Job 4:7-11

Eliphaz’s view of suffering 4:7-11

This is one of the clearest expressions of Eliphaz’s view of why people suffer and his view of the basis for the divine-human relationship (Job 4:7). He believed good people always win and the bad always lose. He was asserting that Job’s sins were finding him out. Bildad and Zophar shared this conclusion, but experience does not support it, as Job pointed out later. Eliphaz also explained the basis for his arguments: personal experience (Job 4:8). Unfortunately, any one person’s individual experience is too limited to provide enough data with which to answer the great questions Job and his friends discussed.