“By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.”
Eliphaz reflects that the breath of God destroys the wicked and that the blast of God's anger consumes them, describing divine judgment as direct, active, and irresistible against those who do wrong. The violent language of destruction and consumption reveals the severity with which divine judgment operates against the wicked. This description of divine wrath against evildoers sets the implicit question: if Job is truly innocent, why is he experiencing such wrath?
Church Fathers on Job 4:9
Even, as I have seen, they that plough iniquity, and sow sorrows, and reap the same, by the blast of God do they perish, and by the breath of His nostrils are they consumed. To ‘sow griefs’ is to utter deceits, but to ‘reap griefs’ is to prevail by so speaking. Or, surely, they ‘sow griefs,’ who do froward actions, they ‘reap griefs,’ when they ate punished for this forwardness. For the harvest of grief is the recompense of condemnation, and whereas it is immediately…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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