properly · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
servants
בַּ֭עֲבָדָיוBa.'a.va.dav
H5650
a servant · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
angels
וּ֝בְמַלְאָכָ֗יוu.ve.mal.'a.Khav
H4397
a messenger · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
charged
יָשִׂ֥יםya.Sim
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
folly
תָּהֳלָֽהto.ho.Lah
H8417
braggadocio · noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 25:5-6 Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight.
2 Peter 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto ju…
Jude 1:6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto…
Job 15:15-16 Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.
Psalms 103:20-21 Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
Psalms 104:4 Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:
Isaiah 6:2-3 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 4:12–end
Eliphaz, having undertaken to convince Job of the sin and folly of his discontent and impatience, here vouches a vision he had been favoured with, which he relates to Job for his conviction. What comes immediately from God all men will pay a particular deference to, and Job, no doubt, as much as any. Some think Eliphaz had this vision now lately, since he came to Job, putting words into his mouth wherewith to reason with him; and it would have been well if he had kept to the purport of this vision, which would serve for a ground on which to reprove Job for his murmuring, but not to condemn him as a hypocrite. Others think he had it formerly; for God did, in this way, often communicate his mi…
folly--Imperfection is to be attributed to the angels, in comparison with Him. The holiness of some of them had given way (Pe2 2:4), and at best is but the holiness of a creature. Folly is the want of moral consideration [UMBREIT].
John Gill on Job 4:18
Behold, he put no trust in his servants,.... Some think the divine oracle or revelation ends in Job 4:17, and that here Eliphaz makes some use and improvement of it, and addresses Job, and argues with him upon it, with a view to his case and circumstances; but rather the account of what the oracle said, or was delivered by revelation, is continued to the end of the chapter, there being nothing unworthy of God, either in the matter or manner of it: and here Eliphaz himself is addressed, and this address ushered in with a "behold", as a note of admiration, asseveration, and attention; it being somewhat wonderful and of importance, sure and certain, and which deserved to be listened to, that Go…
17 Is a mortal just before Eloah,
Or a man pure before his Maker?
18 Behold, He trusteth not His servants!
And His angels He chargeth with imperfection.
19 How much more those who dwell in houses of clay,
They are crushed as though they were moths.
20 From morning until evening, - so are they broken in pieces:
Unobserved they perish for ever.
21 Is it not so: the cord of their tent in them is torn away,
So they die, and not in wisdom?
The question arises whether מן is comparative: prae Deo, on which Mercier with penetration remarks: justior sit oportet qui immerito affligitur quam qui immerito affligit; or causal: a Deo, h.e., ita ut a Deo justificetur. All modern expositors rightly decide o…
The Church Fathers
"If he does not believe evil against his servants. This is what happened when Elijah said, "Lord, they have killed your prophets; He replied, "I have reserved for myself seven thousand men." Not that these seven thousand men were already pure. This was said of angels and prophets. "And in his angels he found" evil; Or because the evil was spoken against them, or because they said it themselves. This can be understood even good angels.
In truth, to be faultless is not easy for human beings. Faultlessness is beyond human possibilities. The order of the angels is itself subject to such weakness. This is what Eliphaz says, "Even in his servants God puts no trust." It is evident that God "puts no trust" in the righteous—like you, who have trusted yourself—because he knows the weakness of their nature and how easily their flesh falls. The fallen angels give God a reason not to trust in them, those whom "he charges with error." He has driven them away from the former honor of their rank and has reduced them to a lower position because they had evil thoughts against God. But if it is so for them, who even though they have a weak nature live nonetheless in the heights among the virtuous powers, and if it is so for angels who in their own nature were above us, what will we say about our own human condition, one even more subject to sin?
Behold, His servants are not stedfast, and in His Angels He found folly: How much more in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which shall be consumed as by the moth? Though the Angelical nature, by being fixed in contemplation of the Creator, remains unchangeable in its own state, yet hereby, that it is a created being, it admits in itself the variableness of change. Now to be changed is to go from one thing into another, and to be without stability in one's self. For every single being tends to some other thing by steps, as many in number as it is subject to motions of change. And it is only the Incomprehensible Nature, which knows not to be moved from its fixed state, in that It knows not to be changed from this, that It is always the Same. For if the essence of the Angels had been strange to the motion of change, being created well by its Maker, it would never have fallen in the case of reprobate spirits from the tower of its blessed estate. But Almighty God in a marvellous manner framed the nature of the highest spiritual existences good, yet at the same time capable of change; that both they, that refused to remain, might meet with ruin, and they, that continued in their own state of creation, might henceforth be stablished therein more worthily in proportion as it was owing to their own choice, and become so much the more meritorious in God's sight, as they had staid the motion of their mutability by the stablishing of the will. Whereas then this very Angelical nature too is in itself mutable, which same mutability it has hereby overcome, in that it is bound by the chains of love to Him, Who is ever the Same, it is now rightly said, Behold, His servants are not stedfast. And there is forthwith added a proof of this same mutability, in that it is brought in from the case of the apostate spirits, And in His Angels He found folly. And from the fall of these He rightly draws the consideration of human frailty, when he appends thereto; How much more in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is earthly, which shall be consumed as by the moth. For we inhabit houses of clay, in that we subsist in earthly bodies. Which Paul considering saith well; But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. And again, For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not…
Dictionary and topics
Angel — A word signifying, both in the Hebrew and Greek, a “messenger,” and hence employed to denote any agent God sends forth to execute his purposes. It is used of an ordinary messenger (Job 1:14: 1 Sam.…
Eliphaz — God his strength. (1.) One of Job’s “three friends” who visited him in his affliction (4:1). He was a “Temanite”, i.e., a native of Teman, in Idumea. He first enters into debate with Job. His…
Assurance · Confirmed by love — Confirmed by love
Depravity Of Man · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dream · .Of Eliphaz, of a spirit speaking to him — .Of Eliphaz, of a spirit speaking to him
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The concept that God does not trust his own angels and that he charged his messengers with foolishness is otherwise unknown (but see Gen 6:1-4).
Rashi on Job 4:18
Behold...His servants the righteous. He does not trust that they will not sin against Him, and He takes them out of the world before their time.
reproach Heb. תהלה, an expression of folly.