What events and attributed statements does Job Chapter 5 record?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Eliphaz describes the fool and predicts the fate of children and riches, then says man is born to labour. He says he will address God and praises wonders, rain, exaltation of the humble and frustration of the crafty. He urges acceptance of chastisement and offers promises of deliverance and peace, asking Job to consider what they have searched out.

Chapter breakdown

Continuing his address, Eliphaz challenged Job to seek an advocate among the holy ones, warning that resentment and indignation destroy the foolish and envious. Eliphaz said he had seen a fool with a strong root and immediately cursed his beauty. He predicted that the children would be far from safety and destroyed in the gate without a deliverer; the hungry would eat the harvest, an armed man take him by violence, and the thirsty drink up his riches. He said nothing upon earth is done without a cause, sorrow does not spring from the ground, and man is born to labour as the bird to fly.

Rather than yielding to bitterness, Eliphaz declared that he would turn to God and commit his cause to the Almighty, who performs unsearchable wonders beyond counting. He extolled God as the providential ruler who pours rain upon the earth, exalts the lowly, and comforts the sorrowful with restoration. Simultaneously, God frustrates the schemes of the crafty, catching the cunning in their own deceit so that they grope in darkness at high noon, while delivering the impoverished from the sharp sword of their words and the grip of the violent, granting hope to the destitute and silencing iniquity.

Eliphaz urged Job to recognize the pedagogical purpose of suffering, pronouncing blessed the person whom God corrects and pleading with him not to reject the Lord's discipline. He said that God wounds and cures; though He strikes, His hands bring healing. Eliphaz then said that God would rescue him across six tribulations and preserve him untouched in the seventh, delivering him from famine, the sword of war, slanderous tongues, and ravenous beasts. He envisioned a future of absolute harmony, where he said Job would have a covenant with the stones and peace with beasts, know his tabernacle was in peace and not sin in visiting his beauty, see his offspring like grass, and enter the grave in abundance as a heap of wheat brought in its season, bidding Job to reflect deeply upon this what Eliphaz said they had searched out.

The story inside

Initial conditions: Eliphaz describes the fool and predicts the fate of children and riches, then says man is born to labour. Development: He says he will address God and praises wonders, rain, exaltation of the humble and frustration of the crafty. Recorded ending: He urges acceptance of chastisement and offers promises of deliverance and peace, asking Job to consider what they have searched out.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Eliphaz describes the fool and predicts the fate of children and riches, then says man is born to labour.
2
He says he will address God and praises wonders, rain, exaltation of the humble and frustration of the crafty.
3
He urges acceptance of chastisement and offers promises of deliverance and peace, asking Job to consider what they have searched out.

Test your recall

Which concrete sequence does this chapter record, and what remains unstated?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 54607–54614
5:17. Blessed is the man whom God correcteth: refuse not, therefore, the chastising of the Lord. 5:18. For he woundeth, and cureth: he striketh, and his hands shall heal. 5:19. In six troubles he shall deliver thee, and in the seventh, evil shall not touch thee.
Lines 54625–54635
5:23. But thou shalt have a covenant with the stones of the lands, and the beasts of the earth shall be at peace with thee. 5:24. And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle is in peace, and visiting thy beauty, thou shalt not sin. 5:25. Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be multiplied, and thy offspring like the grass of the earth. 5:26. Thou shalt enter into the grave in abundance, as a heap of wheat is brought in its season.