Job 5 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Job 5

5:1   “Call now; is there anyone who will answer you?
    To which of the holy ones will you turn?
2   Surely vexation kills the fool,
    and jealousy slays the simple.
3   I have seen the fool taking root,
    but suddenly I cursed his dwelling.
4   His children are far from safety;
    they are crushed in the gate,
    and there is no one to deliver them.
5   The hungry eat his harvest,
    and he takes it even out of thorns,¹
    and the thirsty pant² after his³ wealth.
6   For affliction does not come from the dust,
    nor does trouble sprout from the ground,
7   but man is born to trouble
    as the sparks fly upward.
8   “As for me, I would seek God,
    and to God would I commit my cause,
9   who does great things and unsearchable,
    marvelous things without number:
10   he gives rain on the earth
    and sends waters on the fields;
11   he sets on high those who are lowly,
    and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
12   He frustrates the devices of the crafty,
    so that their hands achieve no success.
13   He catches the wise in their own craftiness,
    and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.
14   They meet with darkness in the daytime
    and grope at noonday as in the night.
15   But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth
    and from the hand of the mighty.
16   So the poor have hope,
    and injustice shuts her mouth.
17   “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves;
    therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.
18   For he wounds, but he binds up;
    he shatters, but his hands heal.
19   He will deliver you from six troubles;
    in seven no evil⁴ shall touch you.
20   In famine he will redeem you from death,
    and in war from the power of the sword.
21   You shall be hidden from the lash of the tongue,
    and shall not fear destruction when it comes.
22   At destruction and famine you shall laugh,
    and shall not fear the beasts of the earth.
23   For you shall be in league with the stones of the field,
    and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.
24   You shall know that your tent is at peace,
    and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.
25   You shall know also that your offspring shall be many,
    and your descendants as the grass of the earth.
26   You shall come to your grave in ripe old age,
    like a sheaf gathered up in its season.
27   Behold, this we have searched out; it is true.
    Hear, and know it for your good.”⁵

Footnotes

[1] 5:5 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
[2] 5:5 Aquila, Symmachus, Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew could be read as and the snare pants
[3] 5:5 Hebrew their
[4] 5:19 Or disaster
[5] 5:27 Hebrew for yourself

Commentary

v1-5: A further attack on Job; his sons had been taken away, his harvest destroyed. He is, therefore, foolish and simple.

v6-7: A reference to the inevitability of meeting trouble in this life.

v8-16: Eliphaz' boast, that he would seek God, and commit his cause to God. He implies that Job did not do so. He declares the God of power (v9-10), or justice (v12-14), and of compassion (v15-16). Yet he says that Job is a schemer who preferred the darkness. Whilst Eliphaz makes some true comments about the character of God, he does so with little grace and concern.

v17-26: A further truth about God; see Prov 3.11-12, quoted in Heb 12.5-6. The implication is that God was disciplining Job the sinner.

The testimony of victory, to the one who receives the Lord's discipline; God will rescue from each and every disaster.

v27: "It is true", is Eliphaz' conclusion. He pictures himself as the thinking man, who has weighed up the issues. Job's responsibility is to apply these things to himself.

Eliphaz does not see the full picture, therefore his theology is found defective (42.7).