You will know that your tent is in peace. You will visit your fold, and will miss nothing.
Parallel Translations
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You will know that your tent is in peace. You will visit your fold, and will miss nothing.
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And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin.
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And thou shalt know that thy tent is in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt miss nothing.
Cross-references (13)
Passages linked to Job 5:24 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 121:7-8 Yahweh will keep you from all evil. He will keep your soul. Yahweh will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time forward, and forever more.
- Psalms 91:10 no evil shall happen to you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling.
- Job 8:6 If you were pure and upright, surely now he would awaken for you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.
- Deuteronomy 28:6 You shall be blessed when you come in, and you shall be blessed when you go out.
- Isaiah 4:5-6 Yahweh will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, for over all the glory will be a canopy. There will be a pavilion for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a refuge and for a shelter from storm and from rain.
- Job 18:6 The light will be dark in his tent. His lamp above him will be put out.
- Job 18:21 Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.”
- Psalms 107:4 They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way. They found no city to live in.
- Psalms 25:13 His soul will dwell at ease. His offspring will inherit the land.
- 1 Samuel 30:3 When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters were taken captive.
- Job 18:15 There will dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur will be scattered on his habitation.
- Job 21:7-9 “Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power? Their child is established with them in their sight, their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.
- Psalms 107:40 He pours contempt on princes, and causes them to wander in a trackless waste.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (17 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain God shall so bless thee, that thou shalt have…
God shall so bless thee, that thou shalt have occasion to rejoice in all things, and not to be offended.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 5:24 And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle…
Job 5:24 And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle [shall be] in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin.
Ver. 24. And thou shalt know] Thine own eyes shall see it, and thine experience seal to it; thou shalt be well assured of it. This is a sweet mercy: it is the sweetmeats of the feast of a good conscience, saith Latimer, to know that all shall go well with us here, and that our names are written in the book of life; to be able to conclude from temporal blessings to eternal, as David doth, Psa 23:5-6; to have not only sustentation, but suavities spiritual sweets, as one speaketh.
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That thy tabernacle shall be in peace] i.e. Thy house, household, and household stuff shall be in safety; and all shall be as well with thee as heart can wish. Or, thy tabernacle shall be peace. Thou shall be free from domestic dissensions. It is a sign of a Christian family, if the son of peace be there, and peace rest in it, Luk 10:6. This turneth water to wine, and the contrary: where envying and strife is there is confusion (or unquietness) and every evil work, Jas 3:16. Such a tabernacle is more like to a kennel of hounds than a family of Christians.
And thou shalt visit thy habitation] As a busy bishop, within thine own diocese, thou shall carefully inquire into the state of thy family, and take an account of all that are under thy roof; that God be sincerely served there, and all things well husbanded, Pro 27:26-27.
And shalt not sin] viz. By too much indulgence to children and servants, Eli’s sin, who brought up his children to bring down his house; or, thou shall not be found guilty, sc. of thy family’s faults imputed unto thee; or, thou shalt not miss, sc. of thy desire and expectation, but all shall go as well within doors as heart can wish.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Thou shalt know, by certain and constant experience,
Thou shalt know, by certain and constant experience,
that thy tabernacle, i.e. thy habitation, as it follows, including also the inhabitants, children, or friends and servants,
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shall be in peace; shall enjoy great safety from all their enemies, and concord among themselves, and prosperity in all their concerns; all which are comprehended under the sweet name of
peace. Visit thy habitation, i.e. manage and order thy family, and all thy domestic affairs and worldly concerns, with care and diligence. Visiting is oft used for regarding or taking care of, as Gen 21:1; Rth 1:6; Psa 8:4; 80:14.
