Agitated by Job’s unexpected outburst, Eliphaz reassures him that he will ultimately be restored to circumstances befitting the righteous—an estate and a brood of children. Eliphaz deduces this from his perspective on the wicked: for a time they may thrive, but in the end they suffer a sorry fate; the converse must be true of the righteous. He explains Job’s suffering not only as a temporary stage in the life of a human but also as a form of divine discipline—a sign of God’s concern, a warning to remain faithful, not a punishment. In the course of his response, Eliphaz disparages Job’s claim to have received a message from a member of the divine circle.
[4:1] Up spoke Eliphaz the Teimanite and he said:
[2] To hold back1 a word from you—(even) you could not!
To refrain from words2—who could?3
[3–4] It is you who have fortified the trembling,4
And limp arms you have strengthened;
The stumbling would your words raise up,
And buckling knees would you stiffen.5
[5] But now that (calamity) has come to you, you cannot (bear it);
It touches you yourself, and you are shaken.
[6] Hasn’t your reverence been your backbone,
And your integrity6 your source-of-strength?7
[7] Think: what innocent ever disappeared?
And where have the upright been destroyed?
[8] Whenever I have seen plowers of suffering,8
And sowers of travail—it is they who reap it.
[9] By the breath of Eloah they disappear,
By the wind of his nostrils they come to an end.
[10–11] The lion9 growls and the beast roars;
But the teeth of the predators (finally) crack.
The lion perishes10 for lack of prey,
And the lion whelps are eradicated.
[5:1]11 Call out now! Does anyone answer you?
To whom of the holy ones can you turn?12
[2] For exasperation can kill the rogue,
And passion can bring death to the fool.
[3–4] I have myself seen a rogue striking roots,
And have observed the homestead of fools.13
His sons are kept far from relief;14
Oppressed at the city-gate,15 no one delivers them.
[5] As for his harvest—famine16 will consume it;
And their substance17—desiccation18 will remove it;
And drought19 will devour20 their wealth.
[6–7] For suffering does not stem from the dust,
Nor does travail grow from the ground.21
But a human is born to travail,22
As “sons of Resheph”23 fly up high.
[8] Rather I would seek out El,
Before Elohim would I lodge my complaint.24
[9–10] (El) who performs great things too deep to probe,
Wondrous things, beyond number;25
Who gives rain over the face of the earth,
And sends water over the face of the ranges.
[11–13] Placing the lowly up high,
So the stooped26 attain relief.
Who thwarts the plans of the treacherous,
So their hands can perform nothing clever.
Who catches the wise in their treachery,
So the perverse take their counsel in haste.
[14] In daytime they encounter darkness,
It’s like night when they grope at midday.27
[15] He has saved the swordless from the tormentor,28
And the needy from the powerful.
[16] Thus is there hope for the poor;
As (all) injustice is silenced.29
[17–18] Happy is the mortal whom Eloah reproves—
Do not reject Shaddai’s discipline.30
For once he inflicts pain, he binds up;
Once he strikes, his own hands heal.31
[19] From six misfortunes he will deliver you,
In seven no harm will affect you.32
[20–23] In famine he will ransom you from Death,33
And in war, from the sword.
From the lashing of a slanderous-tongue you’ll be hidden;
And from oncoming disaster you will have no fear.
At a demon and at stones (at your feet)34 you will laugh;
And from wild animals35 you will have no fear.
You’ll be rather in league with the stones of the field,
And the beasts of the field will be at peace with you.36
[24] You will find37 your abode is at peace;
You’ll take stock of your homestead with nothing amiss.
[25–26] You will find38 that your seed is numerous,
And your offshoots like the grass of the earth.
You will reach the grave like a ripened-stalk,39
Like the rising of grain in its season.
[27] You see, we have probed this—it’s true.
Pray listen, and know it yourself!
1. Vocalizing hanasa (for hanissa, “has someone tried?”) and parsing hanas as an older Aramaic form of Hebrew ’anas, “to withhold, restrain”; see Esther 1:8; Daniel 4:6.
2. Using Aramaic millin, the equivalent of Hebrew dabar in the preceding line.
3. For la’a “cannot” and yakol “can” as antonyms, compare Exodus 7:18 and 21.
4. For yisser in the sense of “fortify,” see Hosea 7:15. For rabbim “many” I read rabim “trembling”; see the note on 4:14 above and the introduction to this volume. These two unusual verbal usages produce a secondary meaning: “You have instructed many.”
5. The language is drawn from Isaiah 35:3.
6. Literally, “the wholeness of your ways.” See the comment on “whole (in heart)” at 1:1.
7. For this understanding of the syntax, see already the reading of Saadia Gaon and the Tosafist commentary to Babylonian Talmud Baba Metzia 58b.
