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Read the Bible
New King James Version
Job 15:4
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
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- InternationalParallel Translations
But you even undermine the fear of Godand hinder meditation before him.
Yes, you do away with fear, And hinder devotion before God.
Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.
But you are doing away with the fear of God and hindering meditation before God.
But you even destroy respect for God and limit the worship of him.
But you even break off piety, and hinder meditation before God.
"Indeed, you are doing away with fear, And you are diminishing meditation before God.
"Indeed, you do away with reverence, And hinder meditation before God.
Yes, you do away with fear, And hinder devotion before God.
Surely thou hast cast off feare, and restrainest prayer before God.
Indeed, you annul reverent fearAnd cut off musing before God.
But you even undermine the fear of God and hinder meditation before Him.
Your words are enough to make others turn from God and lead them to doubt.
"Why, you are abolishing fear of God and hindering prayer to him!
Yea, thou makest piety of none effect, and restrainest meditation before God.
If you had your way, no one would respect God and pray to him.
Yea, you also are discarding reverence, and talk too much in the presence of God.
If you had your way, no one would fear God; no one would pray to him.
"What is worse, you yourself are doing away with fear, and you are lessening meditation before God.
Yea, you do away with fear, and take away devotion before God.
As for shame, thou hast set it asyde, els woldest thou not make so many wordes before God:
Yea, thou doest away with fear, And hinderest devotion before God.
Truly, you make the fear of God without effect, so that the time of quiet worship before God is made less by your outcry.
Yea, thou doest away with fear, and impairest devotion before God.
Yea thou castest off feare, and restrainest prayer before God.
Surely thou hast cast of feare, and restrainest prayer before God.
Hast not thou moreover cast off fear, and accomplished such words before the Lord?
Yea, thou doest away with fear, and restrainest devotion before God.
As myche as is in thee, thou hast avoidid drede; and thou hast take awey preyeris bifor God.
Yes, you do away with fear, And hinder devotion before God.
Yes, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.
Have you no fear of God, no reverence for him?
For sure you are doing away with the fear of the Lord. You are stopping the quiet worship of God.
But you are doing away with the fear of God, and hindering meditation before God.
But, thou, wouldst take away reverence, and wouldst attain unto meditation before GOD.
As much as is in thee, thou hast made void fear, and hast taken away prayers from before God.
But you are doing away with the fear of God, and hindering meditation before God.
Yea, thou dost make reverence void, And dost diminish meditation before God.
"Indeed, you do away with reverence And hinder meditation before God.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
castest off: Heb. makest void, Job 4:5, Job 4:6, Job 6:14, Psalms 36:1-3, Psalms 119:126, Zephaniah 1:6, Romans 3:31, Galatians 2:21
restrainest: Job 5:8, Job 27:10, 1 Chronicles 10:13, 1 Chronicles 10:14, Hosea 7:14, Amos 6:10, Luke 18:1
prayer: or, speech.
Reciprocal: Job 19:3 - ye reproached Job 33:32 - General Job 36:13 - they Jeremiah 36:24 - they Colossians 4:2 - Continue
Cross-References
And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her."
But God said to Abraham, "Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called.
"When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
And David said to Abishai and all his servants, "See how my son who came from my own body seeks my life. How much more now may this Benjamite? Let him alone, and let him curse; for so the LORD has ordered him.
Then the LORD sent an angel who cut down every mighty man of valor, leader, and captain in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned shamefaced to his own land. And when he had gone into the temple of his god, some of his own offspring struck him down with the sword there.
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.
I am sending him back. [fn] You therefore receive him, that is, my own heart,
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Yea, thou castest off fear,.... Not of man; a slavish fear of man is to be cast off, because that brings a snare, deters men from their duty, and leads into sin; though there is a fear and reverence of men which ought to be given to them, "fear to whom fear", Romans 13:7; but here the fear of God is meant, which is to be understood of the grace of fear, of which Job was possessed; that could not be cast off, for this is not what is in a man naturally, or is by the light of nature, and arises from natural conviction, which may be cast off, as was by Pharaoh; but this is a blessing of the covenant of grace, sure and firm, and is one of the gifts of grace that are without repentance; it is a part of internal grace, which can never be lost; it is improved and increased by fresh discoveries of the grace and goodness of God, and is an antidote and preservative against apostasy: perhaps the whole worship of God may be meant, external worship, or outward religion in the form of it, which is sometimes signified by the fear of God:
Ecclesiastes 12:14; and it is cast off when it is neglected and not attended to, or when men become profane, after they have made a profession of religion; but as neither of these can be thought to be the case of Job, rather the meaning of Eliphaz may be, that Job did not show that reverence to God he should, as his words may seem, in
Job 13:20; or that by his way of talk and reasoning, and by the notions he had imbibed and gave out, and the assertions he laid down, all religion would be made void among men; for if, as he had said, God "destroys the perfect and the wicked, [and] the tabernacles of robbers prosper, [and] the just men are laughed to scorn", Job 9:22; who would fear God? it might be inferred from hence, that it is a vain thing to serve him, and there can be no profit got by keeping his ordinances, and walking before him; this is the way to put an end to all religion, as if Eliphaz should say, and discourage all regard unto it:
and restrainest prayer before God; prayer is to be made to God and to him only, it is a part of religious worship, directed to by the light of nature, and ought to be performed by every man; it is a special privilege of the saints, who have a covenant God on a throne of grace to go to, and can pray in a spiritual manner for spiritual things; and especially is to be observed in times of trouble, in which Job now was, and never to be disused; now this charge either respects Job himself, that he left off praying, which can hardly be supposed; or that he drew out prayer to a great length, as some understand the words w, like the tautologies of the Heathen; or he diminished prayer, as others x, lessened the times of prayer, and the petitions in it: or rather it may respect others; not that it can be thought he should lay his injunctions on those over whom he had any authority, forbidding his servants, or those about him, to pray; but that by his manner of reasoning he discouraged prayer, as Eliphaz thought, as an useless thing; for if God laughs at the trials and afflictions of the innocent, and suffers wicked men to prosper, who would pray to him, or serve him? see Job 9:23.
