Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof.
Job is a poem whose force and meaning are best grasped by reading the book as a whole. The verse introduces Eliphaz's speech. It stands where Job's three friends charge him with sin and declare his sufferings are because of sin, while God is disciplining Job and bringing him through the fire of affliction. That speech of Job's friends came from their own wisdom and observation and was generally true but misapplied to Job's case.
The verse describes receiving a secret message only in part, through what was heard. The experience belongs to a night vision that filled Eliphaz with awe and fear. The vision was a fearful dream including an image, silence, and a voice delivering a warning about death.
The verse shows that sheol is a place of silence, secrecy, sleep, rest, darkness, corruption, and worms, and here it is linked especially with secrecy. It belongs to the great problems of an overruling providence, and sin and suffering, showing how humanity misjudges its fellows by treating affliction as proof of sin.
Job is a poem whose force and meaning are best grasped by reading the book as a whole. The verse introduces Eliphaz's speech. It stands where Job's three friends charge him with sin and declare his sufferings are because of sin, while God is disciplining Job and bringing him through the fire of affliction. That speech of Job's friends came from their own wisdom and observation and was generally true but misapplied to Job's case.
The verse describes receiving a secret message only in part, through what was heard. The experience belongs to a night vision that filled Eliphaz with awe and fear. The vision was a fearful dream including an image, silence, and a voice delivering a warning about death.
The verse shows that sheol is a place of silence, secrecy, sleep, rest, darkness, corruption, and worms, and here it is linked especially with secrecy. It belongs to the great problems of an overruling providence, and sin and suffering, showing how humanity misjudges its fellows by treating affliction as proof of sin.