Job 5

Eliphaz continues his first speech to Job. He argues that fools bring ruin on themselves, that trouble is part of human life, and that Job should turn to God, who lifts the lowly and humbles the proud. He closes with a rich promise of restoration for those who accept God’s discipline. His words contain real truth, but he wrongly applies them to Job, and God later rebukes him and his friends.

Job 5:1

Eliphaz tells Job that no one will answer his cries. He suggests that even the holy ones, probably angels, will not take his side. It is a cold opening, and it shows how little comfort Job’s friends really give him.

BSA: holy ones (“saints, set apart ones, angels”): Eliphaz means heavenly beings, and he says that none of them will plead Job’s cause.

Job 5:2

Eliphaz says that bitter anger and jealousy destroy those who lack wisdom. The hint is that Job’s complaints are a kind of foolish resentment, and that he is harming himself. The warning is true in general, but it is unfair to Job.

BSA: resentment (“vexation, anger”): This is a stewing, frustrated anger that eats a person from within.

Job 5:3

Eliphaz says he has watched a fool flourish, as a tree sinks its roots. Then, in an instant, a curse struck his household. He draws on what he has seen to claim that the wicked do not last.

BSA: suddenly (“in an instant”): The fall of the fool comes without warning, just when he seems most secure.

Job 5:4

The fool’s children are left unprotected and are crushed at the city gate, where legal cases were heard. No one speaks up for them. Eliphaz is pointing at Job’s own lost children, though he does not say so. That makes his words cruel.

BSA: court (“the gate, a place of judgment”): In ancient towns the elders sat at the city gate to settle disputes. safety (“salvation, deliverance, rescue”): The children have no rescue at all.

Job 5:5

The hungry strip the fool’s harvest, even reaching into the thorn hedges that guard it. The thirsty swallow his wealth. Everything he worked for is carried off. Eliphaz’s picture is of loss that is total.

Job 5:6-7

Trouble does not just pop up from the soil. Eliphaz says it is part of being human, as natural as sparks flying up from a fire. This is a true observation about life after the Fall, though he uses it to lecture Job.

BSA: trouble (“hard work, misery”): The word covers both toil and sorrow, which are the common lot of humanity.

See also: Genesis 3:17-19; John 16:33.

Job 5:8

Eliphaz now gives his advice. If he were Job, he would seek God and lay his case before Him. Turning to God in trouble is right counsel. It is the assumption behind it, that Job’s sin caused his suffering, that is wrong.

BSA: cause (“reason, lawsuit, or case”): Job is invited to present his case as one would before a judge.

See also: Psalm 55:22.

Job 5:9-10

Eliphaz praises God’s greatness. His works are beyond searching out, and His wonders cannot be counted. Even ordinary rain on the fields shows His care. Nothing is too large or too small for Him.

BSA: unsearchable (“mysterious, beyond human understanding”): God’s ways go past what the human mind can trace, which is a lesson Job himself will learn.

See also: Romans 11:33.

Job 5:11

God reverses fortunes. He lifts the lowly and raises the grieving to safety. The point is that those in sorrow are not forgotten, and this offers real hope to Job, who is mourning.

BSA: safety (“salvation, deliverance”): The mourners are not just comforted but actually rescued.

See also: 1 Samuel 2:7-8; James 4:10.

Job 5:12-14

God frustrates the plans of the clever who scheme against others. They are caught in their own tricks and fumble in the daytime as if it were night. Human cunning is no match for God. Paul later quotes verse 13.

BSA: craftiness (“cleverness, deceit, subtlety”): The very cleverness the wise rely on becomes the trap that catches them. grope (“feel, search blindly”): The schemers are left feeling their way like blind people, even at noon.

See also: 1 Corinthians 3:19.

Job 5:15-16

God rescues the needy from the cruel words and grasp of the powerful. So the poor have hope, and injustice is silenced. God takes the side of the weak, and that is good news for anyone who feels crushed.

BSA: hope (“expectancy, a cord that attaches to a future promise”): Hope is like a cord tying the poor to what God will do for them.

See also: Psalm 107:41-42.

Job 5:17

Eliphaz calls the person blessed whom God corrects, and he urges Job not to despise the Almighty’s discipline. Scripture does teach that God disciplines those He loves. Yet Job’s suffering is not discipline for sin, as the book makes clear.

BSA: discipline (“chastening, correction”): The word means training and correction meant to improve a person, not just punishment.

See also: Proverbs 3:11-12; Hebrews 12:5-6.

Job 5:18

God’s hand wounds, but the same hand binds up and heals. Like a physician setting a broken bone, He hurts in order to mend. This is a comforting picture of a God who does not leave us broken.

BSA: binds (“ties firmly”): It is the image of a wound being carefully bandaged.

See also: Hosea 6:1; Deuteronomy 32:39.

Job 5:19

Eliphaz promises that God will rescue Job in six troubles, and in the seventh no harm will touch him. The pattern of six and seven is a way of saying that God’s care covers trouble after trouble, however many come.

BSA: six (“many”): The number points to a full and uncounted set of troubles, not a literal tally.

See also: Psalm 34:19.

Job 5:20-21

In famine God will redeem from death, and in war from the sword. You will be hidden from the lash of slander and not fear destruction. God protects in every kind of danger, from hunger to hostile words.

BSA: redeem (“pay a price to set free, save”): The word carries the picture of buying someone out of a danger they could not escape alone. scourge (“whip, lash”): Cruel speech is likened to a whip that cuts.

See also: Psalm 31:20.

Job 5:22-23

The one God protects can laugh at ruin and hunger and need not fear wild beasts. Even the field’s stones will not trip him, and the animals will live at peace with him. All of nature is pictured as being on his side.

BSA: covenant (“agreement, promise”): The picture is of a pact of peace with the land itself, so that nothing in it turns against him.

See also: Hosea 2:18; Isaiah 11:6-9.

Job 5:24-26

Eliphaz promises a safe home, many descendants and a full life that ends like grain gathered in at harvest. It is a picture of peace in the household and a good death at the right time. It describes blessing, though no one can claim it as a guarantee.

BSA: secure (“in peace, at rest”): The word is shalom, a settled wholeness in the home. full vigor (“full strength, prime of life”): He pictures a long life carried to its natural completion, not cut off early.

See also: Psalm 91:10.

Job 5:27

Eliphaz closes by saying that he and his friends have examined all this and found it true. He urges Job to listen and apply it to himself. His confidence is sincere but misplaced, because he does not know the real reason for Job’s suffering.

BSA: investigated (“searched it out, examined carefully”): He claims careful study, yet his conclusions about Job are wrong.