Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
Ver. 1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said] Abruptly, without any preface, he sets upon Job (as doth likewise Bildad, Job 25:1-6), acting the part of a spiteful caviller rather than of an ingenuous accuser; reckoning and ranking just Job among the wicked, not covertly, as before, but overtly and expressly; and then thinking to salve all by an exhortation to repentance, backed with a fair promise of a full restoration. Pulcherrima parsenesis, sed quid ad Iobum? saith Brentius, A very good exhortation, but ill applied. We shall do well to take notice what a dangerous thing it is to give way to unruly passions, which, like heavy bodies down steep hills, once in motion, move themselves, and know no ground but the bottom.