Eliphaz shares a mysterious nighttime encounter concerning divine providence and the justice of God's actions in the world. Through this experience, he reveals how divine messages reach humanity while openly acknowledging the limits of human understanding.
The primary approach among commentators is that this prophetic vision arrived in absolute secrecy, swiftly and hidden from plain view [רלב״ג, אבן עזרא]. It appeared in silence, much like a thief operating quietly in the dark [תקות אנוש], or like a brief flash of lightning that illuminates the night sky for only a second before vanishing completely [מלבי״ם]. A significant number of commentators view this stealthy arrival as a reflection of the fundamental difference between the prophets of the nations, such as Eliphaz, and the prophets of Israel. While the prophets of Israel receive God's word directly and openly from a source of holiness, the prophets of the nations receive their visions through indirect, winding paths, as if the message was snatched from heavenly sources by impure forces [מצודת דוד, חומת אנך, אלשיך]. This dynamic is compared to a king who visits his wife openly in public, but visits his concubine in secret [רש״י].
Because of the indirect nature of this revelation, Eliphaz admits that he could only catch a tiny fraction of the message. He was unable to absorb the complete vision, walking away with just a small fragment of understanding [רש״י, רלב״ג, שטיינזלץ]. The message came to him as a riddle or a dream mixed with imagination, resulting in a strictly partial grasp of the truth [מלבי״ם, תקות אנוש]. Furthermore, this limitation was not merely about the amount of information he received, but its quality. His physical senses were simply incapable of containing the most exalted and refined aspects of God's word [אבן עזרא].
By openly admitting the incomplete nature of his vision, Eliphaz attempts to build trust. He does not claim to possess absolute knowledge, hoping this humility will encourage Job to listen rather than dismiss his words as a fabrication [אלשיך]. Yet, the small fragment he did manage to grasp contained a vital hint regarding the suffering of righteous people. It offered a brief but deeply meaningful realization that God acts with perfect justice, even when His ways remain completely hidden from human eyes [רמב״ן, מלבי״ם].