Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 15:1

Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

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).

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).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

CHAPTER XV

Eliphaz charges Job with impiety in attempting to justify

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

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

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, as follows.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

1 Then began Eliphaz the Temanite, and said:

2 Doth a wise man utter vain knowledge,

And fill his breast with the east wind?

3 Contending with words, that profit not,

And speeches, by which no good is done?

4 Moreover, thou makest void the fear of God,

And thou restrainest devotion before God;

5 For thy mouth exposeth thy misdeeds,

And thou choosest the language of the crafty.

6 Thine own mouth condemneth thee and not I,

And thine own lips testify against thee.

The second course of the controversy is again opened by Eliphaz, the most respectable, most influential, and perhaps oldest of the friends. Job’s detailed and bitter answers seem to him as empty words and impassioned tirades, which ill become a wise man, such as he claims to be in assertions like Job 12:3; Job 13:2. with He interr., like , Job 13:25. , wind, is the opposite of what is solid and sure; and in the parallel (like Hos 12:2) signifies what is worthless, with the additional notion of vehement action. If we translate by “belly,” the meaning is apt to be misunderstood; it is not intended as the opposite of fo et (Ewald), but it means, especially in the book of Job, not only that which feels, but also thinks and wills, the spiritually receptive and active inner nature of man ( Psychol. S. 266); as also in Arabic, el – battin signifies that which is within, in the deepest mystical sense. Hirz. and Renan translate the inf. abs. , which follows in Job 15:3, as verb. fin.: se dfend-il par des vaines paroles ; but though the inf. abs. is so used in an historical clause (Job 15:35), it is not an interrogative. Ewald takes it as the subject: “to reprove with words-avails not, and speeches – whereby one does no good;” but though and might be used without any further defining, as in (2Ti 2:14) and (1Ti 6:4), the form of Job 15:3 is opposed to such an explanation. The inf. abs. is connected as a gerund ( redarguendo s. disputando ) with the verbs in the question, Job 15:2; and the elliptical relative clause is best, as referring to things, according to Job 35:3: sermone ( from , as sermo from serere ) qui non prodest ; , on the other hand, to persons, verbis quibus nil utilitatis affert. Eliphaz does not censure Job for arguing, but for defending himself by such useless and purposeless utterances of his feeling. But still more than that: his speeches are not only unsatisfactory and unbecoming, , accedit quod (cumulative like Job 14:3), they are moreover irreligious, since by doubting the justice of God they deprive religion of its fundamental assumption, and diminish the reverence due to God. in such an objective sense as Psa 19:10 almost corresponds to the idea of religion. is to be understood, according to Psa 102:1; Psa 142:3 (comp. Psa 64:2; Psa 104:34): before God, and consequently customary devotional meditation, here of the disposition of mind indispensable to prayer, viz., devotion, and especially reverential awe, which Job depreciates ( , detrahere ). His speeches are mostly directed towards God; but they are violent and reproachful, therefore irreverent in form and substance.

Job 15:5

is not affirmative: forsooth (Hirz.), but, confirmatory and explicative. This opinion respecting him, which is so sharply and definitely expressed by , thrusts itself irresistibly forward, for it is not necessary to know his life more exactly, his own mouth, whence such words escape, reveals his sad state: docet ( only in the book of Job, from , discere , a word which only occurs once in the Hebrew, Pro 22:25) culpam tuam os tuum , not as Schlottm. explains, with Raschi: docet culpa tua os tuum , which, to avoid being misunderstood, must have been , and is a though unsuited to the connection. is certainly not directly equivalent to , Isa 3:9; it signifies to teach, to explain, and this verb is just the one in the mouth of the censorious friend. What follows must not be translated: while thou choosest (Hirz.); is not a circumstantial clause, but adds a second confirmatory clause to the first: he chooses the language of the crafty, since he pretends to be able to prove his innocence before God; and convinced that he is in the right, assumes the offensive (as Job 13:4.) against those who exhort him to humble himself. Thus by his evil words he becomes his own judge ( ) and accuser ( after the fem. , like Pro 5:2; Pro 26:23). The knot of the controversy becomes constantly more entangled since Job strengthens the friends more and more in their false view by his speeches, which certainly are sinful in some parts (as Job 9:22).

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

Second Address of Eliphaz.

B. C. 1520.

      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 grayheaded 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?

      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 (ch. viii. 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.

      II. He charges him with impiety and irreligion (v. 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. vi. 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. iii. 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? ch. xii. 6. If there be no forgiveness with God (ch. vii. 21), who will fear him? Ps. cxxx. 4. If he laugh at the trial of the innocent (ch. ix. 23), if he be so difficult of access (ch. ix. 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 (v. 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, Matt. v. 19. If we ever thought evil, let us lay our hand upon our mouth to suppress the evil thought (Prov. xxx. 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. xvi. 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 (v. 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 (ch. xii. 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, v. 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? Prov. viii. 23, c. Must God’s counsels, which are as the great mountains (Ps. xxxvi. 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,” &lti>ch. viii. 9. Or, 2. In intimacy of acquaintance with God (v. 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 (ch. xiii. 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, v. 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 (Ps. cxix. 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 (ch. xxxii. 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, ch. xxxii. 9.

      IV. He charges him with a contempt of the counsels and comforts that were given him by his friends (v. 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. ii. 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. i. 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 (Ps. lxxiii. 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 (v. 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, Ps. xviii. 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 (ch. xiv. 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, v. 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. xxiv. 23. (2.) That man is much more so (v. 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.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

JOB – CHAPTER 15

SECOND ADDRESS OF ELIPHAZ

Verses 1-35:

SUPERIOR EXPERIENCE AND TRADITION

Verses 1-3 recount Eliphaz’s sharp rebuke of Job, in his second discourse against him. He rhetorically inquires whether or not a wise man should spout vain knowledge, blow out a belly full of east wind, of destructive wind. He should not, should he? is the idea. He thus asserts that Job’s speeches have been empty of knowledge, violent with bombast, amounting to nothing; and he concludes that Job’s words were of no good, Job 6:26; Job 8:2; Ecc 1:14; Isa 27:8; Pro 18:8.

Verses 4, 5 continue to charge Job with casting aside fear or showing lack of reverence for God, Job 4:6; Psa 2:11. He further charged that Job was restrained or detracted from real prayer to God, Psa 104:34; Psa 119:97; Psa 119:99. Eliphaz reasons that if Job’s views were right, that God often disregards afflictions of the righteous and causes the wicked to prosper, all devotions would stop, Job 9:22; Job 12:6. He added that the utterance of Job were words of iniquity and he chose through sophistry to make his friends to appear as enemies and “forgers of lies,” Job 13:4-7.

Verse 6 asserts that Job’s own mouth condemned him and his own lips testified against him, in the opinion of Eliphaz the Temanite. He held that no pious man would talk as Job had talked.

Verse 7 ironically asks Job if he were the first man ever born? or if he was made before the hills, to have such sage wisdom and knowledge as he had claimed to give. The farther back one could go the wiser he was considered. Was he before Adam? asks Eliphaz, Job 38:4; Psa 90:2; Pro 8:25. This is the only previous Bible character mentioned in Job.

Verse 8 adds to the inquiry of Eliphaz to Job. Have you heard the secret of God, or are you a member of the secret council of God? to take away or retain wisdom from it for yourself? he inquires, Deu 29:23; Psa 25:14; Pro 3:32; Rom 11:34; 1Co 2:11. For God’s servants are admitted to His secrets, Gen 18:17; Joh 15:15.

Verse 9 further challenges Job just what he knows that the three of the self-esteeming wise friends did not know, or what wisdom did he have that was not in them, Job 13:2.

Verse 10 continues the claim of Eliphaz for the three friends that where with them (closely associated) were both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much elder than Job’s father. The Arabs are proud of fullness of years; They ail appeared to be older than Job, except perhaps Elihu who speaks later, Job 12:12; Job 32:6; Deu 32:7; Job 8:8-10; Job 12:20; Pro 16:31.

Verse 11 is a direct inquiry of Eliphaz, whether or not the consolations or revelations that he had given were invalidated in the mind of Job by some secret (inside) knowledge that he had from God. Else he wonders why Job would ignore his bits of wisdom and recommendations, Job 4:12; Job 4:17; Job 5:7-26.

Verse 12 inquires of Job why his heart carried him away from his three friends’ advice and just what his eyes winked at? or why did his eyes reflect so much pride, Pro 6:13; Psa 35:19.

Verse 13 adds that he turned his spirit against God, using rash words, fretting against God. He let such words (hot air-east wind words of passion) fly from his mouth; Eliphaz asked, why? as charged Job 5:2-6.

Verse 14 inquires just what is man that he should be clean? so morally clean as Job claimed to be, turning Job’s own words against him, Job 4:17; Job 14:1. For all are imperfect and unclean by nature. But Job’s premise was that he did not suffer either for anti overt act of wickedness or any neglect to honor or worship God. See 1Kg 8:46; 2Ch 6:36; Psa 14:3; Psa 51:3; Pro 20:9; Ecc 7:20; Rom 7:18; Gal 3:21; 1Jn 1:8.

Verse 15 asserts that the Lord puts “no abiding trust in His saints,” so that even the heavens are not clean in His sight. His “saints” in this instance is a repeat from Job 4:18 where His servant-angels, holy angels, and moon and stars of heaven, are referred to as saints, a holy colleague of heavenly servants to the Lord, not wholly clean in His sight, Job 25:5. For all had been tainted by sin, and await even yet, the regeneration, Act 3:21; Rom 8:21-23.

Verse 16 continues to assert that even more corrupted, or soured from his original purity. The mouth of the wicked is said to drink, gulp down, iniquity continually, Psa 14:3; Psa 53:3; Pro 19:28; Psa 73:10. See also Rom 1:28-30; Tit 3:3.

Verses 17, 18 recount Ellphaz’s challenge for Job to just listen to him and he would show him matters that wise men had told and affirmed from their fathers, from olden times, had not concealed, that would contradict what Job had said, Job 12:6; that the lot of the wicked was prosperous, Gen 18:19.

Verse 19 states that to those wise men alone the earth was given, to the seed of Abraham, not to the wicked. And they had not wickedly mixed with foreigners who passed through, he contends, in opposition to Job 9:24; Gen 10:5; Gen 10:25; Gen 10:32; Joe 3:17.

Verse 20 declares that the wicked one trembles with fear all the days of his life, is never at ease or peace; He is a self-tormentor all his days of wickedness, Isa 57:20-21. He is oppressed in spirit because he knows not when his days will end and he comes face to face with God, Psa 90:12; Heb 9:27-28.

Verse 21 adds that even in prosperity a dreadful sound is in his ear, when there exists no real danger; His conscience, monitor of the soul, brings this sense of guilt and fear, like an alarm clock, so that he is inexcusable in his wickedness, 1Th 5:3; Rom 2:1-2; Rom 2:14-15. Ones conscience bears witness of sin continually.

Verse 22 charges further that a wicked man, like Eliphaz believed Job to be, would never escape the darkness of calamity for his sins, in this life, would never be restored to health, as he seemed to glance at or point an accusing finger at Job. This, he contended, had come on Job in contrast with health that righteous men had. Job looked toward the sword, as if a sword were against him in the night time, with no hope of escaping death. Eliphaz held Job had no hope, unless he confessed great hidden sin that caused his suffering and affliction, a thing Job denied, see? Mic 7:8-9; Joh 9:2-3.

Verse 23 states that this conscience-stricken, wicked, afflicted person wandereth abroad, in anxious search for bread, asking where is it? Famished, as a judgment for sin, Isa 5:13; In contrast with the righteous man, he is always filled with fear, Rom 5:1; Psa 50:15; Job 18:12.

Verses 24, 25 declare that trouble and anguish of body and spirit break forth suddenly and prevail against the wicked one, as a king absolute who goes hastily and furiously into battle, Pro 6:11. This, according to Eliphaz, is how God had angrily, justly, sent the plague upon him, as a wicked rebel against God, Job 9:4; Isa 27:4.

Verses 26, 27 add that the God-King fell upon Job’s stiff neck because he was a rebel against God, Psa 75:5. His bucklers, coverings of protection, could not shield him from Divine chastening, though he was covering his face and body-flanks with fatness of plenty, Job 16:8; Isa 6:10; Jer 5:28; 1Sa 2:29.

Verse 28 describes the wicked, with whom Eliphaz identified Job, as dwelling in cities made desolate, heaps of rubble and ruin, as no righteous man would choose to inhabit. He is compared with a thug, a robber, or a plunderer who would seize and occupy houses of banished citizens, Isa 5:8; Isa 13:20.

Verse 29 adds that such an one as Job does not grow rich; He has reached his zenith, his highest point. His prosperity will not continue. He will not continue his perfection, ways of reproduction and prosperity on the earth, as in the past. Eliphaz erroneously assured him, Job 42:10-17.

Verse 30 falsely predicts that “he” (Job) would never depart out of his dark judgment calamity, the flame of God’s anger would dry up his branches (his off-spring growth) and by the breath of his mouth, God’s wrath, he would die, as branches of a tree or blades of grass under an east wind, Job 1:18-19; Job 4:9; Psa 37:35.

Verse 31 is an exhortation of Eliphaz for Job not to be deceived in his vanity. For vanity or deceit would pay him off the wages of sin, Pro 1:31; Jer 2:19. Vanity is the tree that is to have her branches dried up or burned with the flames of v. 30; Psa 62:10; Psa 9:4; Joh 2:8.

Verse 32 adds that “it,” Job’s trust in his vanity, will be completed before his time, his normal span of life and his branch should not be green; He would have no hope of a future time of prosperity, according to the advice of Eliphaz, Job 22:16; Psa 55:21; Ecc 7:17; For he and his children would perish and be forgotten forever, a false prophecy of Eliphaz.

Verse 33 continued Eliphaz’s vituperation against Job, charging that as a lying, wicked, impenitent hypocrite he would shake off his unripe grape like a vine, and cast off his flower like an olive, becoming unproductive, or bear only hope of fruit, none of it reaching maturity, as the fallen fruit of his own sin, Isa 3:11; Jer 6:19.

Verse 34 concludes that the congregation or assembly of hypocrites would become desolated and fire would consume their tabernacles of bribery, in certain judgment, Job 8:13; Job 20:5; Job 27:8; Job 36:13; Isa 33:14; Mat 24:51. Eliphaz seems set on insinuating to the end that Job is a treacherous, bribing Arab sheik, a reprobate.

Verse 35 concludes further that all hypocrites if banded together for a common purpose of deceit, will come to vanity, emptiness in judgment. Everything they conceive or hatch from their belly or hollow of life, brings judgment upon themselves, a thing of which Job is guilty, and to which he is party, is Eliphaz’s final evaluation of Job’s state, Psa 7:14-15; Isa 33:11; Isa 59:4; Hos 10:13; Gal 6:7-8; Jas 1:15.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

ELIPHAZ SECOND SPEECH

Job 15:1-35.

THE three comforters have run their round. Each has had his opportunity in turn to voice his philosophy of life and particularly of human suffering.

Jobs answer to each in turn has been sufficiently adequate to exasperate them all. Sometimes on a transcontinental train, I have seen the men in the smoker fall into argument on the liquor question, or on the matter of party politics, or possibly on the subject of evolution; once in a while on the direct theme of Christianity. Often it will fall out that one man in the party is well equipped on the subject under discussion. He has specialized in it; possibly has been in the forum of debate more than once, and by practice sharpened his wits. It is always interesting to watch the course of such a conversation, to see the multiplied attacks and witness the capable defense; to watch the flank movements, and the sharp attempts to corner and catch, and yet behold the opponents bowled over one after the other until by and by the company wearies of an unequal contest, and drifts away.

It would have been interesting to have sat through the debate of Job and his three professed comforters. It would have been interesting to see the rising heat of the same, and to note the increasing bluntness of speech that came from the lips of men who set out to be sympathetic, but who were stung into exasperation.

Eliphaz is the very man who in his first speech was gentle even in reproof. Not so in this second. Here he shows another spirit. It is in the heat of debate that a mans true self is exhibited.

JOBS EGOTISM IS REPROVED

He was charged with the speech of egotism.

Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?

Should he reason with unprofitable talk? or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

Yea, thou easiest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.

For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.

Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee (Job 15:1-6).

He was asked to cease from self-esteem.

Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills?

Hast thou heard the secret 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 grayheaded and the very aged men, much elder than thy father (Job 15:7-10).

He was told his pride was an offense to God.

Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any secret thing with thee?

Why doth thine heart carry thee away? and what do thy eyes wink at,

That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth? (Job 15:11-13).

MANS INIQUITY DESCRIBED

It is perfectly understood here that when Eliphaz ceases from personalities, he does so only in outward form. The fact is that he means to talk further of Job in particular; he counts it better taste to discuss man in general. It may be fairly inferred that everything said about man is intended to apply to the man opposed. Note the descriptives.

Man is by nature a child of wrath.

What is man, 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; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water? (Job 13:14-16).

Man is by experience the subject of sorrows.

I will shew thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare;

Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it:

Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.

The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.

A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword.

He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle (Job 15:17-24).

Mans every action is an affront to God.

For he stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty.

He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers.

Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks.

And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps (Job 15:25-29).

MANS JUDGMENT IS ASSURED Poverty shall be the portion of the wicked.

He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth.

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 (Job 15:29-30).

Vanity is his poor recompense.

Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence.

It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.

He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive (Job 15:31-33).

Desolation shall be his final estate.

For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.

They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit (Job 15:34-35).

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

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 friends counsel and still maintained his own uprightness. The hostility of the friends more pronounced as the dialogue proceeds.

I. Eliphaz sharply reproves Jobs 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 apothecarys perfume (Ecc. 10:1).

2. Their verbiage and unprofitableness (Job. 15:3). Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches, &c.,as if Jobs 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 Christians 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]. Jobs 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 Asaphs hasty conclusion: Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain (Psa. 73:13); or, in the language of the fools 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. Jobs 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 Jobs 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. Gods 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 Gods 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 mans 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). Jobs 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 Gods worship and of mans 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. Jobs 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)? Jobs 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 Jobs 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 Fathers love. Gods rod, like Jonathans, 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 Gods 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 Gods consolations, as either insufficient or unsuitable to our case. These, on the contrary, to be highly valued(i.) On account of their originthe love of God; (ii.) Their costlinessthe purchase of a Saviours blood; (iii.) Their efficacyas able to meet our case; (iv.) Their freeness on Gods part and their undeservedness on ours.

6. Jobs 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 Jobs 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 Jobs spirit in his affliction (ch. Job. 16:20).

II. Eliphaz insists on mans 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 mans 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 Satans 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. Mans 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. Mans very nature morally diseased. Inward renovation necessary in order to purity and holiness. To cleanse and renew mans 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). Davids prayer: Create in me a clean heart. The object of Christs 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 Gods sight. Sin stains mans 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 believers sinful nature for ever gone. The leprous house taken down and rebuilt entirely free from the vile infection.

2. Mans depravity the result of his birth. Born naturally of a fallen woman, mans 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). Mans 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 Saviours mother. Mary a holy woman, not by nature but by grace. Her song that of a saved sinner (Luk. 1:47).

3. Mans 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 mans 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 Jobs 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 Noahs 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 (Shems grandson), and Pelegs 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 Pharaohimpious 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 Gods 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 Gods 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 Gods 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 Naboths 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 (Gods 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 Jobs 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. Jobs 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 Jobs 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 Jobs losses. Ill-gotten goods never lasting. Sinners earn wages to put them into a bag with holes. Earthly joys, like childrens toys, easily broken and soon forgotten.(Job. 15:30). He shall not depart out of darknessshall 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). Gods 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 Gods judgments. Though hand join in hand &c. Wealth gathered by mans unrighteousness often scattered by Gods 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 Jobs 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 Satans 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 vanityemptiness, 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 ones 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.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

II.

CRISIS IN COMMUNICATION OR THE MIRACLE OF DIALOGUE? (Job. 15:1Job. 21:34).

A.

THE GOODNESS OF GOD AND THE FATE OF THE WICKEDELIPHAZS REBUTTAL (Job. 15:1-35).

1.

Jobs speech and conduct are perverted and show that he is guilty. (Job. 15:1-16)

TEXT 15:116

Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

2 Should a wise man make answer with vain knowledge,

And fill himself with the east wind?

3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk,

Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

4 Yea, thou doest away with fear,

And hindered devotion before God.

5 For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth,

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 brought forth before the hills?

8 Hast thou heard the secret counsel of God?

And dost thou limit wisdom to thyself?

9 What knowest thou, that we know not?

What understandest thou, which to not in us?

10 With us are both the grayheaded and the very aged men,

Much elder than thy father.

11 Are the consolations of God too small for thee,

Even the word that is gentle toward thee?

12 Why doth thy heart carry thee away?

And why do thine eyes flash,

13 That against God thou turnest thy spirit,

And lettest words go out of thy mouth?

14 What to man, that he should be clean?

And he that to born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

15 Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones;

Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight:

16 How much less one that is abominable and corrupt,

A man that drinketh iniquity like water!

COMMENT 15:116

Every man is a potential adversary, even those whom we love, Reuel L. Howe
In times of crisis people tend to withdraw timidly. We do not want anything to happen . . . Seven years weve lived quietly, succeeded in avoiding notice, living and partly living . . . but now a great fear is on us, Chorus in T. S. Eliots Murder in The Cathedral

Men are mesmerized by the magic of media in our global village, yet Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall; and Universal Darkness buries All, J. Joyce, Finnegans Wake

Gods implicated in that cruelty if He has the power to control it, Ivan in Dostoevskys The Brothers Karamazov.

Job. 15:1The second cycle of speeches now begins. Eliphazs second speechJob. 15:1-35has an entirely different ring to it than his first speechchapters 45. In his first speech he looked on Job as a wise, God-fearing manJob. 4:3-6. Now after hearing Job deny his guilt, reject the thesis that his suffering is the inevitable result of his sins, and challenge God to explain his existential situation to him, Eliphazs deep insecurity finds expression in his attack on the person of Job. The encouraging tone of the first speechreward to the righteoushas escaped from his consoling heart, and now the negative and menacing onepunishment of the unrighteouscontrols the speech. He accuses Job with being a windbag, full of hot air. The word wise is emphatic in the text and means a truly wise man. Jobs claim to wisdom, which is in complete opposition to the wisdom of the ancients, is adjudged to be sheer arrogance. Job is now presented as a rebel without a cause; whereas Eliphaz in his first speech asserted Jobs essential piety, now he is hardened against the sovereign creator of heaven and earth. Gods moral perfection has been set forth in Eliphazs first speech, while Bildad eloquently presents His unchanging justice, and Zophar His omniscience (all knowing). Jobs responses have thus far failed to prick either their conscious or Gods concern for his suffering. Now in Eliphazs second speech, the irreligious and impious Job is confronted with his inevitable fate: (1) Job is rebuked for his irreverent rashnessJob. 15:2-6; (2) Denounced for his presumptive confidence in his superior wisdomJob. 15:7-16; and (3) The doctrine of the fate of the wickedJob. 15:17-35.

