1<a name="kad" id="kad"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/kad/job/4.htm">Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament</a></div>In reply to Sommer, who in his excellent biblische Abhandlungen, 1846, considers the octastich as the extreme limit of the compass of the strophe, it is sufficient to refer to the Syriac strophe-system. It is, however, certainly an impossibility that, as Ewald (Jahrb. ix. 37) remarks with reference to the first speech of Jehovah, <a href="http://biblehub.com/job/38.htm">Job 38-39</a>, the strophes can sometimes extend to a length of 12 lines equals Masoretic verses, consequently consist of 24 στίχοι and more. Then Eliphaz the Temanite began, and said: <div class="vheading2">Links</div><a href="/interlinear/job/4-1.htm">Job 4:1 Interlinear</a><br /><a href="/texts/job/4-1.htm">Job 4:1 Parallel Texts</a><br /><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/niv/job/4-1.htm">Job 4:1 NIV</a><br /><a href="/nlt/job/4-1.htm">Job 4:1 NLT</a><br /><a href="/esv/job/4-1.htm">Job 4:1 ESV</a><br /><a href="/nasb/job/4-1.htm">Job 4:1 NASB</a><br /><a href="/kjv/job/4-1.htm">Job 4:1 KJV</a><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="http://bibleapps.com/job/4-1.htm">Job 4:1 Bible Apps</a><br /><a href="/job/4-1.htm">Job 4:1 Parallel</a><br /><a href="http://bibliaparalela.com/job/4-1.htm">Job 4:1 Biblia Paralela</a><br /><a href="http://holybible.com.cn/job/4-1.htm">Job 4:1 Chinese Bible</a><br /><a href="http://saintebible.com/job/4-1.htm">Job 4:1 French Bible</a><br /><a href="http://bibeltext.com/job/4-1.htm">Job 4:1 German Bible</a><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/">Bible Hub</a><br /></div></div></td></tr></table></div><div id="mdd"><div align="center"><div class="bot2"><table align="center" width="100%"><tr><td align="center"><div align="center"> <script id="3d27ed63fc4348d5b062c4527ae09445"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=51ce25d5-1a8c-424a-8695-4bd48c750f35&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script> <script id="b817b7107f1d4a7997da1b3c33457e03"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=cb0edd8b-b416-47eb-8c6d-3cc96561f7e8&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-2'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-0' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-3'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-1' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div align="center" id='div-gpt-ad-1531425649696-0'> </div><br /><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:200px;height:200px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-3753401421161123" data-ad-slot="3592799687"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /><br /> </div> <div id="left"><a href="../job/3-26.htm" onmouseover='lft.src="/leftgif.png"' onmouseout='lft.src="/left.png"' title="Job 3:26"><img src="/left.png" name="lft" border="0" alt="Job 3:26" /></a></div><div id="right"><a href="../job/4-2.htm" onmouseover='rght.src="/rightgif.png"' onmouseout='rght.src="/right.png"' title="Job 4:2"><img src="/right.png" name="rght" border="0" alt="Job 4:2" /></a></div><div id="botleft"><a href="#" onmouseover='botleft.src="/botleftgif.png"' onmouseout='botleft.src="/botleft.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botleft.png" name="botleft" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="botright"><a href="#" onmouseover='botright.src="/botrightgif.png"' onmouseout='botright.src="/botright.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botright.png" name="botright" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div> <div id="bot"><iframe width="100%" height="1500" scrolling="no" src="/botmenubhnew2.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></td></tr></table></div></body></html>