Bible Commentary

Job 4:5

Job 4:5

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public Domain

But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest. Now it is thy turn—calamity has come upon thee' and all that thou weft wont to say to others is forgotten. The wise physician cannot heal himself. Instead of receiving thy chastisement in a right spirit, thou "faintest," or rather, "thou art angry, art offended"—as the same verb is also to be translated in the second verse.

There is a tone of sarcasm about these remarks, which implies a certain hardness and want of real affection in the speaker, and which cannot but have been perceived by Job, and have detracted from the force of what Eliphaz urged.

If one has to rebuke a friend, it should be done with great delicacy. Our "precious balms" should not be allowed to "break his head" (). It toucheth thee, and thou art troubled; or, perplexed—"confounded."

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