He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.
The verse belongs to the debate between Job and his three friends on the subject of his afflictions in chapters 4 to 31, formed by three circles of speeches on the part of each, lying between the prose prologue in chapters 1 and 2 and the prose epilogue in chapter 42:7-17, and coming before the speeches of Elihu in chapters 32 to 37 and the speeches of the Lord out of the storm-cloud. It sets out a contrast in which one whose footing is about to give way and whose life is at risk is despised by one who feels secure and at ease, as a lamp regarded as worthless and treated with contempt. In its setting it shows how people who are comfortable can misjudge and dismiss those who are suffering affliction.
Job's friends often spoke what was generally true about human suffering yet applied it wrongly to Job. Their error lay in treating his calamity as proof that he was under God's displeasure. Affliction gives no such proof and is no reason for the afflicted to be discouraged.
The verse belongs to the debate between Job and his three friends on the subject of his afflictions in chapters 4 to 31, formed by three circles of speeches on the part of each, lying between the prose prologue in chapters 1 and 2 and the prose epilogue in chapter 42:7-17, and coming before the speeches of Elihu in chapters 32 to 37 and the speeches of the Lord out of the storm-cloud.
It sets out a contrast in which one whose footing is about to give way and whose life is at risk is despised by one who feels secure and at ease, as a lamp regarded as worthless and treated with contempt.
In its setting it shows how people who are comfortable can misjudge and dismiss those who are suffering affliction.
Job's friends often spoke what was generally true about human suffering yet applied it wrongly to Job.
Their error lay in treating his calamity as proof that he was under God's displeasure.
Affliction gives no such proof and is no reason for the afflicted to be discouraged.