Job 4:1-27:23 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Job 4:1-6

In these verses, I. Eliphaz excuses the trouble he is now about to give to Job by his discourse (Job 4:2): ?If we assay a word with thee, offer a word of reproof and counsel, wilt thou be grieved and take it ill?? We have reason to fear thou wilt; but there is no remedy: ?Who can refrain from words?? Observe, 1. With what modesty he speaks of himself and his own attempt. He will not undertake the management of the cause alone, but very humbly joins his friends with him: ?We will commune with... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 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 bear any longer with Job and his behaviour under his afflictions; Eliphaz was one of Job's three friends that came to visit him, Job 2:11 ; very probably he might be the senior man, or a man of the greatest authority and power; a most respectable person, had in great esteem and reverence among... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Job 4:1

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, endeavoring to strip him of his only consolation, - the testimony of his... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Job 4:1

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said (see the comment on Job 2:11 ). read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Job 4:1

Eliphaz the visionary. After Job has broken the seven days' silence, each of his friends assays to comfort him, with that most irritating form of consolation—unsolicited advice. Although, perhaps, some of the critics have thought they detected greater differences Between the three friends than are really apparent from the narrative, we cannot but notice certain distinctive features. What they have in common is more pronounced than their points of difference. Thus they all three are friends... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Job 4:1-6

The teacher tested. Throughout the words of Job's friends many truths are to be found both accurately stated and beautifully illustrated; but in many cases—almost generally—a wrong application of them is made. The friends designing to be comforters do, through imperfect views of the mystery of human suffering, indeed become accusers, and make the burden heavier which they proposed to lighten. But the words now under consideration are perfectly true. He who had formerly been the instructor of... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Job 4:1-11

Eliphaz to Job: the opening of the second controversy: 1. The relation of suffering to sin. I. A COURTEOUS EXORDIUM . Eliphaz, the oldest and wisest of the friends, adopts an apologetic strain in replying to Job's imprecation, representing the task assumed by him as: 1 . Painful to Job ; which it certainly was. In circumstances even the most favourable, it requires no little grace to receive admonition with equanimity; not to speak of counting it a kindness and esteeming it an... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Job 4:1-11

Eliphaz and Job: forgotten truths called to mind. However misapplied to his particular case may have been the speeches of Job's friends, there can be no dispute concerning the purity and the sublimity of the great truths for which they here appear as spokesmen. If not well directed to Job, they may be well directed to us. Each of the friends represents a certain aspect of the truths which relate man to God. In the speech of Eliphaz the main position taken is that man, in his ignorance and... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.