The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Affliction” it comes from the Hebrew Word “aven” which means “affliction, trouble, iniquity.”
Eliphaz urges Job to seek God and accept correction rather than continue complaining. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Job 5.
Eliphaz continues his argument, asking Job to call now, if anyone would answer him, and to which of the saints he would turn, since wrath kills the foolish man, and envy slays the silly one. He observes that he has seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly cursed their habitation, their children far from safety, crushed in the gate without a deliverer, their harvest taken by the hungry, and their substance swallowed by the robber.
Eliphaz declares that “affliction,” “aven” in Hebrew, does not come from the dust, nor does trouble spring from the ground, but man is born unto trouble as sparks fly upward, urging Job instead to seek unto God and commit his cause to Him, who does great and unsearchable things, marvellous things without number, setting the poor on high, disappointing the crafty so their hands cannot perform their enterprise, catching the wise in their own craftiness.
Eliphaz concludes that God saves the needy from the sword and from the hand of the mighty, giving the poor hope, while iniquity stops her mouth, declaring, “Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty,” since God makes sore and binds up, wounds and His hands make whole, delivering in famine, war, and destruction, protecting from the tongue’s scourge, allowing peace with the very stones of the field and beasts, promising Job that if he accepts this correction, he will know his tabernacle is at peace, his descendants great, and he will come to his grave in full age, “like as a shock of corn cometh in his season,” an argument urging patient submission that, however well-intentioned, still assumes Job’s suffering results from sin needing correction.
Eliphaz’s beautiful, genuinely true statements about God’s power to deliver and restore become misapplied here, since he continues assuming Job’s suffering stems from something requiring correction rather than genuinely undeserved testing. This chapter shows how even theologically sound general truths can wound rather than comfort when applied carelessly to someone’s specific, actual circumstances without real understanding of what they are truly experiencing.
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