Shalt not sin; either by unrighteousness in thy dealings with thy family or others, or by neglecting God and his service in thy family, or by winking at any sin in thy domestics which thou canst hinder. But because he speaks not here of Job’s duty, but of his privilege, and that in outward and worldly things, it seems better rendered by others,
and thou shalt not err, or miscarry, or miss thy way or mark, as this very word is used below, Job 24:19; 14:16; Jdg 20:16; thou shalt not be disappointed of thy hopes, or blasted in thy endeavours, but shalt succeed in them. Or, and thou shalt not wander, or be a wanderer, having no house in which to put his head, which Job might have some ground to fear; but thou shalt have a habitation of thy own, which thou shalt visit and manage as thou didst before.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be…
And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace,.... Not a place of religious worship, though the Targum renders it an house of doctrine or instruction; for we read not of any such but the tabernacle of Moses, erected in the wilderness, and which was indeed about, or little after, the times of Job; but it cannot be reasonably thought he did or could attend there; nor the tabernacle of his body, now in great pain and anguish, in which there were no rest nor soundness, being filled with sore boils and burning ulcers; but his dwelling house, which was built as a tent or tabernacle: such were the houses of the eastern people, made to move from place to place, for the sake of pasturage for their flocks and herds, in which their wealth consisted; so Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, dwelt in tabernacles; and hence in later times more firm, fixed, and stable dwellings, were so called; David calls his palace the tabernacle of his house, Psa 132:3; though this also includes all that dwelt in his house, his family; and the meaning is, that should he behave aright under the afflicting hand of God, his family should live in concord, harmony, and love; there should be no discord, animosity, and contention among them, but they should be at peace and in unity among themselves; as indeed Job's children were while he had them, and before this calamity came upon him; and that also they should be secure from enemies, and dwell unmolested by them; and be in the utmost safety, enjoying all kind of prosperity, inward and outward, temporal and spiritual; which the word peace includes, as used in eastern countries, whose common salutation was, "peace be with thee"; thereby wishing all kind of happiness: or the words may be rendered, "peace shall be thy tabernacle" (i) as is a good man's tabernacle: he dwells in God, who is all love, all peace, in whom there is no wrath or fury; he dwells by faith in Christ, who is his peace, his peace maker, and peace giver; and in whom he has peace amidst all the tribulation he meets with in the world; the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keeps and guards him in Christ, as in a garrison, safe and secure; and he enjoys much peace, as the fruit of the Spirit, arising from a view of interest in the blood, righteousness, and sacrifice of Christ; and when he dies he enters into peace, and dwells and abides in it as his everlasting mansion, Isa 57:2; now all this, Eliphaz says, Job, behaving well, should know; that is, have an experience of it; should really enjoy it, and find it in fact true what he asserted:
and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin; meaning not his wife, as some interpreters, Jewish and Christian, understand it; and so in the Talmud (k), the word being rendered "she that tarried at home", Psa 68:12; which is a description of a good housewife, that keeps at home and minds the affairs of her family; but rather it designs the same as his tabernacle in the preceding clause, his dwelling house, and signifies a fine, fair, and beautiful one; a spacious and goodly building, and well stored with rich household goods; and including his family also: and to "visit" this is to take care of his family, rule and govern them well, protect and defend them, and provide all things necessary for them; as well as to inspect into the affairs of his house, inquire, examine, and see how things are managed; to know the state, condition, and circumstances it is in; which is looking well to the ways of his household: and this he should do, and "not sin"; not that a man, even a good man, can so conduct himself always in his family as not to be guilty of any sin at all, but not of sin in common, or continually; at least not any gross and notorious ones: the sense is, that he should not sin himself, while making such a visit and inquiry, by an undue heat, excessive anger, by rash and passionate expressions, things not being entirely to his mind; or be the cause of sin in others, by provoking his children to wrath, by threatening and menacing his servants in a severe, boisterous, and blustering manner; but reproving both, as there may be occasion, in a mild and gentle way; or else not sin by conniving at it and not correcting for it, which was the fault of Eli: Ben Gersom thinks Eliphaz tacitly suggests, and strikes at, Job's indulgence to his children; and so Sephorno: the word used having the signification of wandering and straying, some take the sense to be this; that he should have a sure and certain dwelling place to come into, and abide in, and should not wander about (l), or be as a stroller and vagabond in the earth: though this has sometimes been the case of good men; as of the godly in the times of the Maccabees, who wandered in deserts and mountains, in caves and dens of the earth; and even of the disciples of Christ, who had no certain dwelling place; yea, of Christ himself, who had not where to lay his head: rather, since the word signifies to miss the mark, and so be disappointed; in which sense it is used in Jdg 20:16; the sense may be, that when he visited his habitation he should find nothing amiss or wanting, but everything should answer his expectations and wishes, so Aben Ezra; and Mr. Broughton renders it, "shalt not misprosper"; and others, "shalt no be frustrated" (m); balked, disappointed of thine ends and views, designs, hopes, and wishes.