Job. 15:2Job has claimed that his wisdom is not inferior to that of his friendsJob. 8:2; Job. 11:2; Job. 12:3; and Job. 13:2. This stance receives Eliphazs blistering denunciationits all empty (ruah and hebet) knowledge. The parallel between Jobs words and the dreaded, hot violent searing sirocco winds is self-evident. If Job were truly wise, he would have better arguments.

Job. 15:3Eliphaz picks up a Jobian word from Job. 13:3; Job. 13:6, and deduces that Jobs arguments are profitless (lit. which does not profit, used five times in Job in this sense). The words are useless; they neither convince nor convict.

Job. 15:4Jobs words bring only pain and spiritual suffocation to man. His speech does away with reverence (sihahmeditationPsa. 119:97-99, fear) of GodJob. 4:6. In fact, Jobs words, if taken seriously, would destroy his religion, and impair the faith of others. The verb employed here means to violate the covenant or vow. This meaning of the first line of the verse is confirmed by the second line, as Eliphaz asserts that Jobs words are hinderinglit. diminishingdevotions in others. Eliphazs orthodoxy is both threatened and challenged. But Job remains a seeker after Truth who is still deeply pious. Still we hear their outcryWhat further need have we of witnesses? Mat. 26:65.

Job. 15:5Jobs blasphemous utterances are too grounded in his diabolical desire to conceal his own evil heart. Job is, like the crafty (used here and Job. 5:12) serpent of Gen. 3:1 ff, attempting to misrepresent God. The Hebrew can be translated several ways, but your guilt teaches your mouth is, in accordance with the parallelism of Job. 15:5 b, to be preferred. Eliphaz, like his many contemporary counterparts, seeks to psychoanalyze Job, rather than answer his arguments.[170] Jobs attempts to express his innocence, Eliphaz insinuates, are really efforts to hide his guilt (cf. Freudian rationalization).[171]

[170] Certainly since Herder, Schelling, Dilthey, Nietzsche, and Freud hermeneutics (literary Criticism) has become psychologized. (Interpreters ask Why anyone declares what he does, instead of asking whether what anyone declares is true or false.)
[171] M. Dahood, Biblica, 44, 1963, 204, for technical analysis of the grammar of this verse.

Job. 15:6Eliphaz is arguing that Jobs own protestation of innocence is his own condemnationJob. 9:20. Thus far Job has admitted only of youthful sinsJob. 13:26, but he has asserted that God could coerce him into a false confession of guiltJob. 9:20. Is not Jobs protest against God tantamount to self-incrimination? Job is convicted out of his own mouth.

Job. 15:7Eliphaz here questions Job with a blistering series of interrogations. Though we can often encounter the claims that this verse has reference to the Jewish myth of primeval man (adam haq-quadmon), there is neither need nor proof that this is the case here. Simply, the verse declares that if you were the first man (adam) you might be wise enough to say what youre saying, but you are not. The first man did not steal Gods wisdom as Prometheus stole fire from the godsPro. 7:25 and Psa. 90:2.

Job. 15:8Jeremiah derides the false prophets who talk like they have stood in Gods council room and heard Him speak directly to themJer. 23:18; Jer. 23:22. Jeremiah chides them by declaring that they have neither divine word nor mission. The word council (sodmeaning intimate and confidential) is one of the designations of the assembly of the gods. The usage of the council of the gods is at least as old as Mesopotamian and Canaanite antecedents. Eliphaz is asking Job whether or not he has a monopoly on wisdomEze. 28:11-19; Pro. 8:22; Pro. 8:26.

Job. 15:9-10Here we encounter questions which assume that Job is claiming the possession of superior knowledge. This is minimally odd in that he has never made such claims. He has only criticized their claims to superior knowledge of Gods will and purposeJob. 12:3; Job. 13:3. His friends are actually the ones who are claiming superior knowledge, not Job. Wisdom[172] is a virtue of seniority acclaims Eliphazs theme. Job has already rejected the thesis that wisdom is a necessary result of old ageJob. 12:12. Senility and sagacity are not necessarily causally relatedWisdom of Solomon, Job. 4:8-9.

[172] For exhaustive analysis of the wisdom concept, see A. Feuillet, Le Christ Sagesse de Deus (Paris: 1966), and articles in both Kittel, TWNT, and Botterweck and Ringgren, TDOT.

Job. 15:11Eliphaz is claiming that the consolation of Jobs three friends is from God. Yet Job dismisses his friends as miserable comfortersJob. 16:2. Perhaps the deals gently does apply to Eliphazs initial speech, but certainly not his second. His words (dabarmeans creative and often relevatory. This is the Hebrew word for the Genesis creation account and the Ten Words or commandments) are scarcely to be termed consolation, unless his doctrine of suffering is always merited is to be understood as consolation. His words are identical with Gods, according to Eliphaz.

Job. 15:12Why do you allow your heart (feelings) to carry you away.[173] The verb r-z-m is here translated flash in A. V.[174] The word means to wink or flash, perhaps in rage, not weakness as some suggest. Job is being rebuked for his uncontrolled passion, not his helplessness.

[173] See for technical analysis of grammatical possibilities, G. R. Driver, Die Welt des Orients I, 194752, 235.

[174] The Jewish scholar Rashi suggests that the verb is the same as ramaz (Aramaic root) to flash in anger. This is most likely as R.S.V. translates.

Job. 15:13Job is rebuked for his anger against God. Your spirit refers to Jobs anger. In anger you attack God by letting such words out of your mouth.

Job. 15:14The theme from Job. 4:17 ff reoccurs hereJob. 9:2 and Job. 24:4. Eliphaz also quotes Jobs phraseJob. 14:1. A man, not the genus but a particular individual, whom Eliphaz need not name. The image suggests impurity not finitude. The Near Eastern negative attitude toward women is here apparent.

Job. 15:15Eliphaz returns to his thoughts expressed in Job. 4:18; Job. 25:5-6; Job. 38:7; and Isa. 40:25-26. The holy ones, perhaps angels, are not without fault before God2Pe. 2:4.[175]

[175] On heaven and the power of evil, see Calvin R. Schoonhoven, The Wrath of Heaven (Eerdmans, pb., 1966). See also eschatology of Isaiah 60-66; 1 Peter 3; and Revelation 21 ff. The imagery of a new heaven as well as a new earthwhy a new heaven? P. Volz, Die Eschatologie der judischen Gemeinde in neutestanmentliche Zeitalter (Tubingen, 1934; and D. H. Odendaal, The Eschatological Expectation of Isaiah 40-66 (Presb. and Reformed Pub. Co., 1970).

Job. 15:16The word translated corrupt (foul) appears in the Old Testament only in a moral sensealso Psa. 14:3; Psa. 53:3. Perhaps a proverbial sayinga man sins like drinking water presents Eliphazs judgment on Job. One is abominable,[176] i.e., disgusting, revolting, loathed as R. S. V.also Psa. 107:15; Psa. 119:163.

[176] For analysis of this word root, see Paul Humbert, Zeitschrift fur die alttestamenttiche Wissenschaft, N. F. XXXI, 1960, 217ff.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

The Second Stage of the Controversy.

Chaps. 15-21.

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.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Job 15:7  Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills?

Job 15:7 Comments – Eliphaz was much harsher in this speech than in his first speech (Job 4:2).

Job 4:2, “If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?”

Job 15:10  With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.

Job 15:10 Comments – Job may have been in his 30’s or 40’s.Perhaps Job’s friends are (much) older than Job himself.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Job’s Dialogue with Three Friends – Job 3:1 to Job 31:40, which makes up the major portion of this book, consists of a dialogue between Job and his three friends. In this dialogue, Job’s friends engage in three rounds of accusations against Job, with him offering three defenses of his righteousness. Thus, Job and his friends are able to confirm each of their views with three speeches, since the Scriptures tell us that a matter is confirmed in the mouth of two or three witnesses (2Co 13:1). The underlying theme of this lengthy dialogue is man’s attempt to explain how a person is justified before God. Job will express his intense grief (Job 3:1-26), in which his three friends will answer by finding fault with Job. He will eventually respond to this condemnation in a declaration of faith that God Himself will provide a redeemer, who shall stand on earth in the latter days (Job 19:25-27). This is generally understood as a reference to the coming of Jesus Christ to redeem mankind from their sins.

Job’s declaration of his redeemer in Job 19:23-29, which would be recorded for ever, certainly moved the heart of God. This is perhaps the most popular passage in the book of Job, and reflects the depth of Job’s suffering and plea to God for redemption. God certainly answered his prayer by recording Job’s story in the eternal Word of God and by allowing Job to meet His Redeemer in Heaven. I can imagine God being moved by this prayer of Job and moving upon earth to provide someone to record Job’s testimony, and moving in the life of a man, such as Abraham, to prepare for the Coming of Christ. Perhaps it is this prayer that moved God to call Abraham out of the East and into the Promised Land.

The order in which these three friends deliver their speeches probably reflects their age of seniority, or their position in society.

Scene 1 First Round of Speeches Job 3:1 to Job 14:22

Scene 2 Second Round of Speeches Job 15:1 to Job 21:34

Scene 3 Third Round of Speeches Job 22:1 to Job 31:40

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Eliphaz Attempts to Rebuke Job

v. 1. Then answered Eliphaz, the Temanite, feeling constrained to reply to Job the second time, and said,

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.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

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 (Job 16:1-22; Job 17:1-16.), 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 (verses 1-6);

(2) a sarcastic reflection on him for conceit and arrogance (verses 7-16);

(3) an exposition of God’s ways with man, based upon the experience of ancient sages (verses 17-35).

Job 15:1, Job 15:2

Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said, Should a wise man utter vain knowledge! literally, knowledge of windknowledge, 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, Gen 41:23; Jer 18:17; Eze 17:10; Eze 19:12; Eze 27:26; Hos 13:15, etc.)

Job 15:3

Should he reason with unprofitable talk! Such, Eliphaz implies, had been Job’s talk, altogether idle and unprofitable. A wise man should have abstained from such profitless arguments. They were speeches wherewith he could do no good.

Job 15:4

Yea, thou castest off fear. To Eliphaz, Job’s wordshis bold expostulations (Job 13:3, Job 13:15, Job 13:22, etc.), his declarations that he knows he will be justified (Job 13:8), and that God will be his Salvation (Job 13:16)seem to imply that he has cast off altogether the fear of God, and is entirely devoid of reverence. Some of his expressions certainly seem over-bold; but, on the other hand, his sense of God’s purity, perfectness, and transcendent power is continually manifest, and should have saved him from the rude reproach here launched against him (comp. Job 9:1-13; Job 12:24 25; Job 13:11, Job 13:21, etc.). And restrainest prayer before God; rather, and hinderest devout meditation before God. Eliphaz means that Job expresses himself in a way so of. fensive to devout souls, that he disturbs their minds and prevents them from indulging in those pious meditations on the Divine goodness which would otherwise occupy them (comp. Psa 119:97). Thus, according to Eliphaz, Job is not only irreligious himself, but the cause of irreligion in others.

Job 15:5

For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity. Some render, “Thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth,” causing it to utter such profane speeches (Vulgate, Dillmann, Canon Cook, Revised Version); but the translation of the Authorized Version is defensible on grammatical grounds, and yields a good sense, so that no alteration is necessary. And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty; or, the tongue of the subtle (comp. Gen 3:1, where the epithet assigned to the serpent is the same). Eliphaz probably means to tax Job with cloaking his real impiety under a pretence of religiousness.

Job 15:6

Thine own mouth condemneth thee. So of a greater than Job it was said, “He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death” (Mat 26:65, Mat 26:66). Malevolence delights in misunderstanding and misinterpreting the utterances of the righteous. And not I. A weak disclaimer! As if Job’s supposed guilt did not depend on the construction put upon his words. Yea, thine own lips testify against thee. Therefore, “what further need of witnesses?”

Job 15:7

Art thou the first man that was born? That is, “Dost thou claim to have the wisdom of that first human intelligence, which, proceeding direct from God (Gen 1:27), was without fault or flawa perfect intelligence, which judged all things aright?” It is not clear that Eliphaz had ever heard of Adam; but he evidently believed in a “first man,” from whom all others were descended, and he attributed to this first man a mind and intellect surpassing those of all other men. His question is, of course, rather a scoff than an inquiry. He knows that Job makes no such foolish pretence; but he throws it in his teeth that, from what he has said, men might suppose he took some such view of himself. Or wast thou made before the hills? This is a taunt of the same kind as the previous one, but intensified. Wisdom is the result of experience. Art thou older than all the rest of usolder than the earth itself, than “the everlasting hills”? There were Greeks who claimed to be ethnically , “older than the moon,” but no inhabitant of earth was ever so foolish as to imagine himself individually more ancient than the earth on which he lived.

Job 15:8

Hast thou heard the secret of God? or, Hast thou been a hearer in the secret counsel of God?. No mortal man was ever admitted to the secret counsel of the Most Highest (comp. Rom 11:34). And dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself? or, Dost thou confine (appropriate) wisdom to thyself? i.e. Dost thou suppose that thou art the only wise man in all the world? (comp. Job 12:2, where Job had brought the same charge against his three friends).

Job 15:9

What knowest thou, that we know not? So far as worldly wisdom went, this was probably quite true. Job was not more advanced in knowledge than Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. But he had a keener spiritual insight. He was wiser in the “wisdom which is from above.” Perplexed and confused as were his thoughts concerning the Divine government of the universe, they were nearer the truth, more worthy of the Divine nature, than those of his adversaries. In his reply, without claiming any special wisdom, he pours contempt on their pretensions to spiritual understanding (Job 17:4, Job 17:10). What understandest thou, which is not in us? A mere repetition of the first member of the verse in different words.

Job 15:10

With us are both the greyheaded and very aged men. “With us” seems to mean “of our party,” or “on our side.” Eliphaz claims that all the greybeards of the time, as well as all the ancient men of past times (comp. Job 8:8, and below, Job 8:18), are on his side. and think as he does. Much elder than thy father. Men, i.e.‘ not merely of the preceding, but of much more distant generations His Latin to be supported by the voice of antiquity was, no doubt, in strict accordance with fact.

Job 15:11

Are the consolations of God small with thee? By “the consolations of God” Eliphaz probably means the hopes which he and his friends had held out, speaking in God’s Name, that if Job would humble himself, and confess his guilt, and sue to God for pardon, he would be restored to favour, recover his prosperity, and live to a good old age in tranquil happiness (see Job 5:18-27; Job 8:20-22; Job 11:13-19). He wishes to know if Job thinks lightly of all this, regards it as of small account, will make no effort to obtain the blessings held out to him. This is all reasonable enough from his standpoint, that Job is conscious of secret heinous guilt; but it can make no impression on Job, who is conscious of the reverse. Is there any secret thing with thee? rather, And is the word [of small account that dealeth] gently with thee? Eliphaz considers that his own words and those of his two companions have been soft words, dealing “gently” with Job’s refractoriness, and that Job ought to have been impressed by them.

Job 15:12

Why doth thine heart carry thee away? or, Whither doth thine heart carry thee away? i.e. to what a pitch of presumption and audacity do thy proud thoughts carry thee? And what do thy eyes wink at? or, Wherefore do thy eyes roll? The verb used occurs only in this place. Its meaning is very doubtful.

Job 15:13

That thou turnest thy spirit against God. To Eliphaz and his companions, the wild remonstrances of Job, Iris vehement expostulations and despairing outcries, are, one and all, nothing better than indications of a proud and rebellious spirit, that sets itself up against the Almighty, and openly contends with him. They view Job, after the speeches that he has made, as a declared rebel, and no longer regard it as incumbent upon them to use any “gentleness” in their reprimands. And lettest such words go out of thy mouth? It is remarkable that neither Eliphaz nor either of his friends ever points out what particular words of Job they object to and regard as impious, so as to give him the opportunity of defending, explaining, or retracting them. They take refuge in vague generalities, with which it is impossible to grapple. But this vagueness and want of logical accuracy is characteristic of the Oriental nations, who scarcely ever reason cogently or bring matters to a point.

Job 15:14

What is man, that he should be clean? A vain “beating of the air.” Eliphaz had asserted the same truth in his first speech, when he said, “Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his Maker? Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he taxeth with folly: how much less in them that dwell in houses of clay‘ whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?” (Job 4:17-19); and Job had given his full assent to it, when he exclaimed, “I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God? If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand” (Job 9:2, Job 9:3). The true question was not whether Job or any other man was” clean,” i.e. wholly sinless‘ but whether Job had sinned so deeply and grievously that his sufferings were the natural and just punishment for his sins. And a mere repetition of the statement that all men were sinful and unclean was off the pointnihil ad rem-altogether futile and superfluous. And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? (setup. Job 25:4). The clause is a mere variant of the preceding one.

Job 15:15

Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; rather, in his holy ones (see the Revised Version). The word “saint” has in course of time come to be so exclusively attached to holy men, that it can no longer be applied, without danger of being misunderstood, to angels. Eliphaz here, as in Job 5:1, speaks not of holy men, but of the holy angels. Without taxing them with sin, he is strongly convinced of their imperfectiontheir defective wisdom (Job 5:18), weakness, and untrustworthiness. His views are decidedly peculiar, and not borne out by the rest of Scripture. Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. The material heavens are probably intended. That limpid liquid blue in which the human eye sees no stain or speck, to the Divine eye is tinged with uncleanness The idea is that neither animate nor inanimate nature contains any form of being that is absolutely without spot or blemish. In God alone is there perfect purity.

Job 15:16

How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water? rather, How much less one that is abominable and impure, a man that drinketh in iniquity, etc.? It cannot be doubted that Job is individually pointed at. Not mankind generally, but a particular man, is intended; and the particular man can be none other than Job. Thus we see how the progress of the controversy has tended to exasperate the disputants, and change the “comforters” from smooth-tongued friends into open enemies and accusers.

Job 15:17

I will show thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare. Eliphaz here introduces, with an elaborate preface (Job 15:17-19) what is either a citation from a book, as Professor Lee thinks, or a studied description by himself of the proceedings and consequent sufferings of the wicked. This description extends from Job 15:20 to the end of the chapter, and is plainly levelled at Job, though it may originally have been intended to apply to some other person or persons.

Job 15:18

Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it (comp. Job 8:8-10). Whether the words are his own or not, the sentiments, at any rate, Eliphaz declares to have come down to him from remote times. The “wise men” to whom he refers may have been men of the Beni Kedem (Job 1:3). who were noted for their wisdom (1Ki 4:30), or possibly Egyptians or Babylonians. Books containing moral aphorisms and instructions were certainly composed both in Egypt and in Babyhmia at a very ancient date.

Job 15:19

Unto whom alone the earth was given. The reference is clearly to a very remote time, when men were comparatively few, and lived in quiet possession of their own lands, undisturbed by invasions, wars, or struggles for territory. Professor Lee thinks that the times immediately after, and even those before, the Flood are glanced at; while Schultens regards Eliphaz as alluding to the first settlements of the Joktanidae in Arabia. In either case, the passage tells in favour or, and not against, the antiquity of the Book of Job, since it marks the composer as “living at a time when the memory of an age of patriarchal simplicity was yet fresh in men’s minds” (Canon Cook). And no stranger passed among them. Races were not mixed up one with another, and so the purity of primitive doctrine remained undisturbed.

Job 15:20-35

Schultens calls this “a magnificently elaborate oration, crowded with illustrations and metaphors, in which it is shown that the wicked cannot possibly escape being miserable, but that the punishment which they have so richly deserved assuredly awaits them, and is to be inflicted on them, as an example and terror to others, by a holy and just God, because, just as he loves virtue, so he pursues vice with a fierce and deadly hatred”.

Job 15:20

The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days. Certainly an over-statement of the truth. With a much nearer approach to the facts of the case, the Psalmist remarked, “I was grieved at the wicked: I do also see the ungodly in such prosperity. For they are in no peril of death, but are lusty and strong. They come in no misfortune like other folk; neither are they plagued like other men” (Psa 73:3-5). And the number of years is hidden to the oppressor; rather, even the number of years that is laid up for the oppressor. So Merx and the Revised Version. Another possible meaning is, “And a [small] number of years is laid up,” etc. If we take the former view, we must regard the clause as exegetical of “all his days.”

Job 15:21

A dreadful sound is in his ears; literally, a sound of terrors. Fears of all kinds beset him, lest he should lose his prosperity. Sometimes they seem actually to sound in his ears. Prosper as he may, he feels that in prosperity the destroyer shall one day come upon him. “The destroyer” may be either the destroying angel, or the avenger of blood, or a robber-chief at the head of a band of marauders.

Job 15:22

He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness. He has no hope of recovering his prosperity, when calamity has once stricken him down, since he knows that his calamity is deserved, and feels that it is God’s judgment upon him for his sins. And he is waited for of the sword. He feels as if an enemy was lying in wait for him at every turn, with his sword drawn, ready to slay him. Professor Lee compares the words of Cain, “It shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me” (Gen 4:14).

Job 15:23

He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? This, again, might appropriately have been said of Cain, who was “a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth” (Gen 4:14), and may at times have had difficulty in procuring his daily bread. At any rate, it is the frequent experience of the wicked who lose their ill-gotten gains, and are brought down to abject poverty, and actual want of the necessaries of life. “He wanders abroad to be the food of vultures“ is a translation of the passage suggested by some moderns (as Merx), and has the support of the Septuagint, . But it requires a slight change in the pointing. He knoweth that the day of darkness is nigh at hand. “The day of darkness” is probably the day of his decease: this he “knows,” or at any rate, surmises, to be near.

Job 15:24

Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle. Eliphaz seems covertly to allude to Job’s misfortunes, which came against him with such force, and crushed him as a mighty king crushes his foes in battle.

