The man with power possessed the land, and the favored man lived in it.
Eliphaz has run out of argument, and in this third speech he stops hinting and starts accusing. The verse pictures Job as a strong man who seized land and settled there as a person of standing. But Eliphaz never saw any of it. He invented the picture.
The Accusation Behind the Words
The man with power and the favored man in this verse are not strangers. They are Eliphaz's portrait of the man sitting in front of him, drawn from his own head.
William KellyEliphaz is just imagining what he thinks Job must have done to account for the troubles he was passing through. "The man with power possessed the land, and the favored man lived in it" — Job was the man with power — "You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken. Therefore snares are all around you." You see all the reasoning is quite mistaken.
The verse has two halves: power on one side, favour on the other. One writer reads the life Eliphaz imagines as double-sided:
William KellyHis life had really been a mixture: power on the one hand, and favour on the other. He was arrogant, yet fawning, so that he could settle himself in the land he wanted — whatever he might claim to the contrary.
Charges Without a Single Witness
Eliphaz names crimes but never names a victim, a date, or a place. He never has to. His theory has already convicted Job before anyone calls a witness.
Samuel RidoutJob has taken away his brother's goods on a false claim! He has stripped the poor of his last covering! He has refused water to the fainting and bread to the starving! By sheer force he has taken the lands of others and lived there himself as a great and honorable man! He has driven widows and orphans away, this heartless monster! Proofs? Witnesses? Why would he need them, when the theory proves it all so neatly without the trouble of establishing facts!
Reasoning in a Circle
His method is still in use today. Eliphaz starts from Job's suffering and works back to a hidden crime. Then he uses that invented crime to explain the suffering.
Leslie M. GrantHe first reasons backward from Job's sufferings, seeing this trouble as the result of Job's wickedness. Then he reasons forward, telling Job that this trouble has come on him because he has been so wicked. Many people do the same. They argue with no basis in actual fact, but from their own guesses. Only established fact can be a true basis for discussion.
What the Reader Already Knows
The book has told us at the start what God thinks of Job, so we watch these charges land knowing they are false. And we see the damage they do.
F. B. HoleAfter those wise words, Eliphaz launched into a series of accusations against Job. God Himself had testified to Job's character at the start of the story, so these charges must have been completely groundless. These accusations fill verses 5 to 9. Read them, and we can see what provoked Job to sing his own praises, as he does in Job 29. Eliphaz did not deal in vague hints. He stated plainly that Job had wronged the needy, the naked, the weary, the hungry, the widow and the fatherless. In Job 29, Job answers these charges and is just as plain about how well he had treated these very people.
Job's defence is true, but one writer does not treat it as pure gain. Pushed to defend himself, he ends up praising himself:
Samuel RidoutIt is indeed a beautiful picture, but spoiled by the pride of telling it himself. "Let another praise you, and not your own mouth." Job had won the respect and affection of all. He had been a helper of the helpless, a friend of the orphan and the widow.
A Warning for Today
This is not only an old story. The same instinct is alive today: we explain a neighbour's misfortune by inventing a sin.
Samuel RidoutBut even now, is not suspicion of others all too common? A man fails in business, has illness in his family, or loses loved ones. People jump to the conclusion that he is being chastened for some imagined fault. How cruel this is, and against the plain rule that two or three witnesses must establish every charge. Let us be slow to suspect, and slower to charge evil we have not seen, leaving that to the Searcher of hearts.
Summary
- Theory first. Eliphaz begins with a rule about how God works. Then he invents facts to fit it — Job as the strong man who seized the land.
- Facts never. He names crimes but produces no witness and no proof, because his theory has already done the convicting.
- Circle closed. He reasons backward from the suffering to a hidden sin. Then he reasons forward from that sin to the suffering — guesswork posing as evidence.
- Damage done. God's own testimony to Job contradicts the false charges. They also push Job into listing his own good deeds — true, but spoiled by self-praise.
- Lesson kept. Be slow to suspect. Be slower to accuse of evil you have not seen. Leave hidden things to the One who searches hearts.