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“How painful are honest words!  But what do your arguments prove?” (6:25) Where Eliphaz has been evasive in his accusations, Job is forthright, and Chapter 6 ends with a blunt, staccato summary—as pla...  Read More

“Teach me, and I will be quiet;  show me where I have been wrong.” (6:24) When it comes to isolating and naming the actual sin they believe to have led to Job’s downfall, his friends beat about the bu...  Read More

“A despairing man should have the devotion of his friends. . . . But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams . . . that cease to flow in the dry season.” (6:14-17)In many ways the myst...  Read More

“We have examined this, and it is true.  So hear it and apply it to yourself.” (5:27) The remainder of Eliphaz’s opening speech trails off in a string of spiritual banalities, each one as patently tru...  Read More

“If only my anguish could be weighed  and all my misery be placed on the scales!  It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas!” (6:2-3) Job’s immediate response to his friend’s callous words is a he...  Read More

“‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?’” (4:17)Lest we have any doubt as to the questionable nature of the mystical communiqué received by Eliphaz, we need o...  Read More

“Amid disquieting dreams in the night,  when deep sleep falls on men,  fear and trembling seized me  and made all my bones shake.  A spirit glided past my face,  and the hair on my body stood on end.”...  Read More

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“Should not your piety be your confidence,  and your blameless ways your hope?” (4:6) Just six verses into his opening harangue, Eliphaz inadvertently broaches an issue that happens to be of signal im...  Read More

“If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking?” (4:2) All the characters in this book seem impatient to get a word in edgewise, and all are quick to criti...  Read More

Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: . . .  “As I have observed . . . those who sow  trouble reap it.” (4:1, 8) What sort of man was Eliphaz the Temanite? Many attempts have been made to read between th...  Read More