Job 15:25

For he stretcheth out his hand against God. The wicked man ventures even to threaten the Almighty. So in Eastern legend Nimrod was supposed to have done, and in Greek legend the giants. And strengtheneth himself against the Almighty; rather, behaveth himself proudly. See the Revised Version, and compare Schultens, who renders the Hebrew , by “ferocius et insolentius se gessit.”

Job 15:26

He runneth upon him, even on his neck; rather, with his neck. It is not God who runneth upon the wicked man, as our translators seem to have supposed, but the wicked man who rushes furiously against God. Like an infuriated bull, he makes his charge with his neck, i.e. with head lowered and neck stiffened, thinking to carry all before him. Upon the thick bosses of his bucklers; rather, with the thick bosses of his shield‘ The metaphor of the bull is dropped, and God’s enemy represented as charging him like a warrior, with the shield-arm outstretched, and the heavy bosses of the shield pressing him down.

Job 15:27

Because he covereth his face with his fatness. The ground and origin of the wicked man’s audacity is his luxurious and intemperate living. In the days of his prosperity he pampered his body, freely indulged all his carnal appetites, and gave himself up to gluttony and gourmandism. This depraved his moral nature, separated between him and God, and finally produced in him the insolence and presumption described in Job 15:25, Job 15:26 And maketh collops of fat on his flanks. The same idea, only very slightly varied, as so often in the second member of a verse.

Job 15:28

And he dwelleth in desolate cities. Blot only was he sensual and gluttenous, but he was covetous and rapacious also. He dwelt in cities which his hand had desolatedin houses which no man inhabitethsince he had driven their owners from themand which were ready to become heaps, i.e. were in a ruinous condition.

Job 15:29

He shall not be rich; i.e. he shall not increase, or maintain, his riches. Neither shall his substance continue, His riches shall make themselves wings, and take their departure. Neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth; rather, neither shall their possessions be extended upon the earth. (So Rosenmuller, Professor Lee, and Renan.) The transition from the singular to the plural is not unusual, when it is a class, and not an individual, that is really spoken of.

Job 15:30

He shall not depart out of darkness (comp. Job 15:23, where the wicked man is threatened with “a day of darkness”). When the darkness once falls, it shall continue; there shall be no escaping out of it The flame shall dry up his branches; rather, a flame. The “flame” intended seems to be the wrath of God. ‘ And by the breath of his mouth; i.e. “of God’s mouth” (comp. Job 4:9). Shall he go away; or, pass away; i.e. disappear, be consumed, perish.

Job 15:31

Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity; rather, let him not trust in vanity (or, in falsehood)’ deceiving himself (see the Revised Version). All the supports and stays of the wicked are vanityunsubstantial, futile, utterly vain and useless. It is only a man who “deceives himself” that can trust in them. For vanity shall be his recompense. Such as do so trust gain nothing by it; they sow vanity and reap vanity.

Job 15:32

It shall be accomplished before his time. “It [i.e. the recompense] shall be accomplished [or, ‘paid in full ‘] before its time [i.e. before payment is due].” A vague threat, probably intended to signify that death will come upon the wicked man prematurely, before he has lived out halt the days of his natural life. And his branch shall not be green; i.e. he shall wither and fade, like a tree not planted by the waterside (Psa 1:3).

Job 15:33

He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine. Blight and untimely cold cause the vine to drop its grapes before they are mature. So the wicked man will be deprived, one by one, of his possessions. And shall cast off his flower as the olive. The olive often sheds its blossoms in vast numbers. “In spring,” says Canon Tristram, “one may see the bloom, on the slightest breath of wind, shed like snowflakes, and perishing by millions”. According to some commentators, this happens regularly in alternate years.

Job 15:34

For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate; or, shall be sterile‘ or barren‘ like the vine and olive of the preceding verse. The entire company of the wicked shall suffer this punishment. And fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery. God’s lightning shall fall from heaven, and burn up the tents (i.e. the habitations) of those who take bribes to pervert justice. It is suggested that Eliphaz intends to accuse Job of the two secret sins of hypocrisy and corruption.

Job 15:35

They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity; rather, as in the margin, iniquity. And their belly prepareth deceit. Internally, i.e. in their inner naturein their heart, as we should anythey make ready deceits. “The viscera,” as Professor Lee observes, “are often made by the Hebrews the seat of thought.”

HOMILETICS

Job 15:1-16

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 bean 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 (verse 2; cf. Job 8:2; Job 11:2), instead of sound and solid sensea 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” (verse 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 (verse 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 (verse 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 (verse 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 ‘ (verse 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 (verse 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 (verse 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 (verse 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 (Pro 8:8), 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 (Pro 8:10).

4. Contemptuous indifference.

(1) To the consolations of God (Pro 8:11). 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 (verse 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 understandinghis passion to overwhelm his judgment. It is the part of wisdom and the work of grace to restrain angry emotions (Pro 29:8; 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 (verse 12) having the significance, it is probable, of the similar expressions in Psa 35:19, Pro 6:3, and Isa 3:16;

(2) wrathful opposition, the turning of the spirit (or of one’s rage) against God (Isa 3:13) 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 (verse 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 birth (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 (verse 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 (verse 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 (verse 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.

Job 15:4

Restraining prayer.

Of the reasons leading men to either neglect or discontinue the exercise of prayer, these will be found to be the chief.

I. THERE IS NO GOD TO PRAY TO. This the reason of the atheist. But the existence of a supreme First Cause, possessed of intelligence and moral character, is to faith assured by:

1. The intuitions of the human mind, which may sometimes attempt to argue itself out of, but never needs to reason itself into, the belief in a Divine Being.

2. The witness of the creatures, which, by countless instances of special contrivance and design, attest the eternal power and Godhead of their Artificer (Rom 1:20).

3. The intimations of Scripture, which never demonstrate, but always assume, that a God exists, and man knows it. Hence, since there is a Supreme Being, the folly, as well as sin, of withholding from him that tribute of devotion which is his due.

II. THERE IS NO EFFICACY IN PRAYER. The usual objections to the possibility of prayer may be here stated, such as that the whole universe having been placed under the dominion of fixed and invariable law, there can, properly speaking, be no room for the exercise of prayer; that the Bible itself, by representing all things as coming to pass in accordance with a prearranged plan, seems expressly to exclude the idea of prayer; that the multiplicity and even contradictoriness of human interests is so great as to reduce the whole business of praying to an absurdity; and that, as no one pretends to be able to dispense with his own labours even while he prays, it seems hard to know precisely wherein lies the special virtue of devotion. Without replying to these seriatim in this place, it may suffice to observe:

1. The exact import of the assertion that there is no efficacy in prayer, which is that the individual so asserting has been able to place himself precisely where God stands in relation to the universe, to make a survey of the entire compass of created things, to sound the unfathomable depths of the Divine resources, and, as the result of his examination, to announce that prayer cannot be answered; in other words, such a confident dogmatist arrogates to himself the attributes of God.

2. The complete worthlessness of the assertion when set against the testimony of the human consciousness, especially when supported by the evidence of incontrovertible fact that prayer can be, and has been, answered.

III. THE ABSENCE OF A FELT NEED OF PRAYER. This is the reason of the worldling. The things he regards as constituting the summum bonum of existencewealth, pleasure, fame, power, and such likeseem to belong to a sphere that is not much affected by prayer; while, having never experienced any desire for those spiritual realities comprehended in the gospel, blessing of salvation, viz. the pardon of sin, the renovation of the heart, the spirit of adoption, and so on, he has never deemed it necessary to trouble the King of heaven with supplications for their bestowal. But

(1) the bleatings of the gospel are none the less indispensable for the soul’s happiness that the soul does not realize its lack of them;

(2) the absence of any felt necessity for prayer is the best proof the soul can desire that prayer is in reality its one thing needful;

(3) the exercise of prayer will not interfere with a just devotion to the ordinary businesses and duties of daily life;

(4) not even the most material of earthly blessings belongs to a region that lies beyond the influence of prayer (Php 4:6).

IV. THE LACK OF ANSWERS TO PRAYERS. This is the reason of the faithless Christian. And it is undoubtedly hard for a soul to keep on praying when to all appearance the ear of God is deaf. But in such circumstances the petitioner should consider

(1) whether a prayer might not be answered without the praying one being distinctly conscious of it at the time;

(2) whether the prayer to which no answer is returned may not simply be delayed, and not denied;

(3) whether, even on the hypothesis of its denial, it may not after all be for the best that the thing asked for should be withheld;

(4) whether the indispensable conditions of true prayer, such as faith (Heb 11:6; Jas 1:6), humility (Gen 32:10), sincerity (Psa 66:18), etc.. have been complied with.

V. THE WANT OF ANY TRUE RELISH IN PRAYER. This is the reason of the spiritually declining saint. Now

(1) it is certain that the exercise of prayer ought to be delightful to the Christian, prayer being as much a natural function of the gracious soul as breathing is of the body. But

(2) it is equally apparent that over spiritual as well us physical functions times of languor steal, these being induced in the former mostly by a want of watchfulness against the encroachments of the world, or by a careless dalliance with sin, or by a growing spirit of formality. Hence

(3) so far from being a reason for discontinuing devotion, the lack of spiritual relish should rather stir the praying soul to greater earnestness and zeal.

VI. THE INDULGENCE OF KNOWN SIN. This is the reason of the conscious backslider. Nothing so effectually extinguishes the altar-fire of a spiritual devotion as the practice of secret sin.

(1) It disqualifies for coming to the throne (Isa 1:15);

(2) it prevents God from listening to prayer (Psa 66:18);

(3) it deadens the spiritual life from which prayer comes (Psa 32:3);

(4) it represses all desire within the soul for converse with God; and

(5) it finally silences the voice of prayer altogether.

Job 15:17-35

Eliphaz to Job: 2. More wisdom from the ancients.

I. THE EXCELLENCE OF THIS WISDOM.

1. Old; i.e. derived from a remote antiquity. The traditionary lore about to he cited by Eliphaz had been manufactured by primeval sages, from whom it had been carefully transmittal to the “wise men” who had told it to Eliphaz. The “fathers,” “unto whom alone the earth was given,” and “among whom no stranger passed,” were either patriarchal descendants of Noah prior to the time of Peleg, when the earth was divided (Gen 10:25), or the early progenitors of the Arabian races.

2. Pure; i.e. unmixed with foreign elements. Whether the ancients were pre-Pelegites or post-, the fact to which Eliphaz calls attention remains unaltered. “Purity of race was from the earliest times considered by the sons of the East as the sign of highest nobility” (Delitzsch). That this isolation of the Arabian fathers would tend to preserve the current of primitive tradition pure and unalloyed, and might even favour the healthy development of independent views, “derived from their own experience and undisturbed by foreign influence,” can scarcely be questioned, it would seem also as if in the world’s infancy other methods of conserving Divine truth were impracticable. At least Israel was separated from the other nations of the earth in order to serve as a depositary for the gospel promise in order to preserve it till the fulness of the times. Hence she was forbidden to make marriage or other alliances with the nations around for fear of learning their ways. But now the truth of God, under the Christian dispensation, has been revealed with such clearness and fulness of illumination, that it does nor require to be hedged about by safeguards of race, nationality, etc.; though it is still true Christian people that “evil communications corrupt good manners” (1Co 15:33).

3. Certain; i.e. verified by experience. In the preceding colloquy Eliphaz had treated Job to wisdom he had learnt in ecstatic vision (Job 4:12); here he lays before him the results of observation through the ordinary channels of information. He does not claim for his approaching utterances the high authority of messages from the spirit-world; still, he guarantees their veracity on the double testimony of eye and ear. What the wise men had reported to his sense of hearing he had taken care to verify by the organ of seeing; so that practically he seems to say, “In the mouth of two witnesses is every word established.”

II. THE PURPORT OF THIS WISDOM. Briefly, it is the dogma that a moral order exists in the world, that good always comes to the good, and in particular that evil never fails to overtake the evil.

1. The wicked man‘s doom. Painted in lurid colours, as consisting mainly in two things.

(1) The terrors of an evil conscience, which are represented as:

(a) Self-inflicted. “The wicked man writhes or torments himself” (verse 20). Conscience always is its own avenger. Gagged for a season, it eventually speaks out with greater power because of previous repression. “No man ever offended his own conscience, but first or last it was revenged upon him for it” (South).

(b) Excruciatingly painful, like the pains of parturition. “Conscience is a thousand swords” (‘King Richard III.,’ act 5. sc. 2). “Methought a legion of foul fiends environed me” (ibid; act 1. sc. 4). “The mind that broods o’er guilty woes is like the scorpion girt by fire” (Byron ‘Giaour’).

(c) Never ceasing; the anguish of the stricken wretch continuing “all his days.” Except in rare instances, this part of Eliphaz’s description can scarcely be regarded as literally correct. Yet it teaches that, from one end of life to the other, the wicked man enjoys no security against his guilty fears, which may spring forth upon him at any moment, the exact instant when they shall do so being hidden from his view (verse 20).

(d) Horribly terrifying; filling him with dismal forebodings of evil. The sound of approaching calamity ever ringing in his ears (verse 21), every footfall appears to be that of a destroyer: “How is’t with me, when every noise appals me?” (‘Macbeth,’ act 2. sc. 2); and “The wicked flee when no man pursueth” (Pro 28:1). His imagination suggests, even in the midst of prosperity, that the devastator is upon him (verse 21), that every one who finds him shall slay him (Gen 4:14), that his destruction will be sudden and completea fate reserved for unbelievers in the great day of the Lord (1Th 5:3). His guilty conscience peopling the dark with assassins causes him to live in constant terror of the sword (verse 22)”Thus conscience does make cowards of us all” (‘Hamlet,’ act 3. sc. 1). His feeble spirit agonized by fears of starvation even in the midst of abundance (verse 23), roams abroad in search of bread, saying, “Where is it?” and he becomes a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, like another Cain (Gen 4:12), and like wicked men generally whose evil hearts are restless as the troubled sea (Isa 57:20). His crowding fears of impending calamity so unman him that when trouble and anguish gather round like royal armies prepared for battle, they paralyze him with dread, and render resistance or escape impossible (verse 24).

(2) The miseries of an evil fortune form the second ingredient in his unhappy lot. He shall never attain to true, permanent, or abundant wealth. If he make money, he shall make nothing else. And that money shall take wings and flee away. So that, notwithstanding his apparent success, he shall be always a poor man. It is often true of the wicked that they make money only to put it into a bag with holes (Hag 1:6). Ill-gotten wealth never lasts long. The wicked man shall never be out of misfortune, in himself or in his family. “He shall not escape darkness” (verse 30). He shall eventually be overwhelmed in ruin; painful, like the burning of a flame; speedy, like a blast of wind; divinely sent, the agent of his destruction being the breath of God’s mouth, which will ultimately consume the enemies of Christ (2Th 2:8; Rev 19:15); and therefore complete and final, the wicked perishing utterly, as all the ungodly will do hereafter.

2. The wicked man‘s crime.

(1) Tyrannical oppression of men (verse 20). The ungodly persons alluded to by Eliphaz were proud imperious sinners who trampled recklessly on the rights of others. All sin is more or less an infringement of the rights sod liberties of men; and much of the wickedness with which earth is overrun partakes of this characterthe strong tyrannizing over the weak, the ambitious making stepping-stones of those who are humble the powerful treading down the feeble and unresisting (cf. Cowper, ‘Task,’ bk. 2.). The giants of Noah’s (Gen 6:4) and the Arabian robbers of Job’s time (Job 12:6; Job 20:19) were men of this type.

(2) Defiant antagonism to God (verses 25, 26). Hostility to God is the natural characteristic of the sinful heart (Rom 8:7); but all tyrannical oppression of men is practically a fighting against God. And the particular aggravation of the wicked man’s offence lies in this, that, though clearly understanding himself to be acting contrary to God’s Law, and thus virtually entering the lists against Jehovah, he persists in his nefarious behaviour, with much braggadocio “stretching out his hand,” and “affecting to play the hero against God” (verse 25); with immeasurable insolence “strengthening himself against the Almighty,” a feeble worm presuming to contend with the Lord of hosts; with infinite zest “running upon him,” as if eager to close in mortal combat with his celestial Adversary (verse 26); with fierce determination, “with a stiffened neck,” expressive of haughty resolution; with amazing self-sufficiency, dashing up against him with “the thick bosses of his bucklers” (verse 26), as if expecting to overwhelm the Supreme with ignominious defeat. Examples of such defiers of God may be found in Pharaoh (Exo 5:2), Sennacherib (Isa 36:20), the crucifiers of Christ (Psa 2:1; Act 4:25-27); though all sin is essentially an insolent rejection of God’s rule and defiance of his authority (Luk 19:14, Luk 19:27).

(3) Licentious indulgence of self (verse 27). The language describes one given over to gluttony, a person whose “god is his belly” (Php 3:19). Luxurious living an object of ambition to most men (Luk 12:19); a frequent mark of wicked men (Psa 17:14; Psa 73:7; Luk 16:19); a special danger for all men (Deu 8:12). Fat feeding and fair clothing have a tendency to beget and foster pride. “It is a common proverb that provender pricketh men” (Calvin). When Jeshurun waxed fat he kicked (Deu 32:15). If in politics and civil matters lean men are dangerous (‘Julius Caesar,’ act 1. sc. 2), in religion it is mostly otherwise. Hence the wisdom of Agur’s prayer (Pro 30:8, Pro 30:9).

(4) Complete insensibility to sin (verse 28). The wicked man takes up his abode in cities like Jericho (Jos 6:26), which God’s curse has rendered desolate through some overwhelming visitation, thus evincing not so much his insolent defiance of God, as the stolidity of his wicked soul, his utter want of pious feeling, the complete callousness and deadness of his moral and spiritual nature. All sin gravitates towards “a conscience past feeling” (Eph 4:19).

III. THE APPLICATION OF THIS WISDOM.

1. A wicked insinuation. “Let not him that is deceived” (verse 31), i.e. Job. Eliphaz charges Job with a false confidence in his own integrity. Though not true of Job, it is certain that of many it is not false. Hence the propriety of self-examination as to the grounds on which our assurance rests. If it rest on the Spirit’s witness to our faith in Christ, it is good and will never disappoint our expectations; if it is based on any of those “vanities” alluded to by Eliphaz, it is false, and will eventually overwhelm us in despair.

2. An excellent admonition. “Let him not trust in vanity.” Everything outside of God and his favour, on which a human soul grounds its confidence of safety, or in which it thinks to find happiness, is vanitymoral excellence, evangelical fervour, general philanthropy, intellectual power, social position, commercial credit, political influence, no less than successful wickedness and unchecked antagonism to God. Yet the human heart is insanely prone to clasp these to its bosom, saying, “Be thou my confidence,” instead of trusting in the living God. But to do so is the merest self-deception. For none of these things, nor all of them, can satisfy a human soul. Only God can so occupy the heart as to fill it with happiness and render it secure. God alone is the saint’s portion and trust.

3. A fearful prediction. “Vanity,” probably in the sense of calamity, “shall be his recompense” (verse 31). And this reward, for which the self-deceived man toils, shall be paid:

(1) Fully; “it shall be accomplished” (verse 32), i.e. his punishment will be fully measured out, his wage paid to the fullthat wage being death (cf. Rom 6:23).

(2) Prematurely; “before his time,” i.e. before the natural termination of his life, sin having a tendency to shorten (Psalm Iv. 23), as godliness has to prolong life; before any of his schemes have reached completion, like a vine shaking off its unripe grapes and an olive casting off its flowers (verse 33).

(3) Sadly; involving his family in his ruin, for “the family of the hypocrites shall be desolate” (verse 34), the wicked man carrying the contagion of ungodliness into his home, and bringing down upon it the curse of God (Pro 3:33), as certainly as the good man surrounds his children with an atmosphere of salvation (Luk 19:9; Act 16:31), and draws down upon them by his prayers the benison of love.

(4) Utterly; the judgments of the Almighty consuming the tabernacles of bribery and their wicked inhabitants, who conceive mischief and bring forth vanity, and whose belly prepareth deceit (verse 35). A description, again, which, though inapplicable to Job, for whom it was wrongfully meant, has sometimes been realized, as in the case of the cities of the plain.

Learn:

1. That the true Divider of countries to nations and of lands to individuals is God. A man can receive nothing except it be given him from above.

2. That if the intercourse of peoples and tribes with one another be productive of good, it is by no means unattended with danger. Sinful practices and opinions are more easily adopted than their opposites.

3. That the way of transgressors is commonly as hard to themselves as to their victims. “Evil pursueth sinners.”

4. That the fiercest enemy a soul has to encounter is an awakened conscience. It is hard to contend against a foe through whose face God looks.

5. That the biggest coward upon earth is a bragging tyrant who oppresses the weak. Man’s moral strength rises in proportion to the meekness with which he can endure, not the cruelty with which he can inflict, wrong.

6. That the man who thinks to conquer God in battle is a fool. The way to victory with God is by faith and prayer, humility and submission.

7. That a fat body may become the grave of a lean soul. The man that would have a prosperous and luxuriant soul must keep the body under.

8. That the best-deceived man on earth is he who trusts in earthly vanities. If he who trusts in his own heart is a fool, what must he be who trusts in unsubstantial nothingness?

9. That wicked men’s families are often ruined by their parents. A father should lead his child to heaven by holy deeds, not point him the way to hell by transgression.

10. That the ultimate perdition of ungodly men is sure. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON

Job 15:1-19

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 (verses 2-19, 20-35).

I. ARGUMENT: INTRODUCTION. (Verses 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 wordsin “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 speechHas 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 craftya 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. (Verses 7-13.)

1. Ironical rebuke of his assumption Is he the first-born manolder 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 (verse 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. (Verses 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 4:175:7).

1. The hereditary taint in man (verse 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 (verse 16): shall such a creature, from the edge of its muddy pool, lift itself presumingly against Heaven?

IV. DEMAND FOR ATTENTION TO INSTRUCTION. (Verses 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.

Job 15:20-35

Warnings from the wisdom of experience.

I. THE TERRIBLE TORMENTS OF THE WICKED. (Job 15:20-24.)

1. Lifelong pain. Notwithstanding all appearances of ease and prosperity, the bad man only suffers. The sword seems ever suspended above the tyrant’s head. The serpent is ever busy with the tooth of remorse at his heart.

