King James Bible
"Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?"
Eliphaz begins his argument with a rhetorical appeal to Job's memory and experience. The formal "I pray thee" softens his confrontational logic while establishing his claim as supposedly self-evident wisdom. This rhetorical question asserts that innocent people never face destruction—a cornerstone of ancient retribution theology. Eliphaz implies Job must have sinned since he suffers, revealing the friends' flawed assumption that all suffering stems from personal wrongdoing. The parallel question reinforces the first, claiming the righteous are never destroyed or removed from life prematurely. This simplistic cause-and-effect worldview will be challenged throughout Job as inadequate for explaining complex human suffering.