If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?
Job 4:2 stands within the debate between Job and his three friends about his afflictions, which unfolds in three rounds of speeches. It belongs to the opening of the friends' argument with Job. It introduces Eliphaz's hesitant approach, asking whether attempting to commune will grieve or distress him while adding that no one can withhold himself from speaking when compelled to speak.
The larger part of the book to which the verse belongs sets forth the great problems of overruling providence, sin, and suffering. In that setting, God is disciplining Job by bringing him through the fire of affliction. The friends treated affliction as evidence of sin, charging Job with sin and declaring his sufferings were because of sin, and urging him to confess so that God would pardon him. Their statements of this kind were sound and true in general but were wrongly applied to Job's case. The passage gives a warning against misjudging fellow sufferers in the same way today.
Job 4:2 stands within the debate between Job and his three friends about his afflictions, which unfolds in three rounds of speeches. It belongs to the opening of the friends' argument with Job. It introduces Eliphaz's hesitant approach, asking whether attempting to commune will grieve or distress him while adding that no one can withhold himself from speaking when compelled to speak.
The larger part of the book to which the verse belongs sets forth the great problems of overruling providence, sin, and suffering. In that setting, God is disciplining Job by bringing him through the fire of affliction. The friends treated affliction as evidence of sin, charging Job with sin and declaring his sufferings were because of sin, and urging him to confess so that God would pardon him. Their statements of this kind were sound and true in general but were wrongly applied to Job's case. The passage gives a warning against misjudging fellow sufferers in the same way today.