BOOK 18 OF 66 · WISDOM & POETRY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Job 4

Job book home•Chapter 4 of 42•21 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Job 4 Overview

Eliphaz begins the friends’ speeches. He reminds Job that Job once strengthened others, then argues from his experience that the innocent do not perish while those who plow iniquity reap trouble. He also recounts a frightening night vision emphasizing human frailty before God.

JobBook

4Chapter

21Verses

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Before you read Job 4

Coming from

Job’s lament in chapter 3 expressed despair without offering a full explanation for his suffering.

In this chapter

Eliphaz begins constructing the friends’ central theory: severe suffering points to moral fault.

Leads into

Chapter 5 continues Eliphaz’s first speech by urging Job to seek God and accept divine correction.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Eliphaz’s mistake is not that every sentence is false. He speaks true things about human weakness and divine justice, but he applies a rigid retribution principle to Job’s case when the prologue has already told the reader Job’s calamity is not punishment for secret wickedness.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

True theological statements can become harmful when applied to the wrong situation.

Truth 2

Personal experience—“I have seen”—is not enough to explain every case of suffering.

Truth 3

Human beings are indeed frail before God, but that truth does not prove Job guilty of the crimes Eliphaz will imply.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Galatians 6:7 teaches sowing and reaping as a real moral principle, but Job shows why it must not be used as a mechanical explanation of every earthly tragedy.

Connection 2

John 9:1-3 rejects a direct sin-to-suffering equation in a particular case.

Connection 3

Job 42:7 will give God’s final negative evaluation of the friends’ handling of Him and Job.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Do not dismiss Eliphaz as saying nothing true; the problem is his certainty, application, and later accusations.

Keep this clear 2

The mysterious spirit/vision should not be made the doctrinal foundation of the book; God’s final speech and evaluation carry greater authority.

Keep this clear 3

Do not infer Job’s guilt from Eliphaz’s confidence.

Read Job 4 watching for…

How Eliphaz shifts from sympathy to diagnosis.

His appeal to what he has personally observed.

The reaping principle he applies to suffering.

The content of the night vision.

What Eliphaz assumes about Job without evidence.

Chapter outline3 sections

1-6Eliphaz reminds Job that he once strengthened others and questions why he now faints 7-11Eliphaz argues that those who sow wickedness reap trouble 12-21Eliphaz describes a fearful vision about human weakness before God

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?

Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.

Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.

But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.

Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?

Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?

Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.

By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.

The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lion's whelps are scattered abroad.

Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof.

In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men,

Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.

Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:

It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying,

Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?

Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:

How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?

They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it.

Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom.

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Job 4:9

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