And he saveth the needy from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty.
Job 5:15 comes near the end of Eliphaz's first speech. There he stacks up examples of God defeating the plans of the powerful and rescuing those with no power at all. The words are true and beautifully said. The question the book raises is whether they were the right words for a man in Job's pain.
Chapters 4 and 5 are one carefully built speech. One outline puts this verse in the part about God's triumph over evil, just before Eliphaz turns to the value of suffering.
Samuel RidoutEliphaz begins his speech partly as a reply to Job's sad complaint, but mainly to give the help he thinks Job's spiritual condition needs. The speech, in chapters 4 and 5, has great dignity and beauty of language, and holds much truth that is plain to see. It falls into seven parts … (5) Eliphaz urges Job to seek God (verses 6-11). (6) God's triumph over evil (verses 12-16). (7) The uses of affliction (verses 17-27).
The weapon in this verse is speech. Powerful men threaten the needy with the sword and with cruel accusations. Eliphaz says God saves them from both.
Leslie M. GrantHe had also observed that the Lord saves the needy from the sword, from the mouth of powerful men — that is, from their cruel accusations — and from their persecution. So the poor have hope, and injustice is silenced (verses 15-16). This is true in the long run: God will certainly silence injustice. But in the meantime injustice often seems to prevail, and for this Eliphaz had no answer.
The problem is not the sentence itself but the theory it serves. Eliphaz assumes God settles every account now, so ruin today must mean guilt today.
William KellyEvery word may be true in itself. He says it all with the greatest dignity and force. Yet it is misapplied and one-sided, so as a whole it is in effect wrong. Eliphaz assumes that God is displaying His government right now, and measures out prosperity or trouble to match exactly what people deserve. That is false ground, and it spoils the way he applies his words — above all to a man like Job, who was handed over to be attacked by Satan.
In the end the verse turns back on the man who said it. Eliphaz says all evil will have to shut its mouth. That is what happens at the close of the book — but not in the way he expected.
Samuel RidoutEliphaz is putting together his theory: "Be good, and you will be happy in the long run." Job would then be cleared, and all evil would have to shut its mouth. Eliphaz and his friends do have to learn this later, and these words read like a prophecy of what happens when Job prays for them. Yes, God will triumph over evil, and will make His people "more than conquerors through Him who loved us." But it will not be in man's way, and He alone will be exalted.
There is a sharp irony here. Eliphaz describes God saving people from cutting words. Yet Job's own comforters are cutting him with theirs, and they never make a plain charge he can answer.
William KellyIt is hard to imagine anything more crushing to the spirit of a godly man. There is no plain, definite charge, and they bring no facts to lay on his conscience. The judging spirit that ruled them kept their hearts from waiting until God showed the truth of things. It made them quick to seize, without even knowing it, on the sufferer's wild words, and to build on them the suspicion of worse deeds behind it all.
Job did get the deliverance the verse promises. It came only after he stopped defending his own name.
F. B. HoleOppression and slander are very hard to bear, and twice as hard when they come from friends. When his friends slandered him, Job felt it deeply. But for a long time he fought for his own good name instead of committing his way to the Lord. When at last he did commit it, God soon brought forth His righteousness as the light and His judgment as the noonday.
- Sword. The danger named here is the mouth — cruel accusations from powerful men. Eliphaz says God saves the needy from words and from blows alike.
- Speaker. The sentence is true, but Eliphaz stands on false ground. He assumes God hands out prosperity and trouble now, to match what each person deserves.
- Silence. God does silence injustice in the long run; in the meantime it often seems to win, and Eliphaz had no answer to that gap.
- Sufferer. Eliphaz preached rescue from cutting speech while his own hints crushed Job. His friends never made a plain charge, so Job had nothing he could answer.
- Surrender. The promise came true for Job. He stopped fighting for his own name, gave his cause to God, and God alone was exalted.
So the poor hath what he hopeth for, and unrighteousness stoppeth her mouth.
Eliphaz has been describing a God who overturns the schemes of clever men. This verse is where that picture lands: the poor get hope, and wrongdoing has nothing left to say. The words are lovely. But commentators ask what Eliphaz was doing with them. Why can a true sentence still be the wrong thing to say to a suffering man?
The verse closes a section, not a speech. One writer divides Eliphaz's first address into seven parts, and this verse ends the sixth:
Samuel RidoutThe address, in chapters 4 and 5, has much dignity and great beauty of expression, and contains much self-evident truth. It falls into seven portions: … (4) Experience of God's ways (Job 5:1-5). (5) Exhortation to Job to seek God (vv. 6-11). (6) God's triumph over evil (vv. 12-16). (7) The uses of affliction (vv. 17-27).
The rescue in view is not only from weapons. It is rescue from words:
Leslie M. GrantHe had also seen that the Lord saves the needy from the sword. He saves them from the mouth — the cruel accusations — of powerful men, and from their persecution. So the poor have hope, and injustice is silenced (vv.15-16). This is true in the long run: God will certainly silence injustice. But in the meantime injustice often seems to win, and Eliphaz had no answer for this.
Eliphaz is not just praising God. He is building a system, and the silenced mouth of wrongdoing is the reward waiting at the end of it:
Samuel RidoutEliphaz is working out his theory: "Be good, and you will be happy in the long run." Job would then be cleared, and all iniquity would have to stop its mouth. Eliphaz and his friends must indeed find this out later. These words are like a prophecy of what happens when Job prays for them. Yes, God will surely triumph over evil, and will make His people "more than conquerors through Him who loved them." But it will not be in man's way, and He alone will be exalted.
The New Testament quotes Eliphaz as Scripture. One writer shows how that fits with the rebuke the speakers received:
William KellyYou only have to look at the words of Eliphaz to see that in themselves they contain nothing but truth. But if we weigh them as applied to Job, they are inexcusably wrong… The New Testament quotes the words of Eliphaz, both in the first letter to the Corinthians and in the letter to the Hebrews. There the application is perfectly good. In the history given in the Old Testament the application was wrong, and the speakers were reproved for it.
Another writer finds the same fault in this chapter. The facts Eliphaz stated were true. The harm lay in where he aimed them:
F. B. HoleBut we can see that he brings all these facts forward in a way that turned them against poor Job… It is obvious that all these remarks carried a hidden charge against Job. He had seemed to be wise, but now he was caught in his own craftiness — or so it looked to Eliphaz.
Eliphaz judged Job by how things looked. One writer shows why that ground is so dangerous:
William Kelly"Do not judge by appearances," said the law. We are bound to wait for solid fact. Sometimes a bad man puts on a good appearance, and we are not at all deceived by that. Sometimes a good man is in such circumstances that appearances are very much against him. There we have to take great care. So judging by appearances is very dangerous ground. That is exactly where they were.
The writers agree on where the trouble lay. It was not the content of what Eliphaz said, but the accusation folded inside it.
- Hope. The verse ends Eliphaz's picture of God overturning evil. The needy have something to expect, and wrongdoing has nothing left to say.
- Silence. God saves the needy from cruel accusations, not only from the sword. He will silence injustice at last.
- Delay. The promise is true in the long run. In the meantime injustice often seems to win, and Eliphaz had no answer for that gap.
- Misuse. In themselves his words contain nothing but truth — the New Testament quotes them — but aimed at Job they were wrong beyond excuse.
- Irony. The silencing he described came true when Job prayed for his friends. It came God's way, not man's, so that He alone is exalted.