Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
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Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
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Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
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Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said:
Cross-references (5)
Passages linked to Job 15:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Job 2:11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him.
- Job 42:7 It was so, that after Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.
- Job 4:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
- Job 22:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
- Job 42:9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did what Yahweh commanded them, and Yahweh accepted Job.
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 15:1 Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
Job 15:1 Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
Ver. 1. Then answered Eliphaz, the Temanite, and said] Lapides locutus est. In this second encounter Eliphaz falls upon Job, not so much with stronger arguments as with harder words; reproving him sharply, or rather reproaching him bitterly, Facundia quadam canina, with more eloquence than charity. So hard a thing is it, saith Beza, especially in disputing and reasoning, to avoid self-love, as even in these times experience daily teacheth us. He hinteth, I suppose, at the public conference between himself and Jacobus Andreas at Mompelgard, whereby the strife was rather stirred than stinted, as Thuanus complaineth (Lib. 35, Hist.); or else at the disputation at Possiacum, wherein Beza, speaker for the Protestant party (before the queen mother of France, the young King Charles, and many princes of the blood), entering into the matter of the Eucharist, spake with such heat (unless the historian wrongs him), that he gave but ill satisfaction to those of his own side, so that he was commanded to conclude. Such meetings are seldom successful, saith Luther, because men come with confidence and wit for victory rather than verity. In this reply of Eliphaz to Job we may see what an evil thing it is to be carried away with prejudice and pertinance, which make a man forget all modesty, and fall foul upon his best friends. Here is enough said to have driven this sorrowfull man into utter despair, had not God upheld his spirit, while he is fiercely charged for a wicked man, and hated of God; neither doth any of his friends henceforth afford him one exhortation to repentance, or one comfortable promise, as Lavater well observeth, Non affert ullam consolationem, non invitat eum ad poenitentiam; sed potius ad desperationem compellat.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Eliphaz here falls very foul upon Job, because he…
Eliphaz here falls very foul upon Job, because he contradicted what he and his colleagues had said, and did not acquiesce in it and applaud it, as they expected. Proud people are apt thus to take it very much amiss if they may not have leave to dictate and give law to all about them, and to censure those as ignorant and obstinate, and all that is naught, who cannot in every thing say as they say. Several great crimes Eliphaz here charges Job with, only because he would not own himself a hypocrite.
I. He charges him with folly and absurdity (Job 15:2, Job 15:3), that, whereas he had been reputed a wise man, he had now quite forfeited his reputation; any one would say that his wisdom had departed from him, he talked so extravagantly and so little to the purpose. Bildad began thus (Job 8:2), and Zophar, Job 11:2, Job 11:3. It is common for angry disputants thus to represent one another's reasonings as impertinent and ridiculous more than there is cause, forgetting the doom of him that calls his brother Raca, and Thou fool. It is true, 1. That there is in the world a great deal of vain knowledge, science falsely so called, that is useless, and therefore worthless. 2. That this is the knowledge that puffs up, with which men swell in a fond conceit of their own accomplishments. 3. That, whatever vain knowledge a man may have in his head, if he would be thought a wise man he must not utter it, but let it die with himself as it deserves. 4. Unprofitable talk is evil talk. We must give an account in the great day not only for wicked words, but for idle words. Speeches therefore which do no good, which do no service either to God or our neighbour, or no justice to ourselves, which are no way to the use of edifying, were better unspoken. Those words which are as wind, light and empty, especially which are as the east wind, hurtful and pernicious, it will be pernicious to fill either ourselves or others with, for they will pass very ill in the account. 5. Vain knowledge or unprofitable talk ought to be reproved and checked, especially in a wise man, whom it worst becomes and who does most hurt by the bad example of it.
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II. He charges him with impiety and irreligion (Job 15:4): "Thou castest off fear," that is, "the fear of God, and that regard to him which thou shouldst have; and then thou restrainest prayer." See what religion is summed up in, fearing God and praying to him, the former the most needful principle, the latter the most needful practice. Where no fear of God is no good is to be expected; and those who live without prayer certainly live without God in the world. Those who restrain prayer do thereby give evidence that they cast off fear. Surely those have no reverence of God's majesty, no dread of his wrath, and are in no care about their souls and eternity, who make no applications to God for his grace. Those who are prayerless are fearless and graceless. When the fear of God is cast off all sin is let in and a door opened to all manner of profaneness. It is especially bad with those who have had some fear of God, but have now cast it off - have been frequent in prayer, but now restrain it. How have they fallen! How is their first love lost! It denotes a kind of force put upon themselves. The fear of God would cleave to them, but they throw it off; prayer would be uttered, but they restrain it; and, in both, they baffle their convictions. Those who either omit prayer or straiten and abridge themselves in it, quenching the spirit of adoption and denying themselves the liberty they might take in the duty, restrain prayer. This is bad enough, but it is worse to restrain others from prayer, to prohibit and discourage prayer, as Darius, Dan 6:7. Now,
1. Eliphaz charges this upon Job, either, (1.) As that which was his own practice. He thought that Job talked of God with such liberty as if he had been his equal, and that he charged him so vehemently with hard usage of him, and challenged him so often to a fair trial, that he had quite thrown off all religious regard to him. This charge was utterly false, and yet wanted not some colour. We ought not only to take care that we keep up prayer and the fear of God, but that we never drop any unwary expressions which may give occasion to those who seek occasion to question our sincerity and constancy in religion. Or, (2.) As that which others would infer from the doctrine he maintained. "If this be true" (thinks Eliphaz) "which Job says, that a man may be thus sorely afflicted and yet be a good man, then farewell all religion, farewell prayer and the fear of God. If all things come alike to all, and the best men may have the worst treatment in this world, every one will be ready to say, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it to keep his ordinances? Mal 3:14. Verily I have cleansed my hands in vain, Psa 73:13, Psa 73:14. Who will be honest if the tabernacles of robbers prosper? Job 12:6. If there be no forgiveness with God (Job 7:21), who will fear him? Psa 130:4. If he laugh at the trial of the innocent (Job 9:23), if he be so difficult of access (Job 9:32), who will pray to him?" Note, It is a piece of injustice which even wise and good men are too often guilty of, in the heat of disputation, to charge upon their adversaries those consequences of their opinions which are not fairly drawn from them and which really they abhor. This is not doing as we would be done by.
2. Upon this strained innuendo Eliphaz grounds that high charge of impiety (Job 15:5): Thy mouth utters thy iniquity - teaches it, so the word is. "Thou teachest others to have the same hard thoughts of God and religion that thou thyself hast." It is bad to break even the least of the commandments, but worse to teach men so, Mat 5:19. If we ever thought evil, let us lay our hand upon our mouth to suppress the evil thought (Pro 30:32), and let us by no means utter it; that is putting an imprimatur to it, publishing it with allowance, to the dishonour of God and the damage of others. Observe, When men have cast off fear and prayer their mouths utter iniquity. Those that cease to do good soon learn to do evil. What can we expect but all manner of iniquity from those that arm not themselves with the grace of God against it? But thou choosest the tongue of the crafty, that is, "Thou utterest thy iniquity with some show and pretence of piety, mixing some good words with the bad, as tradesmen do with their wares to help them off." The mouth of iniquity could not do so much mischief as it does without the tongue of the crafty. The serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. See Rom 16:18. The tongue of the crafty speaks with design and deliberation; and therefore those that use it may be said to choose it, as that which will serve their purpose better than the tongue of the upright: but it will be found, at last, that honesty is the best policy. Eliphaz, in his first discourse, had proceeded against Job upon mere surmise (Job 4:6, Job 4:7), but now he has got proof against him from his own discourses (Job 15:6): Thy own mouth condemns thee, and not I. But he should have considered that he and his fellows had provoked him to say that which now they took advantage of; and that was not fair. Those are most effectually condemned that are condemned by themselves, Tit 3:11; Luk 19:22. Many a man needs no more to sink him than for his own tongue to fall upon him.
III. He charges him with intolerable arrogancy and self-conceitedness. It was a just, and reasonable, and modest demand that Job had made (Job 12:3), Allow that I have understanding as well as you; but see how they seek occasion against him: that is misconstrued, as if he pretended to be wiser than any man. Because he will not grant to them the monopoly of wisdom, they will have it thought that he claims it to himself, Job 15:7-9. As if he thought he had the advantage of all mankind, 1. In length of acquaintance with the world, which furnishes men with so much the more experience: "Art thou the first man that was born; and, consequently, senior to us, and better able to give the sense of antiquity and the judgment of the first and earliest, the wisest and purest, ages? Art thou prior to Adam?" So it may be read. "Did not he suffer for sin; and yet wilt not thou, who art so great a sufferer, own thyself a sinner? Wast thou made before the hills, as Wisdom herself was? Pro 8:23, etc. Must God's counsels, which are as the great mountains (Psa 36:6), and immovable as the everlasting hills, be subject to thy notions and bow to them? Dost thou know more of the world than any of us do? No, thou art but of yesterday even as we are," Job 8:9. Or, 2. In intimacy of acquaintance with God (Job 15:8): "Hast thou heard the secret of God? Dost thou pretend to be of the cabinet-council of heaven, that thou canst give better reasons than others can for God's proceedings?" There are secret things of God, which belong not to us, and which therefore we must not pretend to account for. Those are daringly presumptuous who do. He also represents him, (1.) As assuming to himself such knowledge as none else had: "Dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself, as if none were wise besides?" Job had said (Job 13:2), What you know, the same do I know also; and now they return upon him, according to the usage of eager disputants, who think they have a privilege to commend themselves: What knowest thou that we know not? How natural are such replies as these in the heat of argument! But how simple do they look afterwards, upon the review! (2.) As opposing the stream of antiquity, a venerable name, under the shade of which all contending parties strive to shelter themselves: "With us are the gray-headed and very aged men, Job 15:10. We have the fathers on our side; all the ancient doctors of the church are of our opinion." A thing soon said, but not so soon proved; and, when proved, truth is not so soon discovered and proved by it as most people imagine. David preferred right scripture-knowledge before that of antiquity (Psa 119:100): I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. Or perhaps one or more, if not all three, of these friends of Job, were older than he (Job 32:6), and therefore they thought he was bound to acknowledge them to be in the right. This also serves contenders to make a noise with to very little purpose. If they are older than their adversaries, and can say they knew such a thing before their opponents were born, this will not serve to justify them in being arrogant and overbearing; for the oldest are not always the wisest, Job 32:9.
IV. He charges him with a contempt of the counsels and comforts that were given him by his friends (Job 15:11): Are the consolations of God small with thee? 1. Eliphaz takes it ill that Job did not value the comforts which he and his friends administered to him more than it seems he did, and did not welcome every word they said as true and important. It is true they had said some very good things, but, in their application to Job, they were miserable comforters. Note, We are apt to think that great and considerable which we ourselves say, when others perhaps with good reason think it small and trifling. Paul found that those who seemed to be somewhat, yet, in conference, added nothing to him, Gal 2:6. 2. He represents this as a slight put upon divine consolations in general, as if they were of small account with him, whereas really they were not. If he had not highly valued them, he could not have borne up as he did under his sufferings. Note, (1.) The consolations of God are not in themselves small. Divine comforts are great things, that is, the comfort which is from God, especially the comfort which is in God. (2.) The consolations of God not being small in themselves, it is very lamentable if they be small with us. It is a great affront to God, and an evidence of a degenerate depraved mind, to disesteem and undervalue spiritual delights and despise the pleasant land. "What!" (says Eliphaz) "is there any secret thing with thee? Hast thou some cordial to support thyself with, that is a proprium, an arcanum, that nobody else can pretend to, or knows any thing of?" Or, "Is there some secret sin harboured and indulged in thy bosom, which hinders the operation of divine comforts?" None disesteem divine comforts but those that secretly affect the world and the flesh.
V. He charges him with opposition to God himself and to religion (Job 15:12, Job 15:13): "Why doth thy heart carry thee away into such indecent irreligious expressions?" Note, Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, Jam 1:14. if we fly off from God and our duty, or fly out into anything amiss, it is our own heart that carries us away. If thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it. There is a violence, an ungovernable impetus, in the turnings of the soul; the corrupt heart carries men away, as it were, by force, against their convictions. "What is it that thy eyes wink at? Why so careless and mindless of what is said to thee, hearing it as if thou wert half asleep? Why so scornful, disdaining what we say, as if it were below thee to take notice of it? What have we said that deserves to be thus slighted - nay, that thou turnest thy spirit against God?" It was bad that his heart was carried away from God, but much worse that it was turned against God. But those that forsake God will soon break out in open enmity to him. But how did this appear? Why, "Thou lettest such words go out of thy mouth, reflecting on God, and his justice and goodness." It is the character of the wicked that they set their mouth against the heavens (Psa 73:9), which is a certain indication that the spirit is turned against God. He thought Job's spirit was soured against God, and so turned from what it had been, and exasperated at his dealings with him. Eliphaz wanted candour and charity, else he would not have put such a harsh construction upon the speeches of one that had such a settled reputation for piety and was now in temptation. This was, in effect, to give the cause on Satan's side, and to own that Job had done as Satan said he would, had cursed God to his face.
VI. He charges him with justifying himself to such a degree as even to deny his share in the common corruption and pollution of the human nature (Job 15:14): What is man, that he should be clean? that is, that he should pretend to be so, or that any should expect to find him so. What is he that is born of a woman, a sinful woman, that he should be righteous? Note, 1. Righteousness is cleanness; it makes us acceptable to God and easy to ourselves, Psa 18:24. 2. Man, in his fallen state, cannot pretend to be clean and righteous before God, either to acquit himself to God's justice or recommend himself to his favour. 3. He is to be adjudged unclean and unrighteous because born of a woman, from whom he derives a corrupt nature, which is both his guilt and his pollution. With these plain truths Eliphaz thinks to convince Job, whereas he had just now said the same (Job 14:4): Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? But does it therefore follow that Job is a hypocrite, and a wicked man, which is all that he denied? By no means. Though man, as born of a woman, is not clean, yet, as born again of the Spirit, he is clean. 4. Further to evince this he here shows, (1.) That the brightest creatures are imperfect and impure before God, Job 15:15. God places no confidence in saints and angels; he employs both, but trusts neither with his service, without giving them fresh supplies of strength and wisdom for it, as knowing they are not sufficient of themselves, neither more nor better than his grace makes them. He takes no complacency in the heavens themselves. How pure soever they seem to us, in his eye they have many a speck and many a flaw: The heavens are not clean in his sight. If the stars (says Mr. Caryl) have no light in the sight of the sun, what light has the sun in the sight of God! See Isa 24:23. (2.) That man is much more so (Job 15:16): How much more abominable and filthy is man! If saints are not to be trusted, much less sinners. If the heavens are not pure, which are as God made them, much less man, who is degenerated. Nay, he is abominable and filthy in the sight of God, and if ever he repent he is so in his own sight, and therefore he abhors himself. Sin is an odious thing, it makes men hateful. The body of sin is so, and is therefore called a dead body, a loathsome thing. Is it not a filthy thing, and enough to make any one sick, to see a man eating swine's food or drinking some nauseous and offensive stuff? Such is the filthiness of man that he drinks iniquity (that abominable thing which the Lord hates) as greedily, and with as much pleasure, as a man drinks water when he is thirsty. It is his constant drink; it is natural to sinners to commit iniquity. It gratifies, but does not satisfy, the appetites of the old man. It is like water to a man in a dropsy. The more men sin the more they would sin.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite,.... Or, who was of…
Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite,.... Or, who was of Teman, as the Targum, the first of Job's friends and comforters, the oldest of them, who first began the dispute with him; which was carried on by his two other companions, who had spoken in their turns; and now in course it fell to him to answer a second time, as he here does,
and said,
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as follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Eliphaz reproves Job for justifying himself, ver. 1-13. Persuades…
Eliphaz reproves Job for justifying himself, ver. 1-13. Persuades him to humble himself before God, ver. 14-16. Describes the misery of wicked men, ver. 17-35.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Eliphaz charges Job with impiety in attempting to justify
CHAPTER XV
Eliphaz charges Job with impiety in attempting to justify
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himself, 1-13;
asserts the utter corruption and abominable state of man, 14-16;
and, from his own knowledge and the observations of the
ancients, shows the desolation to which the wicked are exposed,
and insinuates that Job has such calamities to dread, 17-35.
NOTES ON CHAP. XV
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Job 15:1. Then answered Eliphaz — Eliphaz, not a…
Job 15:1. Then answered Eliphaz — Eliphaz, not a little incensed that Job should pay no regard to his advice, and should dare to challenge the Almighty to argue the point with him, charges him home with self-conceit in entertaining too high an opinion of his own knowledge; with arrogance in undervaluing the arguments drawn from their experience, whose age was a sufficient voucher for their wisdom; and with impiety, in thus rudely challenging the Almighty to answer for his conduct in afflicting him. He presses home the same argument upon him a second time, to which he adds that of universal tradition; insinuating, that he had yet worse to expect unless he prevented it by a contrary conduct: and then presents him with a picture of the final state of a wicked man; in which he so works up the circumstances as to make it resemble Job and his condition as much as possible; intimating thereby, that he imagined him to be that very wicked man he had been describing, and that he had by that means drawn down God’s judgments on himself: that, therefore, his imaginations of innocence were an illusion; but one, however, of the worst kind; he had deceived himself. — Heath.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Job 15-21
SECOND SERIES OF THE CONTROVERSIAL DISCOURSES
THE ENTANGLEMENT INCREASING:
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Job 15-21
I. Eliphaz and Job 15-17
A.—Eliphaz: God’s punitive justice is revealed only against evil-doers
Job 15
1. Recital in the way of rebuke of all in Job’s discourses that is perverted, and that bears testimony against his innocence:
Job_15:1-19
1 Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
2 Should a wise man utter vain knowledge,
and fill his belly with the East wind?
3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk?
or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?
4 Yea, thou castest off fear,
and restrainest prayer before God.
5 For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity,
and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
6 Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I:
yea, thine own lips testify against thee.
7 Art thou the first man that was born?
or wast thou made before the hills?
8 Hast thou heard the secret of God?
and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?
9 What knowest thou that we know not?
what understandest thou, which is not in us?
10 With us are both the gray-headed and very aged men,
much elder than thy father.
11 Are the consolations of God small with thee?
is there any secret thing with thee?
12 Why doth thine heart carry thee away,
and what do thy eyes wink at,
13 that thou turnest thy spirit against God,
and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?
14 What is man, that he should be clean?
and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15 Behold He putteth no trust in His saints;
yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight.