8. The word-pair ’awen-‘amal can denote either “iniquity” or “suffering.” Job uses ‘amal in 3:10 and 20 in the latter sense, and that is apparently Eliphaz’s intention through-out his speech; see also Psalm 90:10 and probably Numbers 23:21. However, especially in view of the fact that a similar image is used of cultivating wrongdoing in Proverbs 11:18; 14:22; and 22:8, Job—and the reader—may be hearing in Eliphaz’s words the implication that he has sinned, even though Eliphaz does not express that perception in his first discourse (compare Fullerton).
9. Eliphaz’s use of the lion metaphor may have been prompted by Job’s use of “growls” in 3:24. The lion is a typical image of the wicked; see Psalms 7:3; 17:12; 22:14; and others. The poet employs five different terms for “lion” in this passage, a feat that cannot be duplicated in English.
10. The use of the same verb as in verse 9 links the lion and its fate to the wicked that it metaphorically represents.
11. 4:12–21 has been moved to precede 4:1; see above for the passage and for a brief justification of the move.
12. Eliphaz mocks what to him is Job’s illusion that he has experienced a divine revelation.
13. Reading peta’im “fools” for pit’om “suddenly” (compare Proverbs 14:18) and finding behind wa’eqqob “I cursed” a synonym for “I have seen,” possibly wa’abbit.
14. They are easily victimized in legal proceedings, which are held at the town gate. Compare Isaiah 59:11.
15. Compare Proverbs 22:22.
16. Vocalizing ra‘ab for ra‘eb “the hungry.” The verse is extraordinarily difficult, and no translations are convincing.
17. Reading we’ulam (see Psalm 73:4; so for example Tur-Sinai).
18. Reconstructing a noun from the root ts-n-m “dried out” (Genesis 41:23).
19. Reading tsama’ “thirst, drought,” often found in conjunction with ra‘ab (Deuteronomy 28:48; Isaiah 5:13) for otherwise unknown tsammim.
20. Reading sapa’ (compare Hebrew mispo’ “fodder” and Ugaritic sapa’a “consume”) for sha’ap “pant, aspire.”
21. “Ground” (’adama) is of the same stem as “human” (’adam), which appears in the next verse.
22. Or through revocalizing: yolid “gives birth (to travail)”; compare Job 15:34–35; Psalm 7:15.
23. Arrows. Resheph is a Canaanite god of pestilence and is sometimes depicted with arrows, symbolizing his afflictions; he is called Lord of the Arrow. Compare Psalm 76:4; see 6:4 for an echo by Job. Others interpret “sons of flame, sparks,” comparing Song of Songs 8:6.
24. Eliphaz resumes the thought of verse 1. He lays heavy emphasis on “El” (the name of God throughout Canaan, meaning “God”) through sound repetition: ’ulam (“rather”) … ’el ’el (“to El”) … (we)’el ’elohim (“and to Elohim”). The phrase “lodge a complaint,” literally, “place a word,” is an apparent calque from Babylonian, where it carries the connotation of lodging a legal complaint (Paul). Eliphaz may not intend to suggest that Job sue God, but Job, as it turns out, would seem to infer the idea.
25. Eliphaz draws on clichés; compare for example Amos 4:13; 5:8; Psalms 136:4; 145:3.
26. In Biblical Hebrew qoded “stooped, lowly, depressed” seems to merge with qoder “dark, depressed” (Psalms 35:14; 38:7; 42:10; 43:2).
27. Compare Job 12:25; Deuteronomy 28:29.
28. Reading mippi ham (compare Job 36:16: mippi tsar “from adversity”) for mippihem “from them.”
29. Literally, “and injustice shuts its mouth.”
30. Shaddai is another name for the deity; see the Note on (Not) Translating the Names of God. Eliphaz explains Job’s afflictions as only a warning from God, to keep him honest, as it were. For this conventional wisdom, compare Deuteronomy 8:5; Psalm 94:12; Proverbs 3:11–12.
31. Compare Deuteronomy 32:39; Hosea 6:1.
32. For the nuance of “affect,” see on 1:11. In numerical sequences of x, then x+1, in the Bible, it is the latter number that is definitive. Seven misfortunes will be enumerated.
33. Perhaps an allusion to the Canaanite god of death, Mot; compare 18:13–14.
34. Both shod “disaster” and kapan, Aramaic for “famine,” have already been enumerated. Accordingly, revocalize them as shed “demon” and kepin, Aramaic for “stones”; see kepim in Job 30:6. “Stones” is recapitulated (in Hebrew) in the next verse. Compare Psalm 91 for the combined dangers of demons and stones that may cause one to stumble or bruise (verses 6, 12–13).
35. Literally, “the animals of the earth.”
36. Compare Hosea 2:20.
37. Literally, “know.”
38. Literally, “know.”
39. Compare qelaḥ in Rabbinic Hebrew and see Proverbs 11:30, where instead of l-q-ḥ read q-l-ḥ “stalk” (of life-breath) in parallelism with “tree of life.”