2 If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?
2 "If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking?
2 "If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? Yet who can keep from speaking?
2 "Would you mind if I said something to you? Under the circumstances it's hard to keep quiet.
2 "If one attempts a word with you, will you become weary? But who can withhold himself from speaking?
2 "Will you be patient and let me say a word? For who could keep from speaking out?
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 4:2
Commentary on Job 4:1-6
(Read Job 4:1-6)
Satan undertook to prove Job a hypocrite by afflicting him; and his friends concluded him to be one because he was so afflicted, and showed impatience. This we must keep in mind if we would understand what passed. Eliphaz speaks of Job, and his afflicted condition, with tenderness; but charges him with weakness and faint-heartedness. Men make few allowances for those who have taught others. Even pious friends will count that only a touch which we feel as a wound. Learn from hence to draw off the mind of a sufferer from brooding over the affliction, to look at the God of mercies in the affliction. And how can this be done so well as by looking to Christ Jesus, in whose unequalled sorrows every child of God soonest learns to forget his own?