16 How much more abominable and filthy is man,
which drinketh iniquity like water?
17 I will show thee, hear me;
and that which I have seen I will declare;
18 which wise men have told—
from their fathers—and have not hid it:
19 unto whom alone the earth was given,
and no stranger passed among them.
2. A didactic admonition on the subject of the retributive justice of God in the destiny of the ungodly
Job_15:20-35
20 The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days,
and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.
21 A dreadful sound is in his ears:
in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
22 He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness,
and he is waited for of the sword.
23 He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it?
he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
24 Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid;
they shall prevail against him as a king ready to the battle.
25 For he stretcheth out his hand against God,
and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty:
26 he runneth upon him, even on his neck,
upon the thick bosses of his bucklers;
27 because he covereth his face with his fatness,
and maketh collops of fat on his flanks:
28 and he dwelleth in desolate cities,
and in houses which no man inhabiteth,
which are ready to become heaps.
29 He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue,
neither, shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth.
30 He shall not depart out of darkness;
the flame shall dry up his branches,
and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.
31 Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity,
for vanity shall be his recompense.
32 It shall be accomplished before his time,
and his branch shall not be green.
33 He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine,
and shall cast off his flower as the olive.
34 For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate,
and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.
35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity,
and their belly prepareth deceit.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
This second discourse of Eliphaz is again the longest of the attacks made on Job by his three opponents in this second series or act. Not only by its length, but also by its confident, impassioned tone, it gives evidence of being a deliverance of opinion by the oldest and most distinguished of the three, in short by their leader. Apart from certain indications of increased violence, however, it adds nothing at all that is new to that which had been previously maintained by Eliphaz against Job. Its first principal division (Job_15:2-19) subjects that which was erroneous in Job’s discourses to the same rigid criticism and censure, which culminates in a renewed and more emphatic application to Job of the doctrine advocated in the former discourse, of the impurity of all before God (Job_15:14-19; comp. Job_4:17 seq.). The second division (Job_15:20-35) is occupied with a prolonged dissertation on the destiny of the ungodly, as an example repeating itself in accordance with God’s righteous decree, and full of warning for Job. The first division comprises three strophes of five verses each, together with a shorter group of three verses (Job_15:17-19), which forms the transition to the following division. The latter consists of three strophes, of which the middle one numbers six verses, the first and last each five.
2. First Division: Censuring the perversity of Job in his discourses, and pointing out the evidences which they gave of his guilt; Job_15:2-19.
First Strophe: Introduction [Job’s discourses disprove his wisdom, injure religion, and testify against himself] Job_15:2-6.
Job_15:2. Doth a wise man utter [or, answer with] windy knowledge?—[Eliphaz begins each one of his three discourses with a question]. Job had clearly enough set himself forth as a Wise Man, Job_12:3; Job_13:2. Hence this ironical contrast between this self-praise and the “windy” nature (comp. Job_8:2; Job_16:3) of that which he really knew.—And fill his breast [sein Inneres, his inward parts] with the stormy East wind?—So Delitzsch, whose translation is to be preferred on the score of taste to the more common and literal version: “and fill his belly with the East wind?” even if we grant that בֶּטֶן is not, without further qualification, synonymous with לֵב, and consequently not to be taken as a mere designation of the “thinking inner part” of man (although in favor of this application of it, as maintained by Delitzsch, we might cite, if not Job_15:35 of this chapter, at least Job_32:18 seq.). In any case קָדִים, “East wind,” is here (as well as in Hos_12:2 [1] a stronger synonym of רוּחַ, “wind,” and so describes the violence, or the ceaseless noisy bluster and roar of Job’s discourses; and the “belly,” or the inward part, which must take into itself such discourses and labor for their refutation, appears as though it were a sail, or tent-canvas inflated by a heavy storm!
Job_15:3. An explanatory clause subordinate to the preceding interrogative clause:—Arguing with speech which availeth nought, and with words by which one can do no good.—The Inf. Absol. הוֹכֵחַ can be taken neither as an interrogative finite verb (Hirzel, Renan: se defend il-par des vaines paroles? [“for though the Inf. Absol. is so used in a historical clause (Job_15:35) it is not in interrogative.” Del.]), nor as the subject (Ewald: “to reprove with words profiteth not,” etc.—as if this useless striving with words were opposed to a more efficient contention by the use of facts) [which yields indeed, as Dillmann remarks, a good meaning, to wit, that mere words availed nothing for self-justification, when opposed by facts, as e. g. the fact of his suffering, which was presumptive evidence against him. But such a contrast is not expressed. The אַף of Job_15:4 does not at all express it]. Rather is it joined to the preceding finite verbs in the sense of an ablative gerund (redarguendo s. disputando); comp. Ewald, § 280, a.
Job_15:4. Yea more, thou [thyself] dost make void the fear of God. אַף, a strong copula, adding a new and more serious charge, like the phrase “over and above;” comp. Job_14:3. [אַתָּה, emphatic—“even thou,” who dost fancy thyself to be called on to remind us of the fear of God, Job_13:9 seq.] יִרְאָה, absolute, as in Job_4:6; הֵפֵר, “to remove, make void,” as in Job_5:12 [lit. to break, destroy; Rodwell: “thou dost break down piety”].—And diminishest (devout) meditation before God—שִׂיחָה לִפְנֵי־אֵל, according to Psa_102:1; Psa_119:97; Psa_119:99, the same with “devotion, pious prayerful reflection” [should not therefore be rendered “prayer,” although prayer is a prominent element in it. It includes the whole meditative side of piety, that over which a sanctified sentiment rules, as יראה includes the practical side, over which conscience rules. Eliphaz charges therefore that the tendency of Job’s speech and conduct is to undermine piety in its most important strongholds, to injure it in its most vital points.—E.]. In regard to the form שִׂיחָה [with feminine ending] see Job_3:4.—גָּרַע, detrahere, to derogate from, to prejudice [Fürst: to weaken, to lessen]; comp. below Job_15:8, where it conveys more the sense of “drawing to one’s-self” [reserving, attrahere], and Job_36:7, where it means “withdrawing.”
Job_15:5. For thy transgression teaches thy mouth: i. e., thou allowest thyself to be wholly influenced in what thou sayest by thy sin, thou showest thyself, even in thy words, to be entirely ruled by it. So correctly the Vulg., Raschi, Luther, Dillm. [Ewald, Schlottm.], for the probability is in favor of עֲוֹנְךָ, which stands first, being the subject of the sentence. Moreover, the rendering which has latterly become current (since Rosenm., Umbreit, Hirzel, etc.): “thy mouth teaches, i. e., exposes [E. V. ‘uttereth’] thine iniquity,” is at variance with the usual sense of אִלֵּף, which signifies “to teach, to instruct,” not “to show, to declare.” [To which Schlottmann adds that this rendering secures a better connection between the first and second members of the verse. It exhibits to us “in a manner alike original and suitable, the internal motive from which Job’s presumptuous and still crafty discourses proceed”].—And thou choosest the speech [lit. the tongue] of the crafty: (עֲרוּמִים essentially as in Job_5:12) i. e., thou doest as crafty offenders do, who, when accused, hypocritically set themselves forth as innocent, and indeed even take the offensive against their accusers, (as Job did in Job_13:4 seq.). [“The perverse heart teaches the guilty man presumptuously to assail God, and at the same time so to arrange his words that in appearance he is filled with the greatest zeal for the piety which he really undermines.” Schlott.] The rendering of Rosenm., Hirzel [Noyes, Conant, Carey], etc.” “while thou (although thou) choosest, etc.” is less satisfactory, and goes with the rendering of the first member, which is controverted above.
Job_15:6. Thy mouth condemns thee (see Job_9:20) and not I, and thy lips testify against thee.—The mouth is here personified as a judge pronouncing an unfavorable decision, declaring one guilty, while at the same time the lips figure as witnesses, or accusers (עָנָה בְּ, a vox forensis; for the masc. יַעֲנוּ בָךְ after the fem. שְׂפָתֶיּךָ comp. Pro_5:2; Pro_26:23). Comp. still further the New Testament parallel passage, Mat_12:37. [“These words, according to Eliphaz’s meaning, place Job’s guilt not merely in his words, but rather set forth these as confirming the sinful actions, which he is assumed to have committed on account of the sufferings which have been appointed for him.” Schlott.].
Second Strophe: Job_15:7-11. [Ironical questioning in regard to the extraordinary superiority which Job’s conduct implied that he arrogated to himself].
Job_15:7. Wast thou born as the first man? (רִאשׁוֹן [רְיִשׁוֹן׳׳ is the original form, which appears again in Jos_21:10, and is retained by the Samaritans; רִאשׁוֹן, instead of which we have in Job_8:8רִישׁוֹן, which has passed into general use, and is hence chosen by the K’ri.” Dillm.] in the constr. st. followed by the collective אָדָם; hence lit. “as first of men.—Delitzsch takes אָדָם as predicate nominative: “wast thou as the first one born as a man?” a rendering which is altogether too artificial. The question presupposes that the first-created man, by virtue of his having proceeded immediately from God’s hand, possessed the deepest insight into the mysteries of the Divine process of creation. Comp. the Adam Kadmon of the Kabbalists, the Kajomorts of the Avesta (πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος of the Manicheans), the Manu (i. e., “the thinking one”) of the Brahmanic legends of creation as well as the ironical proverb of the Hindûs: “Aye, aye, he is the first man, no wonder he is so wise!” (Roberts, Oriental Illustrations, p. 276). [“Eliphaz evidently gives in these two verses the conception of a First Man, (like the Manu of the Hindûs), possessed as such of the highest wisdom, a being who before the foundations of the earth were laid, was present, a listener, as it were, to the deliberations concerning creation in the council of God, and thus a partaker at least of creative wisdom (Job_28:23 seq.), without being identified with the Divine חכמה.” Dillm. “Many erroneously understand this expression as signifying simply the greatest antiquity, so that the sense would be: dost thou combine in thyself the wisdom of all the centuries, from the creation of the world on? This conception would be unsuitable for the reason that it would have no reality corresponding to it, the first man being conceived of as dead long since.” Schlott.].—And wast thou brought forth before the hills?—חוֹלַל, passive of חוֹלֵל “to whirl” [hence to writhe, be in pain, travail], Psa_90:2.—Precisely the same expression occurs in Pro_8:25 b, an utterance of God’s Eternal Wisdom, which is doubtless an intentional allusion to this passage. [So also Delitzsch.—Schlottmann, on the contrary, thinks it indisputable that this passage contains an allusion, if not to the passage in Proverbs, then to an original source common to both, so that the sense would be: “art thou the essential Divine Wisdom itself, through which God created the world?” The verse thus furnishes a pregnant and energetic progression of thought and expression. “Being born before the hills,” and “sitting in God’s council,” could not be taken as accidentia sine subjecto, which without having a real substratum, are sarcastically predicated of Job, but they must be regarded as inhering in a definite subject, with which Job is now compared, as immediately before he was compared with the first man; and this makes it necessary that we should think of the ante-mundane Wisdom described in Proverbs 8, which from an early period was brought into special relation to the first man. Ewald accordingly paraphrases Job_15:7-8 : “Thou, who wouldest be wiser than all other men, dost thou stand perchance at the head of humanity, like the Logos, the first alike in age, and in worth and nearness to God?”]
Job_15:8. Didst thou listen in the council of Eloah?—סוֹר, as in Jer_23:18; comp. Psa_89:8 [7]. [“Here God is represented in Oriental language as seated in a divan, or council of state, … and El. asks of Job whether he had been admitted to that council” Barnes.]—And dost thou keep back wisdom to thyself?חָכְמָה without the article, denoting the absolute divine wisdom; comp. Job_11:6; Job_12:2; Pro_8:1 seq. In regard to גרע, see above on Job_15:4. [Gesenius: “Dost thou reserve all wisdom to thyself?” like the Arabic, to absorb, drink up. Fürst: “to snatch away: hast thou purloined wisdom to thyself? i. e. captured it as a booty.”] The representation of the First Man, endowed with the highest wisdom, a witness of God’s activity in creating and ordering the world, still lies at the bottom of these questions. Comp. God’s questions at a later period to Job: Job_38:3 seq. [“Having obtained the secret of that council, art thou now keeping it wholly to thyself—as a prime minister might be supposed to keep the purposes resolved on in the divan?” Barnes.]
On Job_15:9 comp. Job_12:3; Job_13:2, to which self-conscious utterances of Job Eliphaz here replies.
Job_15:10. Both the gray-headed and the aged [hoary] are among us; or: “also among us are the gray-headed, are the aged;” for the גַּם is inverted, as in Job_2:10, and as in the parallel passages there cited. בָּנוּ is equivalent to: “in our generation, in our race.” We are to think, on the one side, of Job’s appeal to the aged men, to whom he owed his wisdom, Job_12:12; on the other side, of the proverbial wisdom of the “sons of the East,” to whom the three friends as well as Job belonged (1Ki_4:30), especially that of the Temanites; see above on Job_2:11. The supposition of Ewald, Hirzel, Dillmann, etc., that Eliphaz, “in modestly concealed language,” referred to himself, as the most aged of the three, has but little probability, for the statement: “there is also among us (three) a gray-headed, an aged man,” would in the mouth of El. himself have in it something exceedingly forced, if he had thereby meant himself; and the collective use of the sing. שָׂב and יָשִׂישׂ presents not the slightest grammatical difficulty. Still further, if El. had (according to b) declared himself “more abundant in days than Job’s father,” he would have said of himself that which would have been simply monstrous. The correct explanation is given among the moderns by Rosenm., Arnheim, Umbreit, Delitzsch. [“It will be seen (infra xviii. 3) that in the discussion carried on between Job and his friends, he is not always regarded as a single individual, but rather as the representative of the party whose views he holds, that of the philosophers, namely, who wish to understand and account for everything; while his friends, as the contrary, represent the orthodox party, whose principle it is to declare everything that comes from God good and right, whether it be comprehensible or incomprehensible to the human intellect. Hence the plural בְּעֵינֵיכֶם, in your eyes, used by Bildad (though speaking to Job alone), in the chapter alluded to, i. e. in the eyes of you philosophers. In like manner, in the verse before us El. says: Both gray-headed and very aged men are amongst us. Amongst us orthodox people.” Bernard.]
Job_15:11. Are the consolations of God (comp. Job_21:2) too little for thee (lit. are they less than thee—comp. Num_16:9; Isa_7:13)? [The irony of the question is severe: Too little for thee are the consolations of God? The words reveal at the same time the narrow self-complacency of the speaker, the consolations of God being such as he and the friends had sought to administer, for which El., however, claims a Divine value and efficacy.—E.], and a word so gentle with thee?i. e. a word which, like my former discourse, dealt with thee so tenderly and gently. On לָאַט, elsewhere לְאַט, lit. “for softness,” i. e. softly, gently [e. g.Isa_8:6 of the soft murmur and gentle flow of Siloah], comp. Ew. § 217, d; § 243, c. Eliphaz here identifies his former address to Job with a consolation and admonition proceeding from God himself; as in fact in delivering the same (see Job_4:12 seq.), he ascribed the principal contents of it to a Divine communication. In regard to the gentleness which he here claims for that former discourse, comp. especially Job_4:2; Job_5:8; Job_5:17 seq.
Third Strophe: Job_15:12-16. [Severe rebuke of Job’s presumptuous discontent, founded on man’s extreme sinfulness.]
Job_15:12. Why does thy heart carry thee away?לָקַח, auferre, abripere. [לֵב here for deep inward agitation, excitement of feeling (Delitzsch: “wounded pride”). Why dost thou allow the stormy discontent of thy bosom to transport thee beyond thyself?—E.]—And why twinkle thine eyes?רזם, ἅπ. λεγ. = Aram. and Arab. רמז, “to wink, to blink,” said here of the angry, excited snapping, or rolling of the eyes [referring, according to Renan, to such a manifestation of angry impatience with the hypocrisy of El. at this point of his discourse; and similarly Noyes: “why this winking of thine eyes?”]. Comp. Son_6:5 (according to the correct interpretation, see my remarks on the passage).
Job_15:13. Depending on the preceding verse: That thou turnest against God thy snorting. רוּחַ here meaning angry breathing, θυμός[“thus expressed because it manifests itself in πνέειν (Act_9:1), and has its rise in the πνεῦμα (Ecc_7:9).” Delitzsch], as in Jdg_8:3; Pro_16:32; Isa_25:4; comp. above Job_4:9.—And sendest forth words out of thy mouth?מִלִּין (comp. Job_4:2) as parallel with רוּחַ can mean here only vehement, intemperate speaking, passionate words, not empty speaking, as Kamphn. explains it.
Job_15:14 repeats the principal proposition of Eliphaz in his former discourse (Job_4:17-20), with an accompanying reminder of Job’s confession in Job_14:4, which was in substantial harmony therewith. On יְלוּר אִשָּׁה comp Job_14:1.
Job_15:15. Behold, in His holy ones He puts no trust. קְרשִׁים, the same as עבדים, Job_4:18, and hence used of the angels [see on Job_5:1].—And the heavens are not pure in His eyes. שָׁמַיִם is neither here, nor in Isa_49:13 (comp. Luk_15:18; Luk_15:21; Mat_21:25), to be taken as a synonym of מלאכים, or of אַנְגְלֵי מְרוֹמָא (Targ.), as many commentators explain from the Targumists down to Hirzel, Heiligst., Welte [Schlott., Carey, Ren.], etc. Rather, as the parallel passage in Job_25:5 incontestably shows, it designates the starry heavens, which are here contemplated in respect of their pure brilliancy, and their physical elevation above the impure earthly sphere. So correctly Umbreit, Delitzsch, Dillmann. [“In comparison with the all-transcending holiness and purity of God, the creatures which ethically and physically are the purest, are impure. How in the representations of antiquity ethical and physical purity and impurity are throughout used interchangeably is well enough known.” Dillmann.] The angels are indeed regarded as inhabiting the heavenly spheres, as is indisputably proved by the phrase עבא השמים (1Ki_22:19; Isa_24:21; Psa_148:2; comp. Gen_2:1), and the fact that the Holy Scriptures everywhere speak of angels and the starry heavens together. Comp. Del. on this passage and on Gen_2:1; Hengstenberg; Ewald, K.—Ztg., 1869; Preface, No. 3, 4; Zöckler: Die Urgeschichte der Erde und des Menschen (1868), p. 12 seq.; also below, on Job_38:7.
