So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts 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?
Where the Verse Sits
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).
What the Words Describe
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.
The Theory Underneath
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.
True Words, Wrong Target
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.
Why Eliphaz Went Wrong
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.
Summary
- 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.