Job 4:1-11 | The Way of Scripture

Job 4:1-11

How does Eliphaz move from encouragement to an accusation?

Berean Standard Bible

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: 2 “If one ventures a word with you, will you be wearied? Yet who can keep from speaking? 3 Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands. 4 Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling. 5 But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed. 6 Is your reverence not your confidence, and the uprightness of your ways your hope? 7 Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed? 8 As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same. 9 By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed. 10 The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken. 11 The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

What is the context?

Eliphaz recalls how Job’s words strengthened others and asks why he is now dismayed. He then argues that innocent people do not perish and that those who sow trouble reap it.

The images of broken lions describe the downfall of powerful wrongdoers. Placed against Job’s losses, the argument pushes him toward seeing his disaster as evidence of wrongdoing.

The reader must assess this as Eliphaz’s explanation. The opening description of Job and the statement that he has been ruined without cause prevent the argument from becoming the book’s simple answer.

How is this passage commonly understood?

Wesley explicitly identifies Eliphaz’s reasoning as an attempt to infer secret guilt from Job’s afflictions. The USCCB note reads the lions as an image of violent sinners unable to prevail against God. An image of God judging the wicked does not establish that every sufferer is therefore wicked.

What is our position?

We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.

Where can I study this further?

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