Read | Job 4:1–21
Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
Should anyone try to speak with you
when you are exhausted?
Yet who can keep from speaking?
Indeed, you have instructed many
and have strengthened weak hands.
Your words have steadied the one who was stumbling
and braced the knees that were buckling.
But now that this has happened to you,
you have become exhausted.
It strikes you, and you are dismayed.
Isn’t your piety your confidence,
and the integrity of your life your hope?
Consider: Who has perished when he was innocent?
Where have the honest been destroyed?
In my experience, those who plow injustice
and those who sow trouble reap the same.
They perish at a single blast from God
and come to an end by the breath of his nostrils.
The lion may roar and the fierce lion growl,
but the teeth of young lions are broken.
The strong lion dies if it catches no prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
A word was brought to me in secret;
my ears caught a whisper of it.
Among unsettling thoughts from visions in the night,
when deep sleep comes over men,
fear and trembling came over me
and made all my bones shake.
I felt a draft on my face,
and the hair on my body stood up.
A figure stood there,
but I could not recognize its appearance;
a form loomed before my eyes.
I heard a whispering voice:
“Can a mortal be righteous before God?
Can a man be more pure than his Maker?”
If God puts no trust in his servants
and he charges his angels with foolishness,
how much more those who dwell in clay houses,
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed like a moth!
They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk;
they perish forever while no one notices.
Are their tent cords not pulled up?
They die without wisdom.
Click here to listen to the Scripture in ESV.
How does Eliphaz try to encourage and correct Job in his grief? In what ways is he right and how is he misguided?
Focus
Watch this video from BibleProject (The Book of Job's Wisdom on How God Runs the World) explaining the genre of this book of Scripture. What is one thing you learned from the video?
Pray
Use today’s Scripture as a model for your prayer. Follow along using the prayer points below and reference the Scripture passages to inspire your own prayer today.
- Take a deep, slow breath. Imagine yourself coming honestly before the Lord—just as Job and his friends did, bringing their grief, questions, and limited understanding.
- Acknowledge the weariness you are experiencing (Job 4:5).
- Reject false accusations (Job 4:7–8). Eliphaz falsely assumes that everyone’s suffering is a direct result of their own sin. Blaming oneself for one’s suffering, even when that is not the case, is a common internal response to our pain. Name that before the Lord and allow an assurance of his love to affirm you.
- Trust God in the mystery (Job 4:12–16). Eliphaz is right here. Remind yourself that God’s will is beyond our understanding.
- Express humility before God’s wisdom (Job 4:17–19). Allow God’s mysterious will to move you to a place of humility.
- Finally, rest in God’s sovereign care and thank him for being in control.
Going Deeper
If you are also following the BibleProject’s One Story That Leads to Jesus reading plan, complete today’s reading.