Job 5:8

SOME MORE GENERALITIES IN THE SPEECH OF ELIPHAZ

"But as for me, I would seek unto God,

And unto God would I commit my cause;

Who doeth great things, and unsearchable,

Marvelous things without number:

Who giveth rain upon the earth,

And sendeth waters upon the fields;

So that he setteth upon on high those that are low,

And those that mourn are exalted to safety.

He frustrateth 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 cunning is carried headlong.

They meet with darkness in the daytime,

And grope at noonday as in the night.

But he saveth from the sword of their mouth,

Even the needy from the hand of the mighty.

So the poor have hope,

And iniquity stoppeth her mouth."

"Unto God would I commit my cause" (Job 5:8). We like Dilday's paraphrase here: "If I were you Job, I would quit complaining and humbly trust God to help me. He thinks that Job should rejoice in sufferings because they open the way to richer blessings."[10] Eliphaz, however, was mistaken. "Suffering does not come to men in proportion to their sins, and neither is prosperity granted in proportion to one's piety. Everything depends upon the will of God."[11] Indeed God did, at a later time, bless Job superlatively, "But not upon the conditions which Eliphaz here imagined."[12]

"He setteth up on high those that are low" (Job 5:11). Barnes pointed out that the Virgin Mary very beautifully expressed much the same thought in Luke 1:52-53.[13]

"He taketh the wise in their own craftiness" (Job 5:13). Also, it appears that Eliphaz' remarks here prompted the apostle Paul to write 1 Corinthians 3:19; but our own opinion is that no New Testament writer quoted from the Book of Job. Some scholars think that Paul did so in the verse cited; but Driver and Gray pointed out that, "If Paul here quoted from Job, he either translated from the Hebrew himself, or quoted from some other than any of the known versions."[14] We learned in our New Testament studies that Paul often used the language of Old Testament passages to formulate his own inspired writings, and that in a number of passages where Paul is sometimes alleged to have "misquoted" or garbled some Old Testament Scripture, he was by no means `quoting' Scripture; he was `writing' Scripture.[15] Heavenor stated that 1 Corinthians 3:19 is the only clear case of a quotation from Job to be found in the New Testament;[16] and, in the light of Driver's analysis, this writer does not believe that even that reference qualifies as a bona fide quotation.

Eliphaz' message to Job in this speech is, "Repent, confess your sins to God, and he will bless you." "Good old orthodox, conceited prosperous Eliphaz; he thinks he is a prophet; but, if he had been tried like Job, he would have been just as unreasonable, just as perplexed, just as eager for death and just as wild and passionate as was Job,"[17] perhaps more so.

"He taketh the wise in their craftiness" (Job 5:13). DeHoff reminds us that Sanballat, Ahithophel and Haman are Old Testament examples of instances when God did that very thing.[18] But what comfort is there in such information for one who is not wicked, and who is not planning some crafty deception against another?

"He saveth from the sword of their mouth" (Job 5:15). What an eloquent description we have here of a slanderous tongue. It is the `mouth-sword' of evil men.