Job 4:7

7 Remember [zakar], I pray thee, who ever perished ['abad], being innocent [naqiy]? or where ['eyphoh] were the righteous [yashar] cut off [kachad]? KJV-Interlinear

7 'Remember now, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright destroyed? NASB

Eliphaz continues with two questions intending to trap Job into an answer. The first question asks, 'What innocent person has ever suffered?' The second question, 'If an innocent has suffered, then name him?'

Eliphaz poses these questions, as though they are commonly known sayings, traditional truths, which are born out by life's experiences. Today we would call them wives tales, urban legends, or folklore. These are sayings, tales, stories, and such, which are generally handed down from parent to child, from generation to generation.

They are generally sayings used to discourage bad behavior. They are well intended, but often times not factually, scientifically, or even historically accurate. They are often distortions or manipulations of truth, exaggerations and even sensationalized sayings in order to impress or convince, the listener.

'Watching too much television will give you square eyes.' Of course with the new rectangular televisions, that saying needs to be updated.

Eliphaz challenges Job to either name a righteous person who has suffered as Job has suffered, or if he cannot, then by his own suffering, he is public testimony that he is not a righteous man.

And of course the first person, who comes to mind, would be Abel. Back in Job's day, there have not been too many generations of people born since the flood of Noah. A good many of those original folks, living several hundreds of years, were still alive. In our day, it would be like an eighty year old viewing a twenty year old. Both Eliphaz and Job, though both were probably a hundred years old, or so, would be in the younger age group of their time.

And it stands to reason, that they all knew the story of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and so forth. Was Abel righteous? Yes. Did Abel suffer? Yes, he was murdered. Did he deserve it? No.

But Job and Eliphaz did not live in the pre-flood era. They lived in the post flood era, in a time when people lived a very long time. And with a long life font, then sickness and death were not very common experiences. Yet we already know that crime existed, and even abusive behavior existed. The Tower of Babel, for example.

So, Eliphaz witnessed crime being punished, and good being rewarded. There was a small world population and lots of land to go around. Wealth was easy to come by. Even so, there were those who tried to gain their wealth by taking it from others. Were all of Job's children and all of his employees, who were killed, bad?

But often times our views on life are selective. Good news is not generally publicized, whereas bad news travels like lightning.

To live a very long life, one would think that it would be impossible to not see the good and evils of life, and that prosperity and adversity seems to come to all, in one form or another. But often time's people will see only that which they choose to see, and thus invent explanations of the realities they perceive.

And in fact, it certainly seems that bad people get the better deal in life, than do good folks.

Anyway, Eliphaz now suggests that Job is not really as righteous as he seems to think he is, and even if he does have some degree of righteousness, then his predicament must be due to 'secret' sins.

Eliphaz does not look at the facts and then draw a conclusion, he looks at his preconceived conclusion and manufactures the facts to fit as he sees them.

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