In Job 4–7, Eliphaz opens the first of three debate rounds with a polished but crushing argument: Job must have sinned because God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. Job refuses to confess to sins he never committed, compares his friends to a dry desert wadi, and turns to God with raw, anguished prayer declaring he would rather die than deny the Holy One.
Previously on Bible Book Club
In our last chapters, Job lost everything in one devastating day. His wealth, his status, and every single one of his ten children. When Satan argued Job would curse God if he physically suffered, God allowed it. Job was plagued with an invasive disease, but still refused to curse God. The score is God two, Satan zero.
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Job’s Friends Decide It’s Time to Talk
After seven days of sitting in grief with Job, his friends decide it is time to talk. And the talks do not go well for Job. In fact, they cause more anguish. The last thing Job needs is for his friends to gang up on him. We can assume their intentions are good, but their continuous stream of disparaging words is likely a part of Satan’s plan. Strategically, it makes sense.
Satan’s argument is that Job only serves God because of what God gives him. Take away the blessings, and Job will curse God. But Job doesn’t curse God:
- Not when he loses his wealth.
- Not when he loses his children.
- Not when his body is covered in sores.
So what’s left to attack? His integrity. That’s exactly what the friends are about to do. Relentlessly, and across multiple rounds of debate. They’re going to tell Job that his suffering is his own fault. That God is punishing him. That he needs to stop defending himself, admit his sin, and repent.
What happens if Job confesses to sins he did not commit?
If Job breaks under pressure and confesses to sins he never committed just to make the pain stop, just to get God to restore his life, Satan wins the argument as surely as if Job cursed God outright.
Because that’s exactly the transactional faith Satan accused him of: I’ll say whatever you need me to say, God, as long as you give me my life back.
Whether the three friends operated out of their own flawed theology, were inspired by Satan, or a combination of both, in the epilogue God has some words for the three friends turned prosecutors. Angry words!
Who are Job’s three friends and what are their specific roles?
Each of Job’s three friends plays a distinct role in their efforts to convince Job of his sin:
- Eliphaz, the pious preacher, is the first to speak. He is the senior of the three, the most polished, the most theologically sophisticated. He argues from personal experience including a vision he claims to have received. Think of him as the pious preacher who has seen a lot, knows a lot, and is therefore convinced he knows what’s wrong with Job.
- Bildad, the cruel conformist, is the second to speak. He is cuttingly cruel, even suggesting that Job’s children died because of sin. He clings to the traditions taught by the ancestors. Picture him as the cruel conformist of the group.
- Zophar the zero-mercy zealot, the last to speak. He is the most aggressive and dogmatic. He will actually tell Job he deserves more than he is getting. Zophar is the zero-mercy zealot.
What is the Retribution Principle mentioned in Job 4–7?
The retribution principle is what theologians call the belief that God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. All three of Job’s friends share the same fundamental assumption that Job is suffering; therefore, Job has sinned. And all three friends are completely wrong because Job did not sin. But they will persist in an attempt to prove he did.
What is the progression of the debate rounds between Job and his friends?
The debate will run for three rounds:
- Round 1: Job’s friends are concerned but condescending.
- Round 2: Job’s friends are aggressive and accusatory.
- Round three: Job’s friends are desperate and degrading.
The arc of the conversation is a warning to us. It starts in sympathy and ends in slander. In the middle, they perform a theological autopsy of Job’s life as they try to force a confession out of him. I have heard conversations about others that follow this arc from sympathy to slander under the cover of concerned friendship. Gossip can often start this way. It is something to ponder, because none of us wants to be a friend like these three!
Scene 1: Eliphaz, the Pious Preacher, Speaks from Experience
Job 4:1-21
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: 2 “If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking? 3 Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands. 4 Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees. 5 But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed. 6 Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?
7 “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? 8 As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it. 9 At the breath of God they perish; at the blast of his anger they are no more. 10 The lions may roar and growl, yet the teeth of the great lions are broken. 11 The lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
12 “A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it. 13 Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on people, 14 fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake. 15 A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end. 16 It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice: 17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker? 18 If God places no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error, 19 how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth! 20 Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces; unnoticed, they perish forever. 21 Are not the cords of their tent pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’
How does Eliphaz begin his case?
Eliphaz, the pious preacher, begins his case softly with a compliment. He acknowledges Job’s reputation as a leader. Job was the one people turned to in their suffering. But Eliphaz states, “But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged.” In other words, why can you encourage everyone else but cannot take your own advice?
