“For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one.”
Eliphaz asserts that wrath kills the foolish and that anger slays the one who is led astray, suggesting that emotional reactions to suffering only compound the damage and lead to further destruction. The implication is that Job's lament and questioning amount to a kind of wrath or foolishness that will only deepen his affliction. Eliphaz counsels emotional regulation and acceptance as the path to healing.
Church Fathers on Job 5:2
For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly man. Which same sentence would have been true, had it not been delivered against the patience of so great a man. But let us weigh well the thing that is said, though it be made to recoil by the virtue of his hearer, that we may shew how right the matter is, which is put forth, if it were not unjustly put forth against blessed Job; since it is written, But Thou, Lord, Judgest with tranquillity. We must above all…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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