Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

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Job 4

Eliphaz: Job Has Sinned

Job 4:¹ Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

Job 4:² “If one attempts a word with you, will you become weary?
But who can withhold himself from speaking?

Job 4:³ Surely you have instructed many,
And you have strengthened weak hands.

Job 4:⁴ Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,
And you have strengthened the feeble (Lit. bending) knees;

Job 4:⁵ But now it comes upon you, and you are weary;
It touches you, and you are troubled.

Job 4:⁶ Is not your reverence your confidence?
And the integrity of your ways your hope?

Job 4:⁷ “Remember now, who ever perished being innocent?
Or where were the upright ever cut off?

• Sometimes the dragon wins and we don’t know why.

Job 4:⁸ Even as I have seen,
Those who plow iniquity
And sow trouble reap the same.

Job 4:⁹ By the blast of God they perish,
And by the breath of His anger they are consumed.

Job 4:¹⁰ The roaring of the lion,
The voice of the fierce lion,
And the teeth of the young lions are broken.

Job 4:¹¹ The old lion perishes for lack of prey,
And the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

Job 4:¹² “Now a word was secretly brought to me (Eliphaz),
And my ear received a whisper of it.

• Silence can protect, but secrets destroy.
• Test the spirits.
  • 1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God;

Job 4:¹³ In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night,
When deep sleep falls on men,

Job 4:¹⁴ Fear came upon me, and trembling,
Which made all my bones shake.

Job 4:¹⁵ Then a spirit passed before my face;
The hair on my body stood up.

• Eliphaz has a night terror, a “frightmare”.
• It is a “spirit”. Is it a good spirit or a bad spirit?

Job 4:¹⁶ It stood still,
But I could not discern its appearance.
A form was before my eyes;
There was silence;
Then I heard a voice saying:

Job 4:¹⁷ ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God?
Can a man be more pure than his Maker?

• Isn’t this an accusation?
• And who is the accuser? Satan.
• Bad logic: Job never said he was more righteous than God. Job only said he had not sinned.
• This is the same logic the serpent used in the Garden of Eden. ““Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
  No, God did not say that. God said not to eat of the tree of good and evil (the tree in the middle of the Garden).

Job 4:¹⁸ If He puts no trust in His servants (those who serve God),
If He charges His angels (messengers) with error,

• Speaking of Satan…

Job 4:¹⁹ How much more those who dwell in houses of clay,
Whose foundation is in the dust,
Who are crushed before a moth?

• This is a partial truth. Men are made of clay but it is men who will be judging angels. If this is Satan, then to have a man judge him would be insulting because he sees men as “nothing” compared to himself.

Job 4:²⁰ They are broken in pieces from morning till evening;
They perish forever, with no one regarding.

• Mortal men are a potter’s field where the potter tosses unusable pieces into the field where they are broken in pieces from morning until evening.
• God is the potter, and we are the clay.
• Satan’s arrogance makes him the king of the children of pride.

Job 4:²¹ Does not their own excellence go away?
They die, even without wisdom.’