Bible Commentary

Job 4:1-6

Matthew Henry on Job 4:1-6

Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · Matthew Henry · CC0 1.0 Universal

Satan undertook to prove Job a hypocrite by afflicting him; and his friends concluded him to be one because he was so afflicted, and showed impatience. This we must keep in mind if we would understand what passed.

Eliphaz speaks of Job, and his afflicted condition, with tenderness; but charges him with weakness and faint-heartedness. Men make few allowances for those who have taught others. Even pious friends will count that only a touch which we feel as a wound.

Learn from hence to draw off the mind of a sufferer from brooding over the affliction, to look at the God of mercies in the affliction. And how can this be done so well as by looking to Christ Jesus, in whose unequalled sorrows every child of God soonest learns to forget his own?

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commentaryThe Address of Eliphaz. (b. c. 1520.)THE ADDRESS OF ELIPHAZ. (B. C. 1520.) In these verses, I. Eliphaz excuses the trouble he is now about to give to Job by his discourse (Job 4:2): "If we assay a word with thee, offer a word of reproof and counsel, wilt t…Matthew HenrycommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Job 4:1-11Eliphaz and Job: forgotten truths called to mind. However misapplied to his particular case may have been the speeches of Job's friends, there can be no dispute concerning the purity and the sublimity of the great truth…Joseph S. Exell and contributorscommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Job 4:1-6The teacher tested. Throughout the words of Job's friends many truths are to be found both accurately stated and beautifully illustrated; but in many cases—almost generally—a wrong application of them is made. The frien…Joseph S. Exell and contributorscommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Job 4:1Eliphaz the visionary. After Job has broken the seven days' silence, each of his friends assays to comfort him, with that most irritating form of consolation—unsolicited advice. Although, perhaps, some of the critics ha…Joseph S. Exell and contributorscommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Job 4:1-11Eliphaz to Job: the opening of the second controversy: 1. The relation of suffering to sin. I. A COURTEOUS EXORDIUM. Eliphaz, the oldest and wisest of the friends, adopts an apologetic strain in replying to Job's imprec…Joseph S. Exell and contributorscommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Job 4:1-21EXPOSITION Job having ended his complaint, Eliphaz the Temanite, the first-named of his three friends (Job 2:11), and perhaps the eldest of them, takes the word, and endeavours to answer him. After a brief apology for v…Joseph S. Exell and contributorscommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Job 4:1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said (see the comment on Job 2:11).Joseph S. Exell and contributorscommentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Job 4:2Irrepressible speech. Eliphaz says," Who can withhold himself from speaking?" He utters his own sentiment, but it is a very common one—far more common than the honest admission of it with which Eliphaz justifies his add…Joseph S. Exell and contributors