Then Eliphaz takes his first shot:
Job 4:6 Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?
Eliphaz speaks in questions, but his questions accuse Job that if his faith and innocence were real he wouldn’t be so distraught. And with that Eliphaz reveals what he really thinks of Job’s suffering. Job is not as righteous as everyone thinks. He is guilty of something, and Eliphaz is going to prove it to him.
Why does Eliphaz believe Job’s suffering is proof of guilt?
Eliphaz quickly gets to the core of his argument to prove Job guilty, and his theology is simple: the retribution principle, the righteous prosper and the wicked suffer. Job is suffering, therefore Job is guilty of sin, and it must be a sin deserving of his intense suffering.
How does Eliphaz know this?
Eliphaz has observed it, as the elder, all-wise friend. 8″As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.” The condescension is thick. What he is telling Job is: it doesn’t matter how powerful you were. Like the lion you will be punished for your sin. Eliphaz’s assumption that Job sinned is wrong, but next he uses a dream he had to try to prove it.
How does Eliphaz use a dream to argue against Job?
Pulling the spiritual authority card, Eliphaz implies he had a dream and a message from a spirit. Note, it never says the spirit was from God, but Eliphaz clearly thinks so. And therefore, to him, it is the truth. It is very hard to argue with someone who thinks they had a word from God.
The message in the dream is this: Man will never be more righteous than God. This is true. We are sinners. But Eliphaz is using it as a weapon against Job.
By saying everyone is a sinner, he is telling Job to stop claiming he is innocent. Since you are suffering, you have sinned. God doesn’t make mistakes. The flaw in this argument is that it hangs on the retribution principle. Job is not suffering because he sinned. We know that, but they don’t.
Poor Job. Eliphaz fails to comfort him and increases his suffering in two significant ways:
- Eliphaz uses Job’s past strength against him. “You helped others, why can’t you help yourself?” It’s one of the crueler things you can say to someone in crisis.
- He weaponizes a spiritual experience. The vision, whether genuine or not, is deployed as a conversation-ender rather than a word of comfort.
Think About It
Eliphaz means well, knows a lot, and still manages to say the wrong thing. Has anyone ever used a personal opinion of theology with you in a way that you couldn’t refute but suspected was wrong? How did that make you feel? And how many times have you been like Eliphaz, certain you understood why someone was suffering or how to fix it?
Eliphaz is not done. He uses a parable to prove to Job he is guilty.
Job 5:1-27
1 “Call if you will, but who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn? 2 Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple. 3 I myself have seen a fool taking root, but suddenly his house was cursed. 4 His children are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender. 5 The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from among thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth. 6 For hardship does not spring from the soil, nor does trouble sprout from the ground. 7 Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
8 “But if I were you, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him. 9 He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. 10 He provides rain for the earth; he sends water on the countryside. 11 The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety. 12 He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success. 13 He catches the wise in their craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are swept away. 14 Darkness comes upon them in the daytime; at noon they grope as in the night. 15 He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth; he saves them from the clutches of the powerful. 16 So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.
17 “Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. 18 For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal. 19 From six calamities he will rescue you; in seven no harm will touch you. 20 In famine he will deliver you from death, and in battle from the stroke of the sword. 21 You will be protected from the lash of the tongue, and need not fear when destruction comes. 22 You will laugh at destruction and famine, and need not fear the wild animals. 23 For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you. 24 You will know that your tent is secure; you will take stock of your property and find nothing missing. 25 You will know that your children will be many, and your descendants like the grass of the earth. 26 You will come to the grave in full vigor, like sheaves gathered in season. 27 “We have examined this, and it is true. So hear it and apply it to yourself.”
What does Eliphaz think will happen in heaven?
Eliphaz insists that no one in heaven is going to defend Job. Why? Because he is like the fool in Eliphaz’s parable. The fool lost it all, his wealth and his children. The description is painfully close to what just happened to Job. His wealth is gone and his ten children are dead.
The Pious Preacher is so high in his pulpit that he is oblivious to the pain he is causing as he hurls parables down on Job. And still he continues. At this point, Eliphaz is in the zone bringing his sermon to its conclusion with what he would do if he was Job.
What Eliphaz Would Do If He Were Job
First, Eliphaz would appeal to God. And he gives a beautifully accurate description of God. God performs wonders, provides rain, thwarts evil, saves the needy.