Job_15:16. Much less then (אַף כִּי, quanto minus, like אַף above in Job_4:19) the abominable and corrupt (נֶאֱלָח, lit. soured, one corrupted by the ζύμη κακίας, 1. Cor. Job_5:8, one “thoroughly corrupted,” Del.), the man who drinks iniquity like water, i. e. who is as eager to do iniquity, shows as much avidity for sin, as a thirsty man pants for water; comp. the repetition of this same figure by Elihu, also Psa_73:10; Pro_26:6; Sir_24:21. The whole description relates to the moral corruption of mankind generally, of which Eliphaz intentionally holds up before Job “a more hideous picture” (according to Oetinger) than the latter himself had given in Job_14:4, because he has in view the impurity, ill-desert, and need of repentance of Job himself. Comp. still further what he says Job_5:7 on the spark-like proneness of man to sin and its penalty.
Fourth Strophe: Job_15:17-19. Transition to the didactic discourse which follows in the form of a captatio benevolentiæ.
Job_15:17. I will inform thee (comp. Job_13:17), listen to me, and that which I have seen will I relate.—זֶה is neuter, as in Gen_6:15, or like הוּא above in Job_13:16, and זֶה־הָזִיתִי is a relative clause; comp. Ges. § 122 [§ 120], 2—חָזָה needs not (with Schlottm.) be understood in the sense of an ecstatic vision, of the prophetic sort, seeing that in Job_8:17; Job_23:9; Job_24:1; Job_27:12, etc., it denotes also the knowledge or experience of sensible things. Moreover, as Job_15:18 shows, Eliphaz makes a very definite distinction between that which is now to be communicated and a Divine revelation of whatever sort. [As Dillmann observes, that which is communicated by a direct revelation from God does not need to be supported by the wisdom of antiquity].
Job_15:18. That which wise men declare without concealment from their fathers.—This verse, which is an expression of the object of וַאֲסַפְּרָה, coördinate with זֶה־הָזִיתִי, is added without ו, because it is substantially identical with that which Eliphaz “had seen.” מֵאֲבוֹתָם belongs not to וְלֹא כִחֲרוּ (so the ancient versions, and Luther) but to the logically dominant verb יַגִּידוּ, which the וְלֹא כ׳ is subjoined as an adverbial qualification. “To declare and not to hide” is equivalent to a single notion, “to declare without deception,” precisely like Joh_1:20, ὁμολογεῖν καὶ οὐκ ἀγνε͂ισθαι.
Job_15:19. A more circumstantial description of אֲבוֹתָם:—To whom alone the land was given (to inhabit), and through the midst of whom no stranger had forced his way.—[Zöckler takes the verb עבר here not in the sense of a chance sojourning in a land, or traveling through it, but in the sense of a forcible intrusion, war gedrungen; a national amalgamation resulting from invasion. The language will include a foreign admixture from whatever source.—E.]. Seeing that הָאָרֶץ denotes here with much more probability “the land” rather than “the earth” (and so again in Job_22:8; Job_30:8), and that what is expressly spoken of is the non-intrusion of strangers (זָרִים), Sohlottmann’s view that the passage refers to the first patriarchs, “the nobler primitive generations of mankind,” who as yet inhabited the earth alone, is to be rejected. The reason why Eliphaz puts forward the purity of the generation of his forefathers as a guarantee of the soundness and credibility of their teachings is that “among ‘the sons of the East’ purity of race was from the earliest times considered as the sign of highest nobility” (Del.) [“The meaning is, ‘I will give you the result of the observations of the golden age of the world, when our fathers dwelt alone, and it could not be pretended that they had been corrupted by foreign philosophy; and when in morals and in sentiment they were pure.” Barnes. “Eliph.,” says Umbr., “speaks here like a genuine Arab.” The exclusiveness and dogmatic superciliousness which are to this day characteristic of Oriental nationalities are doubtless closely associated with the race-instinct which here finds expression. In proportion as a people, either from lack of courage, or from an effeminate love of luxury, or from a sordid love of gain prostrates itself to foreign influences, and carries the witness of its degradation in the impurity of its blood, it cannot, in the judgment of an oriental sage, produce, or transmit, pure and sound doctrine.—E.]. It is unnecessary herewith to assume that the age of Eliphaz, in contrast with the boasted age of the fathers, was a period of foreign domination, like the Assyrian-Chaldean period in the history of Israel (Ewald, Hirzell, Dillmann). Or granting that such a period is referred to—although we are under no necessity of understanding either זָר or עָבַר בְּתוֹכָם of warlike invasions—still nothing could be deduced from the passage in favor of the post-solomonic origin of our book: comp. on Job_12:24.
3. Second Division: An admonitory didactic discourse on the retributive justice of God as exhibited in the fate of the ungodly: Job_15:20-35. [“Now follows the doctrine of the wise men, which springs from a venerable primitive age, an age as yet undisturbed by any strange way of thinking (modern enlightenment and free thinking, as we should say), and is supported by Eliphaz’s own experience.” Delitzsch. “It is not so much the fact that the evil-doer receives his punishment, in favor of which Eliphaz appeals to the teaching handed down from the fathers, as rather the belief in it, consequently in a certain degree the dogma of a moral order in the world.” Wetzstein in Delitzsch].
First Strophe: Job_15:20-24. Description of the inward discontent and the restless pain of an earthly-minded and wicked man who defies God, and cares not for Him.
Job_15:20. So long as the wicked liveth, (lit., all the days of the wicked) he suffereth torment (מִתְחוֹלֵל, lit. he is writhing and twisting, viz., from pain), and so many years as are reserved for the oppressor [“which according to Job_15:32, are not very many,” Dillm.] (עָרִיץ, tyrant, one who commits outrageous violence, as in Job_27:13; Job_6:23; Psa_37:35; Isa_13:11, etc.). The second member, in which מִסְפַּר שָׁנִים is an [adverbial] accusative clause, and נִצְפְּנוּ לֶעָרִיץ a relative clause depending upon it, resumes the temporal clause, “all the days of the wicked,” which for the sake of emphasis stands at the beginning of the entire sentence. The LXX. renders differently: ἕτη δὲ ἀριθμητὰ δεδομένα δυνάστῃ; and similarly Delitzsch: “and a fixed number of years is reserved for the oppressor,” a rendering however which gives a much flatter thought than our exposition. Against the rendering of the Targ., Pesh., and Vulg. [also E. V.] “and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor,” it may be urged that in that case the reading must have been מִן הֶעָרִיץ. [Not necessarily.—לְ is often used as a sign of the dativus commodi. or incommodi, where we should expect מִן.—E. g., Mic_2:4אֵיךְ יָמִישׁ לִי, where the removal of the nation’s portion from it, is represented by the preposition לְ, because of the injurious consequences to it. So here the hiding of the number of the oppressor’s years from him is represented by לְ, because of the misery this causes to him. On the other hand it may be said in favor of this construction that it is much simpler and stronger, that it introduces an additional thought, such as the change of עריץ for רשׁע might lead us to expect (Del.), and that it is in entire harmony with the context. The central thought of the passage, the essential element of the oppressor’s misery is apprehension, anxiety, the premonition of his doom. How the darkness of this feature of the picture is deepened by this stroke—“the number of his years is laid up in darkness,” so that he knows not when, or whence, or how the blow will fall.—Furthermore the rendering “hidden” seems more suitable for נִצְפַּן than “reserved,” in the sense of “determined,” being more vivid, and more closely connected with the subjective character of the description. Even if we render it by “reserved,” the idea of “hidden” should be included.—E.].
Job_15:21 seq., describe more in detail the restless pain of soul, or the continual הִתְחוֹלֵל of the wicked. [It is doubtful whether the following description is to be limited to the evil-doer’s anxiety of spirit, or whether it includes the realization of his fears in the events of his life. On the whole Delitzsch decides, and apparently with reason, that as the real crisis is not introduced until further on, and is then fully described, the language in Job_15:21-24 is to be understood subjectively.—E.].
Job_15:21. Terrors (the plural פהדים only here) sound [lit.: the sound of terrors] in his ears; in (the midst of) peace the destroyers fall upon him; or, if we regard שׁוֹדֵר not as a collective, but as singular (comp. Job_12:6): “the destroyer falls upon him.” As to בּוֹא with the accus. in the sense of “coming upon any one,” comp. Job_20:22; Pro_28:22.
Job_15:22. He despairs (lit., he trusts not, he dares not) of returning out of the darkness (viz., of his misfortune, see Job_15:25; Job_15:30), and he is marked out for the sword. צָפוּ, the same with צָפוּי (which form is given by the K’ri and many MSS.) Part. pass, of צפה, signifies literally, “watched, spied out,” which yields a perfectly good sense, and makes both the middle rendering of the Participle, (“anxiously looking out for the sword”—so the Pesh. and Vulg.) and Ewald’s emendation to צָפוּן, seem superfluous.
Job_15:23. He wanders about for bread: “Ah where?” [i. e., shall I find it]? The meaning is obvious: in the midst of super-abundance he, the greedy miser, is tortured by anxieties concerning his food—a thought which the LXX. [also Wemyss and Merx], misunderstanding the short emphatic interrogative אַיֵה, “where” [for which they read אַיָּה, “vulture”], have obscured, or rather entirely perverted by their singular translation: κατατέτακται δὲ εἰς σῖτα γυψιν: [“he wanders about for a prey for vultures,” Wem.]. With אַיֵּה comp. the similarly brief הִנֵּה in Job_9:19.—He knows that close by him [lit. as in E. V., “ready at his hand”], (בְּיָדוֹ, like עַל־יְדֵי Job_1:14לְיַד, “near, close by,” Psa_140:6 (5); 1Sa_19:3) a dark day (lit. day of darkness; comp. Job_15:22) stands ready—to seize upon him and to punish him (נָכוֹן, as in Job_18:12).
Job_15:24. Trouble and anguish terrify him. צַר וּמְצוּקָה here not of external, but of internal need and distress, hence equivalent to anguish and alarm; comp. Job_7:11.—It overpowereth him (the subj. of תִּתְקְפֵהוּ is either מְצוּקָּה or, with a neuter construction, the unknown something, the mysterious Power [which suggests the comparison that follows]) as a king ready for the onset.—כְּמֶלֶךְ cannot belong to the object of the verb, as rendered by the LXX. [“like a leader falling in the first line of the battle”] and the Targ. [“to serve the conqueror as a foot-stool”], but only to the subject. The deadly anguish, which suddenly seizes on the wicked, is compared to a king, armed for battle, who falls upon a city; comp. Pro_6:11.—The meaning of the Hapaxleg. כִּידוֹר (= כִּדּוֹר, Ew., § 156, b) is correctly given on the whole by the Pesh. and Vulg., although not quite exactly by proelium. The Rabbis, Böttch., Del., etc., render it better by “the round of conflict, the circling of an army” [“the conflict which moves round about, like tumult of battle,” Del.]; but Dillmann best of all, after the Arabic כדר by “onset, storming, rush of battle;” for this is the only meaning that is well suited to עתיד לְ, paratus ad, as well as to the principal subject מֶלֶךְ.
Second Strophe: Job_15:25-30. The cause of the irretrievable destruction of the wicked is his presumptuous opposition to God, and his immoderate greed after earthly possessions and enjoyments. The whole strophe forms a long period, consisting of a doubled antecedent (marked by the double use of כִּי, Job_15:25 and Job_15:27), and a consequent, Job_15:29-30.
Job_15:25. Because he has stretched out his hand against God (in order to contend with Him), and boasted himself against the Almighty. [As indicated in the introductory remark above, כִּי at the beginning is not “for” (E. V.), introducing a reason for what precedes, but “because,” the consequent of which is not given until Job_15:29 seq.] יִתְגַּבֵּר, lit. “to show oneself a hero, a strongman;” i. e., to be proud, insolent; comp. Job_36:9; Isa_42:13.
Job_15:26 continues the first of the two antecedents, so that יָרוּץ is still under the regimen of כּי in Job_15:25 … has run against Him with (erect) neck (comp. Job_16:14) with the thick bosses (lit. with the thickness of the bosses, comp. Ewald, § 293, c) of his shields. In a the proud sinner is represented as a single antagonist of God, who בְּצַוָּאר, i. e., erecto colle, (comp. Psa_75:6 [5]) rushes upon Him; in b he is become a whole army with weapons of offense and defense, by virtue of his being the leader of such an army.
Job_15:27. Introducing the second reason [for Job_15:29 seq.]. consisting in the insatiable greed of the wicked—Because he has covered his face with his fatness (comp. Psa_73:4-7), and gathered (עָשָׂה here in the sense of a natural production or putting forth, as in Job_14:9) fat upon his loins.
Job_15:28. And abode in desolated cities, houses which ought not to be inhabited, לֹא יֵשְׁבוּ לָמוֹ, lit. “which they ought not to inhabit for themselves;” the passive rendering of ישׁב [Gesen., Del.] is unnecessary, the meaning of the expression in any case being, (domus nonhabitandæ) which are destined for ruins.—We are to think of an insolent, sacrilegious, mocking, avaricious tyrant, who fixes his residence—whether it be his pleasure-house, or his fortified castle—in what is and should remain according to popular superstition, an accursed and solitary place, among the ruins, it may be, of an accursed city; Deu_13:13-18; comp. Jos_6:26; 1Ki_16:34; also what is reported by Wetzstein (in Delitzsch I. 267 n.) concerning such doomed cities among modern orientals.1 Hirzel altogether too exclusively takes the reference to be to a city cursed in accordance with the law in Deut. (l. c.)—against which Löwenthal and Delitzsch observe quite correctly that what is spoken of here is not the rebuilding forbidden in that law, but only the inhabiting of such ruins. Possibly the poet may have had in mind certain particular occurrences, views, or customs, of which we have no further knowledge. Perhaps we may even suppose some such widely-spread superstition as that of the Romans in relation to the bidentalia to be intended. [Noyes, Barnes, Renan, Rod well, etc., introduce Job_15:28 with “therefore,” making it the consequence of what goes before.—Because of his pride and self-indulgence, the sinner will be driven out to dwell among ruins and desolations. To this view there are the following objections. (1) It deprives the language of the terrible force which belongs to it according to the interpretation given above. (2) It leaves the description of the sin referred to in Job_15:27 singularly incomplete and weak. This would be especially noticeable after the climactic energy of the description of the sin previously referred to in Job_15:25-26. Having seen the thought in Job_15:25 carried to such a striking climax in Job_15:26, we naturally expect to find the thought suggested rather than expressed in Job_15:27 carried to a similar climax in Job_15:28. (3) After dooming the sinner to dwell an exile among “stone-heaps,” (גַּלּים), it seems a little flat to add, “he shall not be rich,” if the former circumstance, like the latter, is a part of the penalty.—E.].
Job_15:29-30. The apodosis: (Therefore) he does not become rich (Hos_12:9 [8]), and his wealth endures not (has no stability, comp. 1Sa_13:14), and their possessions (i. e., the possessions of such people) how not down to the earth.—This rendering is in accordance with the interpretation now prevalent of מִנְלֶה = מִנְלָם, (with the suffix ־ָם) from a root (which is not to be met with) נלה, = Arab, nal, “to attain, to acquire,” and so used in the sense of quæstum, lucrum (comp. the post-biblical מָמוֹן, μαμωνᾶς). A possession “bowing down to the earth” is e. g. a full-eared field of grain, a fruit-laden tree, a load of grain weighing down that in which it is borne, etc. In view of the fact that all the ancient versions present other readings than מִנְלָם—e. g., LXX.: צִלָּם [adopted by Merx]; Vulg. אצלם, radicem suam: Pesh. מִלִּים, words; Targ. מִנְּהוֹן, etc.—the attempts of several moderns to amend the text may to some extent be justified. Not one of these however, yields a result that is altogether satisfactory, neither Hupfeld’s מִכְלָה (non extendet in terra caulam), nor Olshausen’s מַגָּלָם (“their sickle does not sink to the earth”), nor Böttcher’s מִמְלָם (“their fullness”), nor Dillmann’s וְלֹא יִטֶּה לָאָרֶץ שִׁבֳּלִים, “and he does not bow down ears of corn to the earth.” [Carey suggests that there may be a transposition here, and that instead of מנלם we should read נמלם from root נמל “to out;” the translation then being: “neither shall the cutting (or offset) of such extend in the earth.” The verbal root נלה found only in Isa_33:1 (כַּנְּלֹתְךָ, Hiph. Inf. with Dagh. dirimens for כְּהַנְלֹתְךָ) seems to signify perficere, to finish; hence E. V. here renders the noun “perfection.” Bernard likewise “accomplishment, achievements.” For נטה the meaning “to spread, extend,” is preferred by Good, Lee, Noyes, Umbreit, Renan, Con., Rod-well, etc. (E. V., “prolong”). The preposition ל however suits better the definition “to bow down,” which on the whole is to be preferred.—E.]
Job_15:30. He does not escape out of the darkness (of calamity, ver 22); a fiery heat [lit. a flame] withereth his shoots, and be passes away (וֳיסוּר forming a paronomasia with the לֹא יָסוּר of the first member) by the blast of His [God’s] mouth; comp. Job_4:9. In the second member the figure of a plant, so frequent throughout our book, previously used also by Eliphaz (comp. Job_5:3; Job_5:25 seq.) [and already suggested here according to the above interpretation of 29b], again makes its appearance, being used in a way very similar to Job_8:16 seq.; comp. also oh. Job_14:7. The parching heat here spoken of may be either that of the sun, or of a hot wind (as in Gen_41:6; Psa_11:6).
Third Strophe: Job_15:31-35. Describing more in detail the end of the wicked, showing that his prosperity is fleeting, and only in appearance, and that its destruction is inevitable.
Job_15:31. Let him not trust in vanity—he is deceived (נִתְעַת, Niph. Perf. with reflexive sense: lit. he has deceived himself) [Renan: Insensé!] for vanity shall be his possession [תמורה; Ges., Fürst., Con., etc., like E. V. “recompense:” Delitzsch: “not compensatio,” but permutatio, acquisitio; and so Ewald and Zöckler—Eintausch, exchange]. שָׁוְא, written the first time שָׁו, is used here essentially in the same sense as in Job_7:3, and hence = delusion, vanity, evil. In the first instance the sense of emptiness, deception predominates, in the second that of calamity (the evil consequences of trusting in vanity). For the sentiment comp. Job_4:8; Hos_8:8; and the New Testament passages which speak of sowing and reaping; Gal_6:7 seq.; 2Co_9:6.
