Are we comforting a hurting friend, or assuming we already know why they are suffering? The heavy lifting of studying Job is behind us — chapters four through thirty-seven are almost entirely conversation between Job and his friends. Over the next four lessons we will take one friend at a time: what he got right, what he got wrong, and how to avoid the same mistake.
Meet the four friends
Job’s three original friends — Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar — were all considerably older than Job (Job 15:10; 32:6). Eliphaz is named first, speaks first in every cycle, and is addressed by God on behalf of the others at the end of the book (Job 42:7), which suggests he was both the eldest and the group’s leader. A fourth, younger man, Elihu, speaks near the very end, just before God does.
Each friend leaned on a different foundation, and each foundation had a fatal gap. In one line apiece: Eliphaz reasoned from experience — my experience tells me you must have sinned. Bildad reasoned from tradition — tradition tells us God punishes the wicked. Zophar reasoned from assumption — it is obvious you are guilty. And Elihu, closest to right of the four, still reasoned from a limited explanation — suffering can instruct and correct, not only punish.
Eliphaz, the voice of experience
Eliphaz was “the Temanite” (Job 2:11) — Teman was a place associated with wisdom. He speaks three times, in chapters 4–5, 15, and 22, and his key line is a perfect summary of his whole approach:
“Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.”Job 4:8
Even as I have seen. Everything Eliphaz says is filtered through what he personally has observed.
What Eliphaz got right
He was not a fool, and he was not wrong about God’s character. He affirmed God’s righteousness — “shall mortal man be more just than God?” (Job 4:17) — and he affirmed that sin has real consequences and that correction from God is something to be thankful for, not despised.
“Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty.”Job 5:17
Both statements are sound doctrine. The problem was never his theology in the abstract.
What Eliphaz got wrong
The error was in the application: God judges sin. Job is suffering. Therefore Job must have sinned. That reasoning does not hold — it is the same shape as saying every finger is a thumb because a thumb is a finger. By his third speech in chapter 22, suspicion has become specific accusation, entirely without evidence.
“Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite? … Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.”Job 22:5–9
None of it was true. We, the readers, already know from chapters one and two exactly why Job was suffering, and it had nothing to do with hidden sin — the opposite, in fact. Eliphaz took something he had genuinely observed in the past and turned it into a universal rule, then applied that rule to a man whose actual situation he could not see.
Where we go from here
Next in the series: Bildad, the voice of tradition, and the danger of truth applied without compassion.