Job 5:1

THE CONCLUSION OF ELPIHAZ' FIRST SPEECH

Eliphaz' speech revealed some good qualities in him. He no doubt believed that Job had been a righteous man; and in spite of the fact that he even suggested that the terrible misfortunes that came upon Job might have been in the category of `chastening' rather than as punishment, his smug and erroneous belief that such calamities were usually if not always the proof and punishment of wickedness must have been quite painful to Job.

Job 5:1-7

ELIPHAZ' WORD THAT JOB'S CASE WAS HOPELESS

"Call now; is there any that will answer thee?

And to which of the holy ones wilt thou turn?

For vexation killeth the foolish man,

And jealousy 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 snare gapeth for their substance.

For affliction cometh not forth from the dust,

Neither doth trouble spring out of the ground:

But man is born unto trouble,

As the sparks fly upward."

"Is there any that will answer thee" (Job 5:1)? Such a question in Hebrew was an emphatic negative, with the meaning that, "Not even any of the angels would hear Job's prayer." "What he says is that, `it is futile to call out in prayer,' for no one will answer."[1] Eliphaz himself had just claimed that God heard him in prayer; so, "It is Job himself who is disqualified to pray."[2]

"Vexation killeth the foolish man" (Job 5:2). Eliphaz has concluded that Job's vexation and jealousy show that Job has become a fool. In his description of what happens to the fool, "Eliphaz deliberately goes through a whole roll of disasters corresponding so exactly to what had happened to Job, that each word is a poisoned arrow."[3]

"His children are far from safety" (Job 5:4). The implication of this is that Job's sins have also brought sorrow to his children. Of course, it is true that sin injures others besides the sinner. It is against God, against the sinner's family, against society, and against the sinner himself; "It is inevitable that when a man disgraces himself that his family share in it."[4] However. the tragedy of Eliphaz' observation here is that it had no application whatever to Job.

"Eliphaz and the other friends of Job were like men who close their eyes to the real facts, rock back on their heels, and speak of general principles, every one of which is contradicted by the indisputable facts before them."[5]

"And taketh it even out of the thorns" (Job 5:5). The imagery here is that of ancient harvests which were protected from raiders and vandals, "by thorn hedges."[6]

"Affliction cometh not forth from the dust ... Man is born unto trouble, as sparks fly upward" (Job 5:6-7). "Here Eliphaz says that trouble comes naturally to man; but he had just said the opposite,"[7] that trouble did not just rise up out of the dust, but it came as a consequence of wickedness.

Eliphaz' idea that disasters and calamities were invariably due to the sin of those who suffered such things was generally received throughout the ancient world. Even the Twelve asked Jesus, concerning the man born blind, "Who sinned? This man or his parents that he should have been born blind"? (John 9:2). Jesus put that old lie to rest with the declaration that neither the blind man nor his parents had sinned, but, "That the glory of God should be manifested in him."

It is true, of course that sin is the root and cause of all the sorrow and suffering of mankind; but that cannot mean that an individual sufferer of this or that misfortune is suffering because of his personal sin. David, Jeremiah, Jacob, Tamar, Uriah, - call the roll of Old Testament heroes; they all suffered from the sins of others, not from their own wickedness. "And what about Our Saviour himself?. He did no wrong, in fact, committed no sin whatever, yet he suffered the agony of the Cross. The argument of Eliphaz does not hold water."[8]

"As the sparks fly upward" (Job 5:7). In the Hebrew, this reads, "As the sons of Reseph, an old Canaanite god. Here Eliphaz has given up his attempt at a moral explanation of Job's disasters, offering dismal comfort."[9]