Now to me a word was secretly brought, and mine ear received a whisper thereof.
Eliphaz stops arguing from what he has seen in life and tells Job about a word that reached him at night. The question is simple: can a true word from God, half-heard and aimed at the wrong man, heal anyone?
The word came in secret, and to one man only.
Eliphaz describes in the most vivid language a night vision he had experienced in quiet secrecy, one that had a deep effect on him. No doubt God intended by this to awaken the serious attention of Eliphaz, and He succeeded.
Job's day had no written Bible. God spoke to people one at a time, and He had a purpose in doing it.
In the days of the patriarchs, we may say that God gave no revelation of Himself except to the individual. God made His mind known this way to Noah, to Abraham, and even to those who were largely ignorant of Him, such as Abimelech and Laban (Gen. 20:3, etc.; Gen. 31:24). A dream or vision was often used, but it was a divine revelation. Eliphaz refers to such a communication, in beautiful language, but not as definitely as Elihu does here (see Job 4:12-21). Elihu makes it plain that God speaks to man in this way. When all is silent, He speaks in a still, small voice and makes His mind known. His purpose is to correct wrong thoughts and actions, to draw man back from his own plans, and to hide pride from him.
A whisper in the dark is far less than what God has since shown us. And the fear it caused tells us about the man who heard it.
And now he brings in a vision of the night. He was very serious. And God has often used visions of the night. It is true we have something a great deal better. We have the vision of the day. We have the great vision of Christ shown in human flesh. We have the vision of God showing Himself. He speaks and acts for us in this world of sin and death... "Fear came upon me, and trembling" — clearly he did not have enough of grace; grace does not make people afraid in this way. It is judgment that does so, and this is what these good men are full of; they were full of the spirit of judgment.
What he heard was not comfort but rebuke.
Next Eliphaz sets out an oracle of the night, in a mysterious and awesome style. It impressed on his own soul the folly of one claim. Earthly, sinful, weak man claims to be more just than God by putting His dealings on trial.
True words can still miss their target — and turn back on the speaker.
This is all quite true, and in other settings entirely fitting. But it falls beside the mark, because it does not meet Job's need. Truly, in God's sight all are as an unclean thing. But does that do away with the righteousness found in the children of God? If all are unclean in God's sight, then Eliphaz must take his place beside Job. He is by no means ready to do that. So every explanation of suffering fails.
He heard a word about all mankind and posted it to one address only — his friend's.
How true such words are, and how well they apply to all of mankind! But Eliphaz was applying them only to Job, not to himself. He did not consider himself "crushed before a moth" and "broken in pieces."... But a vision or dream is meant to apply directly to the one who has it, and Eliphaz missed that one important fact. In the same way, we may hear good ministry which we think fits others better than ourselves... If Eliphaz had learned the lesson God intended, he would not have spoken to Job the way he did.
This vision fits how Eliphaz argues in general.
From these sentences it seems very clear that Eliphaz belonged to that class of people who argue mostly from their own experience. His motto was, "As I have seen." Now, what we have seen may be true enough, as far as we are concerned. But it is a total mistake to build a general rule on individual experience, and yet it is a mistake thousands make. What, for instance, had the experience of Eliphaz to do with Job?
- Whisper. Eliphaz caught only a fragment of a word in the night. The little he heard left him shaking.
- Fear. Grace does not frighten a man this way. His dread shows the spirit behind his advice: judgment.
- True. The message was sound: no one can put God's dealings on trial. God did speak by dreams before there was a written Bible.
- Misapplied. A vision is meant for the one who receives it. Eliphaz aimed it at Job and left himself out, so his words missed Job's need.
- Better. One man's experience cannot become everyone's rule. We have the vision of the day — Christ revealed — not a whisper in the dark.
In thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men --
Eliphaz is answering Job, and he backs his case with something that came to him at night, while other people lay in deep sleep. Two questions follow. What kind of sleep was that? And does a night vision qualify a man to explain another man's pain?
The Hebrew word behind "deep sleep" here is tardemah. It is never used of an ordinary night's rest. It marks sleep that comes from outside the sleeper.
A deep sleep — tardemah — is a term never used of natural sleep. It is used of sleep that is either supernatural, for a special purpose (Gen. 2:21; Gen. 15:12; Job 4:13; Job 33:15), or spiritual, part of God's governmental dealing with man. (Prov. 19:15; Isa. 29:10.)
In those early days God dealt with people one by one. A dream then was not just a dream.
