You shall be hidden from the lash of the tongue, and shall not fear destruction when it comes.
Eliphaz ends his first speech with a list of promises: rescue from famine, from war, from ruin, and shelter from cruel words. The comfort sounds real, but it comes from a man who has already decided why Job is suffering — and a true sentence aimed at the wrong man does damage.
True in itself, wrong in its aim
Almost every line here is true on its own. The problem is the assumption underneath it.
William KellyEvery word may be true in itself. It is all said with great dignity and force. Yet it is misapplied and one-sided, and so, in effect, wrong as a whole. Eliphaz assumes that God is right now displaying His government, measuring prosperity or trouble to people exactly as they deserve. This is false ground, and it undermines the application, especially to a man like Job, who was handed over to be attacked by Satan.
The same true statements, arranged as Eliphaz arranges them, become an accusation.
F. B. HoleSome of the sayings of Eliphaz in this chapter are perfectly true. For instance, "Man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward," in this world of sin. It is also true that God "takes the wise in their own craftiness," and that "Happy is the man whom God corrects." But we can see that he put all these facts forward in a way that turned them against poor Job.
What the scourge of the tongue means
The phrase names a real weapon. The prophet Jeremiah felt it: his enemies planned to silence him with words.
Georges AndréThey decided to "strike him with the tongue" and to spread false rumours about him. Backbiting and slander would stop his preaching and keep anyone from listening to his words. When David had a similar experience he prayed to God, saying, "Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked... who have sharpened their tongue like a sword, and have aimed their arrow, a bitter word" (Ps. 64:2-3). The "scourge of the tongue" is mentioned in Job 5:21.
Beside famine and war, the tongue is a different kind of trouble — and it was Job's own trouble as Eliphaz spoke. The New Testament takes the same list further.
Samuel RidoutGoing into detail, Eliphaz mentions the worst outward trials — famine and war, even to destruction. He also mentions the inner, bitter pains caused by the biting tongue, which Job was suffering at that very time... 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."
The one hand behind wound and healing
Who stands behind the trouble, and behind the rescue? One writer traces both to the same hand.
Samuel RidoutWe are led to look past every apparent cause, past every human instrument, past even Satan himself. We are to see that Hand which "will never cause His child a needless tear." So our blessed Lord took that great affliction from the hands of God: "Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?"
Right truth, wrong tone
The fault was not only in what Eliphaz said, but in how he said it.
Leslie M. GrantIf Eliphaz had said this to Job in a kind and encouraging way, it may have helped him. Instead, he was blaming Job for not gaining that blessing by confessing that he was guilty of secret sin.
The promises came true — by another road
The picture Eliphaz painted did in the end describe Job's life — though not because his diagnosis was right.
William KellyThe remarkable thing is that this really was the end. Eliphaz had little idea that it would come true in Job's case. It was more of a vague sermon. He called Job to apply it, but he had no idea that God would apply it, or that God would bring Job out more blessed than ever.
Eliphaz ended by pointing to what he had searched out himself. That is the weak link.
Leslie M. GrantAgain, it is his own observation that he depends on, but he urges Job to hear it and know for himself. Can we so depend on another person's word 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. Every trial and every relief traces back to one Hand. The wounding and the healing are not two rival powers, but one God at work.
- Scourge. The tongue stands beside famine and war because slander is a real weapon. Its wound is inward, and Job was bleeding from it as Eliphaz spoke.
- Shelter. The promise of shelter from cruel words is true. But Eliphaz built it on his own observation, and observation cannot settle a serious matter. Only God's Word can.
- Misfire. True words aimed at the wrong man become accusations. Eliphaz's mistake was to assume that prosperity today shows who deserves what.
- Outcome. Job did receive what Eliphaz described, but by a road Eliphaz never imagined. So be slow to explain another person's suffering.