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Easton's Bible Dictionary
God his strength.
(1) One of Job's "three friends" who visited him in his affliction ( Job
4:1 ). He was a "Temanite", i.e., a native of Teman, in Idumea. He first enters
into debate with Job. His language is uniformly more delicate and gentle than
that of the other two, although he imputes to Job special sins as the cause of
his present sufferings. He states with remarkable force of language the infinite
purity and majesty of God ( Job
4:12 - 21
; 15:12
- 16
).
(2) The son of Esau by his wife Adah, and father of several Edomitish tribes (
Genesis
36:4 , 36:10
, 36:11
, 36:16
).
Hitchcock's Dictionary of Bible Names
the endeavor of God
Smith's Bible Dictionary
(God is his strength)
(1) The son of Esau and Adah, and the father of Teman. ( Genesis
36:4 ; 1
Chronicles 1:35 , 1:36
)
(2) The chief of the "three friends" of Job. He is called "the Temanite;" hence
it is naturally inferred that he was a descendant of Teman. On him falls the main
burden of the argument, that Gods retribution in this world is perfect and certain,
and that consequently suffering must be a proof of previous sin. Job
4 , 5
, 15
, 22.
The great truth brought out by him is the unapproachable majesty and purity of
God. ( Job
4:12 - 21
; 15:12
- 16
) [JOB, JOB
(THE BOOK OF)]
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
el'-i-faz, e-li'-faz ('eliphaz, "God is fine gold" (?)):
(1) Son of Esau by Adah, and father of Teman, Kenaz and Amalek (Genesis 36:4 ,
10 ; 1 Chronicles 1:35).
(2) The first and most prominent of the three friends of Job (Job 2:11), who come
from distant places to condole with and comfort him, when they hear of his affliction.
That he is to be regarded as their leader and spokesman is shown by the greater
weight and originality of his speeches (contained in Job 4 ; 5 ; 15 ; 22), the
speeches of the other friends being in fact largely echoes and emotional enforcements
of his thoughts, and by the fact that he is taken as their representative (Job
42:7) when, after the address from the whirlwind, Yahweh appoints their expiation
for the wrong done to Job and to the truth. He is represented as a venerable and
benignant sage from Teman in Idumaea, a place noted for its wisdom (compare Jeremiah
49:7), as was also the whole land of Edom (compare Obadiah 1:8); and doubtless
it is the writer's design to make his words typical of the best wisdom of the
world. This wisdom is the result of ages of thought and experience (compare Job
15:17 - 19), of long and ripened study (compare Job 5:27), and claims the authority
of revelation, though only revelation of a secondary kind (compare Eliphaz' vision,
Job 4:12 ff, and his challenge to Job to obtain the like, 5:1).
In his first speech he deduces Job's affliction from the
natural sequence of effect from cause (Job 4:7 - 11), which cause he makes broad
enough to include innate impurity and depravity (Job 4:17 - 19); evinces a quietism
which deprecates Job's selfdestroying outbursts of wrath (Job 5:2 , 3 ; compare
Job's answer, 6:2 , 3 and 30:24); and promises restoration as the result of penitence
and submission.
In his second speech he is irritated because Job's blasphemous words are calculated
to hinder devotion (Job 15:4), attributes them to iniquity (Job 15:5 , 6), reiterates
his depravity doctrine (Job 15:14 - 16), and initiates the lurid descriptions
of the wicked man's fate, in which the friends go on to overstate their case (Job
15:20 - 35).
In the third speech he is moved by the exigencies of his theory to impute actual
frauds and crimes to Job, iniquities indulged in because God was too far away
to see (Job 22:5 - 15); but as a close holds open to him still the way of penitence,
abjuring of iniquity, and restoration to health and wealth (Job 22:21 - 30). |
His utterances are well composed and judicial (too coldly academic, Job thinks,
16:4,5), full of good religious counsel abstractly considered. Their error is
in their inveterate presupposition of Job's wickedness, their unsympathetic clinging
to theory in the face of fact, and the suppressing of the human promptings of
friendship.
John Franklin Genung
Tags:
bible commentary, bible history, bible reference, bible study, define, eliphaz, friend of job, temanite, three speeches to job
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