Job 4:7

Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent?.... Here Eliphaz appeals to Job himself, and desires him to recollect if ever anyone instance had fallen under his observation, in the whole

Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? No JFB commentary on this verse.

Give me one example hereof out of all thy experience or reading. Who ever perished, i.e. was so utterly undone, as thou art, so miserably afflicted by such unparalleled and various judgments from God and men, all conspiring against thee? Being innocent; who had not by his wickedness provoked so merciful a God to do that which is so unusual, and in some sort unpleasing to himself. Therefore thou art guilty of some great, though secret, crimes, and thy sin hath now found thee out, and hath brought down these stupendous plagues upon thee. Where were the righteous cut off by the sickle of Divine vengeance before his time, which is like to be thy case? His judgment herein was rash and false, but not without some appearance of truth; for God had made many promises, not only of spiritual and eternal, but also of temporal, blessings, to all that should faithfully serve and obey him, which accordingly he did from time to time confer upon them, as we see by the examples of Noah, Lot, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and doubtless many others which had lived in or before their days. And this was God’ s usual method under all the times of the Old Testament, as we see by the people of Israel, who were generally either in a happy and flourishing, or in an afflicted and miserable, state, according to their obedience to God, or their apostacy from him. And therefore it is not strange that they fell into this mistake. But allowing for this mistake, and the consequence of it, his uncharitable opinion of Job, the method which he useth with Job is commendable, and to be imitated by others in their dealing with persons in sickness or affliction; for he doth not flatter him in his sins, nor immediately and unseasonably apply comforts to him, but endeavours to convince him of his sins, and to bring him to repentance, as the only regular way to his remedy.

Job 4:7 Remember, I pray thee, who [ever] perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?Ver. 7. Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent?] Why? that hath many a one, as the world counteth and calleth perishing: "The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart," Isaiah 57:1. And it was given unto the beast, to make war with the saints, and to overcome them, Revelation 13:7. So it seemed to be, though so it never was, Revelation 12:11. The first man that died, died for religion, so early came martyrdom into the world; and John Baptist was put to death in prison without all show of law, right, or reason, as if God had been nothing aware of any such matter, as that martyr phrased it (Acts and Mon.). Indeed, if Eliphaz meant it of perishing eternally, neither Job nor any one else could produce an instance of a godly man so perishing; but for temporal miseries it is sure that never any out of hell have met with more than the most holy and harmless heirs of heaven. See Hebrews 11:1-40, and you will say so. But the Scriptures, haply, were not written when Eliphaz uttered this speech; howbeit, he might have observed the contrary to what he here seemeth to affirm, appealing to Job’ s own experience for proof. And the truth is, if men were so well read as they might in the story of their own lives, they might have a divinity of their own, by noting experiments; such as that ll9th Psalm is in a manner wholly made up of. Remember, saith he here; and the philosopher saith, that experience is nothing else but mulplex memoria, because of the memory of the same thing often done, ariseth experience. Eliphaz, therefore, after that he had given Job his turn to search his experiences, brings forth his own in the next verse.

(7) Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent?—He challenges Job’s experience, and quotes his own in proof of the universal connection between sin and suffering. In so doing, his object may be to insinuate that Job is sinful; or, as seems perhaps more probable, and certainly more gracious, to prove to him that if he is what he was supposed to be, that itself is a ground of hope, inasmuch as no innocent person is allowed to perish. He utters here a half-truth, which, however, is after all true, inasmuch as God will never fail, though He may try, those who trust in Him.

Verse 7. Remember, I pray thee] Recollect, if thou canst, a single instance where God abandoned an innocent man, or suffered him to perish. Didst thou ever hear of a case in which God abandoned a righteous man to destruction? Wert thou a righteous man, and innocent of all hidden crimes, would God abandon thee thus to the malice of Satan? or let loose the plagues of affliction and adversity against thee?

7. Eliphaz would have Job remember that the afflictions of the righteous are disciplinary, and not designed for their destruction—who ever perished being innocent? He puts his principle first negatively, the righteous do not perish under affliction; and then positively, it is the wicked, they who plough iniquity that reap it, Job 4:8 seq.

Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? - The object of this question is manifestly to show to Job the inconsistency of the feelings which he had evinced. He claimed to be a righteous man.

7. Who… perished, being innocent — Eliphaz strangely overlooks the fact that the first recorded human death was the murder of a good and innocent man.