In French (Avise la fin), these are the wise words over the entry of Scotland’s Culzean Castle.
Eliphaz has more to say. Much more (Job 5:1-27). Two of life’s most animating passions are correcting other people’s writings and critiquing other people’s behavior! He began his first response by calling Job to be ready to hear his words. Is the man, called “the greatest of all the people of the East” (1:3), above criticism? Of course not. “If [God] charges His angels with error, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay” (4:18-19). Now Eliphaz seeks to put things in perspective for the suffering Job. He portrays a hypothetical man who seems to succeed in life for a time, but then everything collapses around him. (Any guesses who that might be?) This person has “His sons…crushed in the gate” (5:4), and “a snare snatches their substance [wealth]” (v 5). From where does this man’s trouble come? Eliphaz knows it doesn’t appear from nowhere. “For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble spring from the ground; yet man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward” (vv 6-7). Although Eliphaz has misdiagnosed Job’s problem, and greatly underestimates his grief—even suggesting he might be able to laugh it off if he was right with God (v 22)—he does have some good advice for us all. First, when in trouble, there’s only one place to go: “as for me, I would seek God, and to God I would commit my cause—who does great things, and unsearchable, marvelous things without number” (vv 8-9ff). When you need a miracle, God has a corner on the market. Second, God’s chastening is a good thing (v 17ff). His wounds are surgical, providing healing. And when He’s finished, you’ll be greatly blessed (vv 23-26). Unwittingly, Eliphaz describes what James calls for Job “the end of the Lord” (Jas 5:11, KJV).