Amplified Bible
Job 4:2
2“If we dare to converse with you, will you be impatient [or offended]? But who can restrain himself from speaking?
Job 4:2 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?
- New International Version (NIV)“If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking?
- English Standard Version (ESV)"If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? Yet who can keep from speaking?
- New King James Version (NKJV)“If one attempts a word with you, will you become weary? But who can withhold himself from speaking?
Context of Job 4:2
1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, “If we dare to converse with you, will you be impatient [or offended]? But who can restrain himself from speaking? 3Behold, you have admonished and instructed many, And you have strengthened weak hands. 4Your words have helped the one who was stumbling to stand, And you have strengthened feeble knees.
Read all of Job 4Job 4:2 word by word
הֲנִסָּ֬ה דָבָ֣ר אֵלֶ֣יךָ תִּלְאֶ֑ה וַעְצֹ֥ר בְּ֝מִלִּ֗ין מִ֣י יוּכָֽל׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 4:2
- 2 Corinthians 2:4For I wrote to you out of great distress and with an anguished heart, and with many tears, not to cause you sorrow but to make you realize the [overflowing] love which I have especially for you.
- 2 Corinthians 7:8For even though I did grieve you with my letter, I do not regret it [now]; though I did regret it —for I see that the letter hurt you, though only for a little while—
- Job 32:18For I am full of words; The spirit within me constrains me.
- Jeremiah 6:11But I am full of the wrath (judgment) of the Lord; I am tired of restraining it. “[I will] pour it out on the children in the street And on the young men gathered together; For both the husband and wife shall be taken, The aged and the very old [though full of days they are not exempt from judgment].
- Jeremiah 20:9If I say, “I will not remember Him Or speak His name anymore,” Then my heart becomes a burning fire Shut up in my bones. And I am weary of enduring and holding it in; I cannot endure it [nor contain it any longer].
- Acts 4:20for we, on our part, cannot stop telling [people] about what we have seen and heard.”
Commentaries on Job 4:2
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 2If we assay to commune with thee - As if he had said, Should I and my friends endeavor to reason with thee ever so mildly, because we shall have many things to say by way of reprehension, thou wilt be grieved and faint; and this we may reasonably infer from the manner in which thou bearest thy present afflictions. Yet as thou hast uttered words which are injurious to thy Maker, who can forbear speaking? It is our duty to rise up on the part of God, though…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 2If we assay to commune with thee - Margin, A word. Hebrew - הנסה דבר dâbâr hanı̂câh “May we attempt a word with thee?” This is a gentle and polite apology at the beginning of his speech - an inquiry whether he would take it as unkind if one should adventure on a remark in the way of argument. Jahn, in characterizing the part which Job‘s three friends respectively take in the controversy, says: “Eliphaz is superior to the others in discernment and…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 1-2Eliphaz the Temanite was probably the oldest and most important of Job’s friends (see study note on 2:11). His speeches are longer and more detailed than the others. who can keep from speaking?: Eliphaz imitated how urgent a message from prophets can be (4:12–16; see Jeremiah 20:9; Amos 3:8).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 22. If we assay to commune--Rather, two questions, "May we attempt a word with thee? Wilt thou be grieved at it?" Even pious friends often count that only a touch which we feel as a wound.Read the comment
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Job 4
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
Amplified Bible — © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631
Commentaries