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But now when trouble strikes, you lose heart. You are terrified when it touches you.
Job 4:5 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB But now it has come to you, and you faint. It touches you, and you are troubled.
  • KJV But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.
  • BSB But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed.
  • NKJV But now it comes upon you, and you are weary; It touches you, and you are troubled.
  • NASB “But now it comes to you, and you are impatient; It touches you, and you are horrified.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

Eliphaz notes that now trouble has come, Job himself faints. He implies Job should bear his own medicine.

Overview

Eliphaz observes that when suffering strikes Job, he is dismayed and troubled, unlike the strength he once gave others. The remark carries a gentle reproach that Job is not living up to his own counsel. It reveals the friends' lack of true sympathy and their failure to grasp the depth of innocent suffering.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 10

  • Job 19:21“Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends; for the hand of God has touched me.
  • 2 Cor 4:16Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.
  • Prov 24:10If you falter in the time of trouble, your strength is small.
  • Job 6:14“To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
  • 2 Cor 4:1Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we don’t faint.
  • Job 3:25–26For the thing which I fear comes on me, That which I am afraid of comes to me.
  • Heb 12:5and you have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him;
  • Heb 12:3For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls.
  • Job 1:11But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face.”
  • Job 2:5But stretch out your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to your face.”

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Job 4:5YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.

How Job 4:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.