Job · chapter 5 of 42
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Job 5 continues Eliphaz's first speech. He warns that resentment kills the fool, says that people are born to trouble, and advises Job to seek God, who does wonders and lifts the lowly. He calls blessed the one God reproves, because God wounds and binds up, and promises protection and blessing if Job accepts his discipline.
This chapter is the second half of Eliphaz's first speech. He moves from warning to appeal: he no longer speaks only of what happens to the wicked but invites Job to return to God with hope. Much of what he says is beautiful and true, which is why the chapter is quoted so often. The problem is the assumption behind it: that Job is being disciplined for a sin.
Eliphaz begins with a question that has no answer: Job may call out, but to which of the holy ones will he turn? Resentment kills the fool and jealousy slays the simple. Eliphaz has seen the fool take root, but his house was suddenly cursed, and his children were left without defense at the gate. He observes that trouble does not spring from the dust: people are born to trouble as sparks fly upward.
For that reason, he says, he would seek God and lay his cause before him. God does great and unsearchable things, gives rain on the earth, sets up the lowly and frustrates the plans of the crafty, who are caught in their own craftiness. So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.
Then comes the best-known part: blessed is the one whom God reproves, so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. He wounds and binds up; he strikes and his hands heal. He will deliver you from six troubles, and in seven no evil will touch you. Eliphaz promises that famine, war and calamity will be overcome, with a tent at peace, many descendants and death in full strength. He closes with confidence: we have searched this out and it is true; hear it and know it for yourself.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
People are born to trouble as sparks fly upward. It is a realistic observation about the human condition, but Eliphaz uses it to suggest that Job should accept his pain without complaint.
Eliphaz says that in Job's place he would seek God and commit his cause to him. It is good advice in itself, and Job will end up doing exactly that, though in a way Eliphaz does not expect.
Blessed is the one whom God reproves, because he wounds and binds up, and with his hands he heals. Eliphaz presents Job's pain as loving discipline. The truth is biblical, but here it is applied without knowing that Job is not being corrected for any sin.
Eliphaz closes by saying that they have investigated this and it is true, and that Job should hear it and apply it. His certainty contrasts with what the reader knows, and shows the risk of speaking about God with absolute confidence.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Resentment, and jealousy slays the simple. — Job 5:2
Answer: With sparks that fly upward. — Job 5:7
Answer: He would seek God and commit his cause to him. — Job 5:8
Answer: He sets them on high and keeps them safe, so that the poor have hope. — Job 5:11-16
Answer: The one whom God reproves, and he advises Job not to despise the discipline of the Almighty. — Job 5:17
Answer: He wounds, but he also binds up, and his hands heal. — Job 5:18
Job 5 is a chapter that is quoted often and should be read with care. It holds precious truths: God lifts the lowly, binds up wounds and does not abandon the one who suffers. But when these truths are spoken to someone in the middle of pain, with the assumption that they must have done something wrong, they can sound like accusations.
In your group, ask how to offer hope without explaining another person's suffering. We can say that God heals and cares for us, but without promising that a well-made prayer will prevent every misfortune. It is also worth learning the lesson Eliphaz gives us without meaning to: not all pain is discipline, and the person who suffers first needs to be listened to.
Job 5 ends with Eliphaz sure he has said what Job needed to hear. Job's reply in Job 6 will be very different: he will not accept the comfort, he will defend his complaint as reasonable, and he will reproach his friends for failing to be faithful to someone in pain.
Yes. In 1 Corinthians 3:19 Paul quotes a phrase from Job 5:13, which says that God catches the wise in their own craftiness. This does not mean everything Eliphaz said is doctrine: the New Testament takes that phrase as a truth about God, not as an endorsement of his whole speech.
It is a way of speaking in Hebrew wisdom poetry, which uses consecutive numbers to mean many or all difficulties. Eliphaz promises that God will deliver Job from every kind of evil. He does not intend an exact list of seven dangers.
Yes, other biblical texts teach it, such as Proverbs 3:11-12 and Hebrews 12:5-11. But that does not mean all suffering is discipline for sin. The book of Job exists precisely to show that the righteous can suffer without being corrected for a fault.