You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
Eliphaz, one of Job's three friends, has run out of arguments, so he switches from theory to accusation: Job must be a man who refused a drink to the exhausted and food to the starving. How could a respected, religious friend invent such a charge? And what does that say about the way we read the suffering of others?
The charge reverses the truth
The accusation is not an exaggeration of Job's life. It is the exact opposite — and the accuser had given less to the needy than the man he was attacking:
William KellySuch a conclusive answer to his argument provoked him, so now he plainly charges Job with hidden evil. A man who suspects on appearances will soon do without even appearances. "Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities. For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing." It was the very reverse of Job's real character! "You have given no water to the weary to drink" — Job gave more than Eliphaz ever did — "and you have withheld bread from the hungry." What could be less true?
No proof, no witness
Eliphaz names no person, no date, no incident. He has a theory, and the theory supplies the evidence:
Samuel RidoutHe has refused water to those who were fainting and bread to the starving! By sheer power he has taken the lands of others and dwelt there himself as a great and honourable man! Widows and orphans have been driven away by this heartless monster! Proofs? Witnesses? Why does he need them, when the theory proves it all so well without the trouble of establishing facts!
To claim a man never gave water to the weary, you would need to watch every day of his life. Only God has:
Leslie M. GrantHow did Eliphaz know this? He would have to know Job's whole life to have any such knowledge. Of course God knew what Job had done and what he had not done, and evidently Eliphaz thought that he shared God's knowledge!
The error underneath the slander
The cruelty here grows out of one false assumption about God. Commentators trace it through the speeches of all three friends:
William KellyThey assumed that the way the world looks now is a fair expression of His judgment on people's ways. We find this assumption running through the speeches of the three friends. At first they voice it fairly calmly, but in the end it ripens into severity... Here was a man suffering one trouble after another, beyond anything ever seen.
If disaster always measures guilt, then Job's unmatched disaster must mean unmatched guilt. Eliphaz can fill in the crimes afterwards.
Job answers item by item
The charges run from verse 5 to verse 9, and Job later answers them one by one:
F. B. HoleEliphaz plunged into a series of accusations against Job. In the light of the testimony God bore to him at the start of the story, they must have been completely unfounded. These accusations fill verses 5-9. Eliphaz did not deal in vague hints. He stated plainly that Job had done wrong to the needy, the naked, the weary, the hungry, the widow and the fatherless. In Job 29, Job answers these charges and is just as clear in declaring how well he had treated these very people.
Job's real record was the mirror image of the charge. His wealth went to the very people he was accused of neglecting:
Leslie M. GrantThere is no reason to doubt what Job said in chapter 29:11-17 about his genuine care for the poor, the fatherless, those perishing, the widow and the lame. So he was not greedy for gain at all. He used his wealth in kindness toward those in need.
What it costs to guess at another's sin
The habit did not die with Eliphaz. Hard times still tempt onlookers to supply a hidden reason:
Samuel RidoutBut even now, is not suspicion of others all too common? A man's business fails, illness comes into his family, he loses loved ones. People quickly conclude that God is chastening him for faults they have imagined. How cruel this is! It goes against the plain direction, "Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established." Let us be slow to suspect, and slower still to charge unknown evil, leaving that to the Searcher of hearts.
Cleared — but still not at rest
Job wins the argument about his charity and still finds no peace. A clean record is not the same as being right with God:
Charles StanleyNow, just read chapters 29-31, and you will say that if any man could have justified himself by good works, Job was the man... As to his kindness to the poor, he was the very opposite of the lying charges brought against him. So he lets his memory go back over every good act of his life, but none of it gives rest to his troubled spirit.
Summary
- False charge. Eliphaz says Job denied water and bread to the desperate. It was the exact reverse of how Job had lived.
- No witness. He gives no names, no dates, no proof. His theory supplied the facts, and he spoke as if he knew Job's whole life the way God does.
- Wrong theory. One assumption produced the charge: that a person's present circumstances show God's verdict on his life.
- Job's record. Job answers the list item by item in chapter 29, and his wealth had in fact gone to the poor, the widow and the fatherless.
- Our caution. Be slow to suspect and slower to accuse. And remember: even a spotless record of kindness gave Job's heart no rest.