English Standard Version
Job 4:2
2"If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? Yet who can keep 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?
- New King James Version (NKJV)“If one attempts a word with you, will you become weary? But who can withhold himself from speaking?
- New Living Translation (NLT)“Will you be patient and let me say a word? For who could keep from speaking out?
Context of Job 4:2
1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: "If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? Yet who can keep from speaking? 3Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands. 4Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the 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 much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.
- 2 Corinthians 7:8For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while.
- Job 32:18For I am full of words; the spirit within me constrains me.
- Jeremiah 6:11Therefore I am full of the wrath of the Lord; I am weary of holding it in. "Pour it out upon the children in the street, and upon the gatherings of young men, also; both husband and wife shall be taken, the elderly and the very aged.
- Jeremiah 20:9If I say, "I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name," there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
- Acts 4:20for we cannot but speak of 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
English Standard Version — © 2001 Crossway Bibles
Commentaries