Job 5 · a question people ask

Didn't Eliphaz's promises come true for Job in the end?

In the text

Eliphaz tells Job, "You will know also that your offspring will be great" (5:25), and "You will come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season" (5:26). At the end of the book, "The LORD restored Job’s prosperity when he prayed for his friends" (42:10); "He had also seven sons and three daughters" (42:13); Job "saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, to four generations" (42:16); and "Job died, being old and full of days" (42:17). In Hebrew the full of 5:26 and the full of 42:17 are different words. In the same chapter as that ending, just before it, the LORD says to Eliphaz, "you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has" (42:7). The book doesn't tie its ending to Eliphaz's words, and these notes don't either; the verses are here for you to weigh.

The verses

“You will know also that your offspring will be great, your offspring as the grass of the earth. You will come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season.”
Job 5:25-26 · World English Bible
“It was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.”
Job 42:7 · World English Bible
“The LORD restored Job’s prosperity when he prayed for his friends. The LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.”
Job 42:10 · World English Bible
“He had also seven sons and three daughters.”
Job 42:13 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Job 5

Job 5: Happy is the man whom God corrects

The line Paul quotes with "it is written" (1 Corinthians 3:19) is Eliphaz's (5:13), and Eliphaz is the friend the LORD speaks to in 42:7. His "happy is the man whom God corrects" (5:17) shares its Hebrew for do not despise, corrects and chastening with Proverbs 3:11-12, the saying Hebrews 12:5-6 gives to believers, while the LORD had already said Job was ruined "without cause" (2:3).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions