Bible Commentary - Job 4

In this chapter, Eliphaz implies that Job is suffering because of sins he has committed.

In my opinion, the heart of this chapter is verses 6-7.  In these two verses, Eliphaz expresses two closely related ideas.  The first, in verse 6, is that Job, who has “strengthened feeble knees”, should place his own confidence in his righteousness and innocence, and that the innocent never “perish”.

In the first point, Eliphaz is charging Job with a bit of hypocrisy.  Job, as a righteous man, has strengthened many others, with both his words and his deeds, when they were facing hardships or suffering.  Now that Job himself is suffering, Eliphaz is giving Job the “doctor, heal thyself” routine, implying that Job should encourage himself the same way he encouraged others.

In the second idea, Eliphaz is laying out the idea that, quite simply, God punishes the guilty and not the innocent, and therefore Job’s punishment must be a result of his sin.  I can tell you right now that this is a pretty good summary of the rest of the book.  Eliphaz and Job’s other friends believe that bad things only come to sinners, and therefore Job’s tragedy must be a result of some kind of hidden sin in Job’s life.  If Job repents and appeals for mercy, changes his ways, then God will restore him.

In a somewhat contradictory turn, Eliphaz extends in verse 17 that there is no such thing as a just or innocent man, and that basically everyone alive is a sinner in some way or other.  I say this is contradictory because the previous statement was based on a dichotomy between the innocent and the guilty: God protects the innocent, but punishes and destroys the guilty.  If everyone is guilty, then it stands to reason that everyone would be subjected to punishment or destruction in some way.  What is even the point of saying “who ever perished being innocent” if nobody is innocent?  It is pointless to even say.  Furthermore, if it were true that everyone is guilty then it renders Job’s punishment all the more arbitrary, because God should just as well have punished Eliphaz as punish Job.  There isn’t any difference between them that makes one good and the other bad if everyone is guilty in God’s sight.

Ignoring those contradictions, Eliphaz’s point is clear: he is asserting that Job is wrong to call himself innocent.  Everyone is guilty, and in this case “everyone” means “Job”.  Eliphaz simply refuses to accept Job’s proclamation of innocence, thinks that Job has some kind of secret sin, and that is the reason for his suffering.  The implication that Eliphaz himself must be a sinner and deserves punishment is ignored.

In the next chapter, Eliphaz asserts that Job should turn to God for his restoration.