There are three cycles of speeches by Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, with replies by Job. Eliphaz speaks in 4-5, 15, and 22; Job replies in 6-7, 16-17, and 23-24; Bildad speaks in 8, 18, and 25; Job replies in 9-10, 19, and 26-27; Zophar speaks in 11 and 20; Job replies in 12-14 and 21. The cycles go: Eliphaz (4-5), Job (6-7), Bildad (8), Job (9-10), Zophar (11), Job (12-14), Eliphaz (15), Job (16-17), Bildad (18), Job (19), Zophar (20), Job (21), Eliphaz (22), Job (23-24), Bildad (25), and Job (26-31).
(1) God says Job was closer to the truth than were the three friends – 42:7-8. (2) Yet much of what they say is true – Job 5:13 is quoted in 1 Cor.3:19.
- Begin gently.
- 4:1-6. Eliphaz begins here with gentleness and sensitivity. Fine, but in the debate he loses his head – 22:5-11.
- Beware of a too mechanical view of retribution.
- 4:7-9. That is his starting point: we reap what we sow – Prov.22:8 and Gal.6:7-8. Therefore the only solution is to repent – 22:23; 11:13-16. See 8:3-4; 11:5-6, 13-16; 5:17-18.
- 4:7 fell apart when righteous Abel was murdered in Genesis 4. See Luke 13:1-5; John 9:1-3. One booklet asserts: ‘You cannot glorify God if your body is diseased.’ Tell that to Joni Eareckson!
- Beware of a faulty source of revelation.
- 4:12-16; compare to Prov.30:5-6. Eliphaz’s vision is true, so far as it goes – 4:17-21; 15:15-16; 22:2. Repent and the future will be rosy – 5:17, 24-27. True, yet not in Eliphaz’s sense.
Here in the maddening maze of things,/ When tossed by storm and flood,/ To one fixed ground my spirit clings:/ I know that God is good.