Job 5:1 - Meaning and Application

Eliphaz begins what has become a sharp debate between him and Job by suggesting that the matter be referred to others. In any dispute, it is often better to do this sooner, if the two sides cannot settle it themselves. Eliphaz is so confident in his own case that he invites Job to choose the judges, as if he has nothing to fear from a fair hearing (Job 5:1).

He says, “Call now, if there is anyone who will answer you.” He means, first, “If there is anyone who suffers as you suffer, can you point to a true saint who has been driven into such trouble?” In Eliphaz’s view, God has never treated anyone who loves his name the way he has treated Job, so he assumes Job cannot be one of them. Second, he means, “If there is anyone who speaks as you speak, has any good man ever cursed his day the way you do? Will any of the saints defend your anger or say that this is what God’s children are like?” Eliphaz thinks Job will find no saint who will side with him.

This verse reminds us that good people are called saints even in the Old Testament. That is one reason many of us should not reserve the title only for New Testament believers, if we are speaking plainly. Aaron is even called “the saint of the Lord.” It is natural for saints to turn to other saints for friendship, guidance, and judgment. See (Psalm 119:79), (Proverbs 2:20), and the thought that the saints will judge the world (1 Corinthians 6:1, 1 Corinthians 6:2).

Some truths are so clear and so widely known that we can safely appeal to any saint about them. Believers may differ on some things, but they agree on many more important matters, such as the evil of sin, the emptiness of the world, the worth of the soul, and the need for a holy life. Even when they do not live as well as they should, they are ready to say these things are true. Eliphaz believes all the saints would agree with him on two main points.

First, he says that sin turns back on sinners and brings ruin on themselves (Job 5:2). Wrath kills the foolish man, meaning his own anger destroys him, and that is part of his foolishness, because he feeds it. Envy is like decay in the bones, slowly wasting away the one who is eaten up by it. Eliphaz is telling Job that by arguing with God, he is hurting himself the most. His anger over his troubles and his envy of the wicked only add to his pain. Job had said his wife spoke like foolish women; now Eliphaz says Job is acting like foolish men.

The same verse can also be taken more broadly. When people are ruined, it is usually because of their own folly. They destroy themselves by some sinful desire or other. So, Eliphaz is really saying that Job must have done something foolish to bring himself into such misery. Some understand this line to mean God’s wrath and jealousy. If so, then Job does not need to be troubled by the success of the wicked, because the world’s smiles can never protect them from God’s anger. If God’s wrath fastens on someone, that is their death, even eternal death. What is hell, after all, except God’s anger with no relief and no end?

Second, Eliphaz says that the prosperity of the wicked does not last, and their destruction is sure (Job 5:3-5). Here he seems to compare Job’s case with what often happens to evil people. For a time, they seem firmly planted and secure. Eliphaz says, “I have seen them taking root.” In their own eyes and in the eyes of others, they seem fixed and likely to continue. People may even bless their homes and envy them, but Eliphaz says he can see their end.

Those who trust God’s word can look at a wicked man’s house and see a curse upon it, even if it looks strong and full of good things. They can also know that, in time, that curse will destroy it, timber and stones alike (Zechariah 5:4). Eliphaz says he was not surprised in the end. What he had foreseen by faith he later saw in fact. Job’s family was destroyed, and his estate was ruined.

He first points to Job’s children, saying they were crushed in the gate (Job 5:4). They may have thought they were safe in their oldest brother’s house, but they were not safe at all. The gate or doorway may have fallen hardest upon them, and no one was there to save them from the ruin. This is often understood as the destruction of the families of wicked men, when justice comes on them and they are forced to give back what they gained wrongly. They may leave it to their children, but that will not keep the rightful owners out. Those children will be crushed by lawful judgment, and there will be no one to help them, or by forceful oppression as in (Psalm 109:9) and related passages.

He then says Job’s property was plundered, and Job’s own case matched that description (Job 5:5).

The hungry robbers, the Sabeans and Chaldeans, carried it off and consumed it. Eliphaz says that he had often seen this happen to others. What people gain by plunder and violence is often lost in the same way.

The careful owner may have surrounded it with thorn hedges and felt safe, but that protection was weak against the hunger of the thieves. If hunger can break through stone walls, it can certainly break through thorn fences. It is even weaker against God’s judgment, which passes through thorns and briers and burns them up together (Isaiah 27:4).