What does Eliphaz say? Have you often spoken in your suffering? By suffering the Scripture may signify sin, as it states, Under his tongue is mischief.^[1] Eliphaz did not say, Have you committed any evil action? Eliphaz asks, Have you spoken? Indeed the fame of Job’s life shone everywhere, and many still testified to Job’s virtue. It is useless, Eliphaz says to Job, to say that your deeds are just and good, for the very reason that the fault is sometimes found in the words we speak. And who can tolerate the violence of your words? Consider now the expression Have you often spoken? The hesitation and uncertainty do not come from his moderation but from the fact that Eliphaz cannot convince Job about an evident fault on his part, the violence of your words. What did Job say? He wished to die and to be delivered from his present life. Did Job actually say, Is it in spite of my justice and virtues that I suffer such misfortunes? No. He said, I wanted to disappear with the impious, with my servants, with the stillborn. I wanted to have the same fate as the impious. He did not say, I, who have such qualities and such importance.

See, you have reproached many. Eliphaz shows Job that he has corrected many with his action and has brought them back to a fitting moderation with his advice and warnings. And you have strengthened the weak hands, that is, since you exhorted others to endure with a strong soul the calamities that befell them, now it is fair that you exercise patience in your own afflictions.

You have instructed many. The present facts battle with the former opinion. In fact, you supported others after they fell into despair and offered the aid of your hands to those lying down so that they might rise up. Why do you now not follow the stable footsteps of your constancy? Why are you unable to escape from your ruin? The things that you have often taught others should be sufficient for your consolation. These words are spoken either as a consolation through the search for a more virtuous life or as an ironical remark, not because Job had actually helped others but because he had simply believed he was doing so.

Is not your fear based on folly, as is your hope, and your mischievous ways?^[1] That is to say, was there not a foolish intention behind your actions? Eliphaz means, Either you have not done these things, or your life is full of evil. Or you do not fear God with a righteous intention and all that you say is mere words. Your hope is based on folly. Eliphaz states that Job’s hope was filled with foolishness. Why? Is it necessary to say that? Is it not possible that after often helping his neighbor, he has now fallen into misfortune? No, says Eliphaz.

While Scripture’s spirit witnesses on behalf of Job that he has not committed any folly against God, Eliphaz incorrectly understands the reason behind what has been imposed upon Job. Eliphaz believes that Job suffers because of trespasses, and he thinks the words Job has spoken were motivated by his unacceptable behavior. Is not your fear founded in folly, since you think you are righteous, your hope also, and the mischief of your way? Folly, Eliphaz says, is also the hope that you will be considered righteous. For such punishments are not imposed upon a righteous person. Eliphaz calls Job’s way the way of wickedness. He continuously thinks that the holy man suffers due to sins. This is also why Eliphaz ascribes folly to him.

Whether it be heretics, of whom we have said that the friends of blessed Job bore an image, or whether any of the evil ones, they are as much to blame in their admonitions as they are immoderate in their condemnation. For Eliphaz says, Who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the righteous cut off? Since it often happens that in this life both the innocent perish and the righteous are utterly cut off, yet in perishing they are kept for glory eternal. For if innocent people never perished, the prophet would not say, The righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart.^[1] If God in his providential dealings did not carry off the righteous, Wisdom would never have said of the righteous person, Yes, he was taken away quickly, to prevent wickedness from altering his understanding.^[2] If no visitation ever struck the righteous, Peter would never foretell it, saying, For the time has come that judgment must begin in the house of God.^[3] They, then, are genuinely righteous who produce the love of the heavenly country to meet all the ills of the present life. For all who fear enduring ills in this life are clearly not righteous people. They have forgotten they suffer for the sake of eternal blessings. But Eliphaz does not take into account either that the righteous are cut off or that the innocent perish here. For people often serve God not in the hope of heavenly glory but for an earthly recompense. They make a fiction in their own head of that which they are seeking. Thinking themselves to be instructors in preaching earthly immunity, they show by all their pains what is the thing they love.

To sow grief is to utter deceits, but to reap grief is to prevail by speaking this way. Or, surely, they sow grief who do evil actions. They reap grief when they are punished for this wickedness. For the harvest of grief is the recompense of condemnation. The text immediately introduced the idea that they that sow and reap grief, will perish by the blast of God. They are consumed by the breath of his nostrils. Yet in this passage the reaping of grief is not yet punishment but the still further perfecting of wickedness. For in the breath of his nostrils, the punishment of that reaping is made to follow. Here, then, they sow and reap grief, in that all that they do is wicked. They thrive in that very wickedness, as is said of the wicked person by the psalmist, His ways are always grievous; your judgments are far above his vision. As for all his enemies, he puffs at them.^[1] It is quickly added concerning him, under his tongue is labor and grief.^[2] Hence, he sows grief when he does wicked things. He reaps grief when from the same wickedness he grows to temporal greatness. How then is it that they who perish by the blast of God are for the most part permitted to abide long here below, and in greater prosperity than the righteous? Thus it is said of them again by the psalmist, They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other folk.^[3] Therefore, Jeremiah asks, Why does the way of the wicked prosper?^[4] Because it is written, For the Lord is a longsuffering rewarder,^[5] he often puts up with for a long time those whom he condemns for all eternity. Yet sometimes God strikes quickly, in that he hastens to the aid of the fearful innocent. Thus, almighty God sometimes permits the wicked to have their way for a long time, so that the way of the righteous may be more purely cleansed. Yet sometimes he slays the unrighteous with speedy destruction, and by their ruin he strengthens the hearts of the innocent. ^[6] THE ARROGANT HAVE PERISHED. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: The author signifies by the lion those powerful men who inspire people with fear, as lions do. By lioness he means their wives, who were evil and inspired fear simply by speaking. In the same manner, their children were arrogant and quite cruel. All these have perished. They were extinguished instantly. ^[1]