Job_15:32. While his day is not yet (lit. “in his not-day,” i.e., before his appointed time has yet run its course; comp. Job_10:22; Job_12:24), it is fulfilled, viz., the evil that is to be exchanged, it passes to its fulfillment; or also: the exchange fulfills itself, תִּמָּלֵא referring back immediately to תּמוּרָתוֹ, Job_15:31,—so Hirzel, Dillmann. And his palm-branch (כִּבָּה as in Isa_9:13; Isa_19:15) is no longer green, is dry, withered. The whole man is here represented as a palm-tree, but not green and flourishing, as in Psa_92:13 (12), but as decaying with dried up branches—by which branches we are not to understand particularly his children, especially seeing that only one is mentioned instead of several.
Job_15:33. He loses [or shakes off] like a vine his grapes (lit., his unripe grapes; בֶּסֶר or בֹסֶר = ὄμφαξ, late or unripe grape; comp. Isa_18:5; Jer_31:29; Eze_18:2) and casts down, like an olive, his blossoms, i.e., without seeing fruit, this, as is well-known, being the case with the olive every other year, for only in each second year does it bear olives in anything like abundance; comp. Wetzstein in Delitzsch [I. 272 n. “In order to appreciate the point of the comparison, it is needful to know that the Syrian olive-tree bears fruit plentifully the first, third, and fifth years, but rests during the second, fourth, and sixth. It blossoms in these years also, but the blossoms fall off almost entirely without any berries being formed.” Add the following from Thomson’s Land and the Book: “The olive is the most prodigal of all fruit-bearing trees in flowers. It literally bends under the load of them. But then not one in a hundred comes to maturity. The tree casts them off by millions, as if they were of no more value than flakes of snow, which they closely resemble. So it will be with those who put their trust in vanity. Cast off they melt away, and no one takes the trouble to ask after such empty, useless things, etc.” I. 72], The verb יַחְמֹם in a is variously rendered by commentators; e. g., “broken [man bricht, יח׳ impersonal] as from a vine are his unripe grapes,” Schlott.; or “He (God) tears off as of a vine his young grapes” (Del., Hahn); or: “he (the wicked) wrongs as a vine his unripe grapes” (Hupfeld). The rendering given above (Ewald, Hirzel, Dillmann) [E. V., Con., Noy., Carey, Ren., Rod.], etc.), is favored by the parallelism of the second member, which shows that the “injuring, damaging” (חָמַם as in Lam_2:6; Pro_8:36, etc.), proceeds from the wicked himself. A reference to the process of cutting off the sour grape for the manufacture of vinegar (Wetzstein, Delitzsch) is altogether too remote here.—In regard to the variety of figures here derived from the vegetable kingdom, comp. further Psa_92:13 (12) seq.; Hos_14:6 seq.; Sirach 24; and in general my Theol. Naturalis, p. 218 seq.
Job_15:34. For the company of the profligate is barren.—חָנֵף as in Job_8:13; Job_13:16גַּלְמוּד (Job_3:7) is here and in Job_30:3 used as a substant. in the sense of “stark death” (LXX.: θάνατος), barrenness, hard rock, comp. Mat_13:5; and עֵדָה signifies here not indeed specially the family, as in Job_16:7, but still the family circle, the kinsfolk, tribe, or clan.—And fire devours the tents of bribery:i.e., the fire of the Divine sentence (comp. Job_1:16) consumes the tents built up by bribery, or the tents of those who take bribes (οἴκους δωροδεκτῶν, LXX.).
Job_15:35. They (the profligate, for חָנֵף in Job_15:34 was collective) conceive (are pregnant with) misery, and bring forth calamity.—אָוֶן and עָמָל, synonyms, as in Job_4:8; comp. the parallel passages Psa_7:15 (14); Isa_33:11; Isa_59:4. The Infinitives absolute in a, which are put first for emphasis, are followed in b by the finite verb: and their body prepares deceit, i.e., their pregnant womb (not their “inward part,” as Del. renders it) matures deceit, ripens falsehood, viz., for themselves; comp. Job_15:31. For הֵכִין, to prepare, to adjust, comp. Job_27:17; Job_38:41; for מִרְמָה, “deception,” Gen_27:35; Gen_34:13; Mic_6:11; Pro_11:1, etc.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Job’s persistence in holding what the friends assume to be a delusion, and especially in maintaining an attitude of presumptuous defiance towards God, compels them to enter on a new circle of the discussion with him. This is opened by Eliphaz in the new arraignment of Job before us. In respect of doctrinal contents this discourse exhibits little or nothing that is new, as indeed is the case generally with what the friends produce from this point on. It revolves, as well as that which Bildad and Zophar say in the sequel, altogether about the old thesis, that Job’s sufferings have a penal significance. The speakers assume that to have been sufficiently demonstrated by what they have said before, and accordingly do not undertake to prove it further to him, but being themselves unqualifiedly right, they imagine that they have only to warn and threaten and upbraid him in a tone of the harshest reproof. The fact that Job had spoken excitedly, daringly, and inconsiderately against God, is, to their minds, transparent proof, which needs no further confirmation, of the correctness of their coarse syllogism: “All suffering is the penalty of sin; Job suffers severely; therefore, Job is a great sinner.” And so assuming him to be impenitent, and hardened in presumption, they break out all the more violently against him, with the purpose not of instructing him more thoroughly, but of more sharply blaming and chastising him. The consequence is that these later discourses of the friends become more and more meagre in their doctrinal and ethical contents, and abound more and more in controversial sharpness and polemic bitterness. They give evidence of a temper which has been aroused to more aggressive vehemence towards Job, aiming at his conversion as one laboring under a delusion, and, at the same time, of increasing monotonousness and unproductiveness in the development of their peculiar views, their fundamental dogma remaining substantially unchanged throughout.
2. Of these arraignments belonging to the second act (or stage) of the discussion, and having as just stated a polemic far more than a doctrinal significance, the preceding discourse by Eliphaz is the first, and, at the same time, the fullest in matter, and the most original. Its fundamental proposition (Job_15:14-15) is indeed nothing else than a repetition of that which the same speaker had previously propounded to Job as truth received by him through a divine revelation (Job_4:12 seq.). Here, however, by the parallel juxtaposition of “the heavens” with “the angels,” there is introduced into the description an element which is, in part at least, new, and not uninteresting (comp. the exegetical remarks on Job_15:15). The application of the thesis to Job’s case is thereby made much more direct, wounding him much more sharply and relentlessly than before, as Job_15:16 shows, where the harsh, “hideous” (Oetinger) description which El. gives of the corruption of the natural man, is unmistakably aimed at Job himself, as the genuine example of a hardened sinner. It will be seen from the extract from Seb. Schmidt in the homiletical remarks (see on Job_15:2 seq.) how the harshness of the charges preferred against Job in the first division (especially in Job_15:2-13) reaches the extreme point of merciless severity, and how, along with some censures which are certainly merited (as, e.g., that he braves God, speaks proud words, despises mild words of comfort and admonition, etc.) there is much thrown in that is unjust and untrue, especially the charge that he “chose the speech of the crafty,” and hence that he dealt in the deceitful subtleties and falsehoods of an advocate. The discourse, however, presents much that is better, that is objectively more true and valuable, and more creditable to the speaker. Here we must reckon the whole of the second division (Job_15:20-35). Here we have a picture indisputably rich in poetic beauties, and in powerful and impressive passages, harmoniously complete in itself withal, and easily detached from its surroundings,—the picture of a wicked man, inwardly tormented by the pangs of an evil conscience, who after that he has for a long time enjoyed his apparent prosperity, at last succumbs to the combined power of the torments within, and of God’s sentence without, and so comes to a horrible end. This passage—which reminds us of similar striking descriptions elsewhere of the foolish conduct of the ungodly and its merited retribution (as, e.g., Psalms 1; Psalms 35; Psalms 52; Pro_1:18 seq.; Job_4:14 seq.; Job_5:1 seq.)—forms an interesting counterpart to the magnificent picture of the prosperity of the penitent and righteous man with which the first discourse of Eliphaz closes (Job_5:17-27). The contrast between the two descriptions, which are related to each other like the serene, bright and laughing day and the gloomy night, is in many respects suggestive and noteworthy; but it is not to the speaker’s advantage. In the former case, in painting that bright picture, he may be viewed as a prophet, unconsciously predicting that which was at last actually to come to pass according to God’s decree. But here, in painting this gloomy night-scene, which is purposely designed as a mirror by the contemplation of which Job might be alarmed, this tendency to prophesy evil shows him to be decidedly entangled in error. Indeed the point where this warning culminates, to wit, the charge of self-deception and of hypocritical lying, which having been first introduced in Job_15:5 seq., is repeated in the criminating word—מִרְמָה—at the close (Job_15:35), involves in itself gross injustice, and is an abortive attack which recoils on the accuser himself with destructive effect, besides depriving the whole description of its full moral value, and even detracting from its poetic beauty.
3. None the less, however, does the Sage of Teman, even when in error, remain a teacher of real wisdom, who has at his disposal genuine Chokmah material, however he may pervert its application in detail. This same gloomy picture with which the discourse before us closes, although it fails as to its special occasion and tendency, contains much that is worth pondering. It is brilliantly distinguished by rare truth of nature and conformity to experience in its descriptions, whether it treats of the inward torment and distress of conscience of the wicked (Job_15:20 seq.), or of the cheerless and desperate issue of his life (Job_15:29 seq.),—the latter description being particularly remarkable for the profound truth and the beauty of the figures introduced with such effective variety from the vegetable kingdom (see on Job_15:33). But even in the first division there is not a little that is interesting and stimulating to profound reflection. This is especially true of Job_15:7 seq., with its censure of Job’s conceit of superiority on the ground of his wisdom—a passage the significance of which is attested both by the recurrence of one of its characteristic turns of expression (Job_15:2) in the Solomonic Book of Proverbs, and of another in Jehovah’s address to Job (Job_38:3 seq.).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Job_15:2 seq.: Seb. Schmidt: He brings against Job the grave accusation of swelling up, as it were with the conceit of too great wisdom, and hence of sinning in more ways than one; thus he would convict him: (1) of vanity; (2) of causing scandal, and of encouraging men to neglect the fear of God—nay more, to fall into atheism; (3) of presumption, or of the conceit of too great wisdom; (4) of contempt for the word of God; (5) of proud anger against God.—Wohlfarth: The reproaches which we bring against others are often only witnesses to our own guilt!
Job_15:7 seq.: Cocceius: He addresses Job here almost in the same terms as God in Job 38 but with another scope and purpose. Wisdom says in Pro_8:25, that it was begotten before the hills, i.e. that it is the eternal Son of God. This Wisdom alone was acquainted with all the mysteries of God the Father, to this Wisdom alone are owing the purification and justification of men, the full declaration of the gracious will of God, and the gift of the spirit of joy.
Job_15:14-16 : Brentius: These words are most true: no one in himself is clean, pure and just; but in God, through faith in Christ, we come into possession of all cleanness, purity and justification (Joh_15:3; Rom_15:1, etc.).—Mercier: Eliphaz finds fault with man’s nature which nevertheless by faith is made pure.—Zeyss: Although the holy angels are pure and holy spirits, neither their holiness nor that of man is to be compared with the infinitely perfect holiness of God, but God only is and remains the Most Holy One; Isa_6:3.—Oecolampadius (on Job_15:16): Here is beautifully described the misery of man, who is abominable by reason of innate depravity, a child of wrath, corrupted and degenerated from his first estate, and so inflamed with lust, that as one in the dropsy drinks water, so does he drink sin, and is never satisfied.
Job_15:20 seq.: Idem: This is what he would say, that the wicked man, having an evil conscience within himself, at every time of his life when he becomes better known to himself, trembles, carries with him his own torments, and never hopes for good. Moses has finely illustrated this in Cain, Genesis 4—Cramer: The ungodly and hypocrites live in continual restlessness of heart; but blessed are they whose sins are forgiven; they attain rest and peace of conscience.—Comp. Pro_27:1 : “The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion.”
Job_15:29 seq.: Brentius: Eliphaz proceeds with his recital of the catalogue of curses on the wicked. … “His seed will burn up,” i.e. the blessing of the wicked will be turned into a curse; and as the branches of trees are burned by fire, and scattered by the wind, which is called the Spirit [breath] of God, so do all the blessings of the wicked perish by the judgment of God, and the Spirit of His mouth.—Cramer: The dire punishments which befall the ungodly give courage to the pious, and strengthen their faith, when they see how the former are recompensed for their ungodliness (Psa_91:8). … Although the ungodly have many friends and many dependents, their name must nevertheless rot and perish (Pro_10:7; Est_6:13)—Zeyss (on Job_15:31-33): As the sowing, so the reaping. He who sows vanity will also reap vanity; calamity and destruction will happen to him for a recompense (Hos_8:7; Gal_6:8). When the ungodly think that their life is at its very best, they are often enough quite suddenly taken away (Luk_12:17).
Footnotes:
[1]“As no one Ventures to pronounce the name of Satan because God has cursed him (Gen_3:14), without adding ’alah el-la’ne. ‘God’s curse upon him!’ so a man may not presume to inhabit places which God has appointed to desolation. Such villages and cities, which, according to tradition have perished and been frequently overthrown by the visitation of Divine judgment, are not uncommon on the borders of the desert. They use places, it is said, where the primary commandments of the religion of Abraham (Dîn Ibrahim) have been impiously transgressed. Thus the city of Babylon will never be colonized by a Semitic tribe, because they hold the belief that it has been destroyed on account of Nimrod’s apostasy from God, and his hostility to His favored one Abraham. The tradition which has even been transferred by the tribes of Arabia Petræa into Islamism of the disolation of the city of Higr (or Medain Salih) on account of disobedience to God, prevents any one from dwelling in that remarkable city, which consists of thousands of dwellings cut in the rock, some of which are richly ornamented; without looking round, and muttering prayers, the desert ranger hurries through, even as does the great procession of pilgrims to Mekka, from fear of incurring the punishment of God by the slightest delay in the accursed city.”
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain The Second Stage of the Controversy.
The Second Stage of the Controversy.
Chaps. 15-21.
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SECOND ADDRESS OF ELIPHAZ.
1. Answered, etc. — Eliphaz, who was the first speaker in the first circle of debate, now urges that the talk of Job was not only as unprofitable as an east wind, but really destructive to all piety. He taunts him with assuming a monopoly of wisdom such as could only have been gathered from some prior existence or from the council chamber of God. To convince Job of the folly of his arrogance, he alludes again to the revelation he had himself received, from which Job may learn that man’s place in the scale of righteousness is lower even than in that of wisdom. His own observation agreed with the sentiment of an ancient poem, that there is a perfect scheme of retribution in this world. The prosperity of the wicked man is only apparent. He lives a life of anguish; his fields are covered with blasted fruit; he reaps the vanity he has sown. The view of Eliphaz is limited by the theorem that suffering is an evidence either of a guilty life or an impure heart.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 2–16. Eliphaz rebukes Job’s contemptuous treatment of the opinions…
2–16. Eliphaz rebukes Job’s contemptuous treatment of the opinions of his friends, and his irreverence towards God
First, starting with Job’s claim to a wisdom beyond that of his friends (ch. Job_12:3; Job_12:7 seq., Job_13:2), Eliphaz asks if it be in the manner of a wise man to use loud and empty words as arguments (Job_15:2-3). But in truth Job was more than unwise, he was impious. His demeanour and sentiments did away with all devoutness and religion. Such language as he uttered could be inspired only by deep evil in his heart; and was proof enough without anything more of his wickedness (Job_15:4-6).
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Second, then coming back upon these two points, Job’s claim to wisdom and his irreverence, Eliphaz developes each of them separately.
(1) This claim to wisdom, which he puts forth, whence has he it? Was he the first man born? Did he come straight from God’s hand? Did he sit in the council of heaven and appropriate wisdom to himself? And how came he, a man not yet old, to have such preeminence in wisdom over them, some of whom were old enough to be his father, that he thought himself entitled to put away from him admonitions which were consoling truths of God’s revelation and spoken to him in gentleness and temperance? (Job_15:7-11).
(2) And why did he allow his passion to carry him away into making charges of unrighteousness against God? For how can a man be pure in God’s sight? In His eyes the heavens are not clean, much less man, whose avidity for evil is like that of a thirsty man for water (Job_15:12-16).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The second colloquy between Job and his friends is,…
The second colloquy between Job and his friends is, like the first (ch. 3-14), one in which all of them take part, and the same order of speakers is maintained. Job answers each speaker in turn; Eliphaz at some length (ch. 16, 17), the other two more briefly. The present chapter contains the second speech of Eliphaz. Compared with the first, it is harsh and violent in tone, assuming Job"s guilt, and reproaching him fiercely and rudely. It naturally divides into three portions:
(1) a direct reproof of Job for presumption and impiety (vers. 1-6);
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(2) a sarcastic reflection on him for conceit and arrogance (vers. 7-16);
(3) an exposition of God"s ways with man, based upon the experience of ancient sages (vers. 17-35).
Vers. 1, 2. Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said, Should a wise man utter vain knowledge! literally, knowledge of wind knowledge, i.e. "which is vain, idle, inflated, without solidity or substance. Job, as setting up to be "a wise man," should not have indulged in such empty and foolish speaking. It is observable that Eliphaz does not point out what part of Job"s discourses he considers objectionable, but condemns the whole of them under this broad and general description, which even he could not have regarded as applicable to more than a portion of what Job had said. And fill his belly with the east wind? The east wind was regarded as the worst of winds. In Palestine it blew from the great Syrian and North Arabian desert, and was of the nature of a sirocco. (On its deleterious effects, see Gen_41:6, 23 Jer_18:17 Eze_17:10 Eze_19:12 Eze_27:26 Hos_13:15, etc.)
Vers. 1-16. Eliphaz to Job: Resumption of the second controversy: 1. An overwhelming indictment.
I OLD ACCUSATIONS REPEATED.