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(i) "quod pax tentorium tuum", Montanus, Bolducius; so Cocceius, Schmidt, Schultens. (k) T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 34. 1. Yebamot, fol. 62. 2. & 63. 1. Sanhedrin, fol. 76. 2. (l) "non errabis, i.e. non eris erro et palans", Codurcus; "non aberrabis", Beza, Piscator, Cocceius. (m) "Nec votis frustrabere", Schultens.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Know - By certain experience.
Know - By certain experience.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 24. Thou shalt know] Thou shalt be so…
Verse 24. Thou shalt know] Thou shalt be so fully satisfied of the friendly disposition of all thy neighbours, that thou shalt rest secure in thy bed, and not be afraid of any danger, though sleeping in thy tent in the field; and when thou returnest from thy country excursions, thou shalt find that thy habitation has been preserved in peace and prosperity, and that thou hast made no mistake in thy trust, in thy confidence, or in thy confederates.
The word אהלך oholecha, "thy tabernacle," means simply a tent, or moveable dwelling, composed of poles, pins, and cloth, or skin, to be pitched any where in a few moments, and struck again with the same ease.
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The word נוך navecha, which we properly translate thy habitation, signifies a solid, permanent dwelling-place. ee Jos 22:4, Jos 22:6-8; 2Sa 18:17; 2Sa 19:8; 1Kg 12:16; Ps 52:7; Ps 91:10; Ps 132:3; La 2:4; Mal 2:12; and with these passages compare the place in the text.
As to תחטא techeta, which we translate thou shalt not SIN, it comes from חטא chata, to err, to mistake, to miss the mark: hence to sin, transgress God's laws, seeking for happiness in forbidden and unlawful things, and therefore missing the mark, because in them happiness is not to be found: and it is very likely, from the connection above, that to mistake or err is its meaning in this place. I need not add, that the Arab chiefs, who had their castles or strong holds, frequently in their country excursions lodged in tents in the open fields; and that on such occasions a hostile neighbour sometimes took advantage of their absence, attacked and pillaged their houses, and carried off their families and household. See at the end of this chapter. See Clarke on Job 5:27.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Job 5:24. And thou shalt know — By certain…
Job 5:24. And thou shalt know — By certain and constant experience; that thy tabernacle shall be in peace — That is, thy habitation, as it follows, including also the inhabitants, children or friends, and servants. They shall enjoy great safety from all their enemies, and concord among themselves, and prosperity in all their concerns; all which things are comprehended under the sweet name of peace. And thou shalt visit thy habitation — Shalt order and manage thy family, and all thy domestic and worldly affairs, with care and diligence; and shalt not sin — Either by unrighteousness in thy dealings, with thy family or others; or by neglecting God and his service in thy family, or by conniving at any sin in thy domestics, which thou canst hinder. But because Job’s duty does not seem to be the subject of Eliphaz’s discourse here, but rather his privilege, and that in outward and worldly things, the clause is probably better rendered thus: And thou shalt not err, or miscarry, or miss thy way. Thou shalt not be disappointed of thy hopes, or blasted in thy endeavours, but shalt succeed in them. “When thou takest an account of thine estate,” says Bishop Patrick, “all things shall answer thine expectation.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be…
And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace - Thy tent - אהלך 'âhelēkāh - showing that it was common then to dwell in tents. The sense is, that when he was away from home he would have confidence that his dwelling was secure, and his family safe. This would be an assurance producing no small degree of consolation in a country abounding in wild beasts and robbers. Such is the nature of the blessing which Eliphaz says the man would have who put his confidence in God, and committed his cause to him. To a certain extent this was, and is, undoubtedly true. A man cannot indeed have miraculous assurance when from home, that his wife and children are still alive, and in health; nor can he be certain that his dwelling is not wrapped in flames, or that it has been preserved from the intrusion of evil-minded men. But he may feel assured that all is under the wise control of God; that whatever occurs will be by his permission and direction, and will tend to ultimate good. He may also, with calmness and peace, commit his home with all that is dear to him to God, and feel that in his hands all is safe.