The writer mentions natural things, that is, nothing that is new or unusual. Certain laws regulate everything, and nothing has changed. Indeed, if what concerns wild beasts remains the same, even more so what concerns us remains unchanged. If it is not possible to restrain the strength of the lion, then the righteous also cannot be prevented from talking frankly. In fact, as the wild beast naturally possesses strength, so also the righteous person possesses a natural power and force. Actually it is more likely for a lion to become weak than for a righteous person to allow others to manipulate him.

In the present case Eliphaz wants to suggest, in my opinion, that Job has often spoken such words either, perhaps, to drive others to jealousy or with a different intention. You that ask such questions, see whom you resemble. Indeed, if Eliphaz has spoken so in these circumstances without obtaining forgiveness, it will be the same for us. Our situation will be even worse, because we have views similar to those of Eliphaz. And we have the advantage of the proofs the facts provide. We have been allowed to see the real reasons for the misfortunes that happened to Job. Yet we are just like those who believe they found a reason to blame him and to attack him without waiting for the evidence of the facts.

Whoever is inclined to do worldly things is, as it were, awake, but he who seeks inward rest eschews the riot of this world and is, as it were, asleep. Yet first we must know that when sleep is described figuratively in holy Scripture, it is understood in three senses. Sometimes we have used sleep to express the death of the body; sometimes sleep represents the grogginess of neglect; and sometimes sleep signifies tranquility of life. Earthly desires have been tramped underfoot. . . . What is denoted by the word bones but strong deeds? The prophet refers to the same thing when he writes, He keeps all their bones.^[1] In addition, it often happens that the things that people do are often reckoned to be of some account, largely because they do not realize how keen is God’s inward discernment. However, when transported on the wings of contemplation, they behold things above. Somehow, they melt away from the security they felt in their presumption and quake all the more in the sight of God, a response proportionate to their awareness that whatever is excellent in them will not stand up to the searching eye of him whom they behold. . . . To stand, then, is the attribute of the Creator alone, through whom all things pass away, though he himself never passes away, and in whom some things are held fast so that they might not pass away. Hence, our Redeemer, because the fixed state of his divine nature cannot be comprehended by the human mind, showed this to us as it were in passing, by coming to us, by being created, born, dead, buried, by rising again and returning to the heavenly realms. Christ foreshadowed this well in the gospel by enlightening the blind man, to whom Jesus promised hearing as he passed by, but he stood still as he healed his eyes.^[2] For in the economy of his human nature he passed by, but in the power of his divine nature he stood still, demonstrating that he is present everywhere. ^[3] OUR PERCEPTION OF DIVINE NATURE. ISHO‘DAD OF MERV: Eliphaz employs murmur and voice as words to express his ideas about God. As. . . the murmur and the voice strike our ears, they have no form or aspect. We only receive their sensation. Just as it is not possible to see a murmur or voice, so we must realize the same is true of our thoughts about the divine nature. We receive our perception and knowledge of the divine nature as God gives us these thoughts, but this is not something that we can perceive through forms. ^[1]

And do not think, Eliphaz says, that I am speaking these words to you reproachfully. No person, in fact, is totally blameless, and if he can hide his sins from people, he does not hide them from God’s all-seeing eye that knows everything accurately. This indicates what is contrary to the Lord.^[1]

In truth, to be faultless is not easy for human beings. Faultlessness is beyond human possibilities. The order of the angels is itself subject to such weakness. This is what Eliphaz says, Even in his servants God puts no trust. It is evident that God puts no trust in the righteous—like you, who have trusted yourself—because he knows the weakness of their nature and how easily their flesh falls. The fallen angels give God a reason not to trust in them, those whom he charges with error. He has driven them away from the former honor of their rank and has reduced them to a lower position because they had evil thoughts against God. But if it is so for them, who even though they have a weak nature live nonetheless in the heights among the virtuous powers, and if it is so for angels who in their own nature were above us, what will we say about our own human condition, one even more subject to sin?

Eliphaz, still clinging to the same principle. . . that Job’s critical circumstances were due to Job’s own sins, adds these words, Since they could not help themselves through virtue by repenting of their evils, these afflictions befell them. And Eliphaz suggests that he fully comprehends this situation. They perished since they could not drive away the most fearful accidents because of their weakness, demonstrating human power’s worthlessness.