Chapter Reflection

Eliphaz answers Job with a mixture of sympathy and correction: he first remembers Job’s former strength for others, then turns that memory into a judgment about why suffering has come upon him. His argument is neat and severe, assuming that suffering always reveals some hidden fault, while Job’s anguish itself is treated as evidence against him. The center of the chapter is the frightening night-vision: a wordless spirit, trembling, silence, and then the question that humbles all boastful certainty, whether mortal man can be more just than God. Yet the vision does not end in consolation but in fragility: even angels are not trusted as if they were self-sufficient, and human beings are shown as clay, easily crushed, quickly passing away, and unable to stand in their own excellence. What emerges is a sobering picture of divine holiness and creaturely weakness, but also a warning against speaking too quickly about the hidden ways of God when another person is already in pain.

Suffering and judgmentNight visionCreaturely weaknessDivine holinessHuman frailty

Job 4

1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

2If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?

3Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.

4Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.

5But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.

6Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?

7Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?

8Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.

9By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.

10The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

11The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lion’s whelps are scattered abroad.

12Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof.

13In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men,

14Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.

15Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:

16It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying,

17Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?

18Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:

19How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?

20They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it.

21Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom.

Who God is

How does God appear to you here: as the One before whom even the brightest creature cannot stand on its own?

The condition of man

What does it mean for you to be a house of clay—able to speak, comfort, and falter, yet never self-sustaining before God?