And thou shalt visit thy habitation - That is, on the return from a journey.
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And not sin - This is a very unhappy translation. The true sense is thou shalt not miss thy dwelling; thou shalt not wander away lost, to return no more. The word used here, and which is rendered “sin” in our common version, is חטא châṭâ'. It is true that it is commonly rendered to sin, and that it often has this sense. But it properly means “to miss;” that is, not to hit the mark, spoken of a slinger. Jdg 20:16; then to make a false step, to stumble or fall, Pro 19:2. It thus accords exactly in sense with the Greek ἁμαρτάνω hamartanō. Here the original sense of the Hebrew word should bo retained, meaning that he would not miss the way to his dwelling; that is, that he would be permitted to return to it in safety. Gesenius, however, renders it, “thou musterest thy pasture (flocks), and missest naught:” that is, nothing is gone; all thy flocks are there. But the more obvious sense, and a sense which the connection demands, is that which refers the whole description to a man who is on a journey, and who is exposed to the dangers of wild beasts, and to the perils of a rough and stony way, but who is permitted to visit his home without missing it or being disappointed. A great variety ofinterpretations have been given of the passage, which may be seen in Rosenmuller and Good. Many suppose it means that he should review his domestic aflfairs, and find all to his mind; or should find that everything was in its place, or was as it should be. It can, not be doubted that the Hebrew word “visit” (פקד pâqad) will bear this interpretation, but that above proposed seems to me best to suit the connection. The margin correctly renders it, err.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Beauty does not mean his wife, as some grossly…
Beauty does not mean his wife, as some grossly imagine, (Calmet) but a house well ordered. (Menochius) --- Hebrew, "thy habitation." Yet Sanchez adopts the former sentiment. In effect, the habitation includes all the regulation of a wife and family. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain know--"Thou shalt rest in the assurance, that thine habitation…
know--"Thou shalt rest in the assurance, that thine habitation is the abode of peace; and (if) thou numberest thine herd, thine expectations prove not fallacious" [UMBREIT]. "Sin" does not agree with the context. The Hebrew word--"to miss" a mark, said of archers (Jdg 20:16). The Hebrew for "habitation" primarily means "the fold for cattle"; and for "visit," often to "take an account of, to number." "Peace" is the common Eastern salutation; including inward and outward prosperity.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 24. Thy tabernacle shall be… peace — Hebrews, ohel;…
24. Thy tabernacle shall be… peace — Hebrews, ohel; equally a tent in which to live and the house of God in which to worship. Our homes should be God’s houses; then shall they be peace.
And shalt not sin — Or err, as in the margin. Among the radical meanings of the word חשׂאare, to miss, want, miss the mark. The word originally used in a physical sense, for instance, of the skill of the warrior, (Jdg_20:16,) took upon itself a moral meaning, as in the case of the Greek αμαρτανω. Comp. Iliad, 5:287, and 9:501.* The sense of this passage, according to most moderns, is, that he shall return to his dwelling and find nothing wanting. Thus Wordsworth: “Not one of thy cattle, sheep, or lambs will be missing” — a forced and feeble interpretation. The more natural reading — which at the same time is consistent with the legitimate sense of the verb — is that of the Vulgate, Luther, and our English version, that the good man may be kept by the grace of God from the commission of sin. As “habitation” corresponds with “tabernacle” of the preceding clause, so does God’s protection from sin answer to the “peace” Eliphaz promises. The antithesis is thus well sustained, and the sense harmonious. Hengstenberg accepts of the English version, and explains: “In looking over thy possessions thou shalt find thou art not treated by God as a sinner but as a friend, being richly blessed by him” — a paraphrase which Evans rightly condemns.
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[* The following hymn, taken from the Rig Veda, 7:85, contains a similar thought:
1. Let me not yet, O Varuna, enter into the house of clay; have mercy, Almighty, have mercy!
2. If I go along trembling like a cloud driven by the wind; have mercy, Almighty, have mercy!
3. Through want of strength, thou strong and bright God, have I gone to the wrong shore; have mercy, Almighty, have mercy! — See further, MULLER’S Sanscrit. Lit., p. 540.]
