Matthew Poole and continuators on Job 42:7

7. And it was so that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite , My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends , for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath .

As the Eldest of the three, and because he spoke first and by his evil example le[illegible: 1+ letters] the rest into the same mistakes and miscarriages.

To wit. Bildad and Zophar, who are not excused but severely reproved, although they were drawn into the sin by Eliphaz his authority and influence. Elihu is not here reproved, because he dealt more justly and mercifully with Iob, and did not condemn his Person, but onely rebuke his sinful expressions.

Either, 1. as Iob hath now spoken: you have not acknowledged your errours as he hath done. Or rather, 2. as Iob did in his discourses with you. Which is not to be understood simply and absolutely (as is manifest from God's censure upon Iob for his hard and evil speeches of him) but comparatively; because Iob was not so much to be blamed as they, partly because his opinion concerning the methods of God's Providence, and the indifferency, and promiscuousness of its dispensations towards good and bad men was truer than theirs, which was that God did generally reward good men and punish sinners in this Life: partly because their misbelief of God's counsels and dealings with men was attended with horrid uncharitableness and cruelty towards Iob, whom they wounded with bitter and injurious speeches, and condemned as an Hypocrite, not onely without sufficient evidence as not being able to search his Heart, but upon false and frivolous grounds, to wit, his sore afflictions, and against many evidences of Piety which Iob had given: and partly because Iob's heavy pressures might easily cloud and darken his mind and draw forth his impatience and passionate speeches; which although it did not wholly excuse Iob, yet did certainly much extenuate his offences; whereas they were under no such temptations or provocations either from God or from Iob, but voluntarily broke forth into their hard, and severe, and untrue expressions concerning God's counsels and Iob's conditions, thereby adding affliction to him whom God did so sorely afflict, which was most unfriendly and inhumane.