1. Unprofitable talk. The replies given by Job in the preceding colloquy Eliphaz characterizes as
(1) unbecoming, altogether unworthy of a wise man such as Job had professed, (Job_12:23 Job_13:2) and had indeed been recognized, (Job_29:8, Job_29:9, Job_29:21, Job_29:23) to be an allegation which, though not in point as directed against the patriarch, may suggest the propriety of wise, and much more of good, men always speaking and acting in character, watching over their words as well as works, and studying, if possible, to avoid even the appearance of inconsistency, especially in the eyes of weak brethren; (Rom_14:21)
(2) unsubstantial, mere empty harangues and impassioned tirades, "vain knowledge," literally, knowledge of wind, (ver. 2; cf. Job_8:2 Job_11:2) instead of sound and solid sense a character, again, which could not fairly be ascribed to Job"s reasonings and supplications, though, alas! it not inaptly describes much of human speech and speculation;
(3) worthless, being, in respect of use, only "unprofitable talk," "speeches by which no good is done" (ver. 3), which, however magniloquently set forth and wearisomely iterated, contribute nothing towards the elucidation of a great problem, and serve in no degree to aid the speaker in making good his case; and
(4) pernicious, in their ultimate results being comparable to nothing so appropriately as to the scorching, (Jon_4:8) blasting, (Gen_41:23) vehement, (Exo_14:21) and destructive (Psa_48:7) east wind (ver. 2) and few things are more injurious to the minds that conceive them, or more hurtful to society at large when it must endure them, than such windy orations, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing," like" tales told by idiots," such as are alluded to by Eliphaz, although amongst such it was incorrect to number the burning thoughts and winged words of Job.
2. Manifest impiety. Eliphaz had already (Job_4:6) insinuated that Job was devoid of true religion; here he regards the insinuation as substantiated by the conduct of Job himself in three particulars.
(1) The adoption of irreligious sentiments (ver. 4). The views propounded by Job were calculated to subvert the fundamental principle of all religion, viz. the fear of God, and to put an end to the outward expression of religion in devout meditation or prayer. Though wrong as to the estimate he put on Job"s theology, Eliphaz was right in regarding reverence for God as the foundation of all piety in man, in thinking that no man"s religion can be genuine which does not engender the spirit, and lead to the practice, of prayer, and in maintaining that good men should be careful of either entertaining views or promulgating doctrines which have a tendency, however slight, to hinder devotion or destroy veneration in themselves or others.
(2) The publication of infidel opinions. Not only had Job allowed himself to form such unhallowed notions, but he had openly proclaimed them (ver. 5). Hence Eliphaz inferred his heart could not be fight with God. "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he"; (Pro_23:7) and "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh". (Luk_6:45) And certainly the deduction is a sound one, that no truly pious man will receive, far less disseminate, principles subversive, or even seemingly so, of the fear and worship of God. Only of such behaviour Job had not been guilty.
(3) The defence of damnable heresies. It was impossible that wickedness could further go than it had done with Job, who had not only for himself embraced heretical beliefs, but had fearlessly stated them, and even unblushingly attempted to prove them, using for that purpose "the tongue of the crafty "( ver. 5), of which he was a master. Undoubtedly it was outrageous ungodliness, if only the theology of the friends upon which Job had poured his withering scorn, biting sarcasm, and scalding indignation had been the infallible truth of God, which it was not. But Eliphaz and his brethren, thinking it to be so, pronounced Job a self-convicted sinner (ver. 6).
3. Astounding presumption. Stung by Job"s ridicule of himself and his colleagues, (Job_12:2) and forgetful that "a soft answer turneth away wrath," while grievous words stir up anger" (Pro_15:1) Eliphaz retorts, with a keen-edged irony scarcely second to Job"s, that no doubt Job was a wise man, a very wise man, in fact the only wise man, since
(1) Job had been born first of men (ver. 7), and as a consequence enjoyed "the most direct and profound insight into the mysteries of the world, which came into existence at the same time as himself" (Delitzsch);
(2) had even preceded the mountains in his appearance upon earth (ver. 7) the mountains and hills being represented as the oldest of created things, (Psa_90:2) and the language being applied to Wisdom in the Book of Pro_8:23-26;
(3) had been admitted to the cabinet of heaven, and listened to the councils of the Supreme (ver. 8), the allusion being to the divan of an Oriental prince; nay
(4) as a consequence had engrossed or monopolized wisdom to himself, like some grand vizier whose soul was burdened with state secrets; and
(5) was possessed of sources of information immensely superior to theirs, although with them were both the greyheaded and very aged men, much older than his father (ver. 10).
4. Contemptuous indifference.
(1) To the consolations of God (ver. 11). That God is pre-eminently the God of all comfort and consolation: (2Co_1:3 2Co_7:6) that he can comfort with a mother"s tenderness, (Isa_66:13) a father"s pity, (Psa_103:13) a husband"s love; (Hos_2:14) that in Christ (Php_2:1) he hath provided rich consolations for his people, (2Co_1:5) suitable for every circumstance and situation that may occur in their lives; (2Co_1:4) that delightful wells of consolation are sometimes found in the events of providence, (2Co_7:6) and always in the promises of the gospel, (2Pe_1:4) especially when applied to the heart by the Holy Ghost; (Joh_14:26) that these consolations are not small in themselves, being abundant, (2Co_1:5) satisfying, (Isa_66:11) strong, (Heb_6:18) and everlasting, (2Th_2:16) and. should by none be reputed small or lightly esteemed, considering the source whence they come, the love of God, the channel through which they flow, the cross of Christ, the Agent by whom they are applied, the Holy Spirit, the comfort they impart, the peace of God which passeth understanding, and the freeness with which they are bestowed, without money and without price; that all these are precious truths is undeniable; but Eliphaz understood by God"s consolations the promises held forth by himself and his friends in their discourses, which, however applicable they may have been to an unconverted sinner, were not suitable to meet the case of a suffering saint like Job.
(2) To the kindness of men. Without doubt sincerely Eliphaz commends his own and his friends" orations as gentle addresses, the utterances of tender pity (ver. 11); and, if they were so, unquestionably Job erred in receiving them with such palpable scorn as he did. Kindness honestly offered, even when mistaken, and somewhat harsh and ungracious, should be politely, and even thankfully, received. But it is not so obvious as it seemed to Eliphaz that either he or Bildad, not to mention Zophar, had spoken tenderly.
5. Passionate rebellion. Job allowed his feelings to get the better of his understanding his passion to overwhelm his judgment. It is the part of wisdom and the work of grace to restrain angry emotions. (Eph_4:26) Uncontrolled excitement leads to sin. (Pro_29:22) It had hurried Job into vehement expressions against God, which seemed to show an embittered and hostile spirit in
(1) insolent grimaces, the winking of the eyes (ver. 12) having the significance, it is probable, of the similar expressions in Psa_35:19,pr Psa_6:3, and Isa_3:16;
(2) wrathful opposition, the turning of the spirit (or of one"s rage) against God (ver. 13) being a characteristic of wicked men; (Rom_8:7 Gal_5:17) and
(3) foolish speaking, Job"s discourses being styled "words," i.e. words as contrasted with wisdom, words destitute of meaning and intelligence.
II OLD THEOLOGY RESTATED. The crowning sin of Job, in the estimation of Eliphaz, was his persistent attempts at self-justification. As if to give this tremendous heresy its final quietus, the solemn Arabian seer once more advances the humbling doctrine of man"s universal depravity, which he establishes from a fourfold consideration.
1. Man"s constitutional frailty. Man is essentially a frail and diseased creature, enosh (ver. 14); and, although physical weakness is not the same thing as moral pollution, yet the former is inconceivable except as the result of the latter.
2. Man"s depraved origin. Mortal man is descended from fallen woman, and, as a consequence, inherits her depravity. So Job admitted, (Job_14:2) David bewailed, (Psa_51:5) and Christ taught. (Joh_3:6) To this law human history knows of only one exception. Christ, though the Seed of the woman, was untainted by hereditary corruption. Holy in his, (Luk_1:35) he continued throughout life "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners". (Heb_7:26) The moral purity of Jesus was indispensable to his mediator-ship. (Heb_7:27)
3. Man"s inferiority to the angels. Man occupies a lower place in the universe than the angels who inhabit heaven (ver. 15). Yet even these bright intelligences appear tarnished in God"s sight. How much less, then, can a claim of moral parity be made good for man? If God"s hell, less, the standard of all creature excellence, is so absolute that even the heavens with their holy inhabitants are not pure in his sight (ver. 15), it is sheer folly to expect that man can establish his moral cleanness before the eyes of the Omniscient One. (cf. Job_4:17, Job_4:18, homiletics) On the contrary, man must be entirely abominable in the estimation of a holy God, because wholly corrupt (ver. 16), sin being that abominable thing which God hates, (Jer_44:4) and which renders everything it infects hateful, because of changing its nature, and making sour, putrid, corrupt, disorganized, what God had at first pronounced fair, orderly, and very good.
4. Man"s habitual practice. This the culminating proof of man"s total and universal depravity. Wherever man exists he is found to drink up iniquity like water; i.e. to commit sin as regularly, eagerly, abundantly, easily, naturally, as the ox or the horse drinks up water.
Learn:
1. Men often fail to see in themselves the faults they condemn in others,
2. The faculty of speech was given to every man to profit withal.
3. The tongue is badly used when it is employed to either afflict saints or encourage sinners.
4. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
5. Prayer is one of the natural instincts of the human heart.
6. A man"s creed is commonly an index to his character.
7. The man who condemns himself need not wonder if he be condemned by others.
8. The older a man grows the wiser should he become.
9. Divine consolation may be, but is not always, administered by man.
10. "Better is he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.
11. The month should never be allowed to go wit. hoot a bridle.
12. The doctrine of man"s depravity is very old.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-19. Perversity and impenitence rebuked.
In the next six chapters the controversy between Job and his friends takes a new and embittered turn. They muster their forces to put down the daring speaker, who as they deem has challenged the justice of God. They seek to humiliate him as a late-born, itinerant, and passionate man, who has incurred fresh guilt by his impious questionings and blasphemies. Eliphaz gives a terrible representation of the general truth that the wicked man, living for himself alone, must ever be exposed to torment, and his property and condition must ever be insecure, leaving Job to apply all this to himself. In the war of words the hope of reconciliation and mutual understanding is further and further banished. The present chapter (xv.) falls into two divisions: the first containing argument; the second the authoritative utterance of wisdom (vers. 2-19, 20-35).
I ARGUMENT: INTRODUCTION. (Vers. 2-6) Eliphaz, as the oldest and most experienced of the friends, seeks to abash and humiliate Job by raising doubts of his sense and wisdom.
1. The characteristics of unwisdom are indulgence in windy words in "words from the paunch the seat of wild and ungovernable passion, as constructed with words that are uttered from the heart, (Job_8:10) and are those of experience, sense, and truth; in words that are useless because there are no corresponding deeds. Here is a good test of the value of speech Has it any tendency to bear fruit in deeds? can it be followed up and expressed in deeds or no? Those words are vain on which we dare not set the stamp and seal of action.
2. Proofs of guilt. These wild speeches are not only idle, but worse, mischievous. The tongue is a powerful agent"either of good or evil. It builds up those who listen in faith and goodness, or loosens the root of piety in the soul. Further, the tongue may be used as the weapon of the crafty a disingenuous means of defence. And does not this show that Job is utterly corrupt; that, like an unprincipled scoundrel, he would attempt to clear himself by throwing blame on others?
II HUMILIATING CENSURES. (Vers. 7-13)
1. Ironical rebuke of his assumption Is he the first-born man older than the hills? Does he stand at the head of mankind, and, therefore, know better than all his fellows? So Ezekiel satirizes the King of Tyre, "Thou stalest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty". (Eze_28:12) The Hindus have a proverb used in the same sense, "Yea, indeed, he is the first man; no wonder that he is so wise." The great Greek sage, on the other hand, being declared the wisest of men, interpreted the oracle as meaning that h-e alone of men knew that he was ignorant. It is better to place one"s self on a level with the meanest and the most ignorant than to assume superiority in matters about which all men may reasonably think themselves equally well informed.
2. Expostulation against a bitter temper. It is a temper that will not soften at the word of comfort, as the rock will not melt in the sun. Eliphaz thinks that all his good instruction and consolation have been lavished in vain upon this obdurate heart. The "refusing to be comforted," the obstinate nourishing of grief, is a temper that must be changed, otherwise the mental view cannot become clear and calm. Other signs of temper are pride; the heart carried away by its passionate egotism; the gleaming or rolling eyes (ver. 12), and the unbridled wildness of the tongue. These symptoms prove a disease, and that disease is self-will.
III THE RIGHT OF COMPLAINT AGAINST GOD DENIED. (Vers. 14-16.) Here the speaker repeats himself, for he has nothing more deeply impressed upon his own mind than the folly and impatience of complaints from infirm man against the supreme and all-holy One. (comp. Job_4:17-21; Job_5:1-7)
1. The hereditary taint in man (ver. 14).
2. The relative impurity of heavenly beings in the sight of God.
3. Man"s choice of sin (this is especially emphatic here).
All these considerations show the impiety of daring to question any action of God. Man has a thirst for sin (ver. 16): shall such a creature, from the edge of its muddy pool, lift itself presumingly against Heaven?
IV DEMAND FOR ATTENTION TO INSTRUCTION. (Vers. 17-19) In this short preface the wisdom of the speaker is described as
(1) derived from personal experience;
(2) confirmed by ancient tradition;
(3) as pure, unadulterated wisdom, coming from a time when foreign opinions and foreign manners had not corrupted the simplicity of ancient truth. J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Job 15
XIII.
THE TRADITION OF A PURE RACE
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Job 15
ELIPHAZ SPEAKS
THE first colloquy has made clear severance between the old Theology and the facts of human life. No positive reconciliation is effected as yet between reality and faith, no new reading of Divine providence has been offered. The author allows the friends on the one hand, Job on the other, to seek the end of controversy just as men in their circumstances would in real life have sought it. Unable to penetrate behind the veil the one side clings obstinately to the ancestral faith, on the other side the persecuted sufferer strains after a hope of vindication apart from any return of health and prosperity, which he dares not expect. One of the conditions of the problem is the certainty of death. Before death, repentance and restoration, - say the friends. Death immediate, therefore should God hear me, vindicate me, -says Job. In desperation he breaks through to the hope that Gods wrath will pass even though his scared and harrowed life be driven into Sheol. For a moment he sees the light; then it seems to expire. To the orthodox friends any such thought is a kind of blasphemy. They believe in the nullity of the state beyond death. There is no wisdom nor hope in the grave. "The dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten"-even by God. "As well their love, as their hatred and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun." {Ecc_9:5-6} On the mind of Job this dark shadow falls and hides the star of his hope. To pass away under the reprobation of men and of God, to suffer the final stroke and be lost forever in the deep darkness; - anticipating this, how can he do otherwise than make a desperate fightfor his own consciousness of right and for Gods intervention while yet any breath is left in him? He persists in this. The friends do not approach him one step in thought; instead of being moved by his pathetic entreaties they draw back into more bigoted judgment.
In opening the new circle of debate Eliphaz might be expected to yield a little, to admit something in the claim of the sufferer, granting at least for the sake of argument that his case is hard. But the writer wishes to show the rigour and determination of the old creed, or rather of the men who preach it. He will not allow them one sign of rapprochement. In the same order as before the three advance their theory, making no attempt to explain the facts of human existence to which their attention has been called. Between the first and the second round there is, indeed, a change of position, but in the line of greater hardness. The change is thus marked. Each of the three, differing toto coelo from Jobs view of his case, had introduced an encouraging promise. Eliphaz had spoken of six troubles, yea seven, from which one should be delivered if he accepted the chastening of the Lord. Bildad affirmed
"Behold, God will not east away the perfect:
He will yet fill thy mouth with laughter
And thy lips with shouting."
Zophar had said that if Job would put away iniquity he should be led into fearless calm.
"Thou shalt be steadfast and not fear,
For thou shalt forget thy misery
Remember it as waters that are passed by."
That is a note of the first series of arguments; we hear nothing of it in the second. One after another drives home a stern, uncompromising judgment.
The dramatic art of the author has introduced several touches into the second speech of Eliphaz which maintain the personality. For example, the formula "I have seen" is carried on from the former address where it repeatedly occurs, and is now used quite incidentally, therefore with all the more effect. Again the "crafty" are spoken of in both addresses with contempt and aversion, neither of the other interlocutors of Job nor Job himself using the word. The thought of Job_15:15 is also the same as that ventured upon in Job_4:18, a return to the oracle which gave Eliphaz his claim to be a prophet. Meanwhile he adopts from Bildad the appeal to ancient belief in support of his position; but he has an original way of enforcing this appeal. As a pure Temanite he is animated by the pride of race and claims more for his progenitors than could be allowed to a Shuchite or Naamathite, more, certainly, than could be allowed to one who dwelt among worshippers of the sun and moon. As a whole the thought of Eliphaz remains what it was, but more closely brought to a point. He does not wander now in search of possible explanations. He fancies that Job has convicted himself and that little remains but to show most definitely the fate he seems bent on provoking. It will be a kindness to impress this on his mind.
The first part of the address, extending to Job_15:13, is an expostulation with Job, whom in irony he calls "wise." Should a wise man use empty unprofitable talk, filling his bosom, as it were, with the east wind, peculiarly blustering and arid? Yet what Job says is not only unprofitable, it is profane.
"Thou doest away with piety
And hinderest devotion before God.
For thine iniquity instructs thy mouth,
And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
Thine own mouth condemneth thee: not I;
Thine own lips testify against thee."
Eliphaz is thoroughly sincere. Some of the expressions used by his friend must have seemed to him to strike at the root of reverence. Which were they? One was the affirmation that tents of robbers prosper and they that provoke God are secure; another the daring statement that the deceived and the deceiver are both Gods; again the confident defence of his own life: "Behold now I have ordered my cause, I know that I am righteous; who is he that will contend with me?" and once more his demand why God harassed him, a driven leaf, treating him with oppressive cruelty. Things like these were very offensive to a mind surcharged with veneration and occupied with a single idea of Divine government. From the first convinced that gross fault or arrogant self-will had brought down the malediction of God, Eliphaz could not but think that Jobs iniquity was "teaching his mouth" (coming out in his speech, forcing him to profane expressions), and that he was choosing the tongue of the crafty. It seemed that he was trying to throw dust in their eyes. With the cunning and shiftiness of a man who hoped to carry off his evil doing, he had talked of maintaining his ways before God and being vindicated in that region where, as every one knew, recovery was impossible. The ground of all certainty and belief was shaken by those vehement words. Eliphaz felt that piety was done away and devotion hindered, he could scarcely breathe a prayer in this atmosphere foul with scepticism and blasphemy.