w תגרע "tulisti", V. L. "traheres", Cocceius; "multiplicasti", so some in Bar Tzemach. x "Imminues", Montanus; "imminuisti", Bolducius; "diminuis", Schmidt; "minuis", Schultens.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Yea, thou castest off fear - Margin, Makest void. Fear here means the fear or reverence of God; and the idea is, that Job had not maintained a proper veneration or respect for his Maker in his argument. He had defended principles and made assertions which implied great disrespect for the Deity. If those doctrines were true; if he was right in his views about God, then he was not a being who could be reverenced. No confidence could be placed in his government; no worship of such a being could be maintained. Eliphaz does not refer here so much to what was personal with Job, as to his principles. He does not mean so much to affirm that he himself had lost all reverence for God, as that his arguments led to that. Job had maintained that God did not in this life reward and punish people strictly according to their deserts. If this was so, Eliphaz says, then it would be impossible to honor him, and religion and worship would be at an end.
The Hebrew word rendered “castest off” - more accurately rendered in the margin “makest void” (תפר tāpēr) - implies this. “And restrainest prayer before God.” Margin, “speech.” The Hebrew word שׂיחה śı̂ychâh means properly “meditation” - and particularly meditation about divine things: Psalms 119:97. Then it means “devotion” - as to meditate on divine things is a part of devotion. It may be applied to any part of devotion, and seems to be not improperly rendered “prayer.” It is that devotion which finds utterance in the language of prayer. The word rendered “restrainest” - תגרע tı̂gâra‛ - means to shave off - like the beard; then to cut off, to take away, detract, withhold; and the idea here is, that the views which Job maintained were such as “to sap the very foundations of religion.” If God treated the righteous and the wicked alike, the one would have nothing to hope and the other nothing to fear.
There could be no ground of encouragement, to pray to him. How could the righteous pray to him, unless there was evidence that he was the friend of virtue? How could they hope for his special blessing, if he were disposed to treat the good and the bad alike? Why was it not just as well to live in sin as to be holy? And how could such a being be the object of confidence or prayer? Eliphaz mistook the meaning of Job, and pressed his positions further than he intended; and Job was not entirely able to vindicate his position, or to show how the consequences stated by Eliphaz could be avoided. “They both wanted the complete and full view of the future state of retribution revealed in the gospel, and that would have removed the whole difficulty.” But I see not how the considerations here urged by this ancient sage of the tendency of Job’s doctrine can be avoided, if it be applied to the views of those who hold that all people will be saved at death. If that be the truth, then who can fail to see that the tendency must be to make people cast off the fear of God and to undermine all devotion and prayer? Why should people pray, if all are to be treated alike at death? How can people worship and honor a Being who will treat the good and the bad alike? How can we have confidence in a being who makes no distinction in regard to character? And what inducement can there be to be pious, when all people shall be made as happy as they can be forever whether they are pious or not? We are not to wonder, therefore, that the system tends every where to sap the foundations of virtue and religion; that it makes no man better; and that where it prevails, it banishes religion and prayer from the world.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Job 15:4. Thou castest off fear — Thou hast no reverence for God.
And restrainest prayer — Instead of humbling thyself, and making supplication to thy Judge, thou spendest thy time in arraigning his providence and justifying thyself.
When a man has any doubts whether he has grieved God's Spirit, and his mind feels troubled, it is much better for him to go immediately to God, and ask forgiveness, than spend any time in finding excuses for his conduct, or labouring to divest it of its seeming obliquity. Restraining or suppressing prayer, in order to find excuses or palliations for infirmities, indiscretions, or improprieties of any kind, which appear to trench on the sacred limits of morality and godliness, may be to a man the worst of evils: humiliation and prayer for mercy and pardon can never be out of their place to any soul of man who, surrounded with evils, is ever liable to offend.
