Job 4 · Verse 1

Job 4:1

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
Job 4:1, King James Version

Job 4:1 in other translations

BSBThen Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
WEBThen Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
ASVThen answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
YLTAnd Eliphaz the Temanite answereth and saith: --
DARBYAnd Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
BBEAnd Eliphaz the Temanite made answer and said,
WebsterThen Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

What does Job 4:1 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

Job 4:1-21. First Speech of Eliphaz.

1. Eliphaz--the mildest of Job's three accusers. The greatness of Job's calamities, his complaints against God, and the opinion that calamities are proofs of guilt, led the three to doubt Job's integrity.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Introduction

Eliphaz answers; and accuses Job of impatience, and of despondence in the time of adversity, Job 4:1-6; asserts that no innocent man ever perished, and that the wicked are afflicted for their sins, Job 4:7-11; relates a vision that he had, Job 4:12-16, and what was said to him on the occasion, Job 4:17-21. Verse 1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered - For seven days this person and his two friends had observed a profound silence, being awed and confounded at the sight of Job's unprecedented affliction. Having now sufficiently contemplated his afflicted state, and heard his bitter complaint, forgetting that he came as a comforter, and not as a reprover, he loses the feeling of the friend in the haughtiness of the censor, endeavoring to strip him of his only consolation, - the testimony of his conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, he had his conversation among men, - by insinuating that if his ways had been upright, he would not have been abandoned to such distress and affliction; and if his heart possessed that righteousness of which he boasted, he would not have been so suddenly cast down by adversity.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Job 4:1-6
Satan undertook to prove Job a hypocrite by afflicting him; and his friends concluded him to be one because he was so afflicted, and showed impatience. This we must keep in mind if we would understand what passed. Eliphaz speaks of Job, and his afflicted condition, with tenderness; but charges him with weakness and faint-heartedness. Men make few allowances for those who have taught others. Even pious friends will count that only a touch which we feel as a wound. Learn from hence to draw off the mind of a sufferer from brooding over the affliction, to look at the God of mercies in the affliction. And how can this be done so well as by looking to Christ Jesus, in whose unequalled sorrows every child of God soonest learns to forget his own?

Matthew Henry, 1706 · public domain

Job 4:1 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

וַ֭יַּעַןVai.ya.'anand he answeredH6030
אֱלִיפַ֥ז'e.li.FazEliphazH464
הַֽתֵּימָנִ֗יha.tei.ma.Nithe TemaniteH8489
וַיֹּאמַֽר\׃vai.yo.Marand he saidH559

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Job 4:1

  • Job 6:1

    But Job answered and said,

  • Job 8:1

    Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,

  • Job 2:11

    Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.

  • Job 22:1

    Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

  • Job 15:1

    Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

  • Job 3:1-2

    After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. And Job spake, and said,

  • Job 42:9

    So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the Lord commanded them: the Lord also accepted Job.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1 Eliphaz reproves Job for want of religion.
7 He teaches God's judgments to be not for the righteous, but for the wicked.
12 His fearful vision to humble the excellency of creatures before God.

Eliphaz.
2:11; 15:1; 22:1; 42:9
answered.
3:1,2; 6:1; 8:1

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Job 4:1

    Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

  • Job 4:2

    If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?

Read all of Job 4

Job 4:1 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Y RESPONDIÓ Eliphaz el Temanita, y dijo:
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		*Et Éliphaz, le Thémanite, répondit et dit:
German
Elberfelder 1871		Und Eliphas, der Temaniter, antwortete und sprach:
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Respondens autem Eliphaz Themanites, dixit: