You shall know also that your offspring shall be many, and your descendants as the grass of the earth.
Eliphaz closes his first speech by painting Job's future: a household full of children and a peaceful old age. The promise is beautiful, yet it comes with a condition attached, and Eliphaz aims it at a man who is suffering. Are these words true, wrongly used, or a prophecy the speaker never meant?
What the verse promises
Eliphaz ends his speech with a picture of a life put back together. One commentator sets out the sequence:
F. B. HoleThe closing verses speak of God's deliverance coming in; of renewed prosperity. One translation of verse 24 reads, "You shall know that your tent is in peace; and you will survey your fold, and miss nothing." Verse 25 speaks of many descendants. Verse 26 speaks of Job himself coming to his end in ripe old age.
True words, wrong man
The New Testament quotes Eliphaz, yet God later tells him he has not spoken rightly. Both things stand. The difference lies between the words themselves and the man they were aimed at:
William KellyYou only have to examine 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. How wise is the way of the Lord! How deep and admirable is what Scripture gives us! 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.
So the promise of a flourishing family is a true description of God's goodness. What was wrong was the use Eliphaz made of it against Job.
The price tag on the promise
Every blessing in verses 20 to 27 comes with an "if" attached. Eliphaz names the condition himself:
Leslie M. GrantIn verses 20 to 27 Eliphaz describes the many blessings that would be Job's if he took the advice of Eliphaz. In fact, God did give these blessings to Job later, after He spoke to him in chapters 38 to 41 and Job was broken down to judge the pride of his own sinful nature. But Eliphaz had not seen what Job really needed — the same need that Eliphaz himself had.
Eliphaz was right that Job needed changing. He was wrong about what had to change, and wrong about the way there.
A prophecy the speaker never intended
Read alongside the last chapter of the book, this verse reads like a forecast. Eliphaz meant it as a general rule. God meant to apply it to Job:
William KellyThe end would be that "your offspring shall be many, and your descendants as the grass of the earth. You shall come to your grave in ripe old age, like a sheaf gathered up in its time." The remarkable thing is that this was the end. Eliphaz had little idea that it would come true in Job's case. It was more a vague sermon. He called Job to apply it, but he had no idea that God would apply it.
How it came true
The fulfilment came, but not on Eliphaz's terms. The last verses of the book close where this verse pointed:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinWe have reached the end. It is an end of peace, a perfect day. He sees four generations, and at the ripe old age of 140 years he is gathered to his fathers.
The wider hope behind the picture
One writer follows the picture to its end, then carries the same confidence into hardship, where nothing looks prosperous at all:
Samuel RidoutThe dwelling of the righteous stays secure, and his descendants will bear witness to the faithfulness of God. Death only closes the beautiful picture with calmness — the aged saint gathered to his fathers like a sheaf of grain fully ripe. 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."
Summary
- True. The words hold nothing but truth. It is the way Eliphaz aimed them at Job that commentators call inexcusably wrong.
- Conditional. Eliphaz offers the big family and the ripe old age only if Job takes his advice.
- Misdiagnosed. He saw that Job needed something, but not what Job needed — the same need Eliphaz himself had.
- Fulfilled. The picture did come true — four generations, and death at 140. But it came after God spoke, not after Job took Eliphaz's advice.
- Extended. The secure home and the ripe harvest of a life point further still. In the clearer light of the New Testament, nothing separates us from the love of Christ.