Job 4:7
in Job 4Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off?
KJV
Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?
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This verse in Job 4
Commentary
8 notes on this verseDid not righteous Abel perish being innocent? and was he not cut off in the beginning of his days? Was not righteous Lot burnt out of house and harbour, and forced to retire to a melancholy cave? Was not righteous Jacob a Syrian ready to perish?
This site's exposition
Who, being innocent, has ever perished
Eliphaz states the friends' case in one question, "Who, being innocent, has ever perished," the claim that suffering proves guilt. The reader of chapter 1 holds the counterexample, sitting in the ashes. Eliphaz rests on what he has observed, and chapters 1 and 2 show what heaven permitted unseen.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
After Eliphaz accused Job of impatience taking his opportunity from what Job had said, "Before I eat, I sigh," (3:24), he intends now to accuse him of presumption from the fact that he said he was innocent. To show him that he is not innocent, …
Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? Whether it be heretics, of whom we have said that the friends of blessed Job bore an image, or whether any of the froward ones, they are as blameable in their admonitions, as they are immoderate in their condemnation. For he says, Who ever perished being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? Since it often happens that in this life both 'the innocent perish,' and 'the righteous are 'utterly cut off,' yet in perishing they are reserved to glory eternal.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent?....
He corroborates his assertion by a vision which he had, in which he was reminded of the incontestable purity and justice of God, and the meanness, weakness, and sinfulness of man,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
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?
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
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. He had instructed and counselled many others. He had professed confidence in God, and in the integrity of his own ways. It was to have been expected that one with such pretensions would have evinced resignation in the time of trial, and would have been sustained by the recollection of his integrity.
The words behind it
9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| זְכָר־ | zekhor- | remember | H2142 → | 230 times |
| נָ֗א | na' | please | H4994 → | 404 times |
| מִ֤י | mi | who? | H4310 → | 423 times |
| ה֣וּא | hu' | that | H1931 → | 1879 times |
| נָקִ֣י | naki | innocent | H5355 → | 43 times |
| אָבָ֑ד | ʾavad | did he perish | H6 → | 184 times |
| וְ֝אֵיפֹ֗ה | veeifoh | and where? | H375 → | |
| יְשָׁרִ֥ים | yesharim | upright [people] | H3477 → | 119 times |
| נִכְחָֽדוּ׃ | nikhadu | were they destroyed | H3582 → | 32 times |
זְכָר־remember
zekhor-H2142 →230 times
נָ֗אplease
na'H4994 →404 times
מִ֤יwho?
miH4310 →423 times
ה֣וּאthat
hu'H1931 →1879 times
נָקִ֣יinnocent
nakiH5355 →43 times
אָבָ֑דdid he perish
ʾavadH6 →184 times
וְ֝אֵיפֹ֗הand where?
veeifohH375 →
יְשָׁרִ֥יםupright [people]
yesharimH3477 →119 times
נִכְחָֽדוּ׃were they destroyed
nikhaduH3582 →32 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
Psalms 37:25I once was young and now am old, yet never have I seen the righteous abandoned or their children begging for bread.
it leads to
- Hebrews 13:5
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”
- Psalms 37:28
For the LORD loves justice and will not forsake His saints. They are preserved forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off.
- Psalms 112:2
His descendants will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.
- Psalms 25:13
His soul will dwell in prosperity, and his descendants will inherit the land.
- 1 Samuel 12:22
Indeed, for the sake of His great name, the LORD will not abandon His people, because He was pleased to make you His own.
- Hebrews 13:5
Through
2 Peter 2:9if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.
it leads to
- Psalms 34:15–19
The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their cry.
- 1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will…
- Revelation 3:10
Because you have kept My command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the…
- Psalms 34:15–19
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book V; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.