4 5 Job is reprehended of impatience, 7 and injustice, 17 and of the presumption of his own righteousness.
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite, answered and said,
2 If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but [a]who can withhold himself from speaking?
3 Behold, thou hast taught many, and [b]hast strengthened the weary hands.
4 Thy words have confirmed him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the weak knees.
5 But now it is come upon thee, and thou art grieved: it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.
6 Is not this thy [c]fear, thy confidence, thy patience, and uprightness of thy ways?
7 Remember, I pray thee: who ever perished, being an [d]innocent? or where were the upright destroyed?
8 As I have seen, they that [e]plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
9 With the [f]blast of God they perish, and with the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.
10 The roaring of the [g]Lion, and the voice of the Lioness, and the teeth of the Lion’s whelps are broken.
11 The Lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the Lion’s whelps are scattered abroad.
12 But a thing was brought to me [h]secretly, and mine ear hath received a little thereof.
13 In the thoughts of the visions of the night, when sleep falleth on men,
14 Fear came upon me, and dread which made all my bones [i]to tremble.
15 And the wind passed before me, and made the hairs of my flesh to stand up.
16 Then stood one, and I knew not his face: an image was before mine eyes, and in [j]silence heard I a voice, saying,
17 Shall man be more [k]just than God? or shall a man be more pure than his Maker?
18 Behold, he found no steadfastness in his servants, and laid folly upon his [l]Angels.
19 How much more in them that dwell in houses of [m]clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which shall be destroyed before the moth?
20 They be destroyed from the [n]morning unto the evening: they perish forever, [o]without regard.
21 Doth not their dignity go away with them? do they not die, and that without [p]wisdom?
Footnotes
- Job 4:2 Seeing this thine impatience.
- Job 4:3 Thou hast comforted others in their afflictions, and canst not now comfort thyself.
- Job 4:6 This he concludeth that Job was but an hypocrite, and had no true fear nor trust in God.
- Job 4:7 He concludeth that Job was reproved, seeing that God handled him so extremely, which is the argument that the carnal men make against the children of God.
- Job 4:8 They that do evil, cannot but receive evil.
- Job 4:9 He showeth that God needeth no great preparation to destroy his enemies: for he can do it with the blast of his mouth.
- Job 4:10 Though men according to their office do not punish tyrants (whom for their cruelty he compareth to lions, and their children to their whelps) yet God both is able, and his justice will punish them.
- Job 4:12 A thing that I knew not before, was declared unto me by vision, that is, that whosoever thinketh himself just, shall be found a sinner, when he cometh before God.
- Job 4:14 In these visions which God showeth to his creatures, there is ever a certain fear joined, that the authority thereof might be had in greater reverence.
- Job 4:16 When all things were quiet, or when the fear was somewhat assuaged, as God appeared to Elijah, 1 Kings 19:12.
- Job 4:17 He proveth that if God did punish the innocent, the creature should be more just than the Creator, which were a blasphemy.
- Job 4:18 If God find imperfection in his Angels, when they are not maintained by his power, how much more shall he lay folly to man’s charge when he would justify himself against God?
- Job 4:19 That is, in this mortal body, subject to corruption, as 2 Cor. 5:1.
- Job 4:20 They see death continually before their eyes, and daily approaching toward them.
- Job 4:20 No man for all this doth consider it.
- Job 4:21 That is, before that any of them were so wise, as to think on death.