41 Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said, 2 If one assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking? 3 Behold, thou hast instructed many, And thou hast strengthened the weak hands. 4 Thy words have upholden him that was falling, And thou hast made firm the feeble knees. 5 But now it is come unto thee, and thou faintest; It toucheth thee, and thou art troubled. 6 Is not thy fear [of God] thy confidence, [And] the integrity of thy ways thy hope?
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 4:1-6
Commentary on Job 4:1-6
(Read 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?