This is what Eliphaz heard the spirit say. We know that the real answer to these questions is: Yes! God himself testified of Job’s righteousness (Job 1:8; Job 2:3). Scripture also tells of many other people who, by God’s grace and through faith, lived righteous lives before him.
These questions cast a shadow of doubt over the possibility of righteousness. Eliphaz will continue on this wrong track. What we find in Job 4:18–21 is possibly Eliphaz’s own interpretation of the words that he heard the spirit say.
17 ‘Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?