5:17 Behold, how happy is the man whom God reproves- Ps. 94:12; Prov. 3:11-12; 23:12, 23; Heb. 12:5-11; Rev. 3:19. How happy in 5:17 is the word translated blessed in Ps. 1:1.

5:18 For He inflicts pain, and gives relief- Deut. 32:39; I Sam. 2:6; Isa.19:22; 30:26; Hos. 6:1. Job 1:21; 2:10 Each of the speakers understood the sovereignty of God in the affairs of the world.

He wounds, and His hands also heal- The friends never resort to Satan as the answer for human suffering.

5:19 From six troubles He will deliver you- The closest way to parallel a number is to give the next highest number.

Even in seven evil will not touch you- Ps. 91:10. This is a passage like Job 2:10 where the evil refers not to sin but to calamity.

5:20 In famine He will redeem you from death- Ps. 34:23; 49:8,16; 55:19; 69:19; 71:23; 119:134. The word redeem in Psalm 49:7, 7, 15. Ps. 49:15 and Ps. 103:4 speak of God redeeming the life, or soul, of the Psalmist from Sheol, the pit, or the grave.

5:21 You will hidden from the scourge of the tongue- For the tongue as a weapon- Ps. 52:2,4; 64:3. Vicious words can destroy the one they are spoken against, and undo the one who speaks them as well (Prov. 10:8, 14; 13:3; 18:7).

Neither will you be afraid of violence when it comes- Ps. 91:5-6. God can protect His servants even in the midst of a severe judgment (II Peter 2:4-9).

5:22 You will laugh at famine and violence- The verb laugh is used in Ps. 2:4; 37:13; 59:8 to speak of God’s reaction to the wrongdoer.

Neither will you be afraid of the wild beasts- Lev. 26:4-5; Ps. 91:13; Ezek. 34:25; Hos. 2:18-20

5:23 For you will be in league with the stones of the field- Isa. 5:2; II Sam. 3:19-25 stones present difficulties for an otherwise fruitful field or vineyard.

5:24 You will know that your tent is secure- contrast this with 4:21. Compare this with 21:7. The word secure is actually the word peace which is used as a verb in 5:23.

For you will visit your abode and fear no loss- Job lost his wealth in 1:13-17. Job will say that it is the children of the wicked that are safe and secure in Job 21:8-10.

The word generally translated sin is used at the end of vs. 24. Sin is the idea of missing the mark (Judges 20:16) and the proper idea behind it is experiencing loss.

5:25 You will know also that your descendants will be many- These two lines are in stark contrast to 5:4-5. They are also contrary to Job’s experiences as Job lost his children in 1:18-19.

And your offspring as the grass of the earth- Isa. 53:10; Job 42:16; Ps. 37:16. This will ultimately be true of Job (42:13-15).

5:26 You will come to the grave in full vigor- Premature death is considered a great disaster (Job 22:16).

Are the statements of Job 5:17-27 promising too much? Notice how many things said in Job 5:17-27 sound like Psalm 91 and other Psalms

Job 5:19 God will deliver him from all troubles; Ps. 34:19 Many are afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all

Job 5:19 evil will not touch you; Ps. 91:10 No evil will befall you

Job 5:22, 23 not be afraid of wild beasts, beasts of field at peace; Ps. 91:13 tread upon lion, cobra, young lion, serpent

Job 5:24 your tent is secure/ Ps. 91:10 no plague near your tent

Job 5:26 long life Ps. 91:16

5:8-16 The doxology of Eliphaz

There are similar doxologies in Job 9:4-12 and 12:13-25.

5:8 But as for me, I would seek God- (Amos 5:4, 6) The Hebrew text actually says but I seek God.

Is seeking God in this passage to inquire of the LORD as the word sometimes means in Gen. 25:22; Ex. 18:15; I Kings 14:5; 22:8; II Kings 1:3, 6,16; II Kings 22:18; II Chron. 32:31; Ezek. 14:7; 20:1.

5:9 Who does great and unsearchable things- 9:10; Ps. 136:4. God’s glory is beyond our ability to search or understand (Job 9:10; 11:7; 36:26; Isa. 40:28). Bildad will use the same word for searched in Job 8:8 in which he will say that former generations have searched out this problem of suffering and come to the same conclusions where he and his friends arrived.

5:10 He gives rain on the earth- Ancient people would have attributed the rain to the blessings of their God or gods. Modern man tends to view rain as a natural phenomenon and just as illustration of how the world works. The Bible does not attribute rain to Baal (the contest between Baal and Yahweh in I Kings 17-18). The Bible does not make rain simply a natural law that God built into the world. The Bible speaks of it as a blessing from God’s hand, both in Job 36:27-28; 38:25-26. God sending rain on the just and unjust is a continual illustration of him doing good to those who are His enemies in Matt. 5:45.

