Job 4:1-11

Eliphaz Speaks: The Innocent Prosper

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

2 "If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?
Yet who can keep from speaking?
 3 Behold, you have instructed many,
and you have a strengthened the weak hands.
 4 Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,
and you have a made firm the feeble knees.
 5 But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
it touches you, and you are dismayed.
 6 b Is not your fear of God 1 your c confidence,
and the integrity of your ways your hope?

7 "Remember: d who that was innocent ever perished?
Or where were the upright cut off?
 8 As I have seen, those who e plow iniquity
and sow trouble reap the same.
 9 By f the breath of God they perish,
and by g the blast of his anger they are consumed.
 10 The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion,
h the teeth of the young lions are broken.
 11 The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

  1. Cross References
    Isaiah 35:3
    Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
    Hebrews 12:12
    Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees.
  2. Cross References
    Job 4:3
    Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.
  3. Cross References
    Job 1:1
    There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
  4. Cross References
    Job 31:24
    If I have made gold my trust or called fine gold my confidence.
    Proverbs 3:26
    For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.
  5. Cross References
    Psalms 37:25
    I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.
  6. Cross References
    Hosea 10:13
    You have plowed iniquity; you have reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your warriors.
    Psalms 7:14
    Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.
    Proverbs 22:8
    Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail.
    Galatians 6:7 - 8
    Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
  7. Cross References
    Isaiah 30:33
    For a burning place has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.
  8. Cross References
    Job 15:30
    He will not depart from darkness; the flame will dry up his shoots, and by the breath of his mouth he will depart.
    Exodus 15:8
    At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.
    Psalms 18:15
    Then the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
    Isaiah 11:4
    But with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
    2 Thessalonians 2:8
    And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.
  9. Cross References
    Psalms 58:6
    O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
    Job 29:17
    I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth.
    Psalms 3:7
    Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.