Eliphaz (Job)

Thus Eliphaz appears as the representative of the wisdom of the Edomites, which, according to Obadiah 8, Jeremiah 49:7, and Baruch 3:22, was famous in antiquity.

In his first reply to Job's complaints, he argues that those who are truly good are never entirely forsaken by Providence, but that punishment may justly be inflicted for secret sins.

His arguments are well supported but God declares at the end of the book that Eliphaz has made a serious error in his speaking.

[4] His primary belief was that the righteous do not perish; the wicked alone suffer, and in measure as they have sinned (Job 4:7–9).

Eliphaz's argument is, in part, rooted in what he believes to have been a personal revelation which he received through a dream (Job 4:12-16): "an elusive word [stole] past, quiet like a whisper",[5] and after a silence he heard a voice saying:Can mankind be just before God?

[8] Eliphaz refers to the content of his dream again for emphasis in Job 15:14–16:If God puts no trust in His saints, And the heavens are not pure in His sight, How much less man, who is abominable and filthy, Who drinks iniquity like water!

Conventional wisdom told Eliphaz that God should immediately punish the wicked as that would be the just thing to do.