In the days of the patriarchs, we may say that God gave no revelation of Himself except to the individual. God made His mind known this way to Noah, to Abraham, and even to those who were largely ignorant of Him, like Abimelech and Laban (Gen. 20:3, etc.; Gen. 31:24). A dream or vision was often used, but it was a divine revelation. Eliphaz refers to such a communication, in beautiful language...
Something far better has come since. And the fear that came with the vision shows what filled Eliphaz.
God has often used visions of the night. It is true we have something a great deal better. We have the vision of the day. We have the great vision of Christ shown in flesh. We have the vision of God showing Himself, and God speaking and acting for us in this world of sin and death... Fear and trembling came on him. Clearly he did not have enough grace. Grace does not make people afraid like this. It is judgment that does so, and this is what these good men are full of; they were full of the spirit of judgment.
The trouble with Eliphaz is not what he heard.
From verse 12 onwards, the position Eliphaz takes becomes clearer. He starts to describe a terrifying experience of his own. He saw a spirit appear, and heard a word of warning about man's frailty and impurity before his Maker. What he heard is perfectly true. No mortal man can be more pure or just than God. In both he falls infinitely short of God's glory.
The problem is the use Eliphaz makes of it. A true statement can still be the wrong verdict on a man.
Every word may be true in itself; He says it all with the utmost dignity and force. Yet he misapplies it, and it is one-sided, so as a whole it is wrong in effect. Eliphaz assumes that God is displaying His government right now. He assumes God measures out prosperity or trouble in exact proportion to what people deserve. This is false ground. It spoils the application, above all to someone like Job, whom Satan was allowed to attack.
A vision has a first audience: the person who receives it. Eliphaz forgot that, and aimed his at Job.
But a vision or dream is meant to apply directly to the one who has it, and Eliphaz missed that one important fact. In the same way, we may hear good teaching which we think fits others better than ourselves. Eliphaz could see that Job's excellence was going away. But the excellence of Eliphaz would go away too, as with all men... If Eliphaz had learned the lesson God intended, he would not have spoken to Job the way he did.
Behind everything Eliphaz says lies one habit of mind.
These sentences make it clear that Eliphaz belonged to the class of people who argue very much from their own experience. His motto was, "As I have seen." Now, what we have seen may be true enough, so far as we are concerned. But it is a total mistake to build a general rule on one person's experience. Yet thousands make that mistake.
- Sleep — The word for "deep sleep" is never used of ordinary rest. It marks sleep God sends for a purpose.
- Speech — In those days God spoke to people one at a time, by dream and vision. Eliphaz's night vision was one of these.
- Substance — What the voice said was true: no mortal is more just or pure than God.
- Slip — The message was for the man who received it, but Eliphaz aimed it at Job instead of himself.
- Standard — Eliphaz built his rule on "as I have seen," and it failed. We have something far better: the vision of the day, God showing Himself in Christ.
Fear came on me, and trembling, and made all my bones to shake;
Eliphaz is answering Job, and here he reaches for his strongest proof: something that happened to him at night. His shaking bones make the message that follows sound like a word from God — but does dread prove that God has spoken?
A whisper reaches Eliphaz in the deep sleep of night. Then comes terror, then a form he cannot make out.
Next, in words of great solemnity and lofty poetic beauty, Eliphaz describes his vision of the greatness and holiness of God. In the silent hours of the night, an apparition had come before him, making him tremble with a dread he could not name. While seeing nothing, he had felt the whisper of "a still small voice," and it made his hair stand up.
God spoke to people one by one in those days, often through a dream or vision. Eliphaz's night vision fits that pattern.
In the days of the patriarchs, we may say that there was no revelation of God except what was given to the individual. God made His mind known this way to Noah, to Abraham, and even to those who were largely ignorant of Him, such as Abimelech and Laban. A dream or vision was often used, but it was a divine revelation. Eliphaz refers to such a communication, in beautiful language, but not as definitely as Elihu does here.
God had a purpose in the terror itself.
Eliphaz describes in vivid language a night vision he had experienced in quiet secrecy, and it had a deep effect on him. He was evidently in a deep sleep when a fit of fear and trembling seized him (v.14). A spirit passed before his face, making his hair stand up. A form was present, but its appearance could not be made out. No doubt God intended by this to awaken the serious attention of Eliphaz, and He succeeded.
Commentators differ here. Where the ESV says "dread," older translations say "fear" — and one writer says that fear shows what Eliphaz lacked.
And God has often used visions of the night. It is true that we have something far better. We have the vision of the day. We have the great vision of Christ manifested in flesh. We have the vision of God showing Himself, and God speaking and acting for us in this world of sin and death... "dread came upon me, and trembling" — clearly he did not have enough of grace; grace does not make people fear in this way. It is judgment that does so, and that is what these good men were full of; they were full of the spirit of judgment.
