(7) В¶ Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? (8) Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. (9) By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed. (10) The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken. (11) The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lion's whelps are scattered abroad.
This reasoning of Eliphaz was false and ill-grounded. Many an innocent person, as Eliphaz could not but well know, had perished. The murder of Abel, by Cain, led the van; and the history of the world furnished out continual examples. Indeed it was this very circumstance which gave even the heathens themselves cause to argue, that there must be another world for rewarding the good, and punishing the bad. So that Eliphaz brought forward an argument here to distress Job, that he himself ought to have known the falseness of. Poor Job! how sharp were his exercises, when though Satan had seemingly withdrawn, yet truly not so, but to attack him with other weapons.