job 4 and 5

Read Job 4 and 5 at Bible Gateway.

Hebrew paragraph divisions

For the series of speeches from Job 3:2-28:10, the Hebrew paragraph divisions for each man’s speech are like the divisions in the Psalms that we studied in 2014. There is an understood {s} division at the end of each numbered line, with an {n} marking where a new line begins within a numbered line. There is only one {n} division in Eliphaz’s speech from Job 4:1-5:27:

Job 4:16a, It stood still, But I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; {n}

The thing we have to remember about this discussion that Job and his friends have with each other, is that this is an accurate record of what they said to each other. However, despite what Job’s friends think, they are not speaking ‘Thus saith the Lord.” Some of their wisdom is accurate wisdom, and some is darkened counsel of words without knowledge (Job 38:2). It is telling that while many (all?) of Job’s speeches form chiastic structures, none of the friends’ speeches do so (that I am able to determine at present). Keep in mind that the chiastic structure is one of the thumbprints of the Holy Spirit’s authorship of the Word of God.

The way we discern which is which, is by searching other Scripture. Every fact will be established on the testimony of two or more witnesses, and accurate wisdom will be repeated elsewhere. I am outlining the arguments to make them easier to examine:

Eliphaz’s speech:

Job 4:1-6, You are impatient with your suffering; hope in God;
Job 4:7-11, The innocent do not perish, but if you have trouble, it is because you sowed trouble;
Job 4:12-21, Man is not blameless before God;
Job 5:1-7, The foolish seem to take root but then come to ruin;
Job 5:8-16, God delivers the lowly and brokenhearted;
Job 5:17-27, Happy is the man whom God reproves; He will give you relief.

While it is true that those who sow trouble, reap trouble, because that which a man sows he will also reap (Gal 6:7), Eliphaz makes the assumption that trouble ONLY comes by being sowed. That is not true. It is also not true that the innocent do not perish: the innocent and the vulnerable perish every day at the hands of evil men, and for this reason the wrath of God is coming on the world. He charges His people to practice justice against evil men, and so restrain them; but when no one stands against them, they only grow greater, as we have seen with our own eyes.

Man is not blameless before God, but that does not mean that Job is responsible for his trouble. And did you notice that Eliphaz tried to give his argument more weight, by putting it in the mouth of some nameless visitor from the spiritual world? (Job 4:12-21). Yeah, don’t do that. If you are going to make an argument, let it stand on its own merits.

While it is true that the foolish do come to ruin eventually (Pro 1:32), Eliphaz implies that since Job came to ruin after taking root, he was foolish somewhere. Eliphaz makes the assumption that God is correcting him for foolishness, and he censures Job for not being more happy in his affliction.

What about Eliphaz’s assertion that God wounds, and also heals? (Job 5:18). Yes, that is borne out by additional witnesses:

‘Now see that I, even I, am He, And there is no God besides Me;
I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal;
Nor is there any who can deliver from My hand. Deu 32:39

“The Lord kills and makes alive;
He brings down to the grave and brings up. 1 Sam 2:6

Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun,
And the light of the sun will be sevenfold, As the light of seven days,
In the day that the Lord binds up the bruise of His people
And heals the stroke of their wound. Isa 30:26

Come, and let us return to the Lord;
For He has torn, but He will heal us;
He has stricken, but He will bind us up. Hos 6:1

God is being a Father who loves His children, for the bruise of His people is the wounding of chastisement, and He does not wound what He cannot bind up.