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

Job 5

Job book home•Chapter 5 of 42•27 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Job 5 Overview

Eliphaz continues by warning that resentment destroys the foolish, praising God’s greatness, and urging Job to seek God. He describes divine correction as beneficial and promises restoration to the one God chastens, implying that Job should accept his suffering as deserved discipline.

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5Chapter

27Verses

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Before you read Job 5

Coming from

Chapter 4 began Eliphaz’s argument that suffering exposes wrongdoing.

In this chapter

Eliphaz expands his case by blending true statements about God’s power with an overconfident promise that correction will lead Job back to prosperity.

Leads into

Chapter 6 opens Job’s answer, where he explains that Eliphaz has underestimated the weight of his grief and failed as a friend.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Eliphaz uses the language of chastening because he believes Job’s disaster must be corrective punishment. Hebrews later affirms that God chastens His children, but Job’s prologue prevents that truth from being used as the explanation for this particular calamity.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

God is great, humbles the proud, and can deliver the afflicted—truths Eliphaz states correctly.

Truth 2

A true doctrine of chastening does not justify assuming that another person’s specific suffering proves specific guilt.

Truth 3

Comfort becomes accusation when the sufferer is told to confess sins the adviser cannot identify.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Hebrews 12:5-11 develops the doctrine of divine chastening, while Job cautions against presuming to know that every hardship is chastening for a particular sin.

Connection 2

Psalm 147:3-6 similarly joins God’s healing mercy with His power over the wicked.

Connection 3

Job 42:7-9 requires the friends to offer sacrifice after God rebukes their speech.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Do not quote Job 5:17 as though Eliphaz’s application to Job had God’s approval; compare the whole book.

Keep this clear 2

Promises in the speech should not be turned into guarantees that godly people will always enjoy long life, safety, and wealth in this age.

Keep this clear 3

God’s ability to restore Job is true, but Eliphaz does not know the reason for Job’s suffering.

Read Job 5 watching for…

The mixture of accurate theology and mistaken application.

Eliphaz’s repeated assumption that Job is being corrected.

The prosperity he predicts after submission.

The confidence with which he speaks without knowing chapters 1–2.

How his speech sets up Job’s complaint about failed friendship.

Chapter outline3 sections

1-7Eliphaz says foolishness brings trouble and that man is born unto trouble 8-16Eliphaz urges Job to seek God, who does great things and helps the lowly 17-27Eliphaz calls God’s correction a blessing and promises deliverance to the chastened man

Call now, if there be any that will answer thee; and to which of the saints wilt thou turn?

For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one.

I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation.

His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, neither is there any to deliver them.

Whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh it even out of the thorns, and the robber swalloweth up their substance.

Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;

Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause:

Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number:

Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields:

To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety.

He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.

He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.

They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope in the noonday as in the night.

But he saveth the poor from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty.

So the poor hath hope, and iniquity stoppeth her mouth.

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:

For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.

He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.

In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword.

Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.

At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.

For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.

And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin.

Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great, and thine offspring as the grass of the earth.

Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.

Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good.

STUDY THIS VERSE

Job 5:15

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