For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal.
Eliphaz is speaking to Job, and his words about God are true: the hand that strikes is the hand that heals. The trouble is his target — a man whose suffering had nothing to do with hidden sin.
One hand behind both
One hand sends the trouble, and the same hand brings the relief. The quotation below follows an older translation, where the ESV's "his hands heal" reads "His hands make whole."
Samuel RidoutThe relief also comes from the same blessed source: "His hands make whole." How good it is to know that all the trial and the relief — comes from Him.
How to take correction
The wound is His, so there are two wrong responses: making light of it, and giving up under it. Faith looks past every visible cause to the hand behind it.
Samuel RidoutHappy indeed is he who receives chastening at the loving hands of God; we are neither to despise nor to faint under such dealings. No matter how great the afflictions, or how often they come, deliverance will arrive in due time... Let the sufferer only say, "It is your hand," "I know that in faithfulness you have afflicted me." The Scriptures are full of this precious truth for the child of God. This truth leads us to look past all apparent causes, all human instruments, or even Satan himself, to see that Hand which "will never cause His child a needless tear."
True words, wrong man
Every clause of the verse can be defended. The fault lies in the theory underneath it. Eliphaz thinks God settles every account now, so a man's troubles show what he deserves.
William KellyEvery word may be true in itself; all is said with the utmost dignity and force; yet it is misapplied and one-sided, and so, in effect, wrong as a whole. Eliphaz assumes that God at the present time is displaying His government, giving each person exactly the prosperity or trouble he deserves. This is false ground, and it spoils the application, above all to a man like Job, handed over to Satan's attacks and tested by God to the end — not the bitter end, but the sweet.
Said kindly, the same words could have helped Job.
Leslie M. GrantAgain, he voices an excellent principle, "Happy is the man whom God corrects" (v.17). But Job did not feel happy. Of course, God was only beginning His correcting work with Job, and Job did not discern it... If Eliphaz had spoken this to Job in a kind and encouraging way, it might have helped him. Instead he was blaming Job for not gaining such blessing — for not confessing that he was guilty of secret sin.
The danger of borrowed truth
Quote this verse at the wrong moment and it does more damage than an obvious mistake. Nobody can dismiss it.
William KellyAbstract truth is altogether useless for the saints of God. Things that are true, but misunderstood and misapplied, may do more harm than many a thing that is false. Misapplied truth gives an error the apparent authority of God. That error carries all the more weight because it comes as the truth. If someone says a foolish thing, or one clearly false, people despise it; but no believer can slight the truth of God. So if people misuse the truth of God — if they use it to crush someone who is an object of intense interest to God at the time, how foreign and offensive to His mind!
Love holds the rod
The principle itself is not limited to Job. It runs through Scripture, and its root is love.
Edward DennettHardly anyone will question that this principle applies to those in relationship with Christ (compare Job 5:17-18; Proverbs 3:11-12; Amos 3:2; Hebrews 12:5-8, and others). It lies at the very foundation of the way God governs His people in this world... It is therefore out of the tenderness, out of the love of His own heart, that this warning proceeds. He never afflicts willingly.
The healing came
Eliphaz said it too soon and too coldly, but the end of the book proved it true. Job's healing came, though not through confessing the secret sin Eliphaz imagined.
Samuel RidoutNow Jehovah can lift His hand from the sufferer, and turn all the grievous captivity into full and prosperous recovery. Job can say, I "have received double from the Lord's hand." The relatives and acquaintances who had fled from him and despised him return with gifts and sympathy.
Summary
- One hand. The stroke and the healing come from the same hand. The sufferer never has to work out which part of his life God is behind.
- One response. Neither despise the correction nor faint under it; say instead, "It is your hand."
- One motive. He never afflicts willingly. Rebuke and chastening flow from love — a principle running from Job through Proverbs to Hebrews.
- One misuse. True words aimed at the wrong person do more harm than plain error. They lend God's authority to a false verdict.
- One outcome. The hand that wounded Job lifted. He received double, and the verse proved true — though not on Eliphaz's terms.