Surely vexation kills the fool, and jealousy slays the simple.
Job 5:2 is a proverb spoken by Eliphaz, the first of Job's three friends to answer him. It sounds like plain wisdom: anger and jealousy destroy the person who holds them. The hard question is not whether the saying is true. It is why Eliphaz says it to a man who has just lost his children, his wealth and his health.
A saying aimed at Job
Eliphaz does not name Job as the fool. He does something quieter. But the next verses, about children crushed in the gate, make his target hard to miss.
Leslie M. GrantHe fears that Job has been guilty of resembling a foolish man too closely (v.2). So he warns him about what he had seen: the fool taking root (v.3), then suddenly exposed to a curse, his sons far from safety and crushed in the gate (v.3). Job's sons had died suddenly. Was Job therefore a foolish man? Eliphaz did not say so, but he implied that Job might be dangerously close to such a charge. He had watched foolish people suffer. So he reasoned that since Job was suffering like this, there must be something seriously wrong in Job.
There are many ways to give a hint without making an accusation. Notice the spirit behind this one.
William Kelly"I have seen the fool taking root" — he was an old man and enjoyed looking back on his experience — "I have seen the fool taking root, but suddenly I cursed his dwelling." Ah, there it is! No prayer for him — cursing his home! No pity for him! That was just the spirit produced by this readiness to judge, and to base the judgment on appearance.
True in itself, wrong in its place
You can agree with every word of this verse and still be wrong to use it. A saying can be true as a general rule and false about the person in front of you.
H. L. RossierAll he says is true in principle but in Job's case false. It is right in itself, but wrong in the place he puts it. The wicked often grow old in their sin, while good people are cut down in the strength of their youth. The ungodly often live in plenty while those who fear God have to do without the common necessities of life. Eliphaz and his two friends drew false conclusions, just as often happens nowadays.
Judging by what he had seen
Eliphaz keeps going back to one source of authority.
F. B. HoleVerse 3 begins, "I have seen …," and in his second speech in Job 15 he says again, "what I have seen I will declare" (verse 17). Clearly, then, his argument rests for its validity mainly on his own powers of observation. He trusted those powers to tell him what Job's disasters meant.
Read suffering as proof of folly, and a man's circumstances convict him. Kelly warns that appearances mislead in both directions.
William Kelly"Do not judge by appearances," said the law. We must wait for solid fact. Sometimes a bad man puts on a good appearance, and we are not deceived by that at all. Sometimes a good man is in circumstances where appearances are very much against him. There we have to take great care.
The flaw underneath the eloquence
Ridout compares Eliphaz with the Lord Jesus, the Man of Sorrows, and finds one wrong assumption running under the whole speech.
Samuel RidoutWould we not expect some words of sympathy from a friend? The blessed Man of Sorrows did not take sufferers to task in this way. He was moved with compassion, even to tears, at human sorrow. This harshness shows a wrong principle in Eliphaz, and it comes out more clearly as he goes on. For him, sin and suffering are root and fruit. He knows no classes of suffering. He fails to tell the righteous apart from the wicked. So in the end he proves to be a false accuser of his friend.
The truth worth keeping
Set the misuse aside. The verse still names something real, and Scripture has more to say about it.
A. T. SchofieldLook for a moment at what Scripture says about it. It is clearly forbidden (Matthew 5:22; Romans 12:19). It is a work of the flesh (Galatians 5:20). It marks out fools (Proverbs 14:29; 27:3). It brings its own punishment (Job 5:2; Proverbs 19:19).
The second half of the verse names jealousy. Schofield traces how fast it spreads.
A. T. SchofieldThere is no saying how far even a child of God may be led, once he willingly allows this feeling. It grows so rapidly that, from only beginning to be envious of another's success, prosperity and position, we may soon begin to hate him, and then plot against him.
Summary
- True words. The proverb is sound. Resentment and jealousy destroy the person who nurses them, and the punishment is built into the sin.
- Wrong target. True in principle, false about Job. The wicked often grow old in sin while godly people go without.
- Wrong source. Eliphaz built his verdict on what he had seen. He trusted his own eyes to explain another man's disaster.
- Wrong method. Appearances convict the innocent as easily as they clear the guilty. So we wait for solid fact.
- Wrong outcome. Treating sin and suffering as root and fruit erases the difference between the righteous and the wicked. It turns a friend into a false accuser, when the sufferer needed compassion.