By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.
Job 4:9 belongs to Eliphaz's opening argument that the innocent never perish and the upright are never cut off, while those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same and perish by God's breath and are consumed by the blast of his anger. It charges that affliction is always evidence of sin, so that Job's loss and suffering proved departure from righteousness and forfeiture of divine favor. His friends thus judged his calamities as proof of hidden guilt and sin in his past life, insisting that God makes no mistakes in opening up that sin. Denial was therefore wrong, and confession was presented as the only proper course to obtain pardon.
The word rendered blast is the Hebrew neshama, also given as n'shah-mah, meaning breath and spirit. It includes God's breath as wind and the breathing of his anger, the breath and life of man and beasts, the mind and intellect, and a living thing or animal. It means air, breath, and blast, here translated blast to denote the breath of God by which the wicked perish. It does not mean an immortal entity in man, but shows that breath is almost exclusively the meaning of the word. Blast and breath together refer to God's breath or breathing of anger, describing people perishing and being consumed by God's destructive breath.
The statement that evil is ultimately punished and that sinners perish under God expresses a general truth. That truth was misapplied to Job to condemn him in that which God had not condemned him, charging him with reaping terrible wickedness from his past life. His suffering was taken to prove his guilt, though suffering does not prove that God is displeased with the sufferer. Because the words are Eliphaz's, they cannot be treated as a reliable statement about God unless supported by inspired declarations elsewhere in Scripture.
The verse illustrates the old argument that prosperity is sure evidence of divine favor and adversity is sure proof of divine displeasure. Applied to Job, his loss of property and of sons and daughters was made to mean he had departed from righteousness and forfeited God's favor. That argument is false, because robbers prosper and wicked men acquire large wealth. The book of Job was given to expose this argument from prosperity, so that the poverty and life of toil and sorrow of Jesus would not be taken as proof that he could not be Emmanuel, God with us.
God's breath can consume the wicked, showing that God's breath does not necessarily give those it reaches an undying nature but can bring death. The wicked perish and are consumed by God's breath or blast and judgment. They cannot endure his anger forever, so they do not remain alive forever in conscious punishment. Their final punishment ends in destruction rather than continued existence in eternal torment.
Job 4:9 belongs to Eliphaz's opening argument that the innocent never perish and the upright are never cut off, while those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same and perish by God's breath and are consumed by the blast of his anger. It charges that affliction is always evidence of sin, so that Job's loss and suffering proved departure from righteousness and forfeiture of divine favor. His friends thus judged his calamities as proof of hidden guilt and sin in his past life, insisting that God makes no mistakes in opening up that sin. Denial was therefore wrong, and confession was presented as the only proper course to obtain pardon.
The word rendered blast is the Hebrew neshama, also given as n'shah-mah, meaning breath and spirit. It includes God's breath as wind and the breathing of his anger, the breath and life of man and beasts, the mind and intellect, and a living thing or animal. It means air, breath, and blast, here translated blast to denote the breath of God by which the wicked perish. It does not mean an immortal entity in man, but shows that breath is almost exclusively the meaning of the word. Blast and breath together refer to God's breath or breathing of anger, describing people perishing and being consumed by God's destructive breath.
The statement that evil is ultimately punished and that sinners perish under God expresses a general truth. That truth was misapplied to Job to condemn him in that which God had not condemned him, charging him with reaping terrible wickedness from his past life. His suffering was taken to prove his guilt, though suffering does not prove that God is displeased with the sufferer. Because the words are Eliphaz's, they cannot be treated as a reliable statement about God unless supported by inspired declarations elsewhere in Scripture.
The verse illustrates the old argument that prosperity is sure evidence of divine favor and adversity is sure proof of divine displeasure. Applied to Job, his loss of property and of sons and daughters was made to mean he had departed from righteousness and forfeited God's favor. That argument is false, because robbers prosper and wicked men acquire large wealth. The book of Job was given to expose this argument from prosperity, so that the poverty and life of toil and sorrow of Jesus would not be taken as proof that he could not be Emmanuel, God with us.
God's breath can consume the wicked, showing that God's breath does not necessarily give those it reaches an undying nature but can bring death. The wicked perish and are consumed by God's breath or blast and judgment. They cannot endure his anger forever, so they do not remain alive forever in conscious punishment. Their final punishment ends in destruction rather than continued existence in eternal torment.