2. Dread fancies throng through every sound into his imagination; he is ever in terror of some sudden doom. He sees a darkness coming upon him from which there is no possibility of escape. In the glance of dread fancy he sees himself already singled out for the fatal sword-stroke. The gaunt shape of famine seems to haunt his steps; from his soft couch and splendid table he looks out into a dark scene, and realizes it as present; he is overcome by anguish and trouble, as a king is borne down amidst the turmoil of battle. Thus conscience makes the guilty man a coward, and the “native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.” “A guilty conscience! I ask no other hell.”

II. THE CAUSE OF HIS SUFFERINGS. (Job 15:25-28.)

1. Rebellion against God. This is presented under the powerful figure of a warrior, rushing against his foe, on the field, in headstrong fury. Self-will, leading to contempt of the moral order of God, and this to violent resistance to all moral restraint; here is the genesis and development of sin. See the history of Pharaoh.

2. His selfish life. He lives in luxury, pampering his body till he becomes a gross mass of flesh, full of carnal appetite. In his unsocial ambition and greed he has laid waste flourishing cities rich in men, that he may abide in them alone, as if he could not find place enough for the dwelling of his body, and preferred to live alone amidst wide desolation, rather than peacefully among a multitude of the happy. So in Isa 5:8, “Woe to them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!” “He enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people” (Hab 2:5). “He builds a town with blood, and lays its foundations in iniquity “(Hab 2:12). The picture is one of grasping, insatiable greed and covetousness, which shut a man out from the sympathy of his fellows. Some, however, take Isa 5:28 as referring further to an act of disobedience in fixing his dwelling among ruins, cursed by God and forbidden to future habitation.

III. THE INSTABILITY OF THE WICKED. (Isa 5:29 -33.) His hopes are disappointed, riches elude him, his accumulations melt away. Unlike the heavy harvest of the waving corn, he is rather like the tree whose roots do not sink deeply into the earth (Isa 5:29), so that every outward misfortune becomes in extreme source of dangerall his blossoms and fruits are cast away before the time of gathering! Then, again, the figure of darkness returns, which he only escapes, to fall into the glowing breath of God‘s anger, which blasts everything that is green and fair in his prospects.

IV. THE VANITY AND FOLLY OF THE WICKED. (Verses 34, 35.) He begins by trusting in vanity, in what is baseless, such as all absence of moral principle; and vanity, according to the moral constitution of the world, must be the end of his schemes. The time of ripeness and harvest must be that of destruction; or like the blossoms of the olive in certain years, which fall off without fruit being formed, his plans never come to maturity. The “brood” of the wicked man is unfruitful; the fire devours his tent. Or like the woman who has falsely conceived, and remains long in deception, but at last perceives with grief the nothingness of her hopes, so with the wicked man (comp. Is. Isa 7:14-17; Isa 33:11).

LESSONS.

1. Goodness alone has substance, vitality, endurance, fruitfulness.

2. Evil is emptiness; it carries with it self-delusion; its end is disappointment and failure.J.

HOMILIES BY R. GREEN

Job 15:2, Job 15:3

The wise man speaketh wisdom.

There is a fitness of things, and wisdom becomes the wise manthe man who is either truly wise or who would presume to be wise. Let his words testify to the justness of his profession. Consider

I. THE INCONGRUITY OF WORDS OF FOLLY PROCEEDING FROM THE LIPS OF THE WISE. All may reasonably hope that he who is tutored with knowledge, and who has accustomed himself to direct his knowledge to good ends, will speak only words of truth and sobernesswords trustworthy and useful. For one known to be wise, or professing to be wise, to use words of foolishness is an utter incongruity. The speech is the expression of the soul. Out of the heart the mouth speaketh. The world has need of wisdomneed of its saltto save it from the corruptions of error and folly. “Should a wise man utter vain knowledge?” It is inconsistent; it is misleading; it is destructive.

II. THE PRECIOUSNESS OF THE WORDS OF HIM WHO TRULY SPEAKETH WISDOM. To assume the position of the teacher, to dare to guide the ignorant, to set up one’s self as a ruler in the world of thought, is to assume a position of the highest possible importance. Knowingly or unknowingly, the world is led by the words of its teachers, good or bad. The souls of men are in the hands of the teacher. His words lead to life or death. The bulk of men are ignorant and timid, and therefore under the control of the stronger minds. The world’s sad history proves that men, like a flock of sheep, may be led into any path by their teachers. The dry and arid sands will not keep the feet of the sheep from following their leader and shepherd, nor will the rugged and stony ground. The world is led by the ears. How precious, then, to the world are words of true wisdom! Truly the feet of him who publisheth peace, and bringeth good tidings, are beautiful. The world is more indebted to its teachers of wisdom than to its chieftains in valour. Error binds men in chains; but words of wisdom, which are words of truth, set them free.

III. THE TRULY WISE MAN IS HE WHO DOTH NOT “REASON WITH UNPROFITABLE TALK,” AND WITH WHOSE SPEECHES IT CANNOT BE SAID, “HE CAN DO NO GOOD.” He is truly wise who, with words which he has good reason to believe are wise words, seeks to lead the world in paths of safetypaths of light, joy, and blessing. Let the man be judged by his words, and by his words condemned before the universal bar. Let the world cast its uttermost condemnations on him who by false words leads the unsuspecting fool into the path of peril; but let the world gather its garlands for him who with wise words proves himself to be wise, and leads the feet of men into the way of life. To be able to do good by speech is a great endowment; to be faithful in the use of right speech is to be truly wise, and a wise word is a word of life.R.G.

Job 15:14-16

Human sinfuless.

Eliphaz accuses Job of his attempt to justify himself, and speaks with great apparent acerbity of spirit. His words are cutting and cruel. He secretly declares Job to be sinful in proportion to his sufferings. He branches into generalities, and affirms the general human sinfulness with the quiet accusation, “All men are sinful; therefore thou art. Sorrow is the punishment of the wicked; therefore thy suffering is proof of thy guilt.” Eliphaz’s view is imperfect, and needs to be supplemented. Job, in his struggling, cries aloud for that supplement. It is found only in the assurance of the future, and in the fact that, with the future in view, it pleases the Almighty to discipline and prepare men for it. Suffering is seen to be a method of that discipline. Of human sinfulness it is affirmed

I. IT IS AN INHERENT CONDITION OF HUMAN LIFE. “What is man, that he should be clean? and he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?” as though he had said, “It is of the nature of man to be unclean.” “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” The human nature derived from the imperfect and unholy is necessarily unholy and imperfect. Evidences of this may be seen in the general observed depravity of man; in the necessity for very powerful influences to check sinfulness; in the constant recognition of the Fall in Holy Scripture; in the difficulty with which even good men preserve their goodness; and in the sad examples of deep degradation in all lands.

II. THIS SINFULNESS IS MOST APPARENT TO THE DIVINE JUDGMENT. Men are not always alive to their own sinfulness. Not apprehending righteousness, they have not an accurate standard by which to judge themselves. But in the Divine view the very angels, who are superior to men, are not pure: “The heavens are not clean in his sight.”

III. THIS SINFULNESS EXHIBITS ITSELF IN GREAT IMPURITY OF LIFE AND SPIRIT. Happily there are many exceptions, and we live in brighter, better times than did Job; yet how truly is it still to be said, “How much more abominable and filthy is man!”

IV. THIS SINFULNESS IS ESPECIALLY SHOWN IN AN ACTIVE PREFERENCE OF EVIL BEFORE GOOD. He “drinketh iniquity like water.” Eliphaz has been led from general views to single out the sad cases which all may observe, and which bear such painful testimony, that if human life be not checked in its natural tendencies, it degenerates to the worst conditions of evil.

Therefore:

1. Life to be guarded with great care, lest degenerating influences exert destructive power over it.

2. The most potent corrections to be sought; the need of regeneration.

3. The instruction, grace, and sanctification of the Spirit of God to be thankfully received and most carefully cherished.R.G.

Job 15:20-30

The consequences of evil-doing.

It is impossible that wrong-doing should go wholly unpunished, for were there no positive penal inflictions, the mere natural consequences of wrong-doing would bring inevitable penalties. The words in these verses refer to the present natural consequences of wrong-doing, not to the final penal inflictions which must follow. The evils which the practice of wickedness tends to bring upon the head of the evil-doer, though many may escape, are thus stated.

I. HE ENDURES PAIN ALL HIS DAYS. The reference is probably to inward sufferings, and the anxieties which a course of wrong must cause. But the physical pains are also great. Perhaps most physical pain is the consequence of wrong-doing. Keeping the righteous Law of God by man would free the human life from suffering as truly as it frees the life of the beast or the bird. Broken law, known or unknown, must, in the disturbance it brings, cause pain.

II. Another source of punishment to the evil-doer is in THE CONDEMNATIONS OF CONSCIENCE WHICH HE INCURS. The seat of all true judgment is the conscience. It is the sum of all the soul’s powersthe great tribunal before which all actions are brought. There the verdict is passed; there the penalty imposed”a dreadful sound is in his ears.” If the conscience be indurated, the life is so much the more degraded and the punishment the greater.

III. The wicked man suffers in THE FEARS WHICH HE EXPERIENCES. “He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.” A dark day awaits him, and he knows it. He carries his fear with him wherever he goes. Judgment has been passed upon his evil-doing by his own conscienceby himself. The penalty has been awarded, and he goes about expecting its infliction. The fear of punishment hangs over his head.

IV. ALL THIS DEEPENS INTO A DARK DREAD BY WHICH HE IS HAUNTED. His spirit has no rest. “Trouble and anguish make him afraid.” They wage war against him and despoil him. They “prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.”

V. Further evils follow in HIS OUTWARD CIRCUMSTANCES.

1. His dwelling shall be desolate (Job 15:28).

2. His riches fade away. He holds everything by an uncertain tenure.

3. He shall dwell in gloom. “He shall not depart out of darkness.”

4. He finally perishes by the breath of God. “By the breath of his mouth shall he go away.” This is the portion of the man who “stretcheth out his hand against God.” The assured Christian hope is bright, clear, comforting. It changes “the night into day;” it makes the darkness short, because of light; the “grave” is exchanged for the “house” on high; “corruption” puts on incorruption; “the bars of the pit” are burst; and the resting “together in the dust” passes into the “rest in him.”R.G.

HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY

Job 15:4

Restraining prayer.

Eliphaz thinks that Job’s wild words are a reproach to religion, and that the effect of them will be to undermine faith and discourage prayer. His is a common alarm of short-sighted, cautious people who think it safest to suppress doubt, and to whom the hasty utterances of a disturbed mind are most dreadful, although the fact is that the cold repetition of narrow and erroneous dogmas is far more hurt[hi to the cause of spiritual religion.

I. THE EVIL OF RESTRAINING PRAYER. However it may be brought about, there cannot be two opinions of the evil of this course of action. It may be said that we need not pray because God knows what we require without our telling himknows it even better than we know it ourselves. The answer to this excuse or difficulty is that the object of prayer is not to add to God’s information, but to commit our needs to him.

1. We lose what God gives in response to prayer. He expects us to entrust ourselves to him. He has bidden us seek his face (Psa 27:8). Christ has told us to ask, that we may receive (Joh 16:24). St. James explains that we “have not” sometimes just “because we ask not” (Jas 4:2).

2. We miss the spiritual blessedness of prayer. The chief good of prayer is not in the gifts it calls down from heaven, but in the very exercise itself. It is a greater blessing than any of the things that it is the means of bringing to us. To be in communion with God is better than to receive any favours from God.

“Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath.”

Restraining prayer is the soul holding its breath. This must end in death. Even when it is not complete, the stifling of the spiritual activities must result.

II. THE CAUSES OF RESTRAINING PRAYER.

1. Whatever leads to unbelief. This was Eliphaz’s thought, though he misapplied it, for he imagined that Job’s extravagant utterances would discourage men’s faith in religion and in the efficacy of prayer. But the truth is that the dreary formalism, the dismal orthodoxy which clung to antiquity and ignored spiritual instincts, the harsh uncharitableness that killed the spirit of religion while defending the name of it, were the greater hindrances to faith. When faith is thus hindered prayer freezes on our lips.

2. Worldly living. Some men are too busy to find time for prayer. But Luther is repotted to have said he had so much to do that he could not afford less than four hours a day for prayer, regarding prayer as the secret of strength for work. It is possible to be much in prayer, however, without giving a long time to acts of devotion; for prayer is inward and spiritual. It is not the occupation of one’s time, but the ensnaring of one’s heart with worldly things, that restrains prayer.

3. Sin. The penitent sinner may and will pray, casting himself on the mercy of God. Christ’s model of the prayer that is acceptable to God is the cry of the penitent, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” But sin harboured and loved completely crushes the spirit of prayer. No man can really pray who will not renounce his sin. Of course, it is possible to cry out selfishly for some gift from God. But the real prayer, which is communion with God, must be repressed and restrained by sin, because sin is separation from God.W.F.A.

Job 15:6

A man condemned by his own mouth.

These words have a singular and quite unintentional application as they proceed from one of Job’s comforters. Eliphaz means them for his victim, but they rebound on their author. The three friends afford striking instances of men condemned by their own mouths. As we read their pretentious and unsympathetic sentences, we cannot but also read between the lines the self-condemnation of the speakers. The only safe way to use so dangerous a weapon as that which Eliphaz here employs is to turn it against ourselves. Let us each inquire how we may be condemned by our own mouths.

I. BY CONFESSION.

1. The duty. This is the most obvious and direct method of self-condemnation, and it is the most honourable. It is shameful to sin, but it is more shameful to deny our guilt and try to hush up our evil-doing. There is something manly in daring to own one’s own wrong deeds. It would be better if we could do it more among men, confessing our faults one to another (Jas 5:16). It is absolutely necessary that we should do it to God. Confession is the first condition of forgiveness.

2. The difficulty. Now, this confession is by no means so easy as it appears before we have attempted it for ourselves. Not only is there pride to be overcome and the fear of obloquy to be mastered, but the subtle self-deceit of the heart must be conquered. For we are always tempted to plead excuses and extenuating circumstances. Yet no confession is worth anything that keeps hack part of the guilt. Confession must be frank, unreserved, whole-hearted, or it will run into hypocrisy. It is better not to confess our sins at all than to try to make them appear in a good light. The true attitude of penitence is one of utter self-abandonment, one of profound self-abasement.

II. BY ACCUSING OTHERS. Thus Eliphaz thought Job condemned himself by trying to bring a charge against God, and at the same time Eliphaz succeeded m condemning himself by accusing Job. The beam is never so visible in our own eye as when we are attempting to remove the mote from our brother’s eye. A censorious spirit brings a person into odious notoriety and invites criticism. He should be well able to stand a searching cross-examination who enters the witness-box against his neighbour. But further, the very spirit of censoriousness is evil, and the exhibition of such a spirit is self-condemnatory. While we condemn our brother for unorthodoxy, our very spirit and action condemn us for want of charitya much greater fault.

III. BY ALL OUR SPEAKING. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” We cannot be long with a person without some of his true character revealing itself. Men are not such inscrutable enigmas as they flatter themselves with being. The general conversation must reflect the normal tone of the life. Particular deeds of wickedness may be hidden in impenetrable silence, but the evil heart from which they spring cannot be thus hidden. Therefore we are to be judged by every idle word (Mat 12:36)not because careless speech is a great sin, but because our unreflecting language reveals our true selves. It is the straw that shows the set of the current.W.F.A.

Job 15:11

Unappreciated consolations.

Eliphaz is disappointed at the failure of the consolations which he and his two friends intended for the mitigation of Job’s sorrows. He coolly assumes that these consolations are from God, and that Job despises their Divine worth. So he asksAre the consolations of God small things to Job, and the gentle words in which they are conveyed but little appreciated? Let us see how it comes about that consolations are not appreciated. The fault may lie with the consoler or with the sufferer.

I. WHEN THE FAULT IS WITH THE CONSOLER. It is very difficult to offer true consolation. Too often we only chafe the sore which we would soothe, and hurt when we think to heal. Where is the cause of failure?

1. A false assumption. Eliphaz assumes that he and his friends have been bringing to Job the consolations of God, whereas they have been doing nothing of the kind. Their hard doctrine of exact, temporary retribution is not true, and it could not have come from God. Truth is the first requisite in all speech and counsel. It is a common error to confound man’s notions with God’s truth. Very often the protest which we take to be a rejection of the gospel is only urged against our unworthy presentation of it. The failure of people to receive the truth of Christ is frequently due to the ugly and odious ideas of man with which that truth is confused.

2. A mistaken judgment. Job could not accept the well-meant consolations of the three friends because they implied that he was a great sinner, and called him to repent of what he knew he should not have been credited with doing. The injustice of the charge soured the consolation, and its balm was turned to bitterness. We must learn to understand men if we would help and comfort them.

3. An unsympathetic method. The three friends did not appreciate Job’s sufferings; therefore he could not appreciate their consolations. Sympathy is the most essential ingredient of comforting influences. Until we can feel with the sufferer, all our attempts to aid him will be but bungling failures. The Divine Spirit is the great Comforter, because he enters our hearts and lives with intelligence and sympathy.

II. WHEN THE FAULT IS WITH THE SUFFERER.

1. Impenitence It might have been as Eliphaz had supposed, and in some cases it is so, and then the guilty man excludes the Divine consolations by refusing to confess his sins. So long as the sinner declines to admit his guilt he cannot receive God’s comfort. The grace of God is sufficient for all the needs of all his children, and yet none of it is effective with his disobedient and unrepentant children.

2. Rebellion. Possibly no great sin has been committed, and no great guilt incurred, and still the attitude of the sufferer towards his God may exclude consolation. He must submit in order to be comforted. Resignation is a condition of Divine consolation. When the wind is opposed to the tide, it tears off the crests of the waves and flings them about in wild spray; whereas when wind and tide flow together, the great rollers run smoothly on to the beach. It is our rebellion against the tide of providence that tears our life and makes its bitterest agony. When we have learnt to say, “Thy will be done,” our harmony with God’s will smooths down the height of the trouble and prepares for the Divine peace.

3. Unbelief. Until we can trust God his consolation seems small to us. It is not valued till it is tried. Unbelief minimizes grace. According to our faith is the blessing, great or small.W.F.A.

Job 15:12

Heart-wanderings.

Eliphaz cannot understand Job. He will assume that the sufferer is guilty, and that, when he protests his innocence and refuses the consolations offered on condition of repentance, the patriarch is betrayed by his own heart into turning his spirit against God. As usual, what Eliphaz says, though it is not applicable directly to Job, still in itself contains an important lesson.

I. WE ARE LED BY OUR HEARTS.

1. The inner life. All life flows outward from hidden, deep-seated springs, as the Jordan at Banias bursts out of the cave of Pan beneath Mount Hermon, a full river, whose secret origin is too remote and deep for any man to discover it.

2. The thought. The heart in the Bible stands for the whole inner life, and therefore it includes the thinking faculty. Now, we are governed largely by our ideas of things; not by things as they are, but by things as they appear to us. Therefore we need to think truly.

3. The affections and desires. We are chiefly moved by what we love. The love of sin is the parent of sin. If the heart is betrayed into entertaining low desires, a degraded conduct follows.

II. OUR HEARTS ARE PRONE TO ERR.

1. In weakness. We have not fixed thoughts and affections. The life within is in continuous change and movement. At the same time, its weakness makes it peculiarly liable to be led astray.

2. In sinful inclination. We inherit tendencies to evil. Our own self-chosen conduct creates habits of evil. Thus our heart tends downward. Left to itself, it will go astray and drag us down to ruin. The human heart is ever wandering and rebellious until it has been renewed.

III. THE WANDERING HEART LEADS TO RUIN. We are tempted to neglect the evil on three accounts.

1. That it is internal. Thus it seems to be a secret thing, not concerned with conduct. But as it is the spring of all our conduct, the excuse is a delusion.

2. That it is under our control. The idea is that we can stop before we have gone too far. We are not the slaves of another, we are our own masters. This is also a delusion, for the heart gets out of control.

3. That it only concerns ourselves. It is only our heart that wanders, and our heart is our own possession. This is to assume that we are not accountable to God. But the supreme Judge takes account of the heart as well as of the outward act, and condemns for heart-sins (Mat 15:19).

IV. THE WANDERING HEART NEEDS TO BE RENEWED. Sin comes from the heart; then sin must be cured in the heart. Clean hands are of little use without a clean heart.

1. Cleansing. The guilt of sin needs to he washed away; the love and desire of sin also need to be pureed out of the heart. This is so difficult a work that only the Creator can do it. “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Psa 51:10).

2. Recovery. The wandering heart must be brought back to God. It is not enough that sin is cast out. The love of God must be planted, and the heart must be restored to fellowship with God. These are blessings which come with the reception of Christ into the heart.

3. Preservation. We are bidden to keep our heart with all diligence (Pro 4:23). But we find the treacherous heart eluding our utmost vigilance, and wandering in spite of all our care. Therefore we have to find safety in obeying a second command, “My son, give me thy heart” (Pro 23:26).W.F.A.

Job 15:14-16

God’s holiness and man’s sin.

Eliphaz takes up Job’s words (Job 14:1-4), but turns them against their author. Job had spoken of inherited frailty as a ground for pity; Eliphaz seizes on it as an accusation of guilt. How dare this puny, imperfect creature, man, boast of his innocence in the sight of the holy God?

I. GOD‘S HOLINESS IS INCOMPARABLE. This is an idea which we take for granted. Yet it was not found in most heathen religions. Monotheism is commonly reckoned as the great peculiarity of the Hebrew faith; but a more striking peculiarity is holiness. The neighbouring divinities were just representations of magnified human passions, often more degraded and immoral than men. The revelation of the true God shows that he is not only above all human passion; he is perfect in holiness. We can find no image with which to compare his purity. The mountain is high above the plain, hut mountain and plain are equally low when we think of the stars. Our goodness may mean something among men, but it does not extend to God (Psa 16:2). Even the very angels veil their faces before him, awed by the majesty of absolute goodness. Yet God’s goodness in being absolute is not so because he is infinite. If it were, it would be unfair to complain that we could not approach it. An inch of snow may be as pure as an acre of snow.

II. GOD‘S HOLINESS REVEALS MAN‘S SIN. We do not know our sin till we see it in the light of God. There are in the farmyard fowls black and white. But when the snow has fallen the white fowls look so no longer, because by the side of the Heaven-sent purity of the snow their plumage is seen to be of a very impure colour. There are men of various character, and some are accounted white-souled saints. But when placed by the side of God’s holiness these are the first to confess that their righteousness is as filthy rags. Christ revealed the sin of his age in contrast to his own holiness. We do not own our sinfulness because we do not know God’s goodness. It is not the Law, but God’s goodness in Christ, that most makes us feel our sin.

