New Living Translation
Job 4:2
2“Will you be patient and let me say a word? For who could keep from speaking out?
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 replied to Job: “Will you be patient and let me say a word? For who could keep from speaking out? 3“In the past you have encouraged many people; you have strengthened those who were weak. 4Your words have supported those who were falling; you encouraged those with shaky 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 2:4I wrote that letter in great anguish, with a troubled heart and many tears. I didn’t want to grieve you, but I wanted to let you know how much love I have for you.
- 2 Corinthians 7:8I am not sorry that I sent that severe letter to you, though I was sorry at first, for I know it was painful to you for a little while.
- Job 32:18For I am full of pent-up words, and the spirit within me urges me on.
- Jeremiah 6:11So now I am filled with the Lord’s fury. Yes, I am tired of holding it in! “I will pour out my fury on children playing in the streets and on gatherings of young men, on husbands and wives and on those who are old and gray.
- Jeremiah 20:9But if I say I’ll never mention the Lord or speak in his name, his word burns in my heart like a fire. It’s like a fire in my bones! I am worn out trying to hold it in! I can’t do it!
- Acts 4:20We cannot stop telling about everything 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
New Living Translation — © 1996, 2004, 2015 Tyndale House Foundation
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