5:11 So that He sets on high those who are lowly- The word translated lowly, shakal, is translated humble in Prov. 16:19; 29:23. God often dramatically reverses a person’s situation (I Sam. 2:7-8; Ps. 113:5-8; 147:6; Luke 1:46-56). God exalts the lowly (Matt. 23:12; Luke 14:11; 18:14).

5:12 He frustrates the plotting of the shrewd- God used the counsel of Hushai to thwart (same word translated frustrates here) the good counsel of Ahithophel (II Sam. 17:14).This word shrewd can be used in a positive sense (Prov. 1:4; 8:5; 12:16, 23; 13:16; 14:8, 15, 18; 15:5; 19:25; 22:3; 27:12) or in a negative one (Gen. 3:1; Job 5:12; 15:5).

5:13 He captures the wise by their own shrewdness- The idea is the wise man falling in his own trap he has set for others- Job 18:7-10; 36:8-10; Ps. 7:15; 35:7-8; 57:6; Prov. 26:27; 28:10; Esther 7:10.

This verse is quoted by Paul in I Cor. 3:19 and introduced by the wording “For it is written." Does the fact that I Cor. 3:19 shows us that Eliphaz spoke truth demand that he used these words in a proper way? His words are truth, but he seems to place Job among the shrewd who will be brought down.

5:14 By day they meet with darkness- Job 12:24-25; Deut.28:29; Isa. 59:10.

And grope at noon as in the night- In the brightest times of the day they will encounter complete darkness (Amos 8:9).

5:15 But He saves from the sword of the mouth- For the tongue as a weapon- Ps. 52:2,4; 64:3; Isa. 54:17; Jer. 18:18; Ps. 12:3-5; 31:21; James 3:5-6.

5:16 So the helpless has hope- 8:13; 11:18; 14:7; Jer. 31:17; Ezek. 37:11; Prov. 19:8; Ruth 1:12; Lam.3:29 The fact that God does these things is a reason for help for the broken. God will catch the world’s expectations by surprise.

And unrighteousness must shut its mouth- Ps.107:42.

Is Eliphaz placing Job among those who are lowly who will be lifted up or among those who are shrewd who will be brought down? The fact that he emphasizes more about the shrewd who are brought down (vs. 12-14) suggests to me that this is Eliphaz’s emphasis here.

4:1-6 Introduction to Eliphaz’ first speech to Job

4:7-11 Eliphaz: We reap what we sow

4:12-16 Eliphaz’ dream vision

4:17-21 The content of the vision

What is wrong with what Eliphaz says?

The statements of Job 4:7-8 seem to be the basis of the argument of Eliphaz against Job. The idea that we reap what we sow is a fundamental Biblical truth uttered often in Scripture (Hos. 8:7; 10:12; Prov. 11:18; 22:8; Gal. 6:7-9). Matt. 26:52 makes the same point as a general principle Why is Eliphaz stating the same truths as Jesus and inspired writers and yet something seems wrong with his comment? How does these other statements about reaping what we sow differ from his statement in 4:8?

How does Psalm 37 fit into this argument? The heading of Psalm 37 mentions it as a psalm of David. Psalm 37:25 says, “I have been young and now I am old, Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread.” He appeals to his experiences as Eliphaz did. David makes the same kind of observation that Eliphaz does in Job 4:8. Psalm 37:25 asserts the same type of thing that Eliphaz and Job’s other friends argue. Job’s friends believe that his intense suffering must be because he has done something terribly wrong to deserve it. The reader knows on the basis of the prologue of Job that this is not true, and that Job is not suffering because of his sin (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3). How did they misinterpret Scripture and Job’s experience?

Passages like Psalm 37 were not given for the purpose of stating that the life of the righteous is always easy and the life of the wicked will always be hard. The intent was to

stress that righteousness is the path of blessing and wickedness is the road to disaster. The world of Psalm 37 was a world (like ours) where the wicked often prospered (vss. 1, 7-8, 35) and the righteous were often their main targets of hatred (vss. 12, 14, 32). One sometimes had to choose between being righteous and having little and being wicked and having much (vs. 16). The righteous were sometimes “hurled headlong” (vs. 24) and faced troubles (vs. 39). As already mentioned in the paragraph the righteous experienced the hatred and opposition of the wicked. Yet In spite of appearances of the moment, the Psalm stresses that the wicked would be cut off (vs. 9, 22, 28, 34, 38) and the righteous would inherit the land (vs.9, 11, 22, 29, 34). The prosperity of the wicked though it may be real at the moment was going to be short lived (vs. 1-2, 10, 20, 35-38). The purpose of the writer is to show that the ultimate path to blessing is righteousness, and that wickedness and evil is going to fail regardless of how attractive it will look in the short term. Psalm 37 was not given for the purpose of helping us to distinguish the righteous from the wicked. Psalm 37:25 is not a statement that everyone who finds themselves in financial need is giving clear evidence of their sin. That is not the purpose of Psalm 37. Job’s friends use the same kind of statement as Psalm 37:25 but for the purpose of saying that Job has sinned.