III. GOD‘S HOLINESS CANNOT ENDURE SIN. Sin may stand uurebuked and unchecked in the world, because all are “tarred with the same brush.” Thus there is a dangerous condoning of conventional evil. But this is not possible with God. Holiness and sin are opposed as light and darkness. The thought of God’s holiness alone makes men tremble.

Eternal Light, Eternal Light!

How pure the soul must be

When, placed within thy searching sight,
It shrinks not, but with calm delight

Can live and look on thee!”

Therefore God must deal with sin, to banish and destroy it. If the sinner cleaves to his sin he cannot but share in its doom. If, however, he will detach himself from it, it will be destroyed, while he is saved. God hates the sin, not the sinner. Now, God’s holy hatred of sin should be regarded by us as a reason for great thankfulness. For the sin he hates is just our most deadly enemy. If he destroys our sin, he saves our soul from its fatal foe. On the other hand, only God can give the purity which is needed for his presence. We may make ourselves seem fair before man. Only God can purify us so that we are fit for his presence, only the blood of Christ can cleanse from all sin (1Jn 1:7).W.F.A.

Job 15:31

Trusting in vanity.

I. THE HABIT OF TRUSTING IN VANITY. The vanity spoken of is any empty ground of trust, like an island of floating weeds on which careless people build their homes, but which will be shattered, with all that is on it, in the first storm.

1. A delusion. We may be persuaded to accept what is not true. Our belief does not give any reality to the delusion; we are then trusting in vanity.

2. Self. We are all too ready to think our own resources greater than they are. Yet every man who trusts to himself supremely is trusting in vanity, for all are sinful, frail, and prone to err.

3. Man. The psalmist warns us against putting our trust in man (Psa 118:8).

(1) As a friend. The best friends cannot help us in our greatest needsin the guilt of sin, in the sorrow of a terrible loss, in the hour of death.

(2) As a priest. Some trust to the priest to do their religious duties for them, although they would not express themselves thus boldly. But the priest is a man, a sinner, needing himself the Saviour to whom every one of us can go directly for himself.

4. A creed. The creed may be true, yet if we trust to that, and not to Christ, we trust in vanity. Faith which saves is not the mental consent to a string of propositions; it is living confidence in a personal Saviour.

5. A Church. We are members of a Church, pro-resting the Christian faith and in communion with the brotherhood of Christians. Yet if our confidence is in the Church rather than in Christ our hope is vain. The Church is the body of those who are being saved; it is not the Saviour.

II. THE FATE OF TRUSTING IN VANITY. “Vanity shall be his recompense.” Here, as elsewhere, “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Let us consider the nature and course of this fate.

1. A postponed result. The vanity tempts with a plausible appearance of substantiality, it is not discovered the moment it is trusted. A man may so blind himself as to trust in vanity all his life, and at last die in his delusions. How great and fearful must be the final awakening of such a self-deceiver! There will be enough punishment for some men in the very discovery of the utter vanity of their hopes.

2. A sure result. Every man’s future is moulded according to what he relies upon. His fate is determined by his God. If he worships mammon, self, or sin, his condition in the future will be the direct outcome of the present devotion of his heart. This is just a case of natural causation running into the spiritual life.

3. A miserable result. The vanity does not appear to be a very dreadful thing when it is first seen. Yet to possess it for ever as an inheritance is the punishment of its dupe. For when it is found out it must be loathed. Though we may trust in what is unsubstantial, we cannot live upon it. The soul that tries to support itself on lies and pretences will starve as surely as the body which is fed on nothing but air.

4. A merited result. The trust was not in evil, only in vanity. There was no choice of a positively bad or hurtful thing. The worst is vacancy and negation. Yet vacancy and negation are justly recompensed after their kind. The empty soul goes deservedly to outer darkness. We need a positive ground of faith. The only sure ground, the one Foundation, is Jesus Christ, He who trusts the Rock of Ages will not be recompensed with vanity.W.F.A.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

CHAP. XV.

Eliphaz charges Job with impiety, in justifying himself: he proves by tradition the unhappiness of the wicked.

Before Christ 1645.

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, Job 15:2-13. 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 an image, setting forth 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 whom he had been describing, and that he had by that means drawn down God’s judgments on himself, Job 15:14-30. That therefore his conceptions of innocence were an illusion, but one, however, of the worst kind: he had deceived himself: Job 15:31-35. Heath.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

SECOND SERIES OF THE CONTROVERSIAL DISCOURSES

THE ENTANGLEMENT INCREASING:

Job 15-21

I. Eliphaz and Job 15-17

A.Eliphaz: Gods punitive justice is revealed only against evil-doers

Job 15

1. Recital in the way of rebuke of all in Jobs discourses that is perverted, and that bears testimony against his innocence:

Job 15:1-19

1Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

2Should a wise man utter vain knowledge,

and fill his belly with the East wind?

3Should he reason with unprofitable talk?

or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

4Yea, thou castest off fear,

and restrainest prayer before God.

5For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity,

and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.

6Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I:

yea, thine own lips testify against thee.

7Art thou the first man that was born?

or wast thou made before the hills?

8Hast thou heard the secret of God?

and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?

9What knowest thou that we know not?

what understandest thou, which is not in us?

10With us are both the gray-headed and very aged men,

much elder than thy father.

11Are the consolations of God small with thee?

is there any secret thing with thee?

12Why doth thine heart carry thee away,

and what do thy eyes wink at,

13that thou turnest thy spirit against God,

and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?

14What is man, that he should be clean?

and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

15Behold He putteth no trust in His saints;

yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight.

16How much more abominable and filthy is man,

which drinketh iniquity like water?

17I will show thee, hear me;

and that which I have seen I will declare;

18which wise men have told

from their fathersand have not hid it:

19unto 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

20The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days,

and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.

21A dreadful sound is in his ears:

in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

22He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness,

and he is waited for of the sword.

23He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it?

he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

24Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid;

they shall prevail against him as a king ready to the battle.

25For he stretcheth out his hand against God,

and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty:

26he runneth upon him, even on his neck,

upon the thick bosses of his bucklers;

27because he covereth his face with his fatness,

and maketh collops of fat on his flanks:

28and he dwelleth in desolate cities,

and in houses which no man inhabiteth,
which are ready to become heaps.

29He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue,

neither, shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth.

30He shall not depart out of darkness;

the flame shall dry up his branches,
and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.

31Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity,

for vanity shall be his recompense.

32It shall be accomplished before his time,

and his branch shall not be green.

33He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine,

and shall cast off his flower as the olive.

34For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate,

and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.

35They 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 Jobs 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 Gods 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 [Jobs 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 is not, without further qualification, synonymous with , 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 , East wind, is here (as well as in Hos 12:2 [1] a stronger synonym of , wind, and so describes the violence, or the ceaseless noisy bluster and roar of Jobs 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. 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 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. , a strong copula, adding a new and more serious charge, like the phrase over and above; comp. Job 14:3. [, emphaticeven thou, who dost fancy thyself to be called on to remind us of the fear of God, Job 13:9 seq.] , absolute, as in Job 4:6; , 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 , 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 includes the practical side, over which conscience rules. Eliphaz charges therefore that the tendency of Jobs 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 [with feminine ending] see Job 3:4., detrahere, to derogate from, to prejudice [Frst: to weaken, to lessen]; comp. below Job 15:8, where it conveys more the sense of drawing to ones-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 , 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 , 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 Jobs presumptuous and still crafty discourses proceed].And thou choosest the speech [lit. the tongue] of the crafty: ( 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 ( , a vox forensis; for the masc. after the fem. comp. Pro 5:2; Pro 26:23). Comp. still further the New Testament parallel passage, Mat 12:37. [These words, according to Eliphazs meaning, place Jobs 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 Jobs conduct implied that he arrogated to himself].

Job 15:7. Wast thou born as the first man? ( [ is the original form, which appears again in Jos 21:10, and is retained by the Samaritans; , instead of which we have in Job 8:8, which has passed into general use, and is hence chosen by the Kri. Dillm.] in the constr. st. followed by the collective ; hence lit. as first of men.Delitzsch takes 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 Gods 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 ( of the Manicheans), the Manu (i. e., the thinking one) of the Brahmanic legends of creation as well as the ironical proverb of the Hinds: 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 Hinds), 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 . 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?, passive of 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 Gods 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 Gods 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?, 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? without the article, denoting the absolute divine wisdom; comp. Job 11:6; Job 12:2; Pro 8:1 seq. In regard to , see above on Job 15:4. [Gesenius: Dost thou reserve all wisdom to thyself? like the Arabic, to absorb, drink up. Frst: 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 Gods activity in creating and ordering the world, still lies at the bottom of these questions. Comp. Gods 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 thyselfas 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 is inverted, as in Job 2:10, and as in the parallel passages there cited. is equivalent to: in our generation, in our race. We are to think, on the one side, of Jobs 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. and presents not the slightest grammatical difficulty. Still further, if El. had (according to b) declared himself more abundant in days than Jobs 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 , 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 theecomp. 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 , elsewhere , 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 Jobs presumptuous discontent, founded on mans extreme sinfulness.]

Job 15:12. Why does thy heart carry thee away?, auferre, abripere. [ 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?, . . = Aram. and Arab. , 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. here meaning angry breathing, [thus expressed because it manifests itself in (Act 9:1), and has its rise in the (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? (comp. Job 4:2) as parallel with 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 Jobs confession in Job 14:4, which was in substantial harmony therewith. On comp Job 14:1.

Job 15:15. Behold, in His holy ones He puts no trust. , the same as , Job 4:18, and hence used of the angels [see on Job 5:1].And the heavens are not pure in His eyes. 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 , or of (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 (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; Zckler: Die Urgeschichte der Erde und des Menschen (1868), p. 12 seq.; also below, on Job 38:7.

Job 15:16. Much less then ( , quanto minus, like above in Job 4:19) the abominable and corrupt (, lit. soured, one corrupted by the , 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 benevolenti.

Job 15:17. I will inform thee (comp. Job 13:17), listen to me, and that which I have seen will I relate. is neuter, as in Gen 6:15, or like above in Job 13:16, and is a relative clause; comp. Ges. 122 [ 120], 2 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 , cordinate with , is added without , because it is substantially identical with that which Eliphaz had seen. belongs not to (so the ancient versions, and Luther) but to the logically dominant verb , which the 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, .

Job 15:19. A more circumstantial description of :To whom alone the land was given (to inhabit), and through the midst of whom no stranger had forced his way.[Zckler takes the verb 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 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 (), Sohlottmanns 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 toalthough we are under no necessity of understanding either or of warlike invasionsstill 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 Eliphazs 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 (, 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.] (, 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 is an [adverbial] accusative clause, and 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: ; 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 . [Not necessarily. is often used as a sign of the dativus commodi. or incommodi, where we should expect .E. g., Mic 2:4 , where the removal of the nations portion from it, is represented by the preposition , because of the injurious consequences to it. So here the hiding of the number of the oppressors years from him is represented by , 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 for 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 oppressors misery is apprehension, anxiety, the premonition of his doom. How the darkness of this feature of the picture is deepened by this strokethe 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 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 of the wicked. [It is doubtful whether the following description is to be limited to the evil-doers 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 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 not as a collective, but as singular (comp. Job 12:6): the destroyer falls upon him. As to 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. , the same with (which form is given by the Kri and many MSS.) Part. pass, of , 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 swordso the Pesh. and Vulg.) and Ewalds emendation to , 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 fooda thought which the LXX. [also Wemyss and Merx], misunderstanding the short emphatic interrogative , where [for which they read , vulture], have obscured, or rather entirely perverted by their singular translation: : [he wanders about for a prey for vultures, Wem.]. With comp. the similarly brief in Job 9:19.He knows that close by him [lit. as in E. V., ready at his hand], (, like Job 1:14, near, close by, Psa 140:6 (5); 1Sa 19:3) a dark day (lit. day of darkness; comp. Job 15:22) stands readyto seize upon him and to punish him (, as in Job 18:12).

Job 15:24. Trouble and anguish terrify him. 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 is either or, with a neuter construction, the unknown something, the mysterious Power [which suggests the comparison that follows]) as a king ready for the onset. 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. (= , Ew., 156, b) is correctly given on the whole by the Pesh. and Vulg., although not quite exactly by proelium. The Rabbis, Bttch., 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 by onset, storming, rush of battle; for this is the only meaning that is well suited to , paratus ad, as well as to the principal subject .

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 , 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, 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.] , 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 is still under the regimen of 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 , 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 wickedBecause he has covered his face with his fatness (comp. Psa 73:4-7), and gathered ( 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, , lit. which they ought not to inhabit for themselves; the passive rendering of [Gesen., Del.] is unnecessary, the meaning of the expression in any case being, (domus nonhabitand) which are destined for ruins.We are to think of an insolent, sacrilegious, mocking, avaricious tyrant, who fixes his residencewhether it be his pleasure-house, or his fortified castlein 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 Lwenthal 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, (), 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 = , (with the suffix ) from a root (which is not to be met with) , = Arab, nal, to attain, to acquire, and so used in the sense of qustum, lucrum (comp. the post-biblical , ). 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 e. g., LXX.: [adopted by Merx]; Vulg. , radicem suam: Pesh. , words; Targ. , 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 Hupfelds (non extendet in terra caulam), nor Olshausens (their sickle does not sink to the earth), nor Bttchers (their fullness), nor Dillmanns , 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 we should read from root to out; the translation then being: neither shall the cutting (or offset) of such extend in the earth. The verbal root found only in Isa 33:1 (, Hiph. Inf. with Dagh. dirimens for ) seems to signify perficere, to finish; hence E. V. here renders the noun perfection. Bernard likewise accomplishment, achievements. For the meaning to spread, extend, is preferred by Good, Lee, Noyes, Umbreit, Renan, Con., Rod-well, etc. (E. V., prolong). The preposition 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 ( forming a paronomasia with the of the first member) by the blast of His [Gods] 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 vanityhe is deceived (, Niph. Perf. with reflexive sense: lit. he has deceived himself) [Renan: Insens!] for vanity shall be his possession [; Ges., Frst., Con., etc., like E. V. recompense: Delitzsch: not compensatio, but permutatio, acquisitio; and so Ewald and ZcklerEintausch, exchange]. , written the first time , 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, referring back immediately to , Job 15:31,so Hirzel, Dillmann. And his palm-branch ( 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 branchesby 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; or = , 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 Thomsons 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 in a is variously rendered by commentators; e. g., broken [man bricht, 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 ( 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. as in Job 8:13; Job 13:16 (Job 3:7) is here and in Job 30:3 used as a substant. in the sense of stark death (LXX.: ), barrenness, hard rock, comp. Mat 13:5; and 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 ( , LXX.).

Job 15:35. They (the profligate, for in Job 15:34 was collective) conceive (are pregnant with) misery, and bring forth calamity. and , 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 , to prepare, to adjust, comp. Job 27:17; Job 38:41; for , deception, Gen 27:35; Gen 34:13; Mic 6:11; Pro 11:1, etc.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Jobs 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 Jobs 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 Jobs 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 Gods sentence without, and so comes to a horrible end. This passagewhich 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 speakers 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 Gods 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 wordat 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 Jobs conceit of superiority on the ground of his wisdoma 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 Jehovahs 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 Godnay 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 mans 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 4Cramer: 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-lane. Gods 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 (Dn 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 Nimrods apostasy from God, and his hostility to His favored one Abraham. The tradition which has even been transferred by the tribes of Arabia Petra 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.

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

We have in this chapter Eliphaz reassuming the argument. He falls hard upon Job, still harping upon the string of Job’s hypocrisy. He maketh use of sound reasoning however, only so far as it related to Job, it was misapplied.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

(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?

To all these questions, the answer is direct. But what application had this reasoning to Job? Vain knowledge, unprofitable talk, and speeches good for nothing, were not in Job’s discourse.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Humbling Questions

Job 15:7

I. ‘Art thou the first man that was born?’ There must have been a first man. He might possibly have had some measure of independence from a merely superficial view of himself, but he had no real independence, he was part of the next man that was coming, and thus we belong to posterity as well as ancestry, and we hand on the life which we have often stained and spoiled. If I am not the first man that was born, if I am not the only man, then it follows that I must consult some other man. We belong to one another. Your friend knows better than you do how certain cases stand, because you may be part and parcel of the cases, and he stands aside or at a proper distance giving them the right proportion, perspective, and colour, and he, being a wise man, can tell you what to do, and you in your turn may be able to render the same service to him. We belong to one another. There is but one Man multifold, but one.

II. Thus God makes one man debtor to another, and so creates mutual interests. When you ‘take a man in,’ using a commercial phrase, you do not enrich yourself. That is curious, but it is true. You enrich yourself apparently or for the moment, you increase your possessions for the moment at least; but you do not really enrich yourself, your soul, and there is no abiding, no durableness, in the stuff that you get with a thief’s hand. Honesty is rich, economy is wealth; he who has few wants has many riches.

We are debtors to one another, because the first man belongs to the second man, and the second man to the first man, and when a third man comes they will be divided and sub-divided, and when the three-hundredth man comes we shall begin to shape our relations and define our responsibilities, and make that marvellous star called Society, that no telescope can see thoroughly into and which no calculation can estimate at its full and enduring value. We are members one of another, like the jointed body. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.

III. Applying this line of thought to the highest spiritual things, let us remember that we did not invent the Gospel. This is no modern thought; this is no yesterday’s ware turned out of some oven in the manufacturing districts. This is older than man. The Cross is older than Adam; the Cross is just as old as the love of God. When you have fixed the date of the birth of the love of God you have fixed the date of the meaning of the Cross. Yet if we come into historical times, say into Mosaic years, we shall find the Cross in the book of Genesis, we shall find the Cross in the book of Revelation. Jesus Christ is the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. Our temptation is to amend the Gospel, to add something to it or take something from it, or set our own finger-mark upon its beauty. If we could but deliver the Gospel instead of attempting to invent it, we might do some good. ‘I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received.’ That was the apostolic declaration, and if we would be in the apostolic succession we must do exactly what the Apostle Paul himself did: he ‘received’ the Gospel and ‘delivered’ it. That is all we have to do; or if we make any contribution to it, which we cannot make to its substance, but to its illustration, it must be the contribution of our own personal experience in agonizing prayer, in self-crucifixion, and in the dwelling with God in secret places where the fountains throw up their healing waters for our refreshment and our renewal. The Gospel is in every bush of the summer, in every bird of the air, in every act of suffering, in the vicarious mother and the vicarious father: these are parables given to us to help us understand the central Gospel, which is that Jesus Christ tasted death for every man.

Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. III. p. 270.

Job 15:8

Compare Fitzgerald’s remark ( Letters, i. p. 231) about a certain vicar, ‘he is a good deal in the secrets of Providence’.

‘I had a letter from Edward Irving the other day,’ wrote Carlyle in 1826 to his brother. ‘”The Lord,” he says, “blesses him; his Church rejoices in the Lord”; in fact, the Lord and he seem to be quite hand and glove.’

Reference. XV. 11. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxv. No. 2099.

Job 15:21

Some apparent advantages followed for a season from a rule which had its origin in a violent and perfidious usurpation, and which was upheld by all the arts of moral corruption, political enervation, and military repression. The advantages lasted long enough to create in this country a steady and powerful opinion that Napoleon the Third’s early crime was redeemed by the seeming prosperity which followed. The shocking prematureness of this shallow condonation is now too glaringly visible for any one to deny it. Not often in history has the great truth that ‘morality is the nature of things’ received corroboration so prompt and timely.

Morley, Compromise, pp. 25, 26.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

The Second Speech of Eliphaz

Job 15

Let us recall our position. Job had repelled the common theories of life and government which his three friends had elaborately argued. He said in effect: No, you have not touched the reality of the case; I have heard all your words, well selected as words, uttered clearly and sharply, now and again perhaps a little cruel, but you know nothing of my case: I do not know much about it myself; not one of us has yet come upon the mystery; all the commonplaces you have spoken, all the maxims you have set in order before me, I have known as long as I can remember anything, and in their own places, and at proper times, no fault is to be found with them, but oh that God himself would speak to me! I could understand him better than I understand you; you are trying to reach me, and cannot, and I am plagued and fretted by your inadequate effort; you are straining yourselves, but really doing nothing; you have told me of fate, and my conscience rejects it; you have preached the doctrine of sovereignty, a very noble doctrine, capable of majestic expression, but that is not it; you have not spared me in remarking upon the sure and certain law by which punishment follows sin, but I have done no sin; you are addressing the wrong man; I have served God, loved God, and lived for God and defied the devil: I decline your theories; you have not touched my wounded heart. Job, as we have seen, felt there was something more. Mark that word “felt” Who has dealt with it? How vigorous we have been about the word “know”! How we have turned it, and coloured it, and twisted, it, and lengthened it: but where is the tongue eloquent enough and gentle enough to touch the word “felt” feeling? We know many things because we “feel” them. And we know many lies in the same way. It would not be courteous always to tell a man bluntly that we feel how much he has missed the statement of truth in what he has said, but we feel that the man is false. A wonderful faculty, if we may so call it, is that of feeling! Christ was all feeling; he said, “Who touched me?” “Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?” the question is preposterous; people cannot help touching thee. They knew not there was touching and touching the masonic touch, the look full of meaning, the attitude that was a prayer. When Jesus went into the synagogue he knew at once there was a man there with a withered hand. How did he know? He “felt.” He knew all harmonies, and proportions, and balances, and consistencies: he knew when this little earth staggered in its course; every motion seemed to send a vibration to his very heart. We know something of the mystery of this power. Job knew it well after he had listened to the vain eloquence of his comforters. He felt there was something more, and yet could not put it into words. “Words” what can they express? They may express a little when the man himself is present to give them vitality, complexion, accent, by his own personality; but when he has gone, and men are left to pronounce the words according to their own conception of their meaning, how often the meaning is gone, and we know not where they have laid it! Job was thus in a crisis. He represented a great intellectual and moral agony. He was between two lands: he had left the old land, and had not yet arrived at the new one; his mind was in a transition state; he said, Almost today the light may shine, and I may be able to tell you all about it; at any moment now the cloud may break, and the angel may descend. Yet that happy revelation had not come. When a man is waiting for the revelation, assured that it will come; when all circumstances and appearances are dead against him; when his own wife does not know him; when his children are dead; when his familiar acquaintances have abandoned him; and he still feels that the angel is nearer than ever but has not yet manifested himself, that is the agonistic point in life. We cannot tell all we know. Eliphaz said, “Is there any secret thing with thee?” Some secret with thee? There is with every man. How foolish are they who say, Tell all you know! Who can do that, if the word “know” is rightly interpreted? Who can empty an intellect? who can turn a heart upside down, and pour its contents before the gaze of the public? Blessed are those teachers who always know more than they say: what they do not say has an effect upon what they do say sends out upon it a singular ghostly colouring and hint of things unspeakable and infinite. Eliphaz could tell all he knew. Any man can repeat the alphabet, and make an end of it: but oh! when it combines itself, when it passes into marvellous permutations, and into poetry, philosophy, history, science, and then says: I want to say ten thousand other things, but ye cannot bear them now, then it is we find and feel the difference between the literary man and the seer, between talent and genius, between great knowledge and inexpressible emotion.