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 24. Job_5:19-23 describe the immunity which Job himself, restored…
24. Job_5:19-23 describe the immunity which Job himself, restored to peace with God, would enjoy from every evil, the evils specified being those which God in His judgments brings upon men or a people, cf. Eze_5:17; Eze_14:21; this verse describes the safety and peace of his homestead, or rather the perfect confidence which he would feel in regard to his possessions,—thou shalt know that thy tent is in safety.
tabernacle shall be in peace] Or, tent (i. e. dwelling) is in peace.
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visit thy habitation] Or, perhaps, muster, look over, thy homestead; the reference is to his cattle and possessions.
shalt not sin] lit. shalt not miss or fail; that is, probably, he shall find that his actual possessions correspond to what he expected. The general meaning is, thou shalt miss nothing.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (24) Sin.—The word rendered “sin” literally means also to…
(24) Sin.—The word rendered “sin” literally means also to miss the mark, as in Jdg_20:16, and that is probably its meaning here: Thou shalt visit thy dwelling-place, and miss nothing, since one does not see very clearly why the promise of not sinning is connected with visiting the habitation or fold.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be…
And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace; rather, thy tent; i.e. thy habitation, whatever it may be. Thou shalt feel assured of peace in thy dwelling, since God"s peace will rest upon it. And thou shalt visit thy habitation; or, thy fold (see the Revised Version). And shalt not sin; and shalt miss nothing (Revised Version). The exact meaning is very uncertain. Professor Lee renders, "Thou shalt not err;" Schultens, "Thou shalt not be disappointed of thy desires;" Rosenmuller, "Thou shalt not miss thy mark."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Thy tabernacle shall be in peace.
Job_5:24
Thy tabernacle shall be in peace.
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Returning from a journey
These words may be considered as a promise made to a good man, with regard to his absence from home. When he goes a journey at the call of providence, he may leave all his concerns with the Lord whom he serves, for He will guide his steps, and suffer no evil to befall him nor any plague to come nigh his dwelling. The person to whom this promise is made is supposed to have a house. It is called a tabernacle, or tent. It would be well for us to view our abode, however pleasing and durable it may appear, as only a temporary residence--a shelter of accommodation for a traveller. David calls his palace the tabernacle of his house. Home has a thousand attractions. But dear as it is, we must sometimes leave it. Sometimes journeys are necessary. When God calls us abroad, He will take care of us, and we may hope to find the proverb true, The path of duty is the path of safety. Hence he is reminded of the welfare of his house and family in his absence. Thou shalt know that thy tabernacle is in peace. Peace means prosperity. Peace is harmony. There can be no happiness in a family, among the members of which are found reserve, suspicions, bickerings, contentions. Peace is preservation. To how many disasters is a family exposed if God withdraws His protection. Nor shall the tabernacle only be preserved, but the owner too. We always travel in jeopardy. Are no suitable returns to be made to the God of our salvation? A man would sin if his gratitude were not lively and practical. He would sin, did he not confide in God for the future more simply and firmly. Learn, domestic piety crowns domestic peace. (William Jay.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain Job 5:17 - Job 5:27.
Job
THE PEACEABLE FRUITS OF SORROWS RIGHTLY BORNE
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Job 5:17 - Job 5:27.
The close of the Book of Job shows that his friends’ speeches were defective, and in part erroneous. They all proceeded on the assumption that suffering was the fruit of sin-a principle which, though true in general, is not to be unconditionally applied to specific cases. They all forgot that good men might be exposed to it, not as punishment, nor even as correction, but as trial, to ‘know what was in their hearts.’
Eliphaz is the best of the three friends, and his speeches embody much permanent truth, and rise, as in this passage, to a high level of literary and artistic beauty. There are few lovelier passages in Scripture than this glowing description of the prosperity of the man who accepts God’s chastisements; and, on the whole, the picture is true. But the underlying belief in the uniform coincidence of inward goodness and outward good needs to be modified by the deeper teaching of the New Testament before it can be regarded as covering all the facts of life.
Eliphaz is gathering up, in our passage, the threads of his speech. He bases upon all that he has been saying the exhortation to Job to be thankful for his sorrows. With a grand paradox, he declares the man who is afflicted to be happy. And therein he strikes an eternally true note. It is good to be made to drink a cup of sorrow. Flesh calls pain evil, but spirit knows it to be good. The list of our blessings is not only written in bright inks, but many are inscribed in black. And the reason why the sad heart should be a happy heart is because, as Eliphaz believed, sadness is God’s fatherly correction, intended to better the subject of it. ‘Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,’ says the Epistle to the Hebrews, in full accord with Eliphaz.
