translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: JOB

label: NET study note

text: The speech of Eliphaz can be broken down into three main sections. In 4:1-11 he wonders that Job who had comforted so many people in trouble, and who was so pious, should fall into such despair, forgetting the great truth that the righteous never perish under affliction – calamity only destroys the wicked. Then in 4:12 –5:7 Eliphaz tries to warn Job about complaining against God because only the ungodly resent the dealings of God and by their impatience bring down his wrath upon them. Finally in 5:8-27 Eliphaz appeals to Job to follow a different course, to seek after God, for God only smites to heal or to correct, to draw people to himself and away from evil. See K. Fullerton, “Double Entendre in the First Speech of Eliphaz,” JBL 49 (1930): 320-74; J. C. L. Gibson, “Eliphaz the Temanite: A Portrait of a Hebrew Philosopher,” SJT 28 (1975): 259-72; and J. Lust, “A Stormy Vision: Some Remarks on Job 4:12-16 ,” Bijdr 36 (1975): 308-11.


text: Eliphaz will put his thesis forward first negatively and then positively (vv. 8 ff). He will argue that the suffering of the righteous is disciplinary and not for their destruction. He next will argue that it is the wicked who deserve judgment.


text: The figure is an implied metaphor. Plowing suggests the idea of deliberately preparing (or cultivating) life for evil. This describes those who are fundamentally wicked.


text: The statement is saying that if some die by misfortune it is because divine retribution or anger has come upon them. This is not necessarily the case, as the NT declares (see Luke 13:1-5 ).


text: Eliphaz takes up a new image here to make the point that the wicked are destroyed – the breaking up and scattering of a den of lions. There are several words for “lion” used in this section. D. J. A. Clines observes that it is probably impossible to distinguish them ( Job [WBC], 109, 110, which records some bibliography of those who have tried to work on the etymologies and meanings). The first is אַרְיֵה (’ aryeh ) the generic term for “lion.” It is followed by שַׁחַל ( shakhal ) which, like כְּפִיר ( kÿfir ), is a “young lion.” Some have thought that the שַׁחַל ( shakhal ) is a lion-like animal, perhaps a panther or leopard. KBL takes it by metathesis from Arabic “young one.” The LXX for this verse has “the strength of the lion, and the voice of the lioness and the exulting cry of serpents are quenched.”


text: The colon reads “a silence and a voice I hear.” Some have rendered it “there is a silence, and then I hear.” The verb דָּמַם ( damam ) does mean “remain silent” ( Job 29:21; 31:34 ) and then also “cease.” The noun דְּמָמָה ( dÿmamah , “calm”) refers to the calm after the storm in Ps 107:29 . Joined with the true object of the verb, “voice,” it probably means something like stillness or murmuring or whispering here. It is joined to “voice” with a conjunction, indicating that it is a hendiadys, “murmur and a voice” or a “murmuring voice.”


text: In Job 15:14 and 25:4 the verb יִזְכֶּה ( yizkeh , from זָכָה [ zakhah , “be clean”]) is paralleled with יִצְדַּק ( yitsdaq , from צָדֵק [ tsadeq , “be righteous”).


text: The servants here must be angels in view of the parallelism. The Targum to Job interpreted them to be the prophets. In the book we have already read about the “sons of God” who take their stand as servants before the Lord ( 1:6; 2:1 ). And Ps 104:4 identifies the angels as servants (using שָׁרַת , sharat ).


text: Those who live in houses of clay are human beings, for the human body was made of clay ( Job 10:9; 33:6 ; and Isa 64:7 ). In 2 Cor 4:7 the body is an “earthen vessel” – a clay pot. The verse continues the analogy: houses have foundations, and the house of clay is founded on dust, and will return to dust ( Gen 3:19 ; Ps 103:14 ). The reasoning is that if God finds defects in angels, he will surely find them in humans who are inferior to the angels because they are but dust. In fact, they are easily crushed like the moth.


text: The second colon expresses the consequence of this day-long reducing to ashes – they perish forever! (see 20:7 and 14:20 ).


text: They die. This clear verb interprets all the images in these verses – they die. When the house of clay collapses, or when their excess perishes – their life is over.