He that speaketh flattery to [his] friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
Ver. 5. He that speaketh flattery to his friends] As you, my friends, do to and for God, in seeming to assert his justice in punishing me for my wickedness, so soothing and smoothing up the Almighty (quod ipsum nihil aliud est quam falso Deo blandiri, saith Merlin), and seeking to make the world believe, by your great words, that you are his great champions, while you go about to clear up his righteousness by concluding that I am unrighteous. See Job 13:7,8. See Trapp on " Job 13:7 " See Trapp on " Job 13:8 "
The eyes of his children shall fail] Not himself only shall smart (while the Lord cutteth off flattering lips and the deceitful tongue, Psa 12:3), but his poor children shall repent for it. They shall lie languishing at hope's hospital, and after all be disappointed; or their eyes shall fail with long looking after good; but nothing comes. They shall look for peace, and there is no good; and for a time of healing, but behold trouble, Jeremiah 14:19. God will destroy flatterers, head and tail, branch and rush, like as the Thessalians once utterly destroyed the city called Kολακεια, or Flattery (Hen. Steph. Apol. pro Herod.).