It will be interesting to see how Eliphaz approaches Job now that he has delivered himself in the manner which we have already analyzed and considered. First of all, Eliphaz says: Here is a great waste of mental energy, a great deal of unprofitable talk; here are speeches wherewith he can do no good. It is difficult to preach to such men, and it is still more difficult to hear them preach! They have such a conception of profitableness and edification; they are so final, so geometric; they begin, and they end; they have no apocalypse; they have a ceiling, not a sky, a ringed fence, not a horizon: so when they hear Job preach they say, This is a great waste of intellectual power; all this comes to nothingness and unprofitableness; these are words only, wherewith no good can be done: here is a man who wants to force the mystery of heaven: here is a poor creature of days battering with his fevered hand upon the door of the everlasting, as if any beating of his could ever elicit a reply: this is unprofitable, this is worthless; Job, this is vanity. Eliphaz spoke to the best of his ability. He was an Arab, by relation if not by direct descent, and he spoke all he knew by the book; but he had no book-producing power in his own mind and heart: he was a great reader; he was full of information, such as his day supplied, but he had not that mysterious touch, which every soul that is not dead can feel, but which no mind can fully explain.

Then Eliphaz accused Job of self-contradiction. That is the great weapon of the enemy. Hear him:

“For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity… thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee” ( Job 15:5-6 ).

Some men are great in parallel columns: they put down upon one side what was said the day before yesterday, and on the other side what was said only yester-morning, and they say, Look on this picture and on that: here is a man who has blown hot and cold, sent forth sweet water and bitter; here is a man between whose utterances there is really no organic or vital consistency. They did not understand Job. His consistency was in his integrity, in his purpose, in his motive, in his character. Herein we do not altogether hold with those who say to preachers, Always be sure to agree with yourselves, so that the sermon preached twenty years ago shall exactly match in length and in colour the sermon you preach today. No: a man must take the day as he finds it; be the self of the passing day as to utterance, attitude, expression: but he must. be yesterday, today, and for ever the same in holy desire, in upward looking, in waiting upon God. That is consistency enough for any mortal man. Job acknowledged that he was talking roughly and with some measure of incoherence, because he was talking in the dark, he was groping at midnight, and he was almost trying to speak himself into the right kind of music, as a man who says, By-and-by I shall warm to my subject; by talking about it I shall presently talk the thing itself, by hovering above it I shall get a better aspect of it, and then at the end I shall proclaim the solid and tranquil truth.

But Eliphaz proceeded along a most natural line to accuse Job of downright presumption:

“Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills? Hast thou heard the secret of God? … What knowest thou, that we know not? What understandest thou, which is not in us?” ( Job 15:7-9 ).

A most difficult position to occupy in life, namely, to know something which the next man does not know, and which he could not understand if he did hear all about it; to attempt his enlightenment would only be a contribution which would end in his regarding the speaker as even wilder and more presumptuous than he had originally supposed him to be. Hast thou been in the cabinet of God? Why this self-exaggeration? You are really setting yourself up above the whole age and manner of things, and this is a conspicuousness which is irreligious; fall down into the common level, and speak like other men. There is a Hindoo proverb which is barbed with the same sarcasm. We are told that the Hindoos say about a man who is well-informed, progressive, almost audacious in thinking, “Yes, this is the first man, and of course he knows everything!” A marvellous thing, however, that even sarcasm has not been able to put down truth; still the truth comes on, waving its white banner, speaking its gracious word, and promising its everlasting kingdoms: it is hunted, sneered at, contemned, spat upon, crucified; but say of resurrection what you may, we see it broadly and amply enough in all truth-forms, in all the aspects and energies of love “God is love”: if sarcasm could have killed anything it would have killed God; who so laughed at, misunderstood, defied, blasphemed? But “God is love.”

How difficult it was for Job to establish a new point of progress! If he had turned the three men into four and said, We must all walk step for step, we all know just the same, we must all speak precisely the same; then he would have been more comfortable: but he separated himself; he said I do not know you, and you do not know me; for long years we have understood one another, but there is a point of time at which you and I are no longer in fraternity as to moral conception, and as to our outlook upon the whole sphere and purpose of things. That is a funeral day; that is the churchyard in which we bury old companionships, theologies, conceptions, usages; there we lay our dead selves, and pray that there may be no resurrection. Still how can a man say good-bye to Eliphaz, and Bildad, and Zophar old friends without feeling a pang at his heart? Some there are who could not leave the old chapel, the old church, for the new academy, and the broader Lyceum, without feeling that they were giving up something which after all had a weird attraction for them. It cannot be easy to some natures to close the old Bible for the last time and lay it down for ever. It cannot be easy to give up all the old hymn-singing and all the old associations, and to write upon that which once was the very summer and heaven of life, “Farewell.” Yet even this we have sometimes to do; here are martyrdoms which history does not record, surrenders and sacrifices that never can be expressed in words; but the man who makes them, with the full consent of judgment and heart, is known to have made them, by the radiance of his countenance, by the largeness of his charity, by the peacefulness of his whole soul.

Eliphaz held a doctrine which is sometimes misunderstood:

“What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?” ( Job 15:14 ).

As we have said, Eliphaz, as a Temanite, belonged to the Arabic race. The Arabs were always proud of purity of descent, even as to animals; they would have no intermixture; they would stand by the original line, and, be it horse or man, he must come down by the right genealogy. Eliphaz had got the idea that the race had somehow been guilty of intermixture, or apostacy, or uncleanness: he did not necessarily use the word in a theological sense, but in a genealogical sense, and therefore he said, How can this line that has been thrown out of course, mixed, twisted, and debased in every way, rectify itself?

“Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.” ( Job 15:15 ).

We do God injustice oftentimes by assigning to him an unimaginable holiness. There is a kind of adoration which if not carefully guarded separates God from man too widely. That God is ineffably holy no soul will deny, but there is a way of dwelling upon the holiness of God which may even discourage human penitence. We cannot reach God through the line of holiness. Is there no other word no softer, shorter, tenderer word? Yea, truly: “God is love.” He will not cast out any that come to him upon their knees, their eyes blinded with tears, and their throats choked with sobs of emotion: then he opens heaven’s door, and would send all the angels to bid the home-comer welcome to his father’s house. We must not, therefore, work altogether along the higher intellectual line of pure reverence, and absolute adoration, and that awe which becomes oppressive, which hides from us the atmosphere in which it has pleased God himself to dwell an attempered atmosphere suited to human need and human weakness. Let God come as he himself pleases. We must not so drive the mind as to leave the heart in hopeless despair. Say, where you can, “God is love”; “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”; “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come”; and then there will gradually dawn upon the penitent heart and the subdued mind the idea of God’s holiness; then questions will arise as to how that holiness is to be conceived, and in that hour of anxiety the sweet reply will be given “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”

Eliphaz said some beautiful things. He referred to the man who “dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps” ( Job 15:28 ). At this point he was dwelling upon the destiny of the wicked; he was delivering a general lecture upon that destiny in the hope that Job would apply the whole of it to himself. The Arabs and other Oriental tribes had a great horror of cities which they supposed to have been cursed by God. Call it superstition for so it was but still it had a most energetic effect upon their thought and action. When the caravans were driving through such cities the men never looked round, never said a word to one another, but went on in silence and in terror: for the ban of God lay right across the city. What of those, then, who “dwelt” in desolate cities, as Job was about to do? Job actually built himself a house there, or bought one, and decorated and enjoyed it! “Why,” said Eliphaz, “the Arabs will cry out against thee; they go through the desolate place silently, fearsomely, what will they say if they hear of the patriarch building a house that he may there take up his permanent abode?”

Eliphaz said “Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompense” ( Job 15:31 ). A Hebrew pun, a play upon words, not evident upon our English page: If you trust in vanity, you shall have vanity for your wages; if you trust in that which is wrong, you shall have calamity in the end. Vanity brings forth vanity, was the argument of Eliphaz. Then said he, “It shall be accomplished before his time”: the man who works vainly shall have vanity for his recompense; and, according to the literal meaning of these words, the wages will be paid before the work is quite done; this is a master who does not wait until the last hour, and then say, There is your penalty. When a man serves the devil he often gets his wages in the early afternoon. They are bad wages: “The wages of sin is death.” The devil, therefore, is a good paymaster; he pays fully, he withdraws nothing, he bates no jot or tittle: if he is in a pit, it is a bottomless pit: he pays men on the road. There is no waiting for perdition; we have it here and now, sharp enough and sad enough. Let us be wise in time, and understand the meaning of much pain and distress and bewilderment. If we search into the moral origin and causes of things, it may be that we shall find that at the beginning sin conceived and brought forth death.

Eliphaz compares the destiny of the wicked to an olive that casts off its flowers. Every age has its own metaphors. If we trace the whole poetry of the English tongue, we shall see how wonderfully it has changed with the change in the civilisation of the day, with the advance of learning, with the discoveries of science. So we go back to these old metaphors, and we do not despise them, notwithstanding our great intellectual advancement. The old Bible speakers turned what they themselves saw into the argument for the moment and for the use of the passing time. We have heard that the Syrian olive brings forth fruit in the first year, the third year, the fifth year, brings forth its fruit at the odd years, or odd numbers; on the second and fourth and sixth years the olive rests: but then it brings forth a good many blossoms; travellers say that they have seen those blossoms shed in the even years shed in millions. Eliphaz, who was a seer, who had that inner eye that wanders through eternity, so far as much interpretation is concerned, said That is the fate of the wicked: their blossoming comes to nothing; all their beauty ends in dust: the bad man lives to be lost. Amid all this metaphor and poetry and sentiment there is no beautiful thing said about the wicked! The righteous “shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water… the ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.” Poetry has never lent a figure to the use of the bad man by which he might represent wickedness as a great joy, and sweet secret blessing. Metaphors have refused to be hired for the purpose of representing unholiness as good and profitable in the largest sense of the word: all music, all beauty, all poetry, all things that belong to flower, or star, or silver stream, have come together in one sweet conspiracy to represent God, God’s love, God’s care, God’s fatherhood, God’s mercy. Eliphaz and his brethren had but one conception of God: they knew not that every man has his own God; that the more we grow in grace the more we change our whole conception of God: but it is always an advance, an accumulation, a widening, a still larger and intenser illumination. In this faith may we live and grow, and according to the abundance and complexity of our experience, sanctified and ennobled, we shall be able to sympathise with those who are bowed down, and to speak a word in season to him that is weary.

Note

Many of the Scriptural associations of the olive-tree are singularly poetical. It has this remarkable interest, that its foliage is the earliest that is mentioned by name, when the waters of the flood began to retire ( Gen 8:11 ), as we find it the most prominent tree in the earliest allegory ( Jdg 9:8-9 ). With David it is the emblem of prosperity and the divine blessing ( Psa 52:8 ); and he compares the children of a righteous man to the “olive-branches round about his table” ( Psa 128:3 ). So with the later prophets it is the symbol of beauty, luxuriance, and strength; and hence the symbol of religious privileges: “His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive-tree,” are the words in the concluding promise of Hosea ( Hos 14:6 ). “The Lord called thy name a green olive-tree, fair, and of goodly fruit,” is the expostulation of Jeremiah when he foretells retribution for advantages abused ( Jer 11:16 ). The olive was among the most abundant and characteristic vegetation of Judaea…. Nor must the flower be passed over without notice:

” Si bene floruerint oleae, nitidissimus annus .” Ov. Fast. v. 365.

The wind was dreaded by the cultivator of the olive; for the least ruffling of a breeze is apt to cause the flowers to fall:

” Florebant oleae: venti nocuere protervi .” Ov. Fast. v. 321.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

(See the Job Book Comments for Introductory content and general conclusions and observations).

VI

THE SECOND ROUND OF SPEECHES

Job 15-21.

In this chapter we take up the second round of speeches, commencing with the second speech of Eliphaz. This speech consists of two parts, a rejoinder to Job’s last speech and a continuation of the argument.

The main points of the rejoinder (Job 15:1-16 ) are as follows:

1. A reflection on Job’s wisdom (Job 15:1-3 ). A wise man would not answer with vain knowledge, windy words, nor reason with unprofitable words.

2. An accusation of impiety (Job 15:4-6 ). Job is irreverent, binders devotion, uses a serpent tongue of craftiness whose words are self-condemnatory. (Cf. what Caiaphas said about Christ, Mat 26:65 .)

3. A cutting sarcasm (Job 15:7-8 ). Wast thou before Adam, or before the creation of the mountains, and a member of the Celestial Council considering the creation, that thou limitest wisdom to thyself?

4. An invidious comparison (Job 15:9-10 ). What knowest thou of which we are ignorant? With us are the gray-headed, much older than thy father.

5. A bigoted rebuke (Job 15:11-16 ). You count small the consolation of God we offered you in gentle words [the reader may determine for himself how much “comfort” they offered Job and note their conceit in calling this “God’s comfort,” and judge whether it was offered in “gentle” words]. Your passions run away with you. Here a quotation from Rosenmuller is in point: Quo te tuus animus rapit? “Whither does thy soul hurry thee?” Quid oculi qui tui vibrantes? “What means thy rolling eyes?” It turns against God; this is presumptuous: A man born of woman, depraved, against God in whose sight angels are imperfect and the heavens unclean. How much more an abominable, filthy man drinking iniquity like water.

The points in the continuation of the argument are as follows:

1. Hear me while I instruct thee (Job 15:17 ). I will tell you what I have seen.

2. It is the wisdom of the ancients handed down (Job 15:18-19 ). Wise men have received it from their fathers and have handed it down to us for our special good.

3. Concerning the doom of the wicked (Job 15:20-30 ). This is a wonderful description of the course of the wicked to their final destruction, but his statements, in many instances, are not true. For instance, in his first statement about the wicked (Job 15:20 ), he says, “The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days,” which is in accord with his theory, but does not harmonize with the facts in the case. The wicked does not travail with pain “all his days.” They are not terrified “all the time” as Eliphaz here pictures them. In this passage Eliphaz intimates that Job may be guilty of pride (Job 15:25 ) and of fatness (Job 15:27 ).

4. The application (Job 15:31-35 ). If what he said about the wicked was true, his application here to Job is wrong. It will be seen that Eliphaz here intimates that Job was guilty of vanity and self-deception; that he was, perhaps, guilty of bribery and deceit, and therefore the calamity had come upon him.

The following is a summary of Job’s reply (Job 16-17) :

1. Your speech is commonplace. I have heard many such things. Ye are miserable comforters (Job 16:2 ).

2. You persist when I have urged you to desist. It is unprovoked. Your words are vain, just words of wind (Job 16:3 ).

3. If our places were changed, I could do as you do, but I would not. I would helo and comfort you (Job 16:4-5 ).

4. You ask me to cease my complaint, but whether I speak or forbear, the result is the same. I have not ensnared my feet, but God has lassoed me (Job 16:6 ).

5. He gives a fearful description of God’s assault (Job 16:7-14 ): (1) as a hunter with hounds he has harried me; (2) he has abandoned me to the malice of mine enemies; (3) as a wrestler he has taken me by the neck and shaken me to pieces; (4) as an archer he has bound me to the stake and terrified and pierced me with his arrows; (5) as a mighty conqueror he opened breach after breach in my defenses with batteringrams; and (6) as a giant he rushes on me through the breach in the assault.

6. As a result, I am clothed in sackcloth and my dignity lies prone in the dust; my face is foul with weeping, my eyelids shadowed by approaching death, although no injustice on my part provoked it and my prayer was pure (Job 16:15-17 ).

7. I appeal to the earth to cover my blood and to the heavenly witness to vouch for me. Friends may scorn my tears, but they are unto God. (See passages in Revelation and Psalms.) Note here the messianic prayer, “that one might plead for a man with God, as a son of man pleadeth for his neighbor.” But my days are numbered and mockers are about me (Job 16:18-17:2 ).

8. The plea for a divine surety (messianic) but God has made me a byword, who had been a tabret. Future ages will be astonished at my case and my deplorable condition (Job 17:3-16 ).

There are several things in this speech worthy of note, viz: 1. The messianic desire which finds expression later as David and Isaiah adopt the words of Job to fit their Messiah. 2. Job is right in recognizing a malicious adversary, but wrong in thinking God his adversary; God only permitted these things to come to Job, but Satan brought them.

There are two parts of Bildad’s second speech (Job 18 ), viz: a rejoinder (Job 18:1-4 ) and an argument (Job 18:5-21 ). The main points of his rejoinder are:

1. Job hunts for words rather than speaks considerately.

2. Why are the friends accounted as beasts and unclean in your sight?

3. Job was just tearing himself with anger and altogether without reason.

4. A sarcasm: The earth will not be forsaken for thee nor will the rock be moved out of its place for thee (Job 18:1-4 ).

The argument (Job 18:5-21 ) is fine and much of it is true, but it is wrong in its application. The following are the points as applied to the wicked:

1. His light shall be put out.

2. The steps of his strength shall be straightened.

3. His own counsel shall be cast down.

4. There shall be snares everywhere for his feet.

5. Terrors of conscience shall smite him on every side.

6. He shall be destroyed root and branch and in memory.

There are also two parts to Job’s great reply: His expostulation with his friends (Job 19:1-6 ) and his complaint against God (Job 19:7-29 ). The points of his expostulation are:

1. Ye reproach me often without shame and deal hardly with me.

2. If I have sinned, it is not against you but my error remains with myself.

3. The snares you refer to are not because of my fault but they are from God, for he has subverted me and compassed me with his net.

The items of his complaint against God are as follows:

1. He will not hear me, though I am innocent; surely there is no justice.

2. He has walled me up and set darkness in my path.

3. He has stripped me of my glory and he has broken me down on every side.

4. He has plucked up my hope like a tree and his fiery wrath is against me.

5. He has counted me an adversary and I am besieged by armies round about.

6. He has put away from me my brethren, friends, kindred, family, servants, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

7. I appeal to you, O ye my friends, for pity instead of persecution.

8. Oh that my words were written in a book or were engraved with a pen of iron in the rock forever, but I know that my redeemer liveth and will at last stand upon the earth, and I shall behold him in my risen body, then to be vindicated by him.

9. Now I warn you to beware of injustice to me lest the sword come upon you, for there is a judgment ahead. Here it may be noted that Job 19:23-24 refer to the ancient method of writing and that Job expresses in Job 19:25-27 a great hope for the future. Compare the several English translations of Job 19:26 with each other and the context and then answer:

1. Does Job intend to convey the idea that he will see God apart from his body) i.e., when death separates soul and body?

2. Or does he mean that at the resurrection he will see God from the viewpoint of his risen body?

3. If you hold the latter meaning, which version, after all, is the least misleading, the King James, the Revised, the American Standard Version, or Leeser’s Jewish translation? The answer is, Job here means that he will see God from the viewpoint of his risen body, as the King James Version conveys.

Zophar’s second speech is harsher than his first, and consists of a rejoinder (Job 20:1-3 ) and an argument (Job 20:4-29 ).

The points of his rejoinder are:

1. Haste is justified because of his thoughts;

2. The reproach of Job 19:28-29 , “If ye say, How may we pursue him and that the cause of the suffering is in me, then beware of the sword. My goel [redeemer] will defend me,” he answers thus: “Thus do my thoughts answer me and by reason of this there is haste in me; I hear the reproof that puts me to shame and the spirit of my understanding gives answer.

The points of his argument are:

1. Since creation the prosperity of the wicked has been short, his calamity sure and utter, extending to his children.

2. The very sweetness of his sin becomes poison to him.

3. He shall not look on streams flowing with milk, butter, and honey.

4. He shall restore and shall not swallow it down, even according to all that he has taken.

5. In the height of his enjoyment the sword smites him and the arrow pierces him,

6. Darkness wraps him, terrors fright him, and heaven’s supernatural fires burn him.

7. Heaven reveals his iniquity and earth rises up against him. This is the heritage appointed unto him by God. Certain other scriptures carry out the idea of milk, butter, and honey, viz: Exo 3:8 ; Exo 13:5 ; Exo 33:3 ; 2Ki 18:32 ; Deu 31:20 ; Isa 7:22 ; Joe 3:18 , and several classic authors refer to them, also, as Pindar, Virgil, Ovid, and Horace. It will be noted that Zophar intimates that Job might be guilty of hypocrisy (Job 19:12 ), of oppressing the poor (Job 19:19 ) and of greediness (Job 19:20 ).

Job’s reply (Job 21 ) is more collected than the former, and the points are as follows:

1. Hear me and then mock. This is only fair and may afterward prove a consolation to you.

2. Do I address myself to man for help? My address is to God and, because I am unheard, therefore I am impatient?

3. Mark me and be astonished. What I say even terrifies me.

4. The prosperity of the wicked who defy God is a well known fact.

5. How seldom is their light put out. They are not destroyed as you say.

6. Ye say God visits it on his children. What is that to him?

7. Here are two cases, one prosperous to the end and the other never so. The grave is sweet to both.

8. God’s reserved judgment is for the wicked. Do you not know this?

9. In conclusion I must say that your answers are falsehoods.

In this second round of speeches we have observed that Job has quieted down to a great extent and seems to have risen to higher heights of faith, while the three friends have become bolder and more desperate. They have gone beyond insinuations to intimations, thus suggesting certain sins of which Job might be guilty. While Job has greatly improved in his spirit and has ascended a long way from the depths to which he had gone in the moral tragedy, the climax of the debate has not yet been reached. Tanner says, “While the conflict of debate is sharper, Job’s temper is more calm; and he is perceptibly nearer a right attitude toward God. He is approaching a victory over his opponents, and completing the more important one over himself.”

