Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Job 5:17 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 17. 17Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Job 5:17 opens the thought unit with the words “Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty.” Eliphaz presents divine correction as happy within a promise of complete safety that the book will test.
Read It With
- Job 5:17–5:27
Read Job 5:17 with 5:17–5:27. Read alone, “Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty” could lose its speaker, the question or claim it develops, and the unit's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Eliphaz calls divine correction happy and promises rescue, protection, peace, descendants, and long life if Job receives it.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Eliphaz continues from Job 5:6–5:16: Eliphaz says trouble belongs to mortal life and praises God's unsearchable works, rain, reversal of schemes, defense of the poor, and hope for the needy. Job 5:17–5:27 now develops the next distinct movement: Eliphaz calls divine correction happy and promises rescue, protection, peace, descendants, and long life if Job receives it. Within that relationship, Job 5:17 opens the thought unit through “Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty.”
Read Job 5:17–27 together
Why these verses belong together: Job 5:17–5:27 follows the pinned KJV paragraphing and holds together one sustained speech movement: “Eliphaz Promises Discipline Followed by Complete Safety.” The next unit begins with a new stanza, question sequence, scene, speaker response, or rhetorical turn.
Verse 17. 17 Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:
Verse 18. 18 For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.
Verse 19. 19 He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.
Verse 20. 20 In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword.
Verse 21. 21 Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.
Verse 22. 22 At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
Verse 23. 23 For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.
Verse 24. 24 And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin.
Verse 25. 25 Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great, and thine offspring as the grass of the earth.
Verse 26. 26 Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.
Verse 27. 27 Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good.
Follow the Context
- Identify Eliphaz's stated claim in Job 5:17–5:27.
- Eliphaz calls divine correction happy and promises rescue, protection, peace, descendants, and long life if Job receives it.
- Keep this interpretive control visible: The speech's sevenfold security is Eliphaz's counsel, not a narrator guarantee of wealth, health, children, or longevity; it must not blame sufferers who are not restored.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Job 5:17 does not permit “Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty” to be detached from its named speaker and complete thought unit. Job 5:17 does not prove that every affliction is divine correction or guarantee healing after compliance.
What Remains True
Eliphaz names correction as a possible good but wrongly applies his disciplinary scheme to Job's causeless suffering. Job 5:17 keeps that conclusion accountable to the line “Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty.”
How It Can Shape Life
- Distinguish accountable correction supported by evidence from a theory imposed on pain; never withhold care because suffering is presumed disciplinary. Keep the selected wording “Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty” and Job 5:17–5:27's complete movement visible while acting.
Teach It Back
Explain why Job 5:17 opens the thought unit. Paraphrase “Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty,” identify Eliphaz, use 5:17–5:27, state one material uncertainty when present, and reject one conclusion this verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Job 5:17–5:27 — Eliphaz Promises Discipline Followed by Complete SafetySources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Job 5:17–5:27, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 5:17–5:27
Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Job
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006; current official PDF
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 5:17–5:27.
Exact location: Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 5:17–5:27
Open the official NET Job PDF ↗modern scholarly book course
Job course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Daniel J. Simundson and Kathryn Schifferdecker
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, current online edition inspected 2026
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Job course, Outline and passage studies: lament and first dialogue cycle; applied to Job 5:17–5:27
Open the Enter the Bible Job course ↗peer reviewed open access literary and theological article
A Matter of Justice: The Openness of the Book of Job
Hans Ausloos
Old Testament Essays 36.1, 2023
Supports: Polyphony, retribution critique, justice, Job's response, divine verdict, and the book's interpretive openness.
Exact location: Ausloos, 'A Matter of Justice,' OTE 36.1 (2023), pp. 151-165, poetic dialogue, protest, retribution, and polyphony; applied to Job 5:17–5:27
Open Ausloos on Job and justice ↗