The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.
Job belongs to a poem whose meaning is best grasped by reading the book as a whole rather than by isolating single lines. It falls within the extended debate between Job and his three friends concerning the reason for his afflictions. It is part of Eliphaz's second speech, in which he brings fresh accusations against Job, and to which Job answers by protesting his innocence and expressing a desire for death. The line states Eliphaz's claim that a wicked oppressor travails in suffering through life while the number of years left to him remains hidden. Statements of that kind in Eliphaz's speeches about Job and about God are not reliable simply because they stand in Scripture, but must be tested against inspired declarations elsewhere in the Bible. They express the friends' general observation about evil and punishment, yet their claims were misapplied to Job, since suffering does not prove that a sufferer is wicked or under God's displeasure. The wicked live in pain all their days, with a life that is not satisfying, brings them no joy, and does not glorify God. That joyless and unprofitable condition supports the conclusion that their life may ultimately be taken away.
Job belongs to a poem whose meaning is best grasped by reading the book as a whole rather than by isolating single lines.
It falls within the extended debate between Job and his three friends concerning the reason for his afflictions.
It is part of Eliphaz's second speech, in which he brings fresh accusations against Job, and to which Job answers by protesting his innocence and expressing a desire for death.
The line states Eliphaz's claim that a wicked oppressor travails in suffering through life while the number of years left to him remains hidden.
Statements of that kind in Eliphaz's speeches about Job and about God are not reliable simply because they stand in Scripture, but must be tested against inspired declarations elsewhere in the Bible.
They express the friends' general observation about evil and punishment, yet their claims were misapplied to Job, since suffering does not prove that a sufferer is wicked or under God's displeasure.
The wicked live in pain all their days, with a life that is not satisfying, brings them no joy, and does not glorify God.
That joyless and unprofitable condition supports the conclusion that their life may ultimately be taken away.