Then, Eliphaz provides a description of the blessings on the other side of God’s discipline. God binds up, heals, rescues, delivers from death, protects. Eliphaz’s solution is a picture of prosperity if only Job would accept his suffering as divine discipline.
And lastly, Eliphaz closes with, “We have examined this, and it is true. So hear it and apply it to yourself.” He says we like it’s the collective wisdom of the community. Everyone is against Job. Eliphaz increases Job’s suffering in many ways:
- He uses a parable to imply Job is a fool.
- He uses the collective we, possibly referring to a crowd that has gathered to hear his sermon, to make Job feel as if he is the only one who doesn’t see his guilt.
What Eliphaz doesn’t know that we do is that he is asking Job to make a bargain with God. If Job admits to sin he didn’t commit, just to get his life back, Satan will win in the heavenly court case.
With that final “we” blow, the pious preacher turned prosecutor rests his case. For now.
Scene 2: Job Responds to Eliphaz: You Don’t Understand
Job 6:1-30
1 Then Job replied: 2 “If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales! 3 It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas—no wonder my words have been impetuous. 4 The arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison; God’s terrors are marshaled against me. 5 Does a wild donkey bray when it has grass, or an ox bellow when it has fodder? 6 Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the sap of the mallow? 7 I refuse to touch it; such food makes me ill.
8 “Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant what I hope for, 9 that God would be willing to crush me, to let loose his hand and cut off my life! 10 Then I would still have this consolation—my joy in unrelenting pain—that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.
11 “What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient? 12 Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze? 13 Do I have any power to help myself, now that success has been driven from me?
14 “Anyone who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty. 15 But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow 16 when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow, 17 but that stop flowing in the dry season, and in the heat vanish from their channels. 18 Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go off into the wasteland and perish. 19 The caravans of Tema look for water, the traveling merchants of Sheba look in hope. 20 They are distressed, because they had been confident; they arrive there, only to be disappointed.
21 Now you too have proved to be of no help; you see something dreadful and are afraid. 22 Have I ever said, ‘Give something on my behalf, pay a ransom for me from your wealth, 23 deliver me from the hand of the enemy, rescue me from the clutches of the ruthless’?
24 “Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me where I have been wrong. 25 How painful are honest words! But what do your arguments prove? 26 Do you mean to correct what I say, and treat my desperate words as wind? 27 You would even cast lots for the fatherless and barter away your friend.
28 “But now be so kind as to look at me. Would I lie to your face? 29 Relent, do not be unjust; reconsider, for my integrity is at stake. 30 Is there any wickedness on my lips? Can my mouth not discern malice?
What is Job’s first response to Eliphaz?
Job’s first response is not a rebuttal; it is a cry for compassion. He can’t make his friends understand how excruciating this is for him. It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas. Job’s statement regarding the arrows of the Almighty is heart-wrenching. He believes it is God who is shooting. His suffering is eating away at his view of God.
Note to us: as we listen to Job, we need to hear the words begging for encouragement. Job’s friends missed this. When the pain of suffering weakens and confuses, we must step in to encourage. But they didn’t. They just piled on more pain. And Job’s endurance is running out.
What does Job request from God regarding his life?
Job asks God to cut off his life. He wants to die, but not to escape pain as we would assume. He says, “Then I would still have this consolation — my joy in unrelenting pain — that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.”
Job is crying out to God that he cannot keep enduring indefinitely, but he will not lie about who God is just to make the suffering stop. He’s not failing to trust God. He is not losing faith. He is admitting that he’s running out of energy to fight. And if he dies now he will have the comfort that he has endured to the end without denying God’s truth.
Job’s cry reminds us of another who cried out to God.
Matthew 27:46 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
In what ways does the text compare Job’s endurance to Jesus?
Job’s “I would rather die than deny you” foreshadows Jesus who did exactly that, died rather than denied. Both of them:
- Turn to God with pain-filled questions.
- Reach a point where they do not think they can take any more.
- Endure.
- Job’s endurance led to his own restoration.
- Jesus’s endurance led to the restoration of all humanity.
- Silence Satan. But Christ’s victory will be forever.
This is important for anyone listening today who is in their own chapter 6 moment, running on empty, out of strength, in a never-ending tunnel of pain. Here is what we can learn from Job and Jesus: Sometimes it feels like you are hanging on to faith by a thread. You feel, like Job, that you have nothing left. But feeling you have nothing of yourself left might be the purest form of faith there is. It’s a faith that has been tested to its rock-bottom point.