QUESTIONS

1. Of what does the second speech of Eliphaz consist?

2. What the main points of the rejoinder (Job 15:1-16 )?

3. What the points in the continuation of the argument?

4. What summary of Job’s reply Job 16:16-17 )?

5. What things in this speech are worthy of note?

6. What the two parts of Bildad’s second speech Job 18:18 )?

7. What the main points of his rejoinder?

8. What can you say of his argument and what the points of it?

9. What the two parts to Job’s great reply?

10. What the points of his expostulation?

11. What the items of his complaint against God?

12. Explain Job 19:23-24 ,

13. What great hope does Job express in Job 19:25-27 ?

14. Compare the several English translations of Job 19:26 with each other and the context and then answer: What great hope does Job express in Job 19:25-27 ?

15. How does Zophar’s second speech compare with the first and what the parts of this speech?

16. What the points of his rejoinder?

17. What the points of his argument?

18. What scriptures carry out the idea of milk, butter, and honey, and what classic authors refer to this?

19. What can you say of Job’s reply (Job 21 ) and what his points?

20. What have we found in the second round of speeches?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

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.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Job Chapter 15

In this 15th chapter we have the second debate between Job’s friends and himself. I shall take a view of the greater part of it, if the Lord will, in a general way tonight.

Although Eliphaz was the more grave and solid of his friends, they were all infected with the same fundamental mistake. That is an important thing for our souls. We are so apt to think that we never make any important mistake. Why should that be so? Are we so different from others? Are we not very liable to it? You must remember that this is a practical mistake; it is not merely a dogmatic one. There is no question of false doctrine of any kind here; but it is the application of truth to the soul; and it is of great moment to us that God has given us a very early book – Moses probably the writer of it; but the persons concerned are considerably before Moses. We see that from the very age of Job, and from all the circumstances.

There is no reference to the law of Israel; no reference to the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt; it always speaks of a particularly early time. Its great point is the dealings of God with man, and particularly with men of faith. It is not merely unbelieving man; with him it is always pretty much the same thing. His guilt may be aggravated; and, indeed, I have no doubt that there is no man now so responsible as those that hear the gospel – those that have Christianity in a living way presented to them. They are far more guilty and more to be pitied in one way than even the wild Tartars, or the subjects of that kingdom (Thibet) that seems now [1903] about to be penetrated – that practically shut up and sealed kingdom which now is about to be opened, as far as we can see; surely a rather solemn consideration; for it would be hard to find another. No doubt, in the wilds and centre of Africa there may be many tribes that are unknown; but this is a very old civilization; and its rulers have managed to completely block out light from every source – to pursue their own devices to their own destruction. But God will not allow it to proceed further; and although we cannot look for much in the present state, many may go there as a matter of commerce, or a matter perhaps of politics, or a matter of ambition of one kind or another – still there may be children of God mixed up with them, and these, at any rate, can give a message from Christ.

However that may be, what I am drawing attention to is the interesting character of this book as the revelation to us now (and, of course, to the Old Testament saints long before us) of how God deals with pious men, and that for their souls’ good, before there is any written revelation of God. For this is one of the very first books that ever was written, as I have previously remarked. Sometimes people forget that although Job appears far down in the Bible, it is the first book of a poetic character; the prose books all come before Job, carrying you down past the captivity to Babylon, and then returning from it; and then we go back to the poetic books, and the Book of Job is the first one. It answers, therefore, very much to Genesis; what Genesis is in the first portion of the Bible, Job is in the second. Then we have the Prophets; but it is the first of the poetic books that are not the Prophets.

Now as to the attack – for we cannot call it anything else – that is a serious thing. It is not merely in modern times that Christians have their differences. We see it is here radical – it belongs to the human spirit, and it may have a very good source; because we are, as no doubt Old Testament saints found themselves too, instinctively caring for one another. These friends of Job were exceedingly troubled as to the man to whom they had all looked up, and he was considered the most righteous of all men within their scope; and no wonder, God pronounced him so. They did not know that. It is a most important thing to make this remark, that we are in a very different position, for hearing all these debates, from Job himself. How little did Job know that all that came upon him was in consequence of what passed in the presence of God in heaven! – everything spoken in heaven about the child of God, even the trials! This was to be a peculiar trial, but it was all settled there; Job knew nothing about it. The raid of these Chaldeans, and those we call “Bedouins,” and the like – all that was merely natural; and, no doubt, the tendency was to regard it merely as the trials of a righteous man and his family from natural causes.

No, beloved friends; it is not a mere natural cause to the believer; he is under the eye of God. He was so always; still more so now. Now we are brought into known relationship with God, and into the nearest relationship with God. We are put in the place of His own family; we are His own children, yea, sons of God, for this latter speaks of a dignity before others; that is to say, we are no longer novices, no longer babes in the nursery, as was the case with believers in the Jewish system. They had not arrived at age. The Christian now, if he knows what it is to be a Christian (a great many, alas! do not know, for they think themselves very much like believers of old, but that is a mistake), has far superior privileges; and it is one of the great means of Satan’s hindering, to lead people not to understand the place they are brought into, and, consequently, their responsibility. However that may be, here we have these undoubted saints that were all at sea in regard to this terrible calamity, this blow after blow, tempest after tempest which blew away everything in which Job had once been so favoured. For God has pleasure in blessing His people not merely in spiritual things, but where we can bear it. You remember that word of the apostle John, where he wishes that Gaius might prosper as his soul prospered. If the soul does not prosper, adversity comes as a great mercy; but where the soul prospers we may be allowed to feel, and God has pleasure in showing, His goodness in everything – in family circumstances, yea, in everything, if it be for His glory. He is the judge of that. But there are continually things that, in the wisdom of God, are forbidden in this way or that way.

However, I do not go into that new; but here we have the fact that the two things perfectly coalesced in Job – that there was not a man upon earth that God had such pleasure in looking upon as Job, and yet such a man passing through deepest trial from God. It is a great difficulty with the Jews; they cannot understand it. They want to make out that Job was an imaginary being, because it seems so strange to them that after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, there should be a man outside Israel altogether that God had such a high opinion of – and he not a Jew! Yes. So there it was a great blow to their pride and their narrowness. Yet were they not all in fact outsiders? They would seem to have been in the Abrahamic line in one way; but they were not in the chosen line. You know that Abraham had other children; and they would appear to have been sprung from an Abrahamic line, but outside that particular covenant; and we have no reason to suppose that they had the sign and seal of that covenant which, of course, the Israelites have.

No; the point is God dealing with “man,” and with man’s heart and conscience. And what is more, it was not because of any particular evil. There was the radical mistake of Eliphaz which runs through his speech that I have just read tonight. He cannot rise above the thought that Job had seemed everything that was beautiful to our eyes and everybody’s eyes, and he was blessed of God in an extraordinary manner. For he was, as is said, the greatest man in that part of the East. And now this utter reverse! this casting him down from what seemed his excellency! How could it be but that, as God is a righteous God, there must be some terrible iniquity there? So he also felt that if there was an iniquity, Job must be conscious of it; and yet not a word from Job! Not a sign that he was ashamed of himself, or that he had anything to be judged! There was fault in Job; but not the least of the kind they expected. The fault in Job was this, that Job had a good opinion of himself, and that Job had great pleasure in everybody’s so highly respecting him. I wonder whether any of us have got that? I am afraid it is a very common thing. And there is just what people do not find out. They do not learn; they so little understand this wonderful mirror of the word of God. They do not understand that here is their own case.

However, I perhaps anticipate. But we find how very strong is the outburst of Eliphaz – a mild, grave, and serious man – for this he undoubtedly was. There is no need of our running down the three friends as if they were something very uncommon. They were very common indeed. Job rather was uncommon, yea, decidedly uncommon; and that is what made the example of Job so very pertinent to the object of God – that a man might be spotless in his way, that a man might be justly respected, but that when the man that is pious, God-fearing, prayerful and one so loved and valued and cried up as Job was – when he accepts it as his due, and has great pleasure in it, God is a jealous God, and will not allow that. And why not? Man is a sinner! And Job, even though he was now a believer, had sin in him, and self-judgment was wanting. If self-judgment had been duly exercised, Job would not have needed this trial. And there is another thing too; that when God does send a trial, the great call of man is to submit to it without a doubt, without a question, giving God credit for it that there is no undue severity. Now, on the contrary, Job felt a very great deal about it, and found fault with God, and thought that God was dealing very hardly indeed with him. Thus it is that the way in which this book has been sometimes treated for 1,500 years (perhaps more) is an entire fallacy.

What I refer to is this: that Job was considered to be a kind of type of Christ in his suffering. Nothing of the sort. Quite the reverse. Look, for instance, at Psa 38 and Psa 39 . There you have not exactly Christ personally, but the spirit of Christ in the Israelite, and this will be accomplished in the future day, when there will be a remnant of Jews thoroughly marked by the spirit of Christ, which will follow after we are taken out of the way to heaven. They will pass through tremendous trial, and the remnant will have that spirit of Christ. Those Psalms are prophetically written for them. No doubt all was written for us. All the Bible was written for the Christian, and for his use, blessing and enjoyment. But it is not all about us. This is the mistake that many people make, that because it is all for our good and for our spiritual taste and enjoyment, therefore, we are the persons that are meant in it! Not so. There is just what was falsified – this trying to find the pattern of Christ in it! whereas the very point is the contrast shown by the rebellious spirit of Job. For there is that. He charges God with being his enemy, and with tearing him to pieces and casting him down, making him to be an object of mockery for everybody. Job imputes to God. Well, no doubt God had allowed all this to come to pass; it could not have been without it. But it was not God’s, it was Job’s own mistake; and it was Job also that had the most agonizing sense of that, because he could not bear the shame of his friends coming. He bore it all beautifully till his friends dawned upon the scene. A man when alone can bear; but when there are people that show no sympathy and no understanding, he breaks loose and lets out, and flings very improper language about his friends – perhaps they deserved it, but certainly, certainly not God. And his friends were alive to that. They could see that he spoke improperly about God; so that he put himself quite in the wrong there.

“Should a wise man utter vain knowledge,” for they were quite aware that there was something very able in what Job said – they called that vain knowledge – “and fill his belly with the east wind?” No doubt he was exceedingly wrong. “Should he reason with unprofitable talk? or with speeches wherewith he can do no good? Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.” Now he did nothing of the kind; Job always clung to God, always looked up to God, but he said, ‘I cannot find Him; He has shut me out, occupying me with this agony that I am passing through, so that I cannot get at Him. I know if I could only get there I should find goodness and mercy.’ It was no doubt very inconsistent; but that is always the case with poor man when he is not in the presence of God. That was one of the grand points that all had. Job was living, for a man of faith, too much in the good opinion of other people as well as in his own good opinion. There is where he was quite wrong. And there is where Christ and Christianity puts us in our true place if we are faithful – which is, that we have to face a hostile world; that we have to face not only a hostile world, but even, it may be, fellow Christians, who, if they are not faithful, are mad against any people that are; because it rebukes themselves. We have to bear that, and consequently here we are now in the truth of things suffering with Christ. That is what Christ suffered.

I am not speaking now of suffering for Christ. Suffering for Christ is where there is a decided break made. Perhaps we are cast into prison falsely, or it may be transported falsely, or executed falsely as martyrs and the like – that is suffering for Christ. But there is another kind of suffering that belongs to the Christian – suffering with Christ. For instance, suppose that there was a royal princess of England that was truly brought to God, and who entered really into the place of the Christian – why, what would be the case of that young princess? Always suffering. Why? Because every. thing that surrounded her would be contrary to what belonged to her soul and to her position. Why so? Because it is of the world, and of the world in its grandest shape, and consequently it would mark the contrariety. What is the place of the Christian? He is not of the world. How far not of the world? Why, like Christ. What did Christ do with the world? Where did Christ ever contribute one iota to what the world likes and values? Christ appeared to be the most useless of men for the world. He never made a speech upon science; He never contributed one lesson in learning or literature. He never gave a vote – if I may speak of voting or anything of that kind. He never did the slightest thing of that nature. He would not even judge a case, or arbitrate even when they wanted Him to judge in that informal way; consequently, there never was a person more completely outside the world while passing through it. That is where the Christian is. I say, therefore, that the higher you are up in the world the more you find the difficulty of being faithful. And that is suffering with Christ, where you feel it. There are some people who get through things easily. That is not to be admired; it is a kind of opiate – continually dramming oneself with opiates to drown feeling, and take everything quite comfortably, no matter what it is, and entirely losing sight of the fact that we do not belong to these things in which we take part.

Oh, beloved friends, that is not the way. Our call is to take part actively for Christ and according to Christ. Our call is to entire separation to the Lord. Supposing that there was a house on fire next door; it would be our business to immediately do all we could to help and save both life and property. That is not worldly; but it would be worldly to go into the Court and fight for our rights or to refuse to pay our dues if we are called upon to do so. All that is not only worldly, but it is rebellious. I know what they call themselves – “Passive Resisters” – but I do not understand that language. They are active resisters of the law; and if they had any sense of propriety they would pay their money quietly, or let people take their goods quietly, and so make an end. I only mention it now to show how completely God’s children have lost the sense of what it is to be a Christian. I am speaking now practically. I might go further. I maintain that Christians have lost the doctrine of what a Christian is. It is not that there is a certain blessed standard that we all acknowledge to be what a Christian is, and that we fall sort, practically. I believe it will be found that they areas wrong about the standard as they are about the practice; and one thing I can say for myself, honestly and truly, that what has occupied me all my life, is cleaving to what I have found to be the Christian pathway and duty, and seeking to help others to see the truth and blessedness of it, and to act faithfully according to it. I am sure I have plenty to judge myself for; but I thank God for every trial and everything that has made nothing of me. And that is just what Job had to learn as to himself. He did not know that God was working all this for Job’s own great good, even allowing also what was most repulsive to God – the disease, and the sweeping away of his family. This was all the devil’s doing; but God allowed it for Job’s good, and Job had not an idea of all that. If Job had understood the end that was coming, and had understood the beginning which was before all the trial, he would have lost a great deal of the blessing, and why? Because, then, as now, the child of God is to walk by faith.

People like to walk by sight, and that was the great fallacy that lay under all the speeches of these three friends. They looked at Job; they looked at what he was; and they look at what he now is in all this terrible crushing to the dust, and they said in effect, ‘Well, God is a righteous God, and if there were not some dreadful thing behind all this, God would never have allowed it.’ They were completely wrong, and Job was thoroughly right in saying, ‘No, I know it is not so, and all your talk cannot get rid of the fact that you have most wicked men that are most flourishing, and you have pious men that are exceedingly suffering, in the world as it is now.’ How is that? Because Satan is actively working here; because Satan is the one that men follow without knowing. They are slaves and captives of the devil; and those that are not slaves of the devil are the objects of his vengeance and hatred. God does not remove that; He does not put down Satan yet; he is allowed his way. And there never was a greater proof of it than his leading the world and the Jewish people to crucify their own Messiah, the Lord of glory. Was there any fault here? Here you have the crucial proof. Here was the absolutely sinless One and never such a sufferer.

The whole theory, then, of the three friends was a falsehood from beginning to end. Yet it is exactly what most people think to this day. They have an idea that there must be something very wrong where they see people passing through exceeding deep waters. Now there was something that Job had not got, and that was to measure himself in the presence of God; and God never stopped till He brought him into His presence. He interfered in the most remarkable way; but I must not anticipate. Eliphaz, after having let out strongly at Job, now falls back upon what was a very common feeling, especially of the former. Eliphaz was a man that strongly stood for the great value of experience. You know there are people that are very strong for experience, and accordingly, as to the great and good men that have been before – is that a standard? No one denies the honour due to elders, at least no person with any propriety. But Eliphaz used it in a wrong manner, and told Job, “Why, you are going against everything that has been held by the best of men that have ever been. Are you the first man; are you as old as the hills when you talk in such a manner as this, as if you knew better than any of these most excellent men, older than your father? and you set up in this way.” Well, he carries on that for some time, and he comes to this; what it must be. “How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water? I will show thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare.” He meant Job particularly there. “I will show thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare, which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it.” He looks therefore at old experience, and of the best of men, when men were not so bad as they were in his time. For that is quite true; man does get worse and worse, and even he had remarked it.

A famous poet that I used to read as a boy – a heathen poet – says the very same thing, that no generation had been so bad as the present one, which is going to bear children that will be worse than their fathers. At any rate they are not so bad as the people who think the world is going to get better, for these are most deplorably wrong. There will be a great change; but what will bring in that change will not be preachers, nor tracts, nor books, nor education; nay, not even the Bible, although that is the word of God. But the Bible demands more than this. It requires that men be born of God; and even in the case of people that are born of God they are called to judge themselves, just like Job, the very best of them. That is what he was brought to, and what he was most slow to come to. Therefore all this reasoning was entirely out of place, and the larger part of the chapter is description, that when a man is carrying on in this way it must be that he is always in dread of what is coming. Eliphaz was wrong about that. Job had no such thought. Job was quite sure if he could only find God that all would be right, and that He would speak to him, and God would do all that was good. But he knew that somehow or other God was dealing, in allowing all these terrible things to happen to him, why he did not know, and for what end he did not know.

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

answered = replied. See note on Job 4:1.

Eliphaz. See note on Job 2:11. This is the second of his three addresses.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 15

Now at this point, Eliphaz, who was the first friend of Job’s to speak, speaks for the second time. And he claims that he is older than Job, more experienced than Job, and thus Job ought to listen to him.

Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said, Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind? ( Job 15:1-2 )

Job, you’re just a big bag of wind, man.

Should he reason with unprofitable talk? or with speeches whereof he can do no good? Yea, you cast off fear, and restrain prayer before God. For your mouth utters your iniquity, and you choose the tongue of the crafty. Your own mouth condemns you, not I: yea, your own lips are testifying against you. Are you the first man that was ever born? or were you made before the hills? Have you heard the secret of God? do you restrain wisdom to yourself? What do you know, that we don’t know? what do you understand, which is not in us? With us is the grayheaded and the very aged men, much older than your father. Are the consolations of God small with thee? Is there any secret thing with thee? ( Job 15:3-11 )

In other words, “We’ve been giving you God’s advice, man. Is it just nothing to you?” You know, oh, help.

Why does your heart carry thee away? what are your eyes winking at ( Job 15:12 ),

Job, what sin are you just sort of closing your eyes to?

That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth? What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, God puts no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man, who drinks iniquity like water? I will show you, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare; Which wise men have told from their fathers, and not hid it ( Job 15:13-18 ):

Okay, now here are the traditions. Now these are the truths that are passed down from the fathers to their sons and all.

Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them. The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor. A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him ( Job 15:19-21 ).

So a man who experiences pain is surely wicked. A man who has been wiped out is a man who is guilty of sin.

He believes not that he shall return out of darkness, he is waited for of the sword. He wanders abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? And he knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; and they shall prevail against him, as a king that is ready to battle. For he stretched out his hand against God, and he strengthened himself against the Almighty. He runs upon him, even on his neck, and the thick bosses of his bucklers: Because he covers his face with fatness, and makes the collops of fat on his flanks. And he dwells in desolate cities, in houses which no man inhabits, which are ready to become heaps. He shall not be rich, neither will his substance continue, neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth. He shall not depart out of darkness; and the flame shall dry up his branches, by the breath of his mouth shall he go away. Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompense ( Job 15:22-31 ).

Job, you’re deceiving yourself. You’re trusting in emptiness, and emptiness will be the result, your reward.

It shall be accomplished before his time, his branch shall not be green. He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and cast off his flower as the olive. For the congregation of the hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery. They conceive mischief, and bring forth emptiness, and their belly prepares deceit ( Job 15:32-35 ).

So all of these things, in a sense, are accusations against Job. “Job, you’ve been deceitful. Job, you’ve been lying. Job, you’re a hypocrite. Job, you know, you’re wicked. And these things are all happening to you because of your own iniquity.” “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Job 15:1-6

Introduction

Job 15

ELIPHAZ’ SECOND SPEECH: PRETENDING TO KNOW THAT JOB IS WICKED; ELIPHAZ DESCRIBES THE PUNISHMENT JOB CAN EXPECT

It is the conviction of this writer that the speech of this old hypocrite Eliphaz is merely the ostentatious declamation of an arrogant ignoramus, absolutely worthless and unworthy of any special attention.

On the basis of his false theological axiom that God metes out, during this present lifetime, the just reward of every man, blessing the righteous and heaping on the punishments on the wicked. Eliphaz proceeded, in effect, to preach Job’s funeral. Jehovah himself addressed Eliphaz and the other friends of Job, saying, “Ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right” (Job 42:7); and this is reason enough for avoiding any detailed analysis of this cruel and inconsiderate speech.

What he said was unkind, brutal, cruel, inaccurate, conceited, arrogant and without any redeeming quality whatever. It was merely another bitter experience for Job, serving no other purpose than that of Satan, namely, trying in vain to force Job from his integrity.

Job 15:1-6

ELIPHAZ BLUNTLY ACCUSES JOB OF WICKEDNESS

“Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

Should a wise man make answer with vain knowledge,

And fill himself with the east wind?

Should he reason with unprofitable talk,

Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

Yea, thou doest away with fear,

And hinderest (diminishes) devotion before God.

For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth,

And thou chooseth the tongue of the crafty.

Yea, thine own lips testify against thee.”

Job had just enunciated some of the greatest and most significant theological truths ever revealed from God, namely, the resurrection of the dead, and the forgiveness of sins; but such truth was lost on Eliphaz. Blinded by what he thought he knew, but didn’t, he made light of Job’s speech. Satan must have rejoiced at having so skillful a servant in his evil attack upon Job.

E.M. Zerr:

Job 15:1-2. The “friend” who first spoke to Job took his turn again. Let not the reader expect much new material in this speech. When a man holds to a false theory he can think of very little to say that even looks as if it belonged to the subject. In this paragraph Eliphaz merely accused Job of being a windy declaimer.

Job 15:3-4. In addition to accusing Job of using vain talk, he charged him with being unwilling to pray which we all know to have been a false accusation.

Job 15:5-6. About the only comment that should be made on this paragraph is that it is a bundle of false accusations.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Here the second cycle of argument begins, and again Eliphaz is the first speaker. It is at once evident that Job’s answers had wounded him.

