In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword.
Eliphaz is speaking here. He is listing the blessings that would be Job's if Job took his advice: famine and the sword would lose their power over him. It sounds like a promise anyone would want. But commentators press a harder question. Are the words true, and was Eliphaz the right man to say them to Job?
The speaker and his method
Eliphaz keeps pointing back to what he has seen with his own eyes. That is the base of his whole argument.
F. B. HoleAs we open Job 5, we find Eliphaz continuing on this note and again he refers to what he had seen. Verse 3 begins, "I have seen …" And if we turn to Job 15, which holds his second speech, we again find him saying, "That which I have seen I will declare." So it is clear that the weight of his argument rests mainly on his own powers of observation. In those powers he trusted for his opinion of the meaning of the calamities that had fallen on Job.
Famine and the sword
Famine and the sword open a longer list. Eliphaz moves from the worst outward trials to an inner pain: the wound made by a cruel tongue.
Samuel RidoutGoing into detail, Eliphaz mentions the worst outward trials: famine and war, even to the point of destruction. He also mentions those inner, bitter pains caused by the biting tongue, which Job was suffering at that very moment. No harmful beast can injure him, for when a person is right with God, He makes all things his friends… We can carry the view further in the clearer light of the New Testament, and ask: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."
True words, wrong target
God later said these men had not spoken the truth about Him. Yet the New Testament quotes Eliphaz as Scripture. How can both be so?
William KellyYet this is too remarkable to pass by. The Spirit of God uses as Scripture the very words that the LORD later treated as a false picture, not only of Job but of Himself… You only have to examine the words of Eliphaz to see that in themselves they hold nothing but truth. But weigh them as applied to Job, and they are wrong beyond excuse… 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 right. In the Old Testament story the application was wrong, and God rebuked the men who spoke it.
One hand behind both the blow and the rescue
The rescue in this verse comes from God's own hand. So does the affliction. A sufferer who sees this has solid ground under him.
Samuel RidoutHappy indeed is the person who takes correction from the loving hands of God. We are not to despise such dealings, and we are not to lose heart under them. However great the afflictions, and however often they come, deliverance will arrive in due time… Let the sufferer only say, "It is Your hand," and, "I know that in faithfulness You have afflicted me." The Scriptures are full of this precious truth for the child of God. They lead us to look past every apparent cause, past every human instrument, past even Satan himself, and to see that Hand which "will never cause His child a needless tear."
The promise kept — by a different road
Job did get the blessings Eliphaz describes. But they came by a different road. That gap shows the weakness of advice built on watching other people.
Leslie M. GrantIn verses 20 to 27 Eliphaz describes the many blessings that would be Job's if he took the advice of Eliphaz. God did in the end give these blessings to Job, but only after He spoke to him in chapters 38-41. God broke Job down, so that he judged the pride of his own sinful nature. Eliphaz had not seen what Job truly needed — the same need Eliphaz himself had… Can we depend on another person's word so far as to know it is fact? No: we need more than another person's observation, we need the Word of God to be certain as to any serious matter.
Summary
- Source — Eliphaz argues from what he has seen happen to other people. He reads Job's disasters by those same powers of observation.
- Scope — He names the worst outward trials, famine and war. Then he moves inward, to the pain caused by the biting tongue.
- Standing — In themselves the words hold nothing but truth, and the New Testament quotes them as Scripture. Applied to Job, they were wrong beyond excuse.
- Sameness — Affliction comes from the loving hand of God. So the sufferer can say, "It is Your hand," and look past every human instrument.
- Sequel — The blessings did come to Job, but only after God spoke and broke him down. For certainty on any serious matter we need the Word of God, not another person's observation.