But his well-meant and true words flew wide of their mark, for two reasons. They were chillingly didactic, and it is vinegar upon nitre to stand over an agonised soul and preach platitudes in an unsympathetic voice. And they assumed unusual sin in Job as the explanation of his unparalleled pains, while the prologue tells us that his sufferings were not fruits of his sin, but trials of his righteousness. He was horrified at Job’s words, which seemed to him full of rebellion and irreverence; and he made no allowance for the wild cries of an agonised heart when he solemnly warned the sufferer against ‘despising’ God’s chastening. A more sympathetic ear would have detected the accent of faith in the groans.
The collocation, in Job 5:18, of making sore and binding up, does not merely express sequence, but also purpose. The wounding is in order to healing. The wounds are merciful surgery; and their intention is health, like the cuts that lay open an ulcer, or the scratches for vaccination. The view of suffering in these two verses is not complete, but it goes far toward completeness in tracing it to God, in asserting its disciplinary intention, in pointing to the divine healing which is meant to follow, and in exhorting to submission. We may recall the beautiful expansion of that exhortation in Hebrews, where ‘faint not’ is added to ‘despise not,’ so including the two opposite and yet closely connected forms of misuse of sorrow, according as we stiffen our wills against it, and try to make light of it, or yield so utterly to it as to collapse. Either extreme equally misses the corrective purpose of the grief.
On this general statement follows a charming picture of the blessedness which attends the man who has taken his chastisement rightly. After the thunderstorm come sunshine and blue, and the song of birds. But, lovely as it is, and capable of application in many points to the life of every man who trustfully yields to God’s will, it must not be taken as a literally and absolutely true statement of God’s dealings with His children. If so regarded, it would hopelessly be shattered against facts; for the world is full of instances of saintly men and women who have not experienced in their outward lives such sunny calm and prosperity stretching to old age as are here promised. Eliphaz is not meant to be the interpreter of the mysteries of Providence, and his solution is decisively rejected at the close. But still there is much in this picture which finds fulfilment in all devout lives in a higher sense than his intended meaning.
The first point is that the devout soul is exempt from calamities which assail those around it. These are such as are ordinarily in Scripture recognised as God’s judgments upon a people. Famine and war devastate, but the devout soul abides in peace, and is satisfied. Now it is not true that faith and submission make a wall round a man, so that he escapes from such calamities. In the supernatural system of the Old Testament such exemptions were more usual than with us, though this very Book of Job and many a psalm show that devout hearts had even then to wrestle with the problem of the prosperity of the wicked and the indiscriminate fall of widespread calamities on the good and bad.
But in its deepest sense {which, however, is not Eliphaz’s sense} the faithful man is saved from the evils which he, in common with his faithless neighbour, experiences. Two men are smitten down by the same disease, or lie dying on a battlefield, shattered by the same shell, and the one receives the fulfilment of the promise, ‘there shall no evil touch thee,’ and the other does not. For the evil in the evil is all sucked out of it, and the poison is wiped off the arrow which strikes him who is united to God by faith and submission. Two women are grinding at the same millstone, and the same blow kills them both; but the one is delivered, and the other is not. They who pass through an evil, and are not drawn away from God by it, but brought nearer to Him, are hid from its power. To die may be our deliverance from death.
Eliphaz’s promises rise still higher in Job 5:22 - Job 5:23, in which is set forth a truth that in its deepest meaning is of universal application. The wild beasts of the earth and the stones of the field will be in league with the man who submits to God’s will. Of course the beasts come into view as destructive, and the stones as injuring the fertility of the fields. There is, probably, allusion to the story of Paradise and the Fall. Man’s relation to nature was disturbed by sin; it will be rectified by his return to God. Such a doctrine of the effects of sin in perverting man’s relation to creatures runs all through Scripture, and is not to be put aside as mere symbolism.
