Job 4:2
in Job 4“If one ventures a word with you, will you be wearied? Yet who can keep from speaking?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
If one assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking?
KJV
If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?
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This verse in Job 4
Commentary
9 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
If we assay to commune with thee - Margin, A word. Hebrew - הנסה דבר dâbâr hanı̂câh. “May we attempt a word with thee?” This is a gentle and polite apology at the beginning of his speech - an inquiry whether he would take it as unkind if one should adventure on a remark in the way of argument. Jahn, in characterizing the part which Job’s three friends respectively take in the controversy, says: “Eliphaz is superior to the others in discernment and delicacy. He begins by addressing Job mildly; and it is not until irritated by opposition that he reckons him among the wicked.” Wilt thou be grieved? - That is, Wilt thou take it ill? Will it be offensive to you, or weary you, or tire your patience? The word used here (לאה lâ'âh) means to labor, to strive, to weary, to exhaust; and hence, to be weary, to try one’s patience, to take anything ill. Here it is the language of courtesy, and is designed to introduce the subsequent remarks in the kindest manner. Eliphaz knew that he was about to make observations which might implicate Job, and he introduced them in as kind a manner as possible. There is nothing abrupt or harsh in his beginning. All is courteous in the highest degree, and is a model for debaters. But who can withhold himself from speaking? - Margin, “Refrain from words.” That is, “the subject is so important, the sentiments advanced by Job are so extraordinary, and the principles involved are so momentous, that it is impossible to refrain.” There is much delicacy in this. He did not begin to speak merely to make a speech. He professes that be would not have spoken, if he had not been pressed by the importance of the subject, and had not been full of matter. To a great extent, this is a good rule to adopt: not to make a speech unless there are sentiments which weigh upon the mind, and convictions of duty which cannot be repressed.
This site's exposition
Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied
on Job 4:1-6
Eliphaz opens with a question that answers itself, so his gentleness is a formality before the argument begins. He recalls the counsel Job once gave, how he "strengthened their feeble hands". Then he turns that memory into a charge, "But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary".
This site's exposition
Yet who can keep from speaking
Eliphaz ventures a word with courtesy, and Barnes hears a gentle apology asking whether Job will be wearied by speaking. Clarke notes that the friends have words of rebuke ready, which Eliphaz expects Job to find heavy. Yet he cannot keep from speaking.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
What does Eliphaz say? "Have you often spoken in your suffering?" By "suffering" the Scripture may signify "sin," as it states, "Under his tongue is mischief." Eliphaz did not say, Have you committed any evil action? Eliphaz asks, "Have you spoken?" Indeed the fame of Job's life shone everywhere, and many still testified to Job's virtue. It is useless, Eliphaz says to Job, to say that your deeds are just and good, for the very reason that the fault is sometimes found in the words we speak. "And who can tolerate the violence of your words?" Consider now the expression "Have you often spoken?" The hesitation and uncertainty do not come from his moderation but from the fact that Eliphaz cannot convince Job about an evident fault on his part, "the violence of your words." What did Job say? He wished to die and to be delivered from his present life. Did Job actually say, "Is it in spite of my justice and virtues that I suffer such misfortunes"? No. He said, "I wanted to disappear with the impious, with my servants, with the stillborn. I wanted to have the same fate as the impious." He did not say, "I, who have such qualities and such importance."
The Medieval Church2 voices
First, he therefore accuses Job of impatience and begins to speak to him as one does to a man subject to the sin of impatience who immediately reacts angrily to the words spoken to him. So he says, "If one ventures a word with you, …
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? It has been already declared above, what there is set forth in the interpretation of these names. Therefore, because we are in haste to reach the unexamined parts, we forbear to unfold again what has been already delivered. Accordingly this is to be heedfully observed, that they, that bear the semblance of heretics, begin to speak softly, saying, If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved?
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Shall we be reckoned unkind and cruel if we deal plainly and faithfully with thee? We desire we may not; we hope we shall not, and should be sorry if that should be ill resented which is well intended." Note, We ought to be afraid of grieving any, especially those that are already in grief, lest we add affliction to the afflicted, as David's enemies, Ps. lxix.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved?....
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
If we assay to commune with thee - As if he had said, Should I and my friends endeavor to reason with thee ever so mildly, because we shall have many things to say by way of reprehension, thou wilt be grieved and faint; and this we may reasonably infer from the manner in which thou bearest thy present afflictions. Yet as thou hast uttered words which are injurious to thy Maker, who can forbear speaking? It is our duty to rise up on the part of God, though thereby we shall grieve him who is our friend.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
Eliphaz’s Address Eliphaz He was Esau’s son, and because he was nurtured in Isaac’s bosom, he merited that the Shechinah rest upon him.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֲנִסָּ֬ה | hanisah | ¿ did someone attempt | H5254 → | |
| דָבָ֣ר | davar | a word | H1697 → | 1440 times |
| אֵלֶ֣יךָ | ʾeleikha | to you | H413 → | 5510 times |
| תִּלְאֶ֑ה | tileh | will you be impatient? | H3811 → | 19 times |
| וַעְצֹ֥ר | va'tzor | and to restrain | H6113 → | 47 times |
| בְּ֝מִלִּ֗ין | bemilin | <in> words | H4405 → | 38 times |
| מִ֣י | mi | who? | H4310 → | 423 times |
| יוּכָֽל׃ | yukhal | is he able | H3201 → | 194 times |
הֲנִסָּ֬ה¿ did someone attempt
hanisahH5254 →
דָבָ֣רa word
davarH1697 →1440 times
אֵלֶ֣יךָto you
ʾeleikhaH413 →5510 times
תִּלְאֶ֑הwill you be impatient?
tilehH3811 →19 times
וַעְצֹ֥רand to restrain
va'tzorH6113 →47 times
בְּ֝מִלִּ֗ין<in> words
bemilinH4405 →38 times
מִ֣יwho?
miH4310 →423 times
יוּכָֽל׃is he able
yukhalH3201 →194 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Acts 4:20For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
it leads to
- Jeremiah 20:9
If I say, “I will not mention Him or speak any more in His name,” His message becomes a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones, and I become weary of…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Acts 22:15
You will be His witness to everyone of what you have seen and heard.
- 1 Corinthians 9:16–17
Yet when I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because I am obligated to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
- 1 John 1:1–3
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have gazed upon and touched with our own hands—this is the Word of life.
- Acts 5:32
We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
- Jeremiah 20:9
Through
Jeremiah 6:11But I am full of the LORD’s wrath; I am tired of holding it back. “Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the young men gathered together. For both husband…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 9:21
For death has climbed in through our windows; it has entered our fortresses to cut off the children from the streets, the young men from the town squares.
- Micah 3:8
As for me, however, I am filled with power by the Spirit of the LORD, with justice and courage, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.
- Job 32:18–19
For I am full of words, and my spirit within me compels me.
- Jeremiah 9:21
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Job
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book V; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 4:2; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.