Job 4:1

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

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, Eliphaz - the mildest of Job's three accusers.

Job 4:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,Ver. 1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite] Then, when Job had laid about him in this sort; and, giving his tongue too much liberty to lash out, had uttered words little better than blasphemous and contumelious against God; then Eliphaz, Temanites ille, the first born of Esau, Genesis 36:4 (saith R. Salomon), brought up in the bosom of Isaac, and so inured to revelations from on high. Others think he descended of Teman, nephew to Esau, &c. A man of great wisdom he was, and of great discourse; one that could speak his mind fitly, and did it freely. He seems to have been the chief of the three for age and authority, and therefore begins; pretending to be moved thereunto by zeal for God’ s glory, not a little impaired by Job’ s impatience savouring of hypocrisy, and arguing eum ficto fucatoque cordo fuisse, that he had been little better than a dissembler. A causeless and uncharitable charge; enough to have driven him into desperation. The Rabbis speak so well of Job’ s three friends, that they used to say in a Proverb (Bava bathra Perech 1), Let a man either get him such friends as Job had, or else get him out of the world (like as Chrysippus was wont to say, Aut mentem, aut restim comparandam). But Gregory the Great saith, that these three, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, do fitly set forth heretics, who begin to speak smoothly at first, as if they meant no harm to him to whom they speak, but only good, to purchase his benevolous attention, but soon come to speak words which much hurt the hearer, and greatly trouble him, &c.

CHAPTER IV Eliphaz answers; and accuses Job of impatience, and of despondence in the time of adversity, 1-6; asserts that no innocent man ever perished, and that the wicked are afflicted for their sins, 7-11; relates a vision that he had, 12-16, and what was said to him on the occasion, 17-21. NOTES ON CHAP. IV Verse 1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered] For seven days this person and his two friends had observed a profound silence, being awed and confounded at the sight of Job's unprecedented affliction. Having now sufficiently contemplated his afflicted state, and heard his bitter complaint, forgetting that he came as a comforter, and not as a reprover, he loses the feeling of the friend in the haughtiness of the censor, endeavouring to strip him of his only consolation, - the testimony of his conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, he had his conversation among men, - by insinuating that if his ways had been upright, he would not have been abandoned to such distress and affliction; and if his heart possessed that righteousness of which he boasted, he would not have been so suddenly cast down by adversity.

Ch. Job 4:1-11. Eliphaz wonders that Job, who had comforted so many in trouble, and was a righteous man, should fall into such despair under his afflictions Eliphaz would gladly have kept silence in the circumstances of his friend, but the tone of Job’s words constrains him to speak (Job 4:2). He wonders at the despondency of Job, one who had shewn himself so skilful in comforting other good men in affliction (Job 4:3-4), and who was himself a righteous man. He should place confidence in his righteousness, and remember that the righteous never perish under affliction. God does not send trouble upon them to destroy them, but for very different ends (Job 4:6-7). It is only the wicked whom He chastises unto death, and causes to reap the trouble which they sow (Job 4:8-9), and perish like beasts of prey (Job 4:10-11). Eliphaz’s doctrine of the meaning of suffering or evil comes out in the very forefront of his remonstrance with Job.

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered - See the notes at Job 2:11.

The First Course of the Controversy. Chaps. 4-14.FIRST OF ELIPHAZ, ch. 4, 5.1.