Job 5:18

For He wounds, but He also binds; He strikes, but His hands also heal.

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — Eliphaz, the first of Job's three friends, addresses Job after Job's curse of the day of his birth (Job 3). He argues that God's discipline is a mark of blessing, not rejection.

The words — The verse shifts from singular "He" (hu') to plural "his hands" (yadav), making the healing concrete and physical. תִּרְפֶּֽינָה (tir.Pei.nah, "they heal") draws on the root רפָּא (rapha), the standard Hebrew term for healing.

The thread — Deuteronomy 32:39 is the closest parallel: "I wound and I heal, and there is no one." Hosea 6:1 repeats the wound-and-bind formula almost verbatim; Psalm 147:3 adds the binding-up of wounds.

Why it lands — It asks the reader to stop reading suffering as God's absence and start reading it as His presence in a different mode. But the reader should note this is a friend's inference, not God's own word — Job will reject the premise.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

כִּ֤יkifor ה֣וּאhu'he יַכְאִ֣יבyakh.'Ivhe causes pain וְיֶחְבָּ֑שׁve./yech.Bashand/ he may bind up יִ֝מְחַ֗ץyim.Chatzhe shatters וְיָדָ֥יוve./ya.do/vand/ hands/ his תִּרְפֶּֽינָה׃tir.Pei.nahthey heal

King James Version

For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.

Cross-references

Hosea 6:1 Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.
Deuteronomy 32:39 See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.
Psalms 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
Isaiah 30:26 The light of the moon will be as bright as the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter—like the light of seven days—on the day that the LORD binds up the brokenness of His people and heals the wounds He has inflicted.
1 Samuel 2:6 The LORD brings death and gives life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up.