What the voice actually said was true.
From verse 12 onward, the position Eliphaz takes comes more clearly to light. He begins to tell of a rather terrifying experience of his own. He saw some spirit apparition, and received a word of warning about man's frailty and impurity in the presence of his Maker. What he heard is perfectly true. No mortal man can be more pure or more just than God. In both he falls infinitely short of God's glory.
The problem is the use he made of it. A true statement about human uncleanness cannot explain why Job is suffering. And if it could, it would catch Eliphaz too.
This is all quite true, and in other connections most fitting; but, as already said, it misses the mark, because it does not meet Job's need. Truly, in God's sight, all are as an unclean thing. But does that set aside the fact that there is such a thing as righteousness in the children of God? If all are unclean in God's sight, then Eliphaz must take his place beside Job — something he is by no means ready to do — and every explanation of suffering fails.
This dread is not unique to Eliphaz. One writer hears it again in Jesus' disciples at sea.
They cried out in fear, for they thought they saw a ghost. The appearance of their Master filled them with more alarm than the fury of the storm seems to have done. That fear — the fear of the unknown — took hold of them, the fear Eliphaz spoke of when he said, "dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake."
- Night. In that age God spoke through dreams and visions, and Eliphaz's experience follows that pattern.
- Dread. The shaking bones were God's way of waking Eliphaz up, and they worked.
- Judgment. Commentators differ on the fear. One calls it a mark of judgment, not grace, and says that spirit shapes all Eliphaz then says.
- Truth. The message he heard — that no mortal is more just or pure than his Maker — is true.
- Day. True words can still miss the mark. They did not meet Job's need, and they left Eliphaz no ground to stand above Job. What we have now is not a form in the dark but the vision of the day: Christ manifested in flesh.
And a spirit passed before my face -- the hair of my flesh stood up --
Eliphaz has just told Job that a message reached him in the night, and now he describes what came with it. Everything he says to Job afterwards rests on this moment, so two questions matter: what was it, and was he right to build on it?
The verse describes a sensation more than a sighting. He felt something before he saw anything. His body reacted before his mind could name it.
With deep seriousness and great poetic beauty, Eliphaz describes his vision of the greatness and holiness of God. In the silent hours of the night, a ghostly figure came before him and made him tremble with a dread he could not name. Though he saw nothing, he felt the whisper of "a still small voice," that made his hair stand up.
The experience left a mark on him, and one writer reads a purpose behind it.
Eliphaz uses vivid language to describe a night vision he had in private, and it affected him deeply. He was clearly in a deep sleep when a fit of fear and trembling shook him (v.14). A spirit passed before his face, causing his hair to stand up. A form was there, but he could not make out what it looked like. No doubt God meant this to get the serious attention of Eliphaz, and He succeeded.
The reaction was terror. That tells you something about the message Eliphaz was carrying to a suffering man.
God has often used visions of the night. It is true we have something far better. We have the vision of the day. We have the great vision of Christ shown in human flesh. We have the vision of God showing Himself, and God speaking and acting for us in this world of sin and death... The fear and trembling that came over him show he did not have enough grace; grace does not make people afraid like this. It is judgment that does so, and this is what these good men are full of; they were full of the spirit of judgment.
This dread of the unknown was not unique to Eliphaz. It gripped the disciples too, at the very moment help arrived:
The appearance of their Master filled them with more alarm than the fury of the storm seems to have done. The same fear that Eliphaz described — the fear of the unknown — took hold of them.
Whatever the form was, no one can fault what it said.
He begins to tell of a terrifying experience of his own. He saw some kind of spirit, and he received a word of warning about man's weakness and impurity in the presence of his Maker. What he heard is perfectly true. No mortal man can be more pure or just than God. In both he falls infinitely short of God's glory.
The failure was in the delivery. Eliphaz took a private warning and aimed it at somebody else.
Such words are true, and they apply to all mankind. But Eliphaz applied them only to Job, not to himself... But a vision or dream is meant for the person who has it, and Eliphaz missed that one important fact. In the same way, we may hear good teaching and think it fits other people better than it fits us... If Eliphaz had learned the lesson God intended, he would not have spoken to Job the way he did.
Eliphaz builds his argument on what he saw that night. One writer names the habit behind that:
These sentences make it clear that Eliphaz belonged to the kind of people who argue mainly from their own experience. His motto was, "As I have seen." Now, what we have seen may be all true enough, so far as we are concerned. But it is a complete mistake to build a general rule on one person's experience, and thousands make that mistake. What, for instance, had the experience of Eliphaz to do with Job? It went for nothing in Job's case. As soon as Eliphaz stopped speaking, Job went on with the tale of his own sorrows, without paying the slightest attention to his words.
