The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
Eliphaz has been building a picture of ruined lions — roaring, fierce, their teeth broken out. This verse ends the picture: even the strongest hunter starves, and his cubs scatter. The question is whether that rule always holds, and whether it fits the suffering man in front of him.
The Lion as a Figure of the Mighty Wicked
Eliphaz has just said that people reap what they sow. He then reaches past human examples for something wilder to make the same point.
William KellyEliphaz begins with a glance at Job's past claim to be righteous, but only to rebuke him for failing to endure... All he sees is that righteousness must win and the wicked must be ruined beyond recovery. He shows it with pictures taken not only from men, but from the wildest of beasts crushed under God's hand.
Eliphaz chooses the lion because nothing in the animal world looks less likely to go hungry.
William KellyThen he brings in the lions as a picture. However strong and great and unmatched a lion may be, he can still be broken. The same is true of men who play the lion in the world.
The Hidden Point Aimed at Job
The dying lion and the scattered cubs are not general poetry. They match Job's own losses — and one writer points out what Eliphaz never stops to weigh.
Leslie M. GrantHe does not even consider the difference between a believer and an unbeliever in the way God deals with them... Since Job could be compared to a lion in the earlier strength of his wealth, he was now like a lion that perishes, or like a lioness losing her cubs. Eliphaz does not say this to encourage Job. He says it to imply that Job must have brought this disaster on himself by secret sin.
An Argument That Cannot Bear the Weight
The argument works only if its opening claim holds: that no innocent person is ever destroyed. One old story breaks it.
F. B. HoleBut in his next paragraph (verses 7-11) Eliphaz reads the situation entirely wrong. He asks, "Who ever perished, being innocent?"... What about Abel? He perished being innocent. The first disaster recorded after sin entered the world disproved the position Eliphaz took up. The righteous Abel was cut off. So the idea he built up with his picture of the lions broke down. Reaping disaster does not have to mean that those who reap "plow iniquity, and sow wickedness."
The Trap It Sets
The lion picture is not cruel because it is false. On its own it is true enough. It turns cruel when Eliphaz stretches it to cover every case of suffering.
Samuel RidoutHow often had the wicked been cut off, reaping as they had sowed. No matter how strong and mighty, they are cut off, as fierce lions having their teeth broken out. These things are true in a general way. But Eliphaz has lost all distinction between the righteous and the wicked. He forces Job into a dilemma that Job is already beginning to feel — either Job or God is unjust!
Another writer spells out that dilemma in Eliphaz's own voice.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThey are cut off even if they were like strong lions. What dogmatic logic! Job, if you are righteous and suffering like this, then God has no justice at all. But if God is just, then you have plowed iniquity and sown wickedness, and all your suffering is your own harvest.
Summary
- Figure. Eliphaz picks the lion because it is the last creature you would expect to starve. No strength, human or animal, survives God's hand. Anyone who "plays the lion in the world" can be broken.
- Aim. The starving lion and the scattered cubs picture Job himself: his wealth gone, his children gone. The image hints at secret sin without saying it outright.
- Flaw. The whole argument rests on one question: who ever perished while innocent? Abel did. He was the first death after sin entered the world. Disaster reaped is not proof of iniquity sown.
- Trap. Eliphaz loses the distinction between the righteous and the wicked. That leaves Job two exits only: either Job is guilty, or God is unjust.
- Warning. A statement can be true in general, well argued, and still be the wrong word for the person in front of you. Truth aimed at the wrong man wounds him.