This is the opening of Eliphaz the Temanite's second speech in answer to Job, another address in the ongoing exchange of accusations and replies between Job and his friends. It belongs to the extended colloquy in Job 3-31 between Job and his three friends on the cause and object of human suffering and affliction. That debate over his afflictions is carried on through three rounds of speeches by each of them.
Eliphaz's second speech brings fresh accusations, wrongly insisting that Job's suffering was caused by his sin. The statement that he answered and said means only that he spoke the words that follow, not that what he said is true. His statements about Job and about God must not be treated as reliable merely because they are recorded in Scripture, but must be tested against inspired declarations elsewhere in the Bible. His argument was his own wisdom and observation, drawn from never having known a thoroughly good man to be so afflicted. It is generally true that evil is ultimately punished and good is ultimately rewarded, but it was misapplied in Job's case, since adversity, affliction, and suffering do not prove a man is under the displeasure of God. The book of Job, of which this opening is a part, is best grasped in its meaning and force by reading it as a whole rather than in disconnected fragments.
This is the opening of Eliphaz the Temanite's second speech in answer to Job, another address in the ongoing exchange of accusations and replies between Job and his friends. It belongs to the extended colloquy in Job 3-31 between Job and his three friends on the cause and object of human suffering and affliction. That debate over his afflictions is carried on through three rounds of speeches by each of them.
Eliphaz's second speech brings fresh accusations, wrongly insisting that Job's suffering was caused by his sin. The statement that he answered and said means only that he spoke the words that follow, not that what he said is true. His statements about Job and about God must not be treated as reliable merely because they are recorded in Scripture, but must be tested against inspired declarations elsewhere in the Bible. His argument was his own wisdom and observation, drawn from never having known a thoroughly good man to be so afflicted. It is generally true that evil is ultimately punished and good is ultimately rewarded, but it was misapplied in Job's case, since adversity, affliction, and suffering do not prove a man is under the displeasure of God. The book of Job, of which this opening is a part, is best grasped in its meaning and force by reading it as a whole rather than in disconnected fragments.