The writer means us to enter into the feelings of this man, to think with him, for the time, sympathetically. It is no moral fault to be over jealous for the Almighty, although it is a misconception of mans place and duty, as Elijah learned in the wilderness, when, having claimed to be the only believer left, he was told there were seven thousand that never bowed the knee to Baal. The speaker has this justification, that he does not assume office as advocate for God. His religion is part of him, his feeling of shock and disturbance quite natural. Blind to the unfairness of the situation, he does not consider the incivility of joining with two others to break down one sick bereaved man, to scare a driven leaf. This is accidental. Controversy begun, a pious man is bound to carry on, as long as may be necessary, the argument which is to save a soul.
Nevertheless, being human, he mingles a tone of sarcasm as he proceeds.
"The first man wast thou born?
Or wast thou made before the hills?
Didst thou hearken in the conclave of God?
And dost thou keep the wisdom to thyself?"
Job had accused his friends of speaking unrighteously for God and respecting His person. This pricked. Instead of replying in soft words as he claims to have been doing hitherto ("Are the consolations of God too small for thee and a word that dealt tenderly with thee?"), Eliphaz takes to the sarcastic proverb. The author reserves dramatic gravity and passion for Job, as a rule, and marks the others by varying tones of intellectual hardness, of current raillery. Eliphaz now is permitted to show more of the self-defender than the defender of faith. The result is a loss of dignity.
"What knowest thou that we know not?
What understandest thou that is not in us?"
After all it is mans reason against mans reason. The answer will only come in the judgment of the Highest.
"With us is he who is both grey-haired and very old,
Older in days than thy father."
Not Eliphaz himself surely. That would be to claim too great antiquity. Besides, it seems a little wanting in sense. More probably there is reference to some aged rabbi, such as every community loved to boast of, the Nestor of the clan, full of ancient wisdom. Eliphaz really believes that to be old is to be near the fountain of truth. There was an origin of faith and pure life. The fathers were nearer that holy source; and wisdom meant going back as far as possible up the stream. To insist on this was to place a real barrier in the way of Jobs self defence. He would scarcely deny it as the theory of religion. What then of his individual protest, his philosophy of the hour and of his own wishes? The conflict is presented here with much subtlety, a standing controversy in human thought. Fixed principles there must be; personal research, experience and passion there are, new with every new age. How settle the antithesis? The Catholic doctrine has not yet been struck out that will fuse in one commanding law the immemorial convictions of the race and the widening visions of the living soul. The agitation of the church today is caused by the presence within her of Eliphaz and Job-Eliphaz standing for the fathers and their faith, Job passing through a fever crisis of experience and finding no remedy in the old interpretations. The church is apt to say, Here is moral disease, sin; we have nothing for that but rebuke and aversion. Is it wonderful that the tried life, conscious of integrity, rises in indignant revolt? The taunt of sin, scepticism, rationalism or self-will is too ready a weapon, a sword worn always by the side or carried in the hand. Within the House of God men should not go armed, as if brethren in Christ might be expected to prove traitors.
The question of the eleventh verse-"Are the consolations of God too small for thee?"-is intended to cover the whole of the arguments already used by the friends and is arrogant enough as implying a Divine commission exercised by them. "The word that dealt tenderly with thee," says Eliphaz; but Job has his own idea of the tenderness and seems to convey it by an expressive gesture or glance which provokes a retort almost angry from the speaker, -
"Why doth thine heart carry thee away,
And why do thine eyes wink,
That thou turnest thy breathing against God,
And sendest words out of thy mouth?"
We may understand a brief emphatic word of repudiation not unmixed with contempt and, at the same time, not easy to lay hold of. Eliphaz now feels that he may properly insist on the wickedness of man-painfully illustrated in Job himself-and depict the certain fate of him who defies the Almighty and trusts in his own "vanity." The passage is from first to last repetition, but has new colour of the quasi-prophetic kind and a certain force and eloquence that give it fresh interest.
Formerly Eliphaz had said, "Shall man be just beside God? Behold He putteth no trust in His servants, and His angels He chargeth with folly." Now, with a keener emphasis, and adopting Jobs own confession that man born of woman is impure, he asserts the doctrine of creaturely imperfection and human corruption.
"Eloah trusteth not in His holy ones,
And the heavens are not pure in His sight;
How much less the abominable and corrupt,
Man, who drinketh iniquity as water?"
First is set forth the refusal of God to put confidence in the holiest creature, -a touch, as it were, of suspicion in the Divine rule. A statement of theholiness of God otherwise very impressive is marred by this too anthropomorphic suggestion. Why, is not the opposite true, that the Creator puts wonderful trust not only in saints but in sinners? He trusts men with life, with the care of the little children whom He loves, with the use in no small degree of His creation, the powers and resources of a world. True, there is a reservation. At no point is the creature allowed to rule. Saint and sinner, man and angel are alike under law and observation. None of them can be other than servants, none of them can ever speak the final word or do the last thing in any cause. Eliphaz therefore is dealing with a large truth, one never to be forgotten or disallowed. Yet he fails to make right use of it, for his second point, that of the total corruption of human nature, ought to imply that God does not trust man at all. The logic is bad and the doctrine will hardly square with the reference to human wisdom and to wise persons holding the secret of God of whom Eliphaz goes on to speak. Against him two lines of reasoning are evident, abominable, gone sour or putrid, to whom evil is a necessary of existence like water-if man be that, his Creator ought surely to sweep him away and be done with him. But since, on the other hand, God maintains the life of human beings and honours them with no small confidence, it would seem that man, sinful as he is, bad as he often is, does not lie under the contempt of his Maker, is not set beyond a service of hope. In short, Eliphaz sees only what he chooses to see. His statements are devout and striking, but too rigid for the manifoldness of life. He makes it felt, even while he speaks, that he himself in some way stands apart from the race he judges so hardly. So far as the inspiration of this book goes, it is against the doctrine of total corruption as put into the mouth of Eliphaz. He intends a final and crushing assault on the position taken up by Job; but his mind is prejudiced, and the man he condemns is Gods approved servant, who, in the end, will have to pray for Eliphaz that he may not be dealt with after his folly. Quotation of the words of Eliphaz in proof of total depravity is a grave error. The race is sinful; all men sin, inherit sinful tendencies and yield to them: who does not confess it? But, -all men abominable and corrupt, drinking iniquity as water, -that is untrue at any rate of the very person Eliphaz engages to convict.
It is remarkable that there is not a single word of personal confession in any speech made by the friends. They are concerned merely to state a creed supposed to be honouring to God, a full justification from their point of view of His dealings with men. The sovereignty of God must be vindicated by attributing this entire vileness to man, stripping the creature of every claim on the consideration of his Maker. The great evangelical, teachers have not so driven home their reasoning. Augustine began with the evil in his own heart and reasoned to the world, and Jonathan Edwards in the same way began with himself. "My wickedness," he says, "has long appeared to me perfectly ineffable and, swallowing up all thought and imagination, like an infinite deluge or mountains over my head. I know not how to express better what my sins appear to me to be than by heaping infinite on infinite and multiplying infinite by infinite." Here is no Eliphaz arguing from misfortune to sinfulness; and indeed by that line it is impossible ever to arrive at evangelical poverty of spirit.
Passing to his final contention here the speaker introduces it with a special claim to attention. Again it is what "he has seen" he will declare, what indeed all wise men have seen from time immemorial.
"I will inform thee: hear me;
And what I have seen I will declare:
Things which wise men have told,
From their fathers, and have not hid,
To whom alone the land was given,
And no stranger passed in their midst."
There is the pride. He has a peculiar inheritance of unsophisticated wisdom. The pure Temanite race has dwelt always in the same land, and foreigners have not mixed with it. With it, therefore, is a religion not perverted by alien elements or the adoption of sceptical ideas from passing strangers. The plea is distinctively Arabic and may be illustrated by the self-complacent dogmatism of the Wahhabees of Riad, whom Mr. Palgrave found enjoying their own uncorrupted orthodoxy. In central Nejed society presents an element pervading it from its highest to its lowest grades. Not only as a Wahhabee but equally as a Nejdean the native of Aared and Yemamah differs, and that widely, from his fellow Arab of Shomer and Kaseem, nay, of Woshem and Sedeyr. The cause of this difference is much more ancient than the epoch of the great Wahhabee, and must be sought first and foremost in the pedigree itself. The descent claimed by the indigenous Arabs of this region is from the family of Tameen, a name peculiar to these lands Now Benoo-Tameem have been in all ages distinguished from other Arabs by strongly drawn lines of character, the object of the exaggerated praise and of the biting satire of native poets. Good or bad, these characteristics, described some thousand years ago, are identical with the portrait of their real or pretended descendants. Simplicity is natural to the men of "Aared and Yemamah, independent of Wahhabee puritanism and the vigour of its code" ("Central Arabia," pp. 272, 273). To this people Nejed is holy, Damascus through which Christians and other infidels go is a lax disreputable place. They maintain a strict Mohammedanism from age to age. In their view, as in that of Eliphaz, the land belongs to the wise people who have the heavenly treasure and do not entertain strangers as guides of thought. Infallibility is a very old and very abiding cult.
Eliphaz drags back his hearers to the penal visitation of the wicked, his favourite dogma. Once more it is affirmed that for one who transgresses the law of God there is nothing but misery, fear, and pain. Though he has a great following he lives in terror of the destroyer; he knows that calamity will one day overtake him, and from it there will be no deliverance. Then he will have to wander in search of bread, his eyes perhaps put out by his enemy. So trouble and anguish make him afraid even in his great day. There is here not a suggestion that conscience troubles him. His whole agitation is from fear of pain and loss. No single touch in the picture gives the idea that this man has any sense of sin.
How does Eliphaz distinguish or imagine the Almighty distinguishing between men in general, who are all bad and offensive in their badness, and this particular "wicked man"? Distinction there must be. What is it? One must assume, for the reasoner is no fool, that the settled temper and habit of a life are meant. Revolt against God, proud opposition to His will and law, these are the wickedness. It is no mere stagnant pool of corruption, but a force running against the Almighty. Very well: Eliphaz has not only made a true distinction, but apparently stated for once a true conclusion. Such a man will indeed be likely to suffer for his arrogance in this life, although it does not hold that he will be haunted by fears of coming doom. But analysing the details of the wicked life in Job_15:25-28, we find incoherency. The question is why he suffers and is afraid.
Because he stretched out his hand against God
And bade defiance to the Almighty;
He ran upon Him with a neck
Upon the thick bosses of His bucklers;
Because he covered his face with his fatness
And made collops of fat on his flanks;
And he dwelt in tabooed cities,
In houses which no man ought to inhabit,
Destined to become heaps.
Eliphaz has narrowed down the whole contention, so that he may carry it triumphantly and bring Job to admit, at least in this case, the law of sin and retribution. It is fair to suppose that he is not presenting Jobs case, but an argument, rather, in abstract theology, designed to strengthen his own general position. The author, however, by side lights on the reasoning shows where it fails. The account of calamity and judgment, true as it might be in the main of God-defiant lives running headlong against the laws of heaven and earth, is confused by the other element of wickedness-"Because he hath covered his face with his fatness," etc. The recoil of a refined man of pure race from one of gross sensual appetite is scarcely a fit parallel to the aversion of God from man stubbornly and insolently rebellious. Further, the superstitious belief that one was unpardonable who made his dwelling in cities under the curse of God (literally, cities cut off or tabooed), while it might be sincerely put forward by Eliphaz, made another flaw in his reasoning. Any one in constant terror of judgment would have been the last to take up his abode in such accursed habitations. The argument is strong only in picturesque assertion.
The latter end of the wicked man and his futile attempts to found a family or clan are presented at the close of the address. He shall not become rich: that felicity is reserved for the servants of God. No plentiful produce shall weigh down the branches of his olives and vines, nor shall he ever rid himself of misfortune. As by a flame or hot breath from the mouth of God his harvest and himself shall be carried away. The vanity or mischief he sows shall return to him in vanity or trouble; and before his time, while life should be still fresh, the full measure of his reward shall be paid to him. The branch withered and dry, unripe grapes and the infertile flowers of the olive falling to the ground point to the want of children or their early death; for "the company of the godless shall be barren." The tents of injustice or bribery, left desolate, shall be burned. The only fruit of the doomed life shall be iniquity.
One hesitates to accuse Eliphaz of inaccuracy. Yet the shedding of the petals of the olive is not in itself a sign of infertility; and although this tree, like others, often blossoms without producing fruit, yet it is the constant emblem of productiveness. The vine, again, may have shed its unripe grapes in Teman; but usually they wither. It may be feared that Eliphaz has fallen into the popular speakers trick of snatching at illustrations from "something supposed to be science." His contention is partly sound in its foundation, but fails like his analogies; and the controversy, when he leaves off, is advanced not a single step.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Eliphaz less gentle and courteous than in his former…
SECOND COURSE OF DIALOGUES.—SECOND SPEECH OF ELIPHAZ
Eliphaz less gentle and courteous than in his former speech. Probably irritated at his little success with Job, who rejected his friend’s counsel and still maintained his own uprightness. The hostility of the friends more pronounced as the dialogue proceeds.
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I. Eliphaz sharply reproves Job’s speeches (Job_15:2-13).
Censures—
1. Their emptiness and rehemence (Job_15:2). “Should a wise man (Heb., ‘the wise man’) utter vain knowledge (Heb., answer [with] knowledge of wind, or windy sentiments), and fill his belly (his mind or heart, Joh_7:38) with the East wind,”—cherishing and uttering opinions which are not only empty as the wind, but injurious to himself and others; like the parching, vehement east wind, coaching and drying up all vegetation. Such language as Job had employed, unbecoming, in the opinion of Eliphaz, the wise man that he had passed for. Job celebrated in his own country for wisdom as well as piely (ch. Job_29:8-9; Job_29:21-23). “Should the wise man,” &c.,—probably a taunt. Men with a character for wisdom to be careful to speak and act consistently with it. A little folly in such men like the dead fly in the apothecary’s perfume (Ecc_10:1).
2. Their verbiage and unprofitableness (Job_15:3). “Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches,” &c.,—as if Job’s speeches were mere talk. A charge as ungenerous and unfeeling as it was untruthful and unjust. Job no mere talker, though his words not always wise. A Christian’s speech to be with grace seasoned with salt, and good to the use of edifying. The abundant talk of the lips tendeth to penury. In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin. Unprofitable talk the mark of an unregenerate heart.
3. Their impiety and hurtful influence (Job_15:4) “Yea thou casteth off fear (or, makest void the fear [of God as of no value], and restrainest (—lessenest or discouragest) prayer before God [as of no use]”. Job’s language viewed either as indicating want of reverence and piety in himself, or rather as tending to discourage it in others. The danger implied in Asaph’s hasty conclusion: “Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain” (Psa_73:13); or, in the language of the fool’s heart: “There is no God” (Psa_14:1). Observe—
(1.) The interests of religion greatly in the keeping of its professors;
(2.) A believer in trouble to be careful so to speak as to bear a good testimony to religion before the world.
4. Their wickedness and deceit (Job_15:5). “Thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity (or, ‘thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth,’ viz. to utter such wickedness), and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.” Job’s language viewed as the studied contrivance of a wicked heart. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. As a man is, so is his speech. When the heart restrains prayer the mouth puts forth peevishness. What piety appeared in Job’s speeches uncharitably viewed by Eliphaz as only employed with the intent to deceive. His tongue that of the crafty, who “by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple” (Rom_16:18). No new thing for an upright man to be charged with hypocrisy. God’s testimony regarding Job the opposite to that of Eliphaz. Observe—
(1.) A small matter for men to speak ill if God speaks well of us;
(2.) Our speech and conversation to be with “simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God” (2Co_1:12).
The charge of Eliphaz untrue in both its senses. Job spoke rashly, but neither cast off the fear of God nor restrained prayer. His words not always wise, but neither tended to destroy religion nor discourage devotion. A godly man may sin against the commandments; it is the part of a wicked man to sin away the commandments themselves. The casting off of God’s fear the cause of all evil. When the fear of God goes out, the practice of sin comes in. The fear of God the beginning of wisdom; the casting of it off, the abandonment to all wickedness. The fear of God the sum of all godliness; the casting of it off, the sum of all sinfulness. Sad not to possess the fear of God; still worse to cast it off. To be without it ourselves is bad; to destroy it in others still worse. The deepest brand of guilt on a man’s brow is, not only to sin himself, but, like Jeroboam, to make others to sin also (1Ki_14:16; 1Ki_15:30; 1Ki_15:34; 1Ki_16:2; 1Ki_16:19; 1Ki_16:26). Job’s sin that he seemed more to complain against God than to pray to Him. Sad at any time to restrain prayer, still more in the time of affliction (Psa_50:15; Isa_26:16). Prayer a principal part of God’s worship and of man’s religion. A prayerless life the mark of a graceless heart. Prayer is restrained either—
(1) From distaste for it; or
(2) From disbelief in its efficacy; or
(3) From disdain and self-sufficiency. To restrain prayer to God is to be a god to ourselves. Believing prayer opens the door of mercy and the windows of blessing; to restrain prayer is to shut both against us.
5. Job’s speeches reproved also for their arrogance and pride (Job_15:7). “Art thou the first man that was born, or wast thou made before the hills? Hast thou heard the secret (or, ‘hast thou been a listener in the privy council’) of God, and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself? What knowest thou that we know not? What understandest thou which is not in us. With us are both the greyheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father. Are the consolations of God small with thee (or, ‘too small for thee,’ or, ‘of little account with thee’)? Is there any secret thing with thee (or, ‘and the word which dealeth gently with thee;’ or, ‘and our mild addresses to thee’)?” Job’s ridicule of his friends’ monopoly of wisdom retorted by Eliphaz upon himself. Grievous words stir up anger. Job had ridiculed his friends as if they were the whole race; is now ridiculed himself as if he were the first man that had been born. Wisdom rightly supposed to have been much greater in Adam than in his children, as made after the image of God himself. Similar language to that addressed here in ridicule to Job divinely applied to Christ as the wisdom of God (Pro_8:22-26). Hills spoken of as the firmest, and therefore supposed to be the most ancient, of earthly things. Said to be everlasting (Gen_49:26; Heb_3:6). Eliphaz views his own and his friends’ discourses as “the consolations of God,” and angrily asks Job if these were too small for him, or if he held them of small account. Their discourses and consolations, however, rather adapted for an impenitent sinner than a tried suffering saint. Hence Job’s low esteem of them (ch. Job_13:4; Job_13:12). Preachers and others to take care that what they present to mourners are in reality.
