Main news for 19 January 2025

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

Job, Chapter 5, verses 17-18

¹⁷ The happy end of God's correction

¹⁷Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:

¹⁸For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.

Read more:Job, Chapter 5

Comments:

Comments on the current fragment

Comments on the book

Comments on the part

5 Sin occasions destruction, Job 5:1-5.
Affliction is the common lot of mankind, Job 5:6-7.
In affliction we should fly to God, who is both able and willing to help, Job 5:8-16.
He will deliver them that trust in him, Job 5:17-27.

5:17 Behold - Eliphaz concludes his discourse, with giving Job a comfortable hope, if he humbled himself before God.Happy - Heb. Blessednesses (various and great happiness) belong to that man whom God rebukes. The reason is plain, because afflictions are pledges of God's love, which no man can buy too dear; and are necessary to purge out sin, and thereby to prevent infinite and eternal miseries.Without respect to this, the proposition could not be true. And therefore it plainly shews, that good men in those ancient times, had the belief, and hope of everlasting blessedness. Despise not - Do not abhor it as a thing pernicious, refuse it as a thing useless, or slight it as an unnecessary thing. But more is designed than is exprest. Reverence the chastening of the Lord: have an humble, aweful regard to his correcting hand, and study to answer the design of it. The Almighty - Who is able to support and comfort thee in thy troubles, and deliver thee out of them: and also to add more calamities to them, if thou art obstinate and incorrigible.

5:18 For he, etc - God's usual method is, first to humble, and then to exalt. And he never makes a wound too great, too deep for his own cure.

NOTES

Eliphaz's advice to Job is simple and clear: trust God, and everything will be well. If He punishes, it is only for correction, for the good of the person himself. An old religious truth, long known to the world. In this case, however, it is confirmed by Eliphaz's own spiritual experience...

Eliphaz's advice to Job is simple and clear: trust God, and everything will be well. If He punishes, it is only for correction, for the good of the person himself. An old religious truth, long known to the world. In this case, however, it is confirmed by Eliphaz's own spiritual experience: he sensed the nearness of God, and that strengthened his religiosity. Eliphaz's own character also played no small role here: he is not Jacob, after all, to wrestle with God for a blessing. Such a person is forced to be content with religiosity alone in his relationship with God. And from his experience Eliphaz draws a general conclusion: arguing with God is useless.

He is always right because He is stronger. And not merely stronger: He is wiser, more far-seeing, and more authoritative than any human being. So it is simpler and safer to accept everything from Him without questioning anything. The thought is, of course, sound and generally correct. But what is one to do if questions remain, and the situation too obviously does not fit within the framework of religious correctness? The religious answer is: humble yourself. In general, that answer is right. Only, before whom and before what should one humble oneself? Humility is absolutely necessary for spiritual life.

But only when it is humility before God. Not before people, not before circumstances, not before the worn-out maxims of someone else's religiosity, but before God. And another thing: to humble oneself does not mean to retreat, to step aside. Eliphaz, who preaches humility, has not in fact humbled himself before God. Humility is possible only when there are no questions for God. Either because the answer is clear, or because there can be no answer at the moment and the one asking accepts that as a given. But when questions are settled by the principle "let us hush this up for clarity," that is no longer humility, but flight.

Of course, Eliphaz, like any person, had every right to step aside if he was afraid. Neither God nor people would have condemned him. But then he should have spoken of his unreadiness, not of humility. A person often wants to justify in his own eyes what he cannot get rid of. A problem one does not want to work on is often declared not a problem, but an achievement. Only the person who has reached the boundary where the last questions are resolved cannot be deceived in this way: at that boundary everything is seen too clearly.

Eliphaz is not simply speaking general words to Job; he is trying to explain to his friend...

Eliphaz is not simply speaking general words to Job; he is trying to explain to his friend what is happening to him. If Job is still righteous, then why is he suffering? Answering that question was not so simple. Everyone understood that a sinner may be punished by God for his sins; but how can one explain suffering that falls on someone who has not sinned? Of course, on the basis of the revelation he had received, Eliphaz had just concluded that there are no sinless people. But in that case, following the traditional logic, there should be no healthy people in the world either.

Meanwhile, it is obvious to everyone that this is not so. Then Eliphaz puts forward a new argument: he connects Job's suffering, like all suffering in general, with instruction received from God. Eliphaz claims that suffering is natural to human beings in general, that a person is even born into the world for suffering (vv. 6-7). Such is the order established by God, and it is foolish to rebel against it (vv. 1-5). Nothing can be changed, and there is no need to change anything, because suffering, if one relates to it rightly, benefits a person. The main thing is to entrust everything to God, who in any case will not abandon the righteous person, so that even evil will be turned to good for him (vv. 8-16).

Suffering is not merely punishment; it is precisely correction and instruction from God. It does not last forever. The day will come when all sufferings are left behind, and the righteous person will emerge from the trial God sent him stronger in every respect than before (vv. 17-27). Such reasoning, of course, has its own logic, understandable to every religious person. But it has one weak point: following it, one would have to consider God Himself the source of all human misfortunes, which He sends to some for punishment and to others for correction.

The author of the Book of Job, of course, explains Job's sufferings differently. He sees them as the result of what theologians call God's permission: something God does not do and does not want, but allows to be, yielding to the freedom of the creatures He has made, whether angels or human beings. The author of the Book of Job understands perfectly well that evil comes not from God, but from Satan, who opposes God, since he makes Satan responsible for all Job's sufferings. Yet for some reason God still allows Satan to act. The whole Book of Job became the answer to the question of why God needs this. But the answer turned out not to be as simple as it seemed to Eliphaz. And Job understands this perfectly well. He objects to his friend, and the conversation continues.

${currentDateString}