“But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.”
Eliphaz implicitly reproaches Job by noting that now his affliction has come, he has grown impatient and weary, unable to apply his own teachings to his own extremity. The transition from Job's role as teacher of others to his current apparent loss of faith in his own doctrine creates a paradox that Eliphaz wishes to highlight. This observation sets up the implicit claim that Job's current despair reveals either the inadequacy of his former teachings or his failure to practice them.
Church Fathers on Job 4:5
But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest: it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled. All men of froward mind assail the life of the righteous in two ways; for either they assert that what they say is wrong, or that what they say aright they never observe; and hence blessed Job is reproved by his friends further on for his mode of speech, whereas now he is torn in pieces for having spoken right things, but not having observed them. And so at one time the speech, and at…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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