The Consolations of God
God the God of all comfort. Comforteth those that are cast down (2Co_1:3; 2Co_7:6). Comforts tenderly as a mother, effectually as a Creator, (Isa_66:13; Isa_65:18). Able to make either anything or nothing a comfort to us. Can multiply comforts as fast as the world multiplies crosses. His consolations viewed either as spoken to us or wrought in us. Are either good things done for us or promised to us. God comforts—
(1) By His spirit;
(2) By His word;
(3) By His providence. His consolations include—
(1) His purposes in trouble;
(2) His promises of support and deliverance;
(3) The benefits resulting from it;
(4) The example of the saints and especially of the Son of God;
(5) The fellowship of believers, and especially of Christ (Dan_3:25);
(6) God Himself as our shield here and our portion hereafter;
(7) His love as the origin of our trouble;
(8) The glories of eternity as infinitely compensating for the troubles of time. Trouble itself a consolation to a child of God as the testimony of his Father’s love. God’s rod, like Jonathan’s, brings honey on its point. “Thy rod and thy staff comfort me” (Psa_23:4). Observe—
(1.) The consolations of God are not small. Are able to meet every case. Strong consolation (Heb_6:18). Exceeding great and precious promises (2Pe_1:4). The Scriptures written that through patience and comfort we might have hope. The plaster of God’s Word able to cover the largest sore of a sin-stricken soul. God has great consolations for great sorrows. His consolations like Himself. Christ Himself the consolation of Israel. The Holy Ghost the comforter. The consolations of God are—(i.) True and solid; (ii.) Holy and satisfying; (iii.) Adequate and suitable; (iv.) Lasting and durable.
(2) The consolations of God are not to be accounted small. No small sin to slight God’s consolations, as either insufficient or unsuitable to our case. These, on the contrary, to be highly valued—(i.) On account of their origin—the love of God; (ii.) Their costliness—the purchase of a Saviour’s blood; (iii.) Their efficacy—as able to meet our case; (iv.) Their freeness on God’s part and their undeservedness on ours.
6. Job’s speeches reproved also for their passion and rebelliousness (Job_15:12). “Why doth thine heart carry thee away, and what do thine eyes wink at (as indicating passion, pride, and evil purpose)? That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth.” Unfeeling and exaggerated questions. Neither Job’s spirit nor his words to be always vindicated, but undeserving of such severe reproof. Reproof, when unjust and excessive, becomes cruclty instead of kindness. Tenderness a duty in dealing with a sinner, still more with a saint, and most of all with a sufferer. The language, and perhaps the looks of Job, at times indicative of unholy passion. The flesh even in a believer weak. The heat of the temper apt to carry away into hastiness of the tongue. Job at times too bold with God; yet his boldness that of a child, not that of an enemy. The spirit of an impenitent sinner is turned against God in trouble, that of a believer is turned towards Him. The latter the attitude of Job’s spirit in his affliction (ch. Job_16:20).
II. Eliphaz insists on man’s depravity (Job_15:14).
“What is man (wretched fallen man, Heb., ‘Enosh’), that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints (or angels,—Heb. ‘holy ones’); yea, the heavens (literally, or their inhabitants) are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man (or, ‘how much less [shall] abominable and filthy man [be clean in his sight]’) which drinketh iniquity like water?” A clear and strong declaration of man’s deep and universal depravity. The object to prove Job a sinner, and convict him of arrogance in maintaining his uprightness. The argument is—
(1) Unsound. The premises true but the conclusion false. Man universally depraved, but Job not therefore a bad man or a hypocrite; otherwise Satan’s allegation just,—no such thing as genuine religion in the world. Grace and holiness in the individual consistent with depravity in the race. The object of redemption to renew fallen man to purity. Comparatively blameless morals and upright principles found even among the heathen. Examples; Socrates, Aristides the Just, Cyrus the Great.
(2) Useless. Man’s depravity admitted and maintained by Job as well as Eliphaz (ch. Job_14:4). Not absolute but relative purity claimed by Job. All but useless for a preacher to labour to prove what all his hearers fully admit. The passage valuable as a testimony to
The Depravity of Human Nature
1. Declared in the name given to man here and elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures, “Enosh,”—miserable and desperately diseased. Man’s very nature morally diseased. Inward renovation necessary in order to purity and holiness. To cleanse and renew man’s corrupt nature, the work of the Holy Spirit through the instrumentality of Gospel truth. “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken to you.” The promise in the New Covenant: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean” (Eze_36:25). David’s prayer: “Create in me a clean heart.” The object of Christ’s death, to sanctify and cleanse the Church as with the washing of water by the word (Eph_5:26). His prayer to the Father: “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth” (Joh_17:17). The believer in one sense “clean every whit” (Joh_13:10). Apart from grace none clean in God’s sight. Sin stains man’s best performances. His righteousnesses filthy rags (Isa_64:6). Man only clean and holy as a member of Christ the Holy One, and in virtue of a new nature implanted in him by the Holy Ghost. At death, the last remains of the believer’s sinful nature for ever gone. The leprous house taken down and rebuilt entirely free from the vile infection.
2. Man’s depravity the result of his birth. Born naturally of a fallen woman, man’s nature necessarily depraved. A clean thing not to be produced in the mere course of nature from an unclean (ch. Job_14:4). Man now shapen in iniquity in the womb, and conceived by his mother in sin (Psa_51:5). Like mother, like child. One glorious and necessary exception. Christ “born of a woman,” yet righteous and clean from His birth. The reason: “His conception by the immediate agency of the Holy Ghost (Luk_1:35). Man’s Saviour must be Himself a man, yet absolutely clean from his birth. To be a man he must be “born of a woman;” to be clean his conception must be the immediate production of Divine power. No necessity for the figment of the immaculate conception of the Saviour’s mother. Mary a holy woman, not by nature but by grace. Her song that of a saved sinner (Luk_1:47).
3. Man’s character given in three particulars—
(1) Abominable. Something to be loathed. Sin the abominable thing that God hates. Makes every creature abominable in whom it prevails. Man, as depraved, cast out like Israel at his very birth, to the loathing of his person (Eze_16:5). No education, refinement, or accomplishment able to make an unrenewed man anything less than abominable in the sight of God.
(2) Filthy,—the filthiness rather to the smell than the taste. The noisomeness of a corpse or of a sewer. The sourness of a fermenting mass. Sin is death and moral putrefaction. Makes a man in whom it reigns a living corpse. Not all the perfumes of Arabia able to sweeten an unrenewed soul.
(3) Drinking iniquity like water. (i.) Man loves and delights in sin. (ii.) Thirsts for it and pursues it eagerly. (iii.) Expects and endeavours to satisfy himself by its commission. (iv.) Commits it as a thing necessary to his existence; can no more live without it than an ox can live without drinking water. (v.) Practises it habitually, as a horse must daily drink water. (vi.) Finds pleasure in its commission, but nothing that permanently satisfies him; thirsts again. (vii.) Commits it abundantly, not sipping but drinking it. (viii.) Goes to it naturally, as an animal goes naturally to drink water; sin natural to a depraved heart. (ix.) Commits it easily and without effort; sins on easy terms and small consideration; water a common drink. Observe, however, a contrast as well as a resemblance in the case:—(i.) Water a creature of God; sin a thing of the devil. (ii.) Water designed by God for the use of man and beast; sin strictly forbidden by Him. (iii.) Water necessary for man’s existence; sin not only not necessary, but ruinous. (iv.) Water beneficial to the drinker of it; sin only hurtful and destructive.
III. Eliphaz proposes to convict Job from the Fathers (Job_15:17) &c.
“I will shew thee, hear me; and that which I have seen (—personally observed as well as heard from others) I will declare; which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it. Unto whom alone the earth (or land) was given (for their residence and government,—in opposition to Job’s statement in ch. Job_9:24,) and no stranger passed among them” (or, “came among them,” as a resident or invader). Traditional maxims of the ancients avowedly introduced by Eliphaz, as had already been done by Job and the other speakers. These ancients the fathers of “wise men,” who had handed down their moral sayings to their posterity. To this posterity belonged Eliphaz himself. Like Job, a contemporary of Scrug and Reu, the son and grandson of Peleg, in whose days the earth was divided after the dispersion (Gen_10:25). The ancients or fathers, therefore, probably Noah and his son Shem, or Noah’s ancestors back to Adam. The “wise men,” those to whom the land of Arabia was given as their residence, viz., the sons of Joktan, the younger son of Eber (Shem’s grandson), and Peleg’s brother, by whom Arabia was first populated (Gen_10:25-30). One of these sons of Joktan named Jobab, supposed by some to be the same with Job. The boast of Eliphaz that among these “wise men” or sons of Joktan, “no stranger” or foreigner had ever been allowed to corrupt their religion and morals. The glory of the Arabs is their language, their sword, and their pure blood. The true religion often corrupted by the mixture of foreign nations. Israel forbidden to make alliances with the nations around them lest they should “learn their ways.” The saying of a heathen poet endorsed by Revelation, “Evil communications corrupt good manners.” Arabia famed for its wise men. These handed down to posterity the moral and religious truth received in like manner from their fathers.—The true religion propagated by parents and others carefully instructing the rising generation in its truths. The obvious and sacred duty of all who possess it (Psa_48:13; Psa_78:3-4).
IV. Quotation from the Fathers in reference to the experience of the ungodly (Job_15:20-35).
Noblespecimen of Oriental poetry. Sublime and tragical, and among the most ancient in the world. A description of unprincipled men whose only aim is the acquisition of wealth and power, stopping at no means to obtain it, and then abusing it to the oppression of their fellow-men. Applicable in every period of the world, but more particularly in its earlier ages, when, as before the flood, “the earth was filled with violence.” The characters especially such as the “mighty men which were of old, men of renown” (Gen_6:4; Gen_6:11-13). Men of the class of Cain, Nimrod and Pharaoh—impious and daring towards God, cruel and unjust towards their fellow-men. The application wrongfully intended for Job, in order to bring him to conviction and repentance. The only ground for the application in his circumstances, none whatever in his character and conduct. Job, once rich and prosperous, was now in great misery through successive blows of Divine providence. This sufficient ground with Eliphaz for its application. The doctrine intended by Eliphaz to be conveyed by it, as to the constant and exclusive attendance of misery upon wickedness in this world, repeatedly denied by Job (ch. Job_12:6; Job_21:7), &c.
The description contains:—
1. The character of the persons intended. All sin deserving of punishment, but some sins more heinous in God’s sight than others. The persons intended are described as—
(1.) Wicked (Job_15:20). Men lawless and unprincipled, of wicked hearts and wicked lives. All men sinners, but by God’s Providence and His renewing or restraining grace, all not wicked sinners.—
(2.) Violent oppressors (Job_15:20). The distinctive character of these wicked men. Their wickedness manifested in their violent conduct and oppression of their fellow-men. Their object, power and wealth; their means of obtaining them, violence and wrong. Great warriors and conquerors. Ambitious chiefs and tyrants. Robbers on a large as well as a small scale. Particularly described by Zophar (ch. Job_20:19). The character which Eliphaz afterwards directly ascribes to Job (ch. Job_22:6-7; Job_22:9). A common character in those early ages, and in the barbarous and uncivilised state of a community.—
(3.) Daring and impious (Job_15:25). “For he stretcheth out his hand against God and strengtheneth himself (or, ‘plays the hero’) against the Almighty; he runneth upon him (viz., upon God,—rushes on Him with swiftness and fury, as Dan_8:6), even on his neck (like a fierce combatant, eager to grapple with his antagonist in close quarters; or, ‘with his neck,’ like a furious bull whose strength is in his neck and shoulders), upon (or with) the thick bosses of his bucklers” (like a band attacking with joined shields). The language of Pharaoh (Exo_5:2); of Sennacherib (Isa_36:20); of the crucifiers of Christ (Act_4:25-27; Psa_2:1). Similar defiance of the Almighty exhibited by the Dragon and his angels (Rev_12:7). The character of obstinate and impenitent transgressors in general. Men “fight against God” while—(i.) Persevering in a course of sin; (ii.) Opposing God’s cause or Gospel, His Church, or any of His people (Act_5:39); (iii.) Contending for an object in opposition to His will, and by means which He forbids. Fearful stage in sin when men act as champions of hell against the God of heaven.—
(4.) Profligate and profane (Job_15:34). “Hypocrites,” or rather, profane and profligate men. Men who neither “fear God nor regard men.” No reference intended by the term in the Old Testament to religious profession.—
(5.) Covetous and unjust (Job_15:34). Men given to “bribery.” As rulers and judges, accepting gifts as the bribe for a favourable though unjust sentence. Men who wronged others by perverting justice in order to enrich themselves. Accepted gifts for the perpetration of wicked deeds.—
(6.) Plotters of mischief (Job_15:35). “They conceive mischief and bring forth vanity” (Margin, “iniquity”). The same character described, Psa_36:4; Pro_4:16. Sins against our neighbour chiefly intended. Those who do not fear God readily plot against men.—
(7.) Cunning and deceitful (Job_15:35). “Their belly (mind or heart, but with reference to conception) prepareth (contrives or matures) deceit” (for others in order to their own gain, for themselves in their disappointment of it). Evil ends often attainable only by deceit. So Satan and our first parents; Haman and the Jews; Jezebel and Naboth’s vineyard.
2. The temporary prosperity of the persons intended (Job_15:27). “Because he covereth (or, ‘though he have covered’) his face with fatness (see Psa_73:7), and maketh collops of fat on his flanks” (or, “hath made fat on his loins”). Good living his object. His god his belly (Luk_16:19).—“And he inhabiteth desolate cities (or, ‘and though he inhabited cities destroyed by him’ and taken into his own possession,—conduct ascribed to Crassus the Roman general), and in houses which no man inhabiteth (—emptied of their proper inhabitants), which are ready to become heaps” (or, “are doomed to ruins”)—reminding Job of his own calamity in the case of his children (ch. Job_1:19). Temporary success in sin to be followed by ultimate ruin. The wicked raised for a deeper fall. Iniquity often like a tree full of blossom, to be blighted by the frost or blasted by the lightning. Prosperous villainy one of the mysteries of Divine providence.
3. Their subsequent misery. Suffering corresponding with sin. This objected to by Job as to its universal occurrence in this life. The passage describes—
(1.) The inward experience of the wicked in this life (Job_15:20, &c.). “The wicked man travaileth with pain (or, ‘is inwardly tormented’) all his days (lives a life of anxiety and fear); and the number of years hidden to the oppressor” (or, “and the number of years,” or “the few years [which] are laid up for” him). The whole life of the oppressor comes to be full of anxiety and alarm under the goad of an evil conscience. Sin, like a corpse or a putrid ulcer, breeds worms.—“A dreadful sound (Heb. ‘a voice of alarms,’—not one terror but many) is in his ears; in prosperity, the destroyer (God’s avenging justice, or some hand of violence as the executioner of it) shall come upon him” (what actually takes place, or what the voice of conscience inwardly threatens him with). The Avenging Furies of the heathen expressive of facts in the experience of the daring transgressor. The suddenness of the destruction intended, or the presence of these voices of terror in the midst of outward quiet and prosperity. The unexpectedness or calamity a serious aggravation of it. “When they shall say, Peace and safety,” &c. (Job_15:22).—“He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness (that he shall ever escape out of the misery that threatens or has already overtaken him,—the language sadly suggestive of Job’s own case); and he is waited for of the sword” (actually or in his own apprehension). Besides present evils he anticipates future ones. The sword of Damocles hangs over his head at his most sumptuous feasts. His terrified imagination sees a dagger wherever he turns. Only a violent and bloody death is before his eyes. “Every one that findeth me shall slay me.” Despair of good the greatest evil. A wicked man has neither ground nor heart to believe [Caryl]. Faith a shield against the fiery darts of the devil; unbelief a shield against the tender mercies of God. Faith makes evil good; unbelief makes good evil.—(Job_15:23). “He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it?” He becomes like Cain, “a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth.” Job’s fall from affluence to poverty might seem to afford an example. The bread he has taken from others now fails himself. The wicked wander for bread when they are rich as well as when they are poor. The godly are content in every condition.—“He knoweth that the day of darkness is near at hand,”—has the inward conviction that a time of poverty and calamity will soon overtake him. Terrible certainty of a guilty conscience. The Furies brandish in his face their threatening whip. Conscience holds up the sentence of condemnation before his eyes. The experience which impelled Judas to the fatal tree. The certain apprehension of future and speedy perdition one principal cause of suicide. Such terrors aided, if not generated, by the Tempter, who now becomes the Tormentor. The Gospel of the grace of God, free and immediate forgiveness through the blood of the cross to the chief of sinners, the blessed and only remedy in such a case. The oil of pardoning mercy alone able to smooth that surging sea. Jesus the only Physician that can minister to that mind diseased. “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,” has already in multitudes “cleansed the bosom of that perilous grief which weighs upon the heart,” and changed black despair into bright and joyous hope. “Fear not, only believe.” (Job_15:24).—“Trouble and anguish (—multiplied and intensified distress, or, outward trouble and inward anguish) shall make him afraid.” Again too much resemblance to Job’s case (ch. Job_6:4). Worse to fear evil than to feel it.—“They shall prevail against him” (or “hem him in”). Shall break his spirit or end his life. Shall scare him not only out of his comfort but out of his senses [Caryl].—“As a king (or general) ready to the battle.” Trouble and anguish personified as a general in the midst of his troops, surrounding the enemy, rushing on to the attack and overpowering him. The evil-doer powerless to resist this attack of outward trouble and inward anguish. Troubles too great to bear, too thick to escape from. “My punishment is greater than I can bear.” “The spirit of a man may sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?” Such an experience often the result of long-rejected calls to repentance and offers of mercy (Pro_1:24-30).
