jealousy or envy · noun, common feminine singular absolute
slayeth
תָּמִ֥יתta.Mit
H4191
to die (literally or figuratively) · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
one
וּ֝פֹתֶ֗הu.fo.Teh
H6601
to open · conjunction + verb, qal active participle, masculine 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
Ecclesiastes 7:9 Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.
Genesis 30:1 And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.
1 Samuel 18:8-9 And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascrib…
Job 18:4 He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?
Psalms 14:1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalms 75:4 I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn:
Psalms 92:6 A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.
Psalms 107:17 Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 5:1-5
A very warm dispute being begun between Job and his friends, Eliphaz here makes a fair motion to put the matter to a reference. In all debates perhaps the sooner this is done the better if the contenders cannot end it between themselves. So well assured is Eliphaz of the goodness of his own cause that he moves Job himself to choose the arbitrators (Job 5:1): Call now, if there be any that will answer thee; that is, 1. "If there be any that suffer as thou sufferest. Canst thou produce an instance of any one that was really a saint that was reduced to such an extremity as thou art now reduced to? God never dealt with any that love his name as he deals with thee, and therefore surely thou art n…
wrath . . . envy--fretful and passionate complaints, such as Eliphaz charged Job with (Job 4:5; so Pro 14:30). Not, the wrath of God killeth the foolish, and His envy, &c.
John Gill on Job 5:2
For wrath killeth the foolish man,.... Not one that is an idiot, and destitute of common sense, and has no understanding in things natural and civil; but a wicked man, who has no knowledge of things divine and spiritual, and so foolish; which is the character of every natural man, and of God's people before conversion; and even of some professors, who are foolish virgins, and carry the lamp of a religious profession without the oil of grace; and such an one Eliphaz took Job to be, whom sooner or later the wrath of the Lord, as the Targum interprets it, which is revealed from heaven, and comes down upon the children of disobedience, would consume like devouring fire: or this may be understood…
1 Call now, - is there any one who will answer thee?
And to whom of the holy ones wilt thou turn?
2 For he is a fool who is destroyed by complaining,
And envy slays the simple one.
3 I, even I, have seen a fool taking root:
Then I had to curse his habitation suddenly.
4 His children were far from help,
And were crushed in the gate, without a rescuer;
5 While the hungry ate his harvest,
And even from among thorns they took it away,
And the intriguer snatched after his wealth.
The chief thought of the oracle was that God is the absolutely just One, and infinitely exalted above men and angels. Resuming his speech from this point, Eliphaz tells Job that no cry for help can avail him unless he su…
The Church Fathers
But the wise person examines all with care, whereas the fool sees nothing. This certainly means that it is God who "causes the foolish to be destroyed by his wrath, while ardor makes him who has gone astray, perish." This refers to the ardor of God. "His wrath causes the foolish to disappear" means, in my opinion, that God's wrath causes the sinners to disappear. "Wrath destroys the foolish one," Eliphaz says, and therefore it does not destroy the sensible. Wrath, in fact, has no place among the sensible.
"For anger kills the fool. The indignation which seizes him at the sight of his misfortune, as if it happened to him unjustly: he forgets that the defilements of his soul, known to God, prevent the Angels from answering his prayer, or from showing himself to him ; for not having these thoughts, he is foolish, and his unjust anger makes him die. Or else the fool can not see or hear the angels, because he is beaten by his anger, annihilated by his anger. "And envy makes one who is mistaken die," when he wants to imitate sinners.
For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly man. MORAL INTERPRETATION. Which same sentence would have been true, had it not been delivered against the patience of so great a man. But let us weigh well the thing that is said, though it be made to recoil by the virtue of his hearer, that we may shew how right the matter is, which is put forth, if it were not unjustly put forth against blessed Job; since it is written, But Thou, Lord, Judgest with tranquillity. We must above all things know, that as often as we restrain the turbulent motions of the mind under the virtue of mildness, we are essaying to return to the likeness of our Creator. For when the peace of the mind is lashed with Anger, torn and rent, as it were, it is thrown into confusion, so that it is not in harmony with itself, and loses the force of the inward likeness. Let us consider then how great the sin of Anger is, by which, while we part with mildness, the likeness of the image of the Most High is spoilt. By Anger wisdom is parted with, so that we are left wholly in ignorance what to do, and in what order to do it; as it is written, Anger resteth in the bosom of a fool; in this way, that it withdraws the light of understanding, while by agitating it troubles the mind. By Anger life is lost, even though wisdom seem to be retained; as it is written, Anger destroyeth even the wise. For in truth the mind being in a state of confusion never puts it in execution, even if it has power to discern any thing with good judgment. By Anger righteousness is abandoned, as it is written, The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. For whereas the agitated mind works up to harshness the decision of its reasoning faculty, all that rage suggests, it accounts to be right. By Anger all the kindliness of social life is lost, as it is written, Be not the companion of an angry man; lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul. And the same writer, Who can dwell with a man whose spirit is ready to wrath? For he that does not regulate his feelings by the reason that is proper to man, must needs live alone like a beast. By Anger, harmony is interrupted; as it is written, A wrathful man stirreth up strife, and an angry man diggeth up sins. For 'an angry man diggeth up sins,' since even bad men, whom he rashly provokes to strife, he makes worse than they were. By Anger the light of…
Dictionary and topics
Anger · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Envy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
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 angels (literally the holy ones), probably a reference back to 4:18, are called “holy ones” because of their proximity to God, not because they were morally perfect (15:15; Dan 4:14; 8:13; Zech 14:5).
Rashi on Job 5:2
a fool like you, anger will kill him, for had you remained silent, perhaps the Divine standard of clemency would return upon you.
wrath That is anger and fury, as in (Deut. 32:21), “They have provoked Me (קנאוני) to wrath.”
