Job 5 Bible study: Happy is the man whom God corrects

Job 5 opens with no new heading. Eliphaz is still speaking, as he has been since "Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered" (4:1), and every word to the end of the chapter is his. He goes on, "Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?" (5:1). He speaks of "the foolish": "I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation" (5:3). In Hebrew I have seen is the same word as in his "According to what I have seen" (4:8): once again, what he has seen is his ground. And, "His children are far from safety" (5:4). He doesn't name Job or Job's children; you have read what the messenger told Job about them (1:18-19). Then he turns: "But as for me, I would seek God. I would commit my cause to God" (5:8). He ends, "Behold, we have researched it. It is so. Hear it, and know it for your good" (5:27) (tap researched). Keep in mind whose words these are. At the end of the book the LORD says to Eliphaz, "you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has" (Job 42:7), without saying which of his words he means. So these notes give Eliphaz's words as his, never as the book's verdict, and don't throw them all out either.

Job 5:13→leads to1 Corinthians 3:19

Eliphaz says of God, "He takes the wise in their own craftiness; the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong" (5:13). Paul writes, "If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool that he may become wise" (1 Corinthians 3:18), "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.”" (1 Corinthians 3:19). Paul gives the words as scripture with "it is written", but he doesn't name Job or the one who spoke them; in Job they are Eliphaz's (4:1), and the WEB words the two a little differently: Paul has has taken and their craftiness, where Job 5:13 has takes and their own craftiness. In the same chapter Paul writes that no other foundation can be laid "than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:11), and he ends, "Therefore let no one boast in men" (1 Corinthians 3:21), "and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s" (1 Corinthians 3:23). Paul quotes this one saying; he says nothing about the rest of Eliphaz's speech, and the LORD's words to Eliphaz in 42:7 still stand.

עֹרֶםoremsay O-rem

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "craftiness". Strong's: "a stratagem", and "from 6191". "He takes the wise in their own craftiness" (5:13). This is the only time the word comes in the Hebrew Bible. Strong's gives the crafty of 5:12 (arum) as "passive participle of 6191", so the two come from one root. Paul quotes this verse: "For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.”" (1 Corinthians 3:19). He doesn't name Job or Eliphaz, and the WEB words the two a little differently.