(2) The outward visitation of the wicked. (Job_15:29). “He shall not be rich (or continue so,—shall not enjoy his ill-gotten wealth, which shall ‘flow away on the day of wrath’), neither shall his substance continue, neither shall he prolong the perfection there of (or ‘extend his possessions, flocks, &c.’) upon the earth” (or in the land). Apparently another side-glance at Job’s losses. Ill-gotten goods never lasting. Sinners earn wages to put them into a bag with holes. Earthly joys, like children’s toys, easily broken and soon forgotten.—(Job_15:30). “He shall not depart out of darkness”—shall not escape out of the trouble and misery that shall overtake him. Endless misery the just wages of unceasing sin.—“The flame (—lightning or the hot wind of the desert, emblems of the wrath of God) shall dry up his branches (—his prosperity, more especially his children; another sad cut for Job, ch. Job_1:16; Job_1:19); and by the breath of his mouth (—the anger of God, compared to a scorching or a scattering wind) shall he go away” (retreat as a worsted combatant, or be whirled away as chaff or stubble, Psa_1:4). God’s mere breath able to sweep away the sinner. Indicates also the suddenness of the destruction.—(Job_15:32). “It (viz. his death) shall be accomplished (or, ‘the recompense shall be fully paid’; or, ‘he shall be cut off’) before his time, and his branch shall not be green” (—his children shall not survive or prosper, or his prosperity shall not continue). The prosperous wicked compared, as in Job_15:30, to a flourishing tree. So ch. Job_8:16-17; Psa_37:35.—(Job_15:33). “He (the sinner under the figure of a tree, or God in his mysterious judgments) shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive” (when smitten by the frost or a pestilential wind). His prosperity brought to a sudden and premature end.—(Job_15:34). “For the congregation of hypocrites (—the wicked themselves and their families along with them) shall be desolate.” Neither numbers nor combinations able to secure the ungodly against God’s judgments. “Though hand join in hand &c.” Wealth gathered by man’s unrighteousness often scattered by God’s wrath.—“And fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery” (—the dwellings of corrupt and covetous judges). Divine judgments shall overthrow their families, if not their very dwellings, as in the mind of Eliphaz they had done in the case of Job’s children (ch. Job_1:19). A literal exemplification in the case of the Cities of the Plain. Job cruelly made to see, as in a mirror, his own calamities, and, to intensify their bitterness, to see them as a judgment of God.
An apparent warning parenthetically introduced in the description by way of personal application (Job_15:31). “Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity (—in his riches, or in the iniquity which has procured them; or, let not him [any man] trust in the vanity by which he has been deceived): for vanity (probably used in another sense) shall be his recompense.” A caution of general use, but especially intended for poor Job. The warning suggests the following lessons:—
(1) All carthly possessions vanity, as unable to satisfy the soul, and sure to disappoint those who trust in them for happiness. The creature is vanity, both in its possession and its promises. Promises—(i.) Satisfaction; (ii.) Protection; (iii.) Continuance. Most vain to those who trust in it.—
(2) Those possessions especially vain which have been dishonestly or violently obtained. “The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death” (Pro_21:6).—
(3) The character of the ungodly to trust in vanity, in earthly possessions and pleasures which cannot satisfy, and in sinful courses which only end in misery and ruin (Isa_52:2.) Men must trust in something, either God or vanity.—
(4) The property of sin to deceive (Rom_7:11). The deceitfulness of sin (Heb_3:13). Deceivableness of unrighteousness (2Th_2:10). Sin deceives, as it promises—(i) Pleasure; (ii.) Profit; (iii.) Impunity. Sin promises all pleasure, and in the end robs of all peace.—
(5) Men apt still to trust in that by which they have been already deceived (Pro_23:35).—
(6) All unrenewed men deceived (Tit_3:3). He feedeth on ashes; a deceived heart hath turned him aside (Isa_44:20). Satan the deceiver of the nations (Rev_20:7). Men by nature, since the admission of Satan’s first great deception, call evil good, and good evil; put darkness for light, and light for darkness; put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter (Isa_5:20).—
(7) The recompense of trusting in vanity is vanity—emptiness, dissatisfaction, disappointment. In indulging in sin and sinful pleasures men embrace a cloud. Like the apples of Sodom, dust in the hand that grasps them instead of fruit. Beautiful soap-bubbles. Vanity pursued ends in vanity experienced.—
(8) Sin in itself the recompense of sin. Vanity another name for sin. No greater punishment than to be given up to one’s own lusts and passions (Rom_1:26; Rom_1:28). The commission of one sin often punished by being left to the commission of another. Great part of the misery of the lost the abandonment to the power of sinful lusts, without any means for their gratification. Their fire of sinful passions unquenchable, with no object any longer to act upon. To sow to the flesh is to reap corruption. He that is filthy shall, after death, be filthy still. Sowing the wind, men reap the wirlwind; wind, but more boisterous and destructive. Sin a serpent, which, sleeping for a time, awakes only to sting and torment the soul that harboured it.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain This text helps us to put our finger on…
Job 15:4
This text helps us to put our finger on the cause of a great deal that is amiss in all of us. It is very likely, it is all but certain, that the reason of all our trouble, and dull discouragement, and want of growth and health is that we are doing just the thing that Job’s unkind friend accused him of in the text—"restraining prayer before God."
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I. There can be no doubt that the neglect of prayer is a sadly common sin. It is likewise, when we calmly think of it, a most extraordinary folly. Prayer is the best means to all right ends; the very last thing in prudence to be omitted; the thing that will bring God’s wisdom to counsel us, God’s mighty power to uphold and defend us; the thing without which our souls will droop and die, more needful to the growth of grace in us than showers and sunshine are to the growing grass or the green leaves. It is through carelessness that professing Christians neglect prayer, through lack of interest in it, vague dislike to close communion with God, lack of vital faith, the faith of heart as well as head.
II. There are two things which will save us from this sin. One is that we oftentimes pray, "Lord, increase our faith." The other is that we habitually ask that in all our prayers we may be directed, inspired, elevated, composed, by the blessed and Holy Spirit. Remember St. Paul’s words, "The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered."
A. K. H. B., Sunday Afternoons at the Parish Church of a University City, p. 54.
Job 15:4
(1) To a believer in revelation it is enough that prayer is most positively enjoined as a primary duty of religion, a duty strictly in itself as the proper manner of acknowledging the supremacy of God and our dependence. (2) Prayer cannot be discountenanced on any principle which would not repress and condemn all earnest religious desires. (3) It is the grand object to augment these desires. Here too is evidence in favour of prayer. For it must operate to make them more strong, more vivid, more solemn, more prolonged, and more definite as to their objects. Forming them into expressions to God will concentrate the soul in them, and on these objects.
I. It may well come upon our thoughts to reflect how much of this exercise in its genuine quality there is or has been in the course of our life habitually. There should be some proportion in things. A matter of pre-eminent importance should not be reduced to occupy some diminutive interstices and corners of the active system. We know that our grand resource of prayer is a blessed privilege granted from heaven, of a peculiarly heavenly quality; where is our consistency if we are indifferent and sparing in the use of it?
II. "Thou restrainest prayer before God." (1) Is there a very frequent or even a prevailing reluctance to it, so that the chief feeling regarding it is but a haunting sense of duty and of guilt in the neglect? This were a serious cause for alarm lest all be wrong within. (2) Is it, in the course of our days, left to uncertainties whether the exercise shall be attended to or not? Is there a habit of letting come first to be attended to any inferior thing that may offer itself? The charge in the text falls upon the state of feeling which forgets to recognise the value of prayer as an important instrument in the transactions of life. The charge falls, too, on the indulgence of cares, anxieties, and griefs with little recourse to this great expedient.
III. Restraint of prayer foregoes the benefits of the intercession of Christ. It precludes the disposition to refer to the Divine Being in social communications. It saps a man’s moral and Christian courage. It raises a formidable difficulty in the way of recourse to God on urgent occasions and emergencies.
J. Foster, Lectures, 1st series, p. 113.
References: Job 15:10.—G. W. McCree, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 399; W. Walters, Ibid., vol. xix., p. 137.
Job 15:11
God has a different side of Himself to show to each of us. To the young man He is the Setter of great tasks, the God who asks great sacrifices and gives glorious rewards. You say nothing to the young man about the God of repair, the God of consolation, the God who takes the broken life into His hands and mends it, nothing of that God yet. The time will come for that. And is there anything more touching and pathetic in the history of man than to see how absolutely, without exception, the men and women who start out with only the need of tasks, of duties, of something which can call out their powers, of the smile of God stimulating and encouraging them—how they all come, one by one, certainly up to the place in life where they need consolation?
I. God is the Consoler of men by the very fact of His existence. It is because God is that man is bidden to be at peace. Although we live petty and foolish lives, the knowledge that there is greatness and wisdom, the knowledge that there is God, is a far greater and more constant consolation to us than we know.
II. But what comes next? The sympathy of this same God, whose existence is already real to us. It becomes known to us, not merely that He is, but that He cares for us. Through God’s sympathy we know God more intensely and more nearly, and so all the consolations of God’s being become more real to us.
III. God has His great truths, His ideas which He brings to the hearts He wishes to console. What are those truths? Education, spirituality, and immortality—these seem to be the sum of them. These ideas are the keys to all the mysteries of life, and to the gateways to consolation.
IV. God comes Himself and shows His presence and His power by working the miracle of regeneration upon the soul that has cried out for Him. That is the consummate consolation. Everything leads up to that.
Phillips Brooks, Sermons, p. 98.
References: Job 15—S. Cox, Expositor, 1st series, vol. vii., p. 1; Ibid., Commentary on Job, p. 185. Job 16:2.—R. Glover, Homiletic Magazine, vol. x., p. 167. Job 16:22.—E. J. Hardy, Faint yet Pursuing, p. 138. Job 16-17—S. Cox, Expositor, 1st series, vol. vii., p. 100; Ibid., Commentary on Job, p. 197. Job 17:1-3.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 70. Job 17:3.—Expositor, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 426. Job 17:6.—Ibid., p. 427.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain The Second Series of Speeches (Job 15-21)
The Second Series of Speeches (Job 15-21)
The rejection by Job of the opinions and advice of the friends, his sturdy maintenance of his innocence, and the fearlessness with which in his anguish he has arraigned the divine government of the world, have all alike deepened their conviction of his guilt. Without actually charging Job with definite sin, for which indeed they have no ground, they now administer stern rebukes, and draw terrible pictures of the certain misery which awaits the godless, and this evidently with an eye to the sufferer. They no longer encourage him to repentance, or predict consequent prosperity.
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Job, for his part, laments their harshness, and rejects anew their doctrine of retribution as contrary to experience, and as not applicable to his case. He feels himself to be abandoned by God and man; he cries out for pity; he reasserts his innocence, and is still troubled by the problem of evil. Yet in the very midst of his trouble he makes some advance towards the solution of the mystery. Already he has had dim visions of a mediator between himself and GVod (Job_9:32.), and of the possibility of a restoration to the divine favour (Job_14:13-15). These were only momentary glimpses of a brighter day amidst the gloom, but now they develop into a stronger conviction that God must in the end restore the light of His countenance to His servant, and vindicate his innocence to the world, though it can only be after his death: see Job_16:19; Job_19:25-27. It is, however, no longer an umpire between himself and God that he desires. The conviction has come to him that since there is no umpire who can force his decision on God, God Himself will be the umpire to vindicate the righteousness of Job against the stigma of unrighteousness which He had Himself seemed to fasten upon him by his affliction.
The Second Speech of Eliphaz
1-16. Eliphaz accuses Job of impiety and arrogance.
2. And fill, etc] utter idle, empty remarks.
7. It was a popular idea that there was a primeval man endowed with perfect wisdom, corresponding to the figure of the Divine Wisdom in Proverbs 8.
8. Render, 'Didst thou hearken in the council of God?' i.e. before the creation of the world.
10. Eliphaz, perhaps, refers here to himself.
11. RV 'Are the consolations of God too small for thee, and the word that dealeth gently with thee?' The 'consolations of God' are the comforting views about God's government and purposes which Eliphaz would have Job accept: cp. Job_5:8-27.
12. What do thy eyes wink at?] render, 'why do thy eyes flash (in anger)?'
14. Eliphaz uses Job's own words (Job_14:4) to convict him of his sinfulness.
15. He] i.e. God. Saints] RV 'holy ones': the angels, cp. Job_4:18. Heavens] i.e. probably, 'heavenly beings.'
16. Drinketh] thirsts after, is greedy for.
17-35. Eliphaz describes, doubtless as a warning to Job, the troubled conscience and inevitable doom of the wicked.
18, 19. Eliphaz refers to a time when his ancestors had not mingled with other people, who would corrupt the purity of their wise sayings. His countrymen the Edomites, who were descended from Abraham, would have the same pride of race as their Hebrew cousins.
20-23. The haunting fears of the wicked oppressor.
20. And the number, etc.] RV 'even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.'
22. He loses hope of deliverance from misfortune.
23a. He imagines he is always coming to poverty.
24. Ready] fully prepared.
25. For] RV 'Because.'
26. Render,' It (trouble) leaps at his throat, past the thickest boss of his shield.' The boss is the central knob of the buckler.
27. A picture of sensual luxury: cp. Psa_73:7.
28. Illustrative of his daring impiety: he ventured to dwell in cities that lie under the curse: cp. Jos_6:26.
29. Neither shall he prolong, etc.] RV 'neither shall their produce bend to the earth'; a figure of fraitfulness.
30. By the breath, etc.] God's wrath will destroy him like a withering sirocco.
31. RV 'Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself.' Accomplished] RM 'paid in full.' His time] the natural time of his death.
32, 33. The speedy end of the wicked. 'His branch prematurely withers; he puts forth grapes, and cannot ripen them; he flowers, but he fails of fruit' (Davidson).
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain The Second Series of Controversies
The Second Series of Controversies
CHAPTER 15 Eliphaz’s Second Address
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1. Tells Job that he is self-condemned (Job 15:1-6)
2. Charges him with pride (Job 15:7-16)
3. The wicked and their lot (Job 15:17-35)
Job 15:1-6. His second address is not as lofty as his first. Job’s language has evidently annoyed him very much. He characterizes his words as vain, unprofitable, which can do no good. He charges him with having cast off fear and having become one who restrained devotion before God. He tells Job that what he has spoken only confirms their views of him, that he is a wicked man and suffers justly for his sins.
Thine own mouth condemneth thee and not I;
Yea, thine own lips testify against thee.
Job 15:7-16. Wrong as Eliphaz’s rebuke is, he adds still another charge. He tells him he is filled with pride. What Job knows they know also. “What knowest thou, that we do not know? What understandeth thou, which is not in us?”
And why does Thine heart carry thee away?
And why do thine eyes wink? (in pride)
That thou shouldest turn thine anger against God
And cause such words to issue from thy mouth.
Then, as he did in his first address, Eliphaz speaks once more of the holiness of God. “Behold He putteth no trust in His holy Ones. Yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight.”
Job 15:17-35. Here we have another description of the wicked, their miserable lot and what is in store for them. What he said was meant to terrify Job. Every word must have cut deep into Job’s miserable soul, for he knew with Eliphaz he was a wicked, impious man. We see that Eliphaz said nothing new. He restated the former argument.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Eliphaz Attempts to Rebuke Job
Eliphaz Attempts to Rebuke Job
v. 1. Then answered Eliphaz, the Temanite, feeling constrained to reply to Job the second time, and said,
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v. 2. Should a wise man utter vain knowledge and fill his belly, literally, "his inward parts," his breast, with the east wind? The east Wind was noted for its stormy bluster. His point was that Job’s own speeches were empty roarings and disproved his claim of being a wise man.
v. 3. Should he reason with unprofitable talk, contending with arguments that have no point, or with speeches wherewith he can do no good? It is not only that empty words convince no one, but also that such efforts at self justification are useless, being opposed by the facts.
v. 4. Yea, thou, castest off fear, bringing to naught, making void, breaking down true piety, and restrainest prayer before God, injuring and removing the proper devotional attitude, both of which are necessary for the observation of proper worship of the Lord.
v. 5. For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, his statements showed that he was wholly influenced, utterly ruled, by his wickedness, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty, of clever sophists, who are adept in the art of covering their guilt with a show of innocence.
v. 6. Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I, like a judge pronouncing a sentence upon one who has been found to be guilty; yea, thine own lips testify against thee. Cf Mat 12:37. The position of Eliphaz was this, that Job’s empty protestations of innocence were in themselves proofs of sinful actions committed by him, on account of which God had laid such sufferings upon him.
v. 7. Art thou the first man that was born? Did Job believe that he had the deepest insight into the process of creation and all the works of God? Or wast thou made before the hills, brought forth before God created the world, and therefore included in the councils of God from eternity?
v. 8. Hast thou heard the secret of God, attending the divine councils and getting his information at first hand? And dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself, reserving it, keeping it secret, as a confidant of God who refrains from divulging His counsels?
v. 9. What knowest thou that we know not? What understandest thou which is not in us? Cf 12:3; 13:2, Eliphaz replying to Job’s pertinent questions in this manner.
v. 10. With us are both the gray-headed and very aged men, or, "Also among us are the gray-haired, the aged," much elder than thy father, these old men of the various tribes which they represented ranking with Job in wisdom, for which reason he should not presume to arrogate all wisdom to himself.
v. 11. Are the consolations of God small with thee? literally, "Too little for thee are the consolations of God?" Eliphaz, who was not Buffering with overmuch modesty, meant to say that Job surely should have been satisfied with such words of comfort as he and his friends had brought. Is there any secret thing with thee? literally, "a word so gentle with thee?" for Job should realize that his friends were dealing with him in great tenderness.
v. 12. Why doth thine heart carry thee away? Why should Job’s inner excitement, his wounded pride, cause him to meet their efforts with such bitter passion? And what do thy eyes wink at, with an excited, angry snapping and rolling,
v. 13. that thou turnest thy spirit against God, snorting against Him in anger, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth, letting his anger break forth in vehement speeches? Altogether, Eliphaz insisted that Job’s statements disproved his wisdom, injured the proper reverent attitude toward God, and were utterly wrong. The point of his rebuke is that Job should look for the reason for his sufferings solely in himself.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Eliphaz the Temanite
Eliphaz the Temanite
This is the name of a man. People from Teman are known as Temanites. See how you translated this in Job 2:11. (See: How to Translate Names)
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Should a wise man answer with useless knowledge and fill himself with the east wind?
Eliphaz uses this rhetorical question to rebuke Job. This can be written as a statement. AT: "A wise man should not answer with useless knowledge nor fill himself with the east wind." (See: Rhetorical Question)
fill himself with the east wind
The wind represents emptiness. This phrase speaks of a person speaking empty and meaningless words as if that person were full of the wind. AT: "fill himself with empty words" or "only have meaningless words" (See: Metaphor)
the east wind
"hot air" or "the desert wind"
Should he reason with unprofitable talk or with speeches with which he can do no good?
Eliphaz uses this rhetorical question to rebuke Job. This can be written as a statement. AT: "He should not reason with unprofitable talk nor with speeches with which he can do no good." or "He should not argue using unprofitable talk or make speeches that accomplish nothing good." (See: Rhetorical Question)
translationWords
wise
know
profit
good
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 15:1–21:34 In this second round of speeches, Job’s friends…
15:1–21:34 In this second round of speeches, Job’s friends focus on the fate of the wicked and imply that Job’s condition shows he has sinned.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.