But the large truth underlying the words here is that, if we are servants of God, we are masters of everything. ‘All things work together for good to them that love God.’ All things serve the soul that serves God; as, on the other hand, all are against him that does not, and ‘the stars in their courses fight against’ those who fight against Him. All things are ours, if we are Christ’ s. The many mediaeval legends of saints attended by animals, from St. Jerome and his lion downwards to St. Francis preaching to the birds, echo the thoughts here. A gentle, pure soul, living in amity with dumb creatures, has wonderful power to attract them. They who are at peace with God can scarcely be at war with any of God’s creatures. Gentleness is stronger than iron bands. ‘Cords of love’ draw most surely.
Peace and prosperity in home and possessions are the next blessings promised {Job 5:24}. ‘Thou shalt visit [look over] thy household, and shalt miss nothing.’ No cattle have strayed or been devoured by evil beasts, or stolen, as all Job’s had been. Alas! Eliphaz knew nothing about commercial crises, and the great system of credit by which one scoundrel’s fall may bring down hundreds of good men and patient widows, who look over their possessions and find nothing but worthless shares. Yet even for those who find all at once that the herd is cut off from the stall, their tabernacle may still be in peace, and though the fold be empty they may miss nothing, if in the empty place they find God. That is what Christians may make out of the words; but it is not what was originally meant by them.
In like manner the next blessing, that of a numerous posterity, does not depend on moral or religious condition, as Eliphaz would make out, and in modern days is not always regarded as a blessing. But note the singular heartlessness betrayed in telling Job, all whose flocks and herds had been carried off, and his children laid dead in their festival chamber, that abundant possessions and offspring were the token of God’s favour. The speaker seems serenely unconscious that he was saying anything that could drive a knife into the tortured man. He is so carried along on the waves of his own eloquence, and so absorbed in stringing together the elements of an artistic whole, that he forgets the very sorrows which he came to comfort. There are not a few pious exhorters of bleeding hearts who are chargeable with the same sin. The only hand that will bind up without hurting is a hand that is sympathetic to the finger-tips. No eloquence or poetic beauty or presentation of undeniable truths will do as substitutes for that.
The last blessing promised is that which the Old Testament places so high in the list of good things-long life. The lovely metaphor in which that promise is couched has become familiar to us all. The ripe corn gathered into a sheaf at harvest-time suggests festival rather than sadness. It speaks of growth accomplished, of fruit matured, of the ministries of sun and rain received and used, and of a joyful gathering into the great storehouse. There is no reference in the speech to the uses of the sheaf after it is harvested, but we can scarcely avoid following its history a little farther than the ‘grave’ which to Eliphaz seems the garner. Are all these matured powers to have no field for action? Were all these miracles of vegetation set in motion only in order to grow a crop which should be reaped, and there an end? What is to be done with the precious fruit which has taken so long time and so much cultivation to grow? Surely it is not the intention of the Lord of the harvest to let it rot when it has been gathered. Surely we are grown here and ripened and carried hence for something.
But that is not in our passage. This, however, may be drawn from it-that maturity does not depend on length of days; and, however Eliphaz meant to promise long life, the reality is that the devout soul may reckon on complete life, whether it be long or short. God will not call His children home till their schooling is done; and, however green and young the corn may seem to our eyes, He knows which heads in the great harvest-field are ready for removal, and gathers only these. The child whose little coffin may be carried under a boy’s arm may be ripe for harvesting. Not length of days, but likeness to God, makes maturity; and if we die according to the will of God, it cannot but be that we shall come to our grave in a full age, whatever be the number of years carved on our tombstones.
The speech ends with a somewhat self-complacent exhortation to the poor, tortured man: ‘We have searched it, so it is.’ We wise men pledge our wisdom and our reputation that this is true. Great is authority. An ounce of sympathy would have done more to commend the doctrine than a ton of dogmatic self-confidence. ‘Hear it, and know thou it for thyself.’ Take it into thy mind. Take it into thy mind and heart, and take it for thy good. It was a frosty ending, exasperating in its air of patronage, of superior wisdom, and in its lack of any note of feeling. So, of course, it set Job’s impatience alight, and his next speech is more desperate than his former. When will well-meaning comforters learn not to rub salt into wounds while they seem to be dressing them?
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 5:24 nothing will be missing: See Deut 28:11-12; cp.…
5:24 nothing will be missing: See Deut 28:11-12; cp. Job 1:6-19.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.