- Received. Something passed before Eliphaz in the dark. He felt it more than he saw it, and his hair stood on end at a form he could not make out.
- Real. The word that came with it was true — no mortal is more pure or more just than his Maker.
- Redirected. A dream is meant for the one who has it. Eliphaz aimed it at Job instead of himself, and that single move turned truth into cruelty.
- Rule. He rested his case on what he had seen himself. One man's experience cannot become the rule for another man's suffering.
- Replaced. Night visions have given way to something better: the vision of the day — God shown in Christ. What Eliphaz felt was dread, and dread is the mark of judgment, not of grace.
It stood still; I could not discern the appearance thereof a form was before mine eyes; I heard a slight murmur and a voice
Eliphaz has been telling Job about something that came to him in the night. Here he reaches the heart of it: a shape he could not name, a hush, then a voice — and the question of whose message it was, and who it was for.
One writer reads the scene as God gaining a man's full attention.
Eliphaz describes in the most graphic language a night vision he had experienced in quiet secrecy, one that had a deep effect on him… A form was present, but he could not make out its appearance. No doubt God intended by this to awaken the serious attention of Eliphaz, and He succeeded.
The silence breaks into words, and the message speaks to man's standing before God.
Next Eliphaz sets out a message of the night, in mysterious and awe-filled style. It impressed on his own soul how foolish it is when man finds fault with God's dealings and so claims to be more just than God. Man is of the earth, sinful and weak.
One writer weighs the whole speech and finds the fault not in its words but in what Eliphaz assumes.
Every word may be true in itself; it is all said with the greatest dignity and force. Yet he applies it wrongly, and he sees only one side. As a whole, then, it is wrong. Eliphaz assumes that God is displaying His government right now. He thinks God measures out prosperity or trouble to each person exactly as they deserve. This is false ground. It ruins the application, especially to someone like Job, whom God gave up to Satan's attacks and tried to the end.
In his later speeches Eliphaz keeps appealing to the same authority: what he himself has seen.
It is clear that his argument rests mainly for its force on his own powers of observation. He trusted those powers for his opinion about the meaning of the disasters that had fallen on Job.
One writer asks who the message was really for.
How true and how fitting such words are for all mankind! But Eliphaz was applying them only to Job, not to himself. He did not consider himself "crushed before a moth" and "broken in pieces." This had happened to Job, so Eliphaz took his vision as applying directly to Job. But a vision or dream is meant to apply directly to the one who has it, and Eliphaz missed that one important fact. In the same way, we may hear good ministry that we think fits others better than ourselves… If Eliphaz had learned the lesson God intended, he would not have spoken to Job the way he did.
Eliphaz's own reaction to the vision was fear. One writer takes that fear as a clue to his state, and points to a far clearer vision we have now.
And now he brings in a vision of the night. He was very serious. And God has often used visions of the night. It is true that we have something far better. We have the vision of the day. We have the great vision of Christ made known in flesh. We have the vision of God showing Himself, and God speaking and acting for us in this world of sin and death… "Fear came upon me, and trembling" — he clearly did not have enough grace. Grace does not make people afraid in this way. It is judgment that does so, and this is what these good men are full of; they were full of the spirit of judgment.
Commentators weigh the vision differently. One takes such night messages as real dealings of God with a person:
In the days of the patriarchs, we may say there was no revelation of God except what was given to the individual… A dream or vision was often used, but it was a divine revelation. Eliphaz refers to such a communication, in beautiful language, though not as clearly as Elihu, a later speaker in this book, does here.
Another points out that not everything Eliphaz said carries the same weight:
Yet Eliphaz for all that could say many a true thing — truth he had doubtless learned from God, and could speak as from Him; and one such saying the Holy Spirit certifies for us through the mouth of Paul. That could not certify the things the same Eliphaz said which were not right.
- Vision. A form stood before Eliphaz that he could not make out. God used the strangeness to seize his attention, not to satisfy his curiosity.
- Voice. After the silence came the message: no one can claim to be more just than God. Finding fault with His dealings is folly.
- Truth. Every word of it may be true on its own. The error lay underneath: Eliphaz assumed that present blessing and present trouble measure a person exactly.
- Target. A vision is meant first for the one who receives it. Eliphaz aimed it at the sufferer opposite him, and so learned nothing from it himself.
- Light. His night vision produced trembling, not grace. The fuller vision came later, in Christ made known in flesh.