to secrete · verb, niphal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
scourge
בְּשׁ֣וֹטbe.Shot
H7752
a lash (literally or figuratively) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
tongue
לָ֭שׁוֹןLa.shon
H3956
the tongue (of man or animals) · noun, common both genders singular absolute
afraid
תִירָ֥אti.Ra'
H3372
to fear · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
destruction
מִ֝שֹּׁ֗דmi.Shod
H7701
violence · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
cometh
יָבֽוֹאya.Vo'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
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
Psalms 31:20 Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of ton…
Psalms 91:5-7 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
Proverbs 12:18 There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.
Psalms 55:21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.
Jeremiah 18:18 Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, n…
Psalms 57:4 My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their t…
Isaiah 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is t…
James 3:5-8 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 5:17–end
Eliphaz, in this concluding paragraph of his discourse, gives Job (what he himself knew not how to take) a comfortable prospect of the issue of his afflictions, if he did but recover his temper and accommodate himself to them. Observe,
I. The seasonable word of caution and exhortation that he gives him (Job 5:17): "Despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty. Call it a chastening, which comes from the father's love and is designed for the child's good. Call it the chastening of the Almighty, with whom it is madness to contend, to whom it is wisdom and duty to submit, and who will be a God all-sufficient (for so the word signifies) to all those that trust in him. Do not despise it;" it is…
Thou shall be hid from the scourge of the tongue,.... Of Satan, as Jarchi, the accuser of the brethren; or rather from the evil tongue of wicked men, their slanders, calumnies, and reproaches; the tongue is a small weapon, but it is a cutting one; it is like a scourge or whip, with which wicked men strike hard: the enemies of Jeremiah encouraged one another to smite him with their tongue, Jeremiah 18:18; and a sad thing it is to be under the lash of some men's tongues, and a great mercy it is to be delivered from them: God does sometimes hide his people, and keeps them secretly, as in a pavilion, from the strife of tongues; Psalm 31:20; he either restrains the tongues of men, lays an embargo…
17 Behold, happy is the man whom Eloah correcteth;
So despise not the chastening of the Almighty!
18 For He woundeth, and He also bindeth up;
He bruiseth, and His hands make whole.
19 In six troubles He will rescue thee,
And in seven no evil shall touch thee.
20 In famine He will redeem thee from death,
And in war from the stroke of the sword.
21 When the tongue scourgeth, thou shalt be hidden;
And thou shalt not fear destruction when it cometh.
The speech of Eliphaz now becomes persuasive as it turns towards the conclusion. Since God humbles him who exalts himself, and since He humbles in order to exalt, it is a happy thing when He corrects (הוכיח) us by afflictive dispensations; and His ch…
The Church Fathers
"He will steal you from the bites of the tongue," so that you do not feel the outrages, and not to turn them away from you.
He will hide you from the evil tongue, which knows how to persecute unjustly. In fact, they call "scourge" the malice and slander of the tongue. Moreover, you will end up in complete safety.
Again Eliphaz says this about the one who has been rebuked by the Lord, whereby he follows his own principle. Not even what Eliphaz says is stringent. Too often many righteous people have been vilified. Among them are Joseph, whom the Egyptian woman charged with excess in spite of his modesty, and Susanna, who suffered as a hostage the humiliations from the "lawless elders." Consequently, if he understands by "hidden from the scourge of the tongue" that one is neither humiliated nor vilified, this word is unfounded. It is more accurate to say that the one who lives after the will of God cannot be harmed by humiliation or vilification, called "scourge of the tongue." Virtue protects him from being found guilty of the false allegations. Nor does such a person fear expected destruction, since he says with Saint Paul, "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword?" Over all this he prevails through virtue's abundance. Likewise, he is protected from the intrigues of false wisdom, since God "takes the wise in their own craftiness." … The same meaning as "you shall not fear destruction when it comes" has the following word from the prophet: "The calamity will come from far away." This must be understood like this: The good comes from us. For it is said, "The kingdom of God is within you." Thus we have an inclination toward virtue that Christ called "kingdom." But the punishment and damage and dishonor of sin come from the outside. For the human, who is created "after God's image," carries the seed of the good within. But if he deviates from the right path, he encounters evil, without having received such an inclination from God.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Happiness · OF THE RIGHTEOUS — OF THE RIGHTEOUS
Scourging · .Of the evil tongue — .Of the evil tongue
Slander · The tongue of, is a scourge — The tongue of, is a scourge
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).
six disasters . . . even in the seventh: This wisdom formula reflects a sense of completeness (cp. Prov 30:15-31). • This list reflects Mosaic covenant blessings and curses (Lev 26; Deut 28). Eliphaz thought that people in right relationship with God would be free from famine (Job 5:20, 22; see Lev 26:4-5, 10; Deut 28:4-6, 8, 11-12), war (i.e., death, Job 5:20) and the destruction it causes (5:21, 22; see Lev 26:6-8; Deut 28:7, 48), and slander. They will even be at peace with wild animals (Job 5:23; see Lev 26:6) and the stones of the field. This peace might indicate fertile rather than stony fields (2 Kgs 3:19, 25; Matt 13:5), or it might symbolize wider harmony with the natural world (see…
from the scourging tongue of the Adversary you shall be hidden. These are the seven troubles: 1 famine, 2) the sword, 3) the tongue, 4) plunder etc., and 5) the beasts of the land, which are brigands.
