Job 4:21 | DiscipleDeck

Bible Commentary

Job 4:21

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public Domain

Doth not their excellency which is in them go away! "Their excellency" ( יתרם) would seem to mean that which is highest in them—their spirit, or soul. It does not make much difference if we translate, with the Old Testament Revisers" their tent-cord," since that would be merely a metaphor for the soul, which sustains the body as the tent-cord does the tent. What deserves especial remark is that the "excellency" does not perish; it goes away, departs, or is removed. They die, even without wisdom; literally, not in wisdom; i.e. not having learnt in the whole course of their lives that true wisdom which their life-trials were intended to teach them.

HOMILETICS

More for Job 4:21

Continue with other commentaries and DiscipleDeck content connected to this verse, chapter, or topic.

Other commentaries

Job 4 — OverviewJob 4 · Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole BibleJob having warmly given vent to his passion, and so broken the ice, his friends here come gravely to give vent to their judgment upon his case, which perhaps they had communicated to one another apart, compared…Job 4 — OverviewJob 4 · Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeJob 4:1, Eliphaz reproves Job for want of religion; Job 4:7, He teaches God’s judgments to be not for the righteous, but for the wicked; Job 4:12, His fearful vision to humble the excellency of creatures before God.Job 4 — OverviewJob 4 · John Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleJob's sore afflictions, and his behaviour under them, laid the foundation of a dispute between him and his three friends, which begins in this chapter, and is carried on to the end of the thirty first; when Elihu starts…Job 4:1-21Job 4:1-21 · The Pulpit CommentaryEXPOSITION Job having ended his complaint, Eliphaz the Temanite, the first-named of his three friends (Job 2:11), and perhaps the eldest of them, takes the word, and endeavours to answer him. After a brief apology for…Job 4:12-21Job 4:12-21 · Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole BibleEliphaz, 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…Job 4:12-21Job 4:12-21 · The Pulpit CommentaryEliphaz proceeds to narrate a spiritual experience of a very strange and striking character. It was night, and he had fallen asleep, when suddenly he was, or seemed to himself to be, awake. A horrible fear came over…