The big picture
The friend Eliphaz continues his first speech to Job. He has come to visit this suffering man. Job has lost his children, wealth, and health, yet the account has called him upright. Eliphaz thinks trouble fits a moral pattern that experience can explain. He urges Job to seek God and accept correction, then promises safety and a full life. Some of his words sound hopeful, but he has not shown that Job's suffering began because of wrongdoing.
In this chapter
- Eliphaz Links Folly with Trouble Job 5:1-7
Eliphaz asks who will answer Job's appeal and to which holy being he can turn.
- He Urges Job to Seek God Job 5:8-16
Eliphaz says he would bring his case to God.
- Correction Is Said to Lead to Safety Job 5:17-23
Eliphaz calls the person corrected by God fortunate and urges Job not to reject discipline.
- A Full Life Is Promised Job 5:24-27
Eliphaz goes on to promise peace at home, secure possessions, and many descendants.
Central truth
Eliphaz offers hope through God's correction, but his confident promises rest on an explanation of Job's suffering he has not proved.
Scripture beside the summary
Job · King James Version · 27Job 5:1-7
Eliphaz Links Folly with Trouble
Eliphaz asks who will answer Job's appeal and to which holy being he can turn. He warns that resentment and envy destroy a foolish person. He recalls seeing such a person's household appear secure, then collapse. The children have no defender, and others take the harvest and possessions. He says trouble does not grow out of the soil by itself, yet human life brings it as surely as fire sends sparks upward. His examples press a link between foolish conduct and ruin without proving that link in Job's case.
In everyday life
A market trader watches a neighbour lose his stall and tells the crowd that anger always ruins a business. He recalls one clear example and assumes it explains the present loss. The claim leaves the neighbour's actual circumstances unheard. Eliphaz applies this pattern to suffering that includes the deaths of Job's children.
Notice
Job 5:7 The sparks image makes trouble seem inseparable from human life. Eliphaz moves from particular examples to a broad claim, while Job's own cause remains unexamined.
Job 5:1-7
King James Version1Call now, if there be any that will answer thee; and to which of the saints wilt thou turn?
2For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one.
3I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation.
4His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, neither is there any to deliver them.
5Whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh it even out of the thorns, and the robber swalloweth up their substance.
6Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;
7Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
Job 5:8-16
He Urges Job to Seek God
Eliphaz says he would bring his case to God. He praises God's great acts: rain waters fields, the lowly are raised, and mourners find safety. Clever schemes fail when God catches their makers in their own craft. Those who seemed wise grope as if daylight were dark. The poor are rescued from violent hands and cruel speech, so they can hope. These are claims about God's care and justice. The difficulty lies in applying them as though Job has failed to seek the God he already honours.
In everyday life
A gardener tells a distressed neighbour to take his complaint to the allotment trustees, recalling times they protected weaker tenants from bullying. Her confidence offers a possible source of help. It does not show that the neighbour has failed to ask already. Eliphaz speaks of God's power, far beyond any committee's reach.
Notice
Job 5:15 Eliphaz includes harmful speech alongside violence when he describes rescue for the poor. His praise recognises that words, as well as force, can be used against the weak.
Job 5:8-16
King James Version8I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause:
9Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number:
10Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields:
11To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety.
12He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.
13He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.
14They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope in the noonday as in the night.
15But he saveth the poor from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty.
16So the poor hath hope, and iniquity stoppeth her mouth.
Job 5:17-23
Correction Is Said to Lead to Safety
Eliphaz calls the person corrected by God fortunate and urges Job not to reject discipline. He says the same God who wounds also heals. He promises rescue from repeated troubles, hunger, war, slander, and wild animals. Even stones in the fields will seem at peace with the restored person. The language pictures a life no longer threatened from every side. But Eliphaz has assumed that Job's present wounds are corrective. He gives assurance without showing that Job needs the correction he describes.
In everyday life
A physiotherapy assistant tells an injured runner that accepting a hard recovery programme will end every fear about future injury. The advice contains a useful idea but promises more safety than she can know. Encouragement becomes too certain. Eliphaz assumes God's correction explains losses that the opening account does not connect to guilt.
Notice
Job 5:18 The same hands are said to wound and heal. Eliphaz uses that image to offer hope, but it does not prove his account of Job's present pain.
Job 5:17-23
King James Version17Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:
18For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.
19He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.
20In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword.
21Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.
22At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
23For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.
Job 5:24-27
A Full Life Is Promised
Eliphaz goes on to promise peace at home, secure possessions, and many descendants. Job will reach old age like ripe grain gathered at the right season. He closes by saying that he and others have examined these things and found them true. Job should hear and accept them for his own good. The picture is warm, but its certainty is troubling beside a man whose children have died. The friend presents a settled answer before he has understood the particular suffering before him.
In everyday life
A financial adviser shows a bereaved client a cheerful plan for a secure retirement and a growing family estate. He taps the figures as though a sound projection can answer the loss. His confidence arrives before the client has been heard. Eliphaz promises descendants and old age on the basis of his view of God's ways.
Notice
Job 5:27 Eliphaz ends by claiming that the matter has been thoroughly examined. That confidence closes his speech, although the reader knows facts he has never heard.
Job 5:24-27
King James Version24And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin.
25Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great, and thine offspring as the grass of the earth.
26Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.
27Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Job 5:1 begins with “Call now, if there be any that will answer thee; and to which of the saints wilt thou turn?”
Where the chapter turns
Job 5:15 forms a natural hinge: “But he saveth the poor from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty.”
The final note
Job 5:27 leaves the reader with “Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good.”
A word trail through the chapter
The words cometh, earth, know, afraid, beasts, deliver help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- chastening
- Correction or discipline intended to change someone's conduct.
- shock of corn
- A gathered bundle of ripe grain, here a picture of a life ending at its proper time.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