Job glimpses it. Jesus fulfills it. And because of Jesus, when we arrive at our own “I have nothing left” moments, we are not alone in them. We are standing in a long line of people, including the Son of God Himself, who got there before us and came out the other side.
And now Job has defended the depth of his pain and why he wants to die, so he turns to express how he feels about his friends at this moment. And it is not good. Job accuses them of crushing unkindness, comparing them to an intermittent stream or wadi.
What is a wadi?
A wadi is a desert riverbed. From a distance, in the right season, it looks like a river. Caravans would plan their routes around them, banking on finding water upon arrival. But they often would arrive parched, desperate, and counting on what they were promised, only to find nothing. Dry sand. Vanished water. That is Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar to Job.
Why does Job compare his friends to a wadi or intermittent stream?
Job’s friends left him more parched than they found him. They looked like friends, and they showed up like friends. They mourned with him for seven days like friends. Job has every reason to believe when they finally speak their words will be the encouragement, empathy, and hope he thirsts for. Instead, they give him dry theology. Job is crushed, not quenched.
Job accuses them of being dreadful and afraid themselves. Perhaps they are afraid if they show Job empathy God will be angry with them. Job begs them to look at him and really see him. To open their eyes to the reality of his case and show him where he is wrong, because they are missing the point entirely.
Job doesn’t get what he so needs from his friends and turns now to God for answers.
Job 7:1-21
1 “Do not mortals have hard service on earth? Are not their days like those of hired laborers? 2 Like a slave longing for the evening shadows, or a hired laborer waiting to be paid, 3 so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me. 4 When I lie down I think, ‘How long before I get up?’ The night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn. 5 My body is clothed with worms and scabs, my skin is broken and festering.
6 “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope.
7 Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again. 8 The eye that now sees me will see me no longer; you will look for me, but I will be no more. 9 As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so one who goes down to the grave does not return. 10 He will never come to his house again; his place will know him no more.
11 “Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. 12 Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that you put me under guard? 13 When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint, 14 even then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions, 15 so that I prefer strangling and death, rather than this body of mine. 16 I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning.
17 “What is mankind that you make so much of them, that you give them so much attention, 18 that you examine them every morning and test them every moment? 19 Will you never look away from me, or let me alone even for an instant? 20 If I have sinned, what have I done to you, you who see everything we do? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you? 21 Why do you not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins? For I will soon lie down in the dust; you will search for me, but I will be no more.”
How does Job describe his physical suffering in Chapter 7?
Job opens Chapter 7 by describing to God what his suffering actually feels like:
- Nights that won’t end.
- A body that is literally decomposing around him.
- Days that are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle and end without hope.
Life is simultaneously endless in its suffering and terrifyingly fast in its passing. The nights drag on forever, the days disappear in an instant. And neither one brings relief.
Eliphaz gave his speech from a position of comfort. Job is speaking from a body that is rotting before his eyes. That contrast is convicting. You cannot successfully prosecute someone with theology when what they need is a witness to their pain.
Job is convinced he will never feel joy again. That he will pass unseen into nothing. And he is mad about it.
An Example for Us
Job questions God. He says exactly what he feels. Note to us, Job is our example that we have permission to do the same. Honest, anguished, angry prayer is still prayer. Job is not cursing God. He is not walking away. This is just like Jacob wrestling with the angel through the night. This is Jesus in Gethsemane asking if the cup can pass.
For anyone listening who feels like they’re hitting the bottom, who has questions with no answers, pain with no explanation, a faith that doesn’t feel like faith right now, Job 7 is written for you. Keep talking to God. God understands your frustration and feels your pain.
Job’s response is contrary to everything Eliphaz recommends. Eliphaz directed Job to be quiet, humble, and repent. Job does the opposite. He refuses to be quiet. In our next chapters another prosecutor, Bildad, the cruel conformist, will open his case against Job.
Discussion Questions: Reflecting on Job 4–7
- Job compares his friends to a dry wadi: they look like water from a distance but have nothing to offer up close. Have you ever felt that kind of disappointment from someone you counted on in a crisis?
- Have you ever been like Eliphaz, certain you understood why someone was suffering, only to realize later you were causing more harm than comfort?
- Job’s honest, angry prayer is still prayer. Does it change how you approach God to know that questions and anguish are not the same as losing faith?
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