He first criticized Job’s manner, charging him with using mere words as arguments. His manner, moreover, had been characterized by unwarranted boldness, and by absence of reverence in the presence of God. In the second place, he criticized Job’s claim to wisdom, and, in so doing, he compelled satire to answer satire (cf. verse Job 15:7 with Job 12:2). Finally, he formally criticized Job’s attitude toward God. How dare he turn his spirit against God, in whose sight the very heavens are unclean?

Turning from his rebuke of Job’s attitude, Eliphaz again declared his view of the meaning of his affliction, first arguing the truth of what he said from its antiquity. The whole of what follows may be summarized as a declaration that the wicked suffer. The reason for the suffering is next set forth as rebellion against God (Job 15:25-28). Apart from the fact that these words did not fit the case of Job, they constitute a magnificent description of the unutterable folly of the man who rebels:

He runneth upon Him with a stiff neck, Upon the thick bosses of His bucklers.

Finally, Eliphaz declared the punishment of such (Job 15:29-35). The sharpness of this passage will be detected by noticing how the punishment of the wicked, as Eliphaz described it, was a description of the condition to which Job had come. There is a great change in tone between this address of Eliphaz and the first. There is no tenderness here. The philosophy of life is stated wholly on the negative side, and it was impossible for Job to misunderstand the meaning.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

The Heavens Are not Clean

Job 15:1-35

The second colloquy, like the first, is commenced by Eliphaz. He begins by rebuking Job, Job 15:1-16. He complains that the words of Job proved him to be unwise, Job 15:2-3, and even impious, Job 15:4. His very speech testified to his iniquity, Job 15:5-6. With something of irony Eliphaz asks upon what Jobs claim to superior wisdom rests. Was he the first man? Job 15:7. Or had he access to the secret counsel of God? Job 15:8. In refusing the counsel of his friends, Job 15:9-10, and the consolations of God they had offered, Job 15:11, r.v., had he not proved his want of wisdom? He had even proved his folly and his impiety, by attempting to assert his innocence before God, Job 15:12-14, in whose presence even the heavens were unclean, Job 15:15-16. It is clear that Eliphaz and his friends did not believe the sincerity of Jobs protestations of innocence.

Eliphaz then attempts to instruct Job, Job 15:17-35. His theme is almost the same as that of his former speech. It is the righteousness of God as specially manifested in the punishment of the wicked. He claims that his doctrine is that of the wise men, Job 15:17-19; then proceeds to describe the wicked man as troubled in conscience and full of fear, Job 15:20-24; attributes this to his bold impiety, Job 15:25-28; and predicts his fearful doom, Job 15:29-35. The application of such teaching to Job must have been very painful. He insinuated that Jobs terrible afflictions were Gods testimony against his sin. We know better from Joh 11:4-5.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

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.”

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.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

The Second Series of Controversies

CHAPTER 15 Eliphazs Second Address

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. Jobs 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 Eliphazs 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 Jobs 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.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

Eliphaz: Job 2:11, Job 4:1, Job 22:1, Job 42:7, Job 42:9

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

The second speech of Eliphaz is recorded in Job 15:1-35, and in it we can detect an increased tone of severity. The friends had come intending to comfort, but their efforts in that direction soon got diverted into argument; their tempers rose and bitterness spoiled their spirits, as each argued to establish his own point of view. How often through the centuries has this tragedy, ending in dissension and division, marred the testimony of God-fearing folk, even down to our own day.

This discourse of Eliphaz is short for he felt that he was a wise man reasoning with unprofitable talk, and listening to speeches that were of no worth. Job, he considered was casting off fear; or as another version has it, making “piety of none effect,” and thus restraining prayer. In his view piety had the profitable effect of bringing upon one the favour of God, expressed in earthly prosperity. If it did not, where then was the practical gain of piety? Therefore the terrible afflictions of Job could only have one explanation, so he thought, though Job so insisted on maintaining his integrity.

This idea of Eliphaz and his friends is a very common one. It was to be found when Paul wrote his First Epistle to Timothy in very much worse form than in the days of Job, for he speaks of “men of corrupt minds” who indulge in “perverse disputings,” because they suppose that “gain is godliness” (1Ti 6:6). The New Translation slightly paraphrases it as, “holding gain to be the end of piety.” Now this was pretty much the opinion of Eliphaz, and there are not a few people today who would agree with him. They would say, What is the use of being pious if it does not guarantee things of profit in this life? Ideas of that sort were less to be blamed in the days of Job, since things of eternity and heaven were then but dimly known.

Eliphaz now denounced Job in vigorous terms and rather unjustly, as we see in verse Job 15:6. To him Job’s arguments were crafty and self-condemnatory. He met them by a series of six questions, recorded in verses Job 15:7-9, all of them having the sting of sarcasm in them. In verse Job 15:10, he claimed that the position, advanced by himself and his friends, had the sanction and support of very aged and venerable men. No doubt it was so. The three friends of Job were advancing the idea generally held, based perhaps on God’s deliverance of Noah and his family when the flood came. Then the godly were favoured and the wicked destroyed, and thus, they felt, it must always be.

Further questions follow in verses Job 15:11-16. His assertions as to the holiness of God are quite right. The lower heavens, defiled by the presence of Satan, are indeed “not clean in His sight.” His assertions as to the filthiness of man are equally true; but the inference that Job must be guilty of secret evils, which he “winked at” instead of acknowledging, were wide of the mark.

From verse Job 15:17 to the end of the chapter we find a vivid description of the governmental judgment of God against the wicked. He assured Job that he had actually seen God acting in this way. It was the fruit of his own observation that he declared; and as he closed he did not fail to make further indirect charges against Job, speaking of men who were “deceived,” of “hypocrites,” of “tabernacles of bribery,” and of “deceit.”

This moved Job to the reply recorded in Job 16:1-22; Job 17:1-16. We can all sympathize with his opening words. His friends had been simply repeating the same basic idea in a variety of ways; namely, that the disasters that had overwhelmed him could have but one explanation. He must have been a hypocrite with evils lying beneath his pious exterior. If this was the comfort they had to offer him, it was of a very miserable kind. He told them at once that if the position were reversed and he visited them in their disasters, he could speak as they had spoken but he would not, but rather aim at assuaging their grief.

But it is noticeable that, after his opening reply to Eliphaz, Job’s words passed into prayer and complaint, poured into the ear of God. It looks as if verses Job 15:9, Job 15:10-11 are a reference to what he had suffered by the speeches of his friends, and if so, even this he took as chastisement from the hands of God as well as all the losses and disaster that had come upon him. That he did take it all from the hands of God was indeed good, but we still perceive that note of self-righteousness and self-vindication marring his prayer, especially in verse Job 15:17. This being so, his prayer did pass into a complaint that he was being hardly dealt with by God, and this especially because he felt he could speak of God as being on high the Witness to his integrity, even though his friends scorned him.

The opening words of verse Job 15:21 have been translated, “Oh that there were arbitration for a man with God!” Thus his mind reverted to his desire for the “Daysman,” recorded at the end of Job 9:1-35. A man might plead for his neighbour or friend but he felt there was no one to step in between God and himself, and he could only anticipate a short time before his end. His breath was corrupt and the grave ready for him, as he stated in the first verse of Job 17:1-16. We have probably but little conception of the state of extreme and prolonged bodily corruption and misery that he had been enduring.

Yet some further insight as to it is granted to us in Job 17:1-16. So extreme was it that the statements of his friends seemed to him but mockery. Among the people generally he had become a “byword,” or a “proverb,” and the second clause of that 6th verse is elsewhere translated, “I am become one to be spit on in the face.” This however would astonish upright men, and Job seems to turn the tables on his critics by inferring that they might prove to be the hypocrites, whilst the righteous would hold on his way, and the one who had the clean hands would increase in strength. As for these “friends,” there was not one wise man among them.

The closing words of this speech of Job are a very mournful complaint as to the hopelessness of his outlook. As to his poor body, only corruption and the worm were before him, when his soul would be in the unseen world. The word translated “grave” in verse Job 15:13, and that translated “pit” in verse Job 15:16, is the Hebrew, sheol, the equivalent of the Greek, hades, used in the New Testament. This pathetic lament might well have touched the hearts of his friends.

Yet Bildad begins his second speech, recorded in Job 18:1-21, on a very harsh note. Job certainly had not yet come to the end of himself, and in his friends’ arguments there was nothing to cause him to “make an end of words.” The second part of verse Job 15:2 has been translated, “Be intelligent, and then we will speak.” He evidently regarded Job’s repudiation of their position and the assertions they advanced, as degrading to themselves as though they had been beasts, and so he indulged in an insulting repartee. All four men who feared God, Job especially so, but see how the spirit animating their words had deteriorated!

And let us learn a serious lesson from this. There have been innumerable discussions among Christians, developing into controversies, and ending in recrimination. Such is the flesh in every one of us. Even Paul and Barnabas were not exempt, as Act 15:39 shows. So, let us be warned.

The rest of Bildad’s speech follows the pattern that the friends had established. In a variety of ways, displaying a mind very fertile in its observation and in its use of figures, he reiterated the main theme; that God always judges and destroys the wicked. The inference being, of course, that Job must be after all a wicked man.

Job 19:1-29. Job’s reply to these rather cruel words was on an altogether higher level. They were indeed vexing him with words, and breaking him in pieces, but he did not claim to be perfect – far from it, as we saw in Job 9:1-35. Here, in verse Job 15:4, he admits to erring, but he claimed that his errors had only affected himself and not other people. What had befallen him he took from the hand of God, as verse Job 15:6 shows, yet he felt that His dealings were unnecessarily severe.

So, in verses Job 15:7-20, we have a graphic description of the miseries he was enduring. He complained that God had stripped him, fenced up his way, destroyed him on every side, kindled His wrath against him as though he was one of His enemies. As a result of this, he was an object of contempt and forsaken by all. Even his servants and his wife would have nothing to do with him. The words with which he closed this description of his sorrows in verse Job 15:20, alluding to his physical state, have passed into a proverbial saying amongst us.

Having thus spoken, he appealed to his friends for pity rather than argument and reproach, which almost amounted to persecution. It was the hand of God that had touched him – God, who was more merciful than they. Hence he longed that his words might be preserved in a book, or even permanently be engraved upon the rock, as was a custom in those days on the part of kings and great men. Such rock records have been discovered and deciphered, yet his desire was granted in a more wonderful way than he imagined; for they have been recorded in the inspired Scriptures, which out-live and out-distance all else.

But why did he desire this? It was because he knew that his Redeemer was the living One, and that as “the Last,” He would stand upon the earth. The New Translation renders it thus, as being really a name of God, referring us to Isa 48:12. Thus again, and quite clearly, did Job reveal that he knew that death was not the end of everything for man, and that he expected a resurrection which would touch his body. What was not then revealed was that state of incorruption into which resurrection introduces us, for life and incorruptibility came to light by the Gospel, as 2Ti 1:10, rightly translated, reads.

Though truth has been progressively revealed, certain great facts of a prophetic sort came to light in very early days. There was, for instance, the prophecy of Enoch, uttered before the flood, though not put on record in Scripture until the last epistle of the New Testament. Without a doubt Job would have known this prediction of Enoch, and it is remarkable that nothing he says here is out of harmony with what is revealed in later ages. When the glorious Christ raises the saints, Job amongst them, he will indeed “see God,” and see Him, as he said, “in my flesh,” though he did not know he would be raised with a spiritual body like unto the resurrection body of our Lord.

Job’s discourse in this chapter ends with a warning to his friends. He claimed that “the root of the matter” was found in himself, and that the judgment of God is impartial, so that they themselves should be afraid of it.

This moved Zophar to speak once more, and this time he revealed quite clearly the base on which his argument rested. He said, “Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer;” and again, “the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.” Eliphaz had based his remarks mainly upon what he had seen, and Bildad mainly upon what he had heard, handed down from times of old. Zophar based his words upon what he had arrived at in his own inward cogitations, and he was not in the least behind the others in self-confident dogmatism, indeed, he seems to have excelled them.

In 1Co 2:9, the Apostle Paul refers to Isa 64:4, and he shows that the things of God are only known by us as the fruit of revelation. In this connection he mentions the three faculties by which mankind obtains its knowledge of things and affairs in this world. The eye sees them; the ear hears them; they enter into the heart by an intuitive process. But for the things of God we need another faculty – that which springs from the Spirit of God.

Now it is very striking that, as we have seen, Eliphaz relied upon his powers of observation, and Bildad upon tradition from ancient days. Zophar now came in, very sure that his powers of intuition in this matter must be correct and beyond contradiction. All three were wrong, and it was not until there was a revelation of the power and wisdom of God, in the later chapters of the book, that the truth of the situation came out with clearness. We are provided with an interesting illustration of what Paul lays down in 1Co 2:1-16.

As in the other cases so here, a number of true things are stated. It is certainly a fact that, “the triumphing of the wicked is short,” and “the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment.” What was not true was the application made of the fact, as supplying the explanation of all Job’s sorrows. The “pleasures of sin” are only “for a season,” as we read in Heb 11:1-40, but it is also a fact that saints may be “for a season” involved in “heaviness through manifold temptations,” as we read in 1Pe 1:1-25. Now the thought of a godly man being under severe trial and sorrow for a season never seems to have entered the minds of the three friends. They assumed that Job was getting what all along he had deserved.

Zophar claimed that what he intuitively knew was supported by what had taken place from “of old, since man was placed upon earth.” Reading Job 20:1-29 we can see how underlying his statements, as to various acts of wickedness, was the insinuation that Job had been guilty of them. He it was who had laboured to swallow down the substance of others, to oppress the poor; who had violently taken away a house which he had not built, and so on. The fact is that the man who bases his argument on his own intuition is always very dogmatic and cocksure. He has to be, to make up for the lack of outward evidence, which would corroborate his assertions.

His final conclusion was that heaven was revealing Job’s iniquity, and the earth was rising up against him, and all this was appointed to him from God.

Job’s reply is chronicled in Job 21:1-34, and a trenchant one it proved to be. Naturally he was provoked to retaliate with equal dogmatism, and to begin on a note of sarcasm. Verse Job 15:2 has been translated, “Hear attentively my speech, and let this replace your consolations.” Summing up the speeches of the three friends as “consolations,” was of course a piece of sarcasm. How he really viewed their words is plain at the end of the next verse, when he told them that after he had spoken they might “mock on!” He fully realized the force of their words, implying that he must have been guilty of grievous unrighteousness and sin, while all the time outwardly appearing to be a man of great piety.

His first point is this: his complaint was not to man but to God. Had it been to man, well might his spirit have been troubled, or “impatient.” He reminded them that it was with God both he and they had to do. In view of this fact, and marking God’s dealings with him, they might well lay their hands upon their mouths and cease to condemn him. For himself he was afraid and trembled in the remembrance of it.

Commencing with verse Job 15:5, we find the counter-assertions to which he committed himself. It was not the case, he affirmed, that the wicked were always overwhelmed with disaster. On the contrary, they often lived, became old, mighty in power and prosperous, with their seed established in their sight. They had times of merriment and pleasure and at the end had no long drawn out misery such as he was enduring, but “in a moment go down to the grave [or, Sheol].” And all the time their attitude to God was, “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.”

Let us note two things. First, Job here correctly diagnosed the attitude of the natural man to God, about two thousand years before Paul was inspired to write his Epistle to the Romans. There, in the first chapter, we read that men, “when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful;” and again that, “they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.” This is the tremendous fact that we have to face. Sin has so completely alienated man from God that he has not the least desire for Him. “There is none that seeketh after God,” as Rom 3:1-31 states.

Job’s statements in verses Job 15:14-15, agree with this, and they explain the state of heathenism and barbarism into which men sank at an early stage of the world’s history – a state that has persisted to our own days. In earliest ages men had some knowledge of God, from which they wilfully departed.

And it is obvious that if men have to do with God, they will have to serve Him. So, in the second place, they view the whole matter from the standpoint of earthly profit. This is just what multitudes do today, when they ask, What is the good of being religious; what do we get out of it? They are but echoing the words we have here, “What profit should we have, if we pray unto Him?” We know that, “Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come” (1Ti 4:8). But that kind of profit the world has no eyes to see.

In the rest of the chapter Job speaks of the end of those who aim at shutting God out of their thoughts and lives. Ultimately disaster comes upon them and their “candle” is put out. Some may die in apparent ease and prosperity and others in bitterness; but into the dust and among the worms all of them go. In saying these things Job seems to be agreeing with what Psa 73:1-28 tells us, as a matter of the writer’s experience. The wicked may depart from God and appear to prosper, for their judgment from God lies beyond this life.

So once more Job counters the arguments of his friends, declaring that he found falsehood in them. Consequently, though they had come to comfort him, he found that the “comfort” that they had offered was empty and vain.

Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary

SECOND SERIES OF THE DEBATE

1. With Eliphaz (chaps. 15-17) a. Speech of Eliphaz (chap. 15) b. Reply of Job (chaps. 16-17) 2. With Bildad (chaps. 18-19) a. Speech of Bildad (chap. 18) b. Reply of Job (chap. 19) 3. With Zophar (chaps. 20-21) a. Speech of Zophar (chap. 20) b. Reply of Job (chap. 21) The second series of the debate is in the same order as the first, and with the same question in view.

ELIPHAZ AND JOB

Eliphaz opens in chapter 15. Job is accused of vehemence and vanity; of casting off fear and restraining prayer; of arrogance and presumption.

God is vindicated by him, and the observation of the sages are quoted. A number of pithy and instructive sayings are used to show that wicked men are subject to sudden alarms and unhappy experiences.

Job replies, renewing his complaint of the way his friends have treated him, and of the intensity and injustice of his sufferings. His appeal is to God before whom his eyes pour out tears. In chapter 17 he prophecies that his trials will yet be a subject of amazement to good men.

BILDAD AND JOB

Bildad speaks in chapter 18 repeating the former accusation. In his estimation the laws of Gods administration are fixed and it is an established principle that the wicked shall be punished in this life, which he illustrates by a number of maxims or proverbs. The student should enumerate these and distinguish between them.

There is nothing new in what Bildad says, but he is enforcing what he has previously advanced with greater emphasis.

In chapter 19 Job speaks more pathetically, exhibiting his character in a beautiful light. His language is sorrowful, his spirit tender and subdued. How long will his friends vex and crush him with their remarks? God has overthrown him, fenced up his way, put away his friends. Even his wife and children are estranged from him.

Then, there follows the most noble declaration in the book. Conscious of the importance of what he is about to say, he asks that his words might be engraved on the eternal rock, and then professes his confidence in God and his assurance that he would yet appear and vindicate his character. Though now consumed by disease, and though this process should go on till all his flesh was wasted away, yet he had the conviction that God would appear on the earth to deliver him, and that with renovated flesh and in prosperity, he would be permitted to see God for himself.

ZOPHAR AND JOB

Zophar recapitulates the old arguments under a new form, and Job replies, closing the second series of the debate. All his strength is collected for this argument as though resolved to answer them once for all. He appeals to facts. The wicked live, grow old, become mighty in power, etc. They openly cast off God and prosper in an irreligious life, although, as he admits, there are some exceptions. They are reserved, however, for the day of destruction and a future retribution they cannot escape.

QUESTIONS

For questions, teachers are referred to what was said at the close of the preceding lesson. Examine the text of the chapters by the help of the various sentences and clauses of the lesson. Ask yourself or your classes for example:

1. In what language does Eliphaz accuse Job of vehemence and vanity?

2. How many verses are taken up with these accusations?

3. To how many sages of ancient times does he refer, or how many of their observations does he quote?

4. Point out the literary beauty of some of these observations.

5. Discover the verse of verses in which Job prophesies the acquaintance of later generations with the story of his trial.

6. Count and distinguish between the maxims or proverbs of Bildad.

7. Memorize Job 19:25-27.

8. How many indisputable facts does Job refer to in chapter 21?

Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary

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 Gods judgments on himself: that, therefore, his imaginations of innocence were an illusion; but one, however, of the worst kind; he had deceived himself. Heath.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Job 15:2. Fill his belly with the east wind; a hot dry wind, the least favourable to vegetation. This is an angry figure of speech, equivalent to a declaration that Jobs defence was a mere storm of words. Instead of being a suppliant for mercy, he accuses him of unfounded confidence.

Job 15:5. Thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity; or blasphemy against the hand that afflicted so good a man unjustly.

Job 15:7. Art thou the first man? Wert thou born before Adam, or begotten before the hills? Shultens. Eliphaz here cautions Job to reason with greater deference and modesty; for he had received traditions from the sons of Noah, who walked the earth as heirs, and no stranger passed among them.

Job 15:11. Are the consolations of God small with thee? The spiritual consolations of peace, joy and hope; for he had no temporal consolations. Our translators very much follow Montanus, who asks, Are not the consolations of God small with thee?Is there any secret thing with thee? Hebrews a secret word, viz. of confession of some secret sin which thy pride will not let thee utter, And he intimates that if Job did not confess this sin, he should be as an exile and a vagabond upon the earth: Job 15:20-21.

Job 15:15. He putteth no trust in his saints, or in angels, as most of the ancient authorities read. Bede has here a good remark to preachers in taking texts; that these are not the words of Job, nor of other inspired men, but of Eliphaz.Yea the ethereal heavens are not clean, compared with him, a pure, an invisible, and eternal mind.

REFLECTIONS.

In this battle of argument we are now come to sharp words and hard blows. Eliphazs reproaches are good in themselves, had they been applied to another person, and made the reprehensions of a criminal case, No man should be treated as a culprit, till he is first found guilty. He presumes that Job had cast off all fear, had ceased from prayer, and was hardening his soul in specious pleas of innocence, which implicated the divine Being as unjust, in the tremendous character of his visitations. He claims the opinion and support of all holy patriarchs, equal in age to the father of Job, as coinciding with him in the severity of his censures.

Eliphaz, who was oldest of the three, presumes farther, that Job must, like other wicked men, have a dreadful sound in his ears, for his great sin in accounting himself holy before God, when the heavens are not clean in his sight. And dreadful is the portrait he draws of a character loaded with crimes, and seeking to hide himself from the eyes of God and of man. And who would not weep at the sight of a man consummately wicked; a man, who has gone the round of crimes in blasphemy, seduction, and fraud. Yet he is suffered to live, a terror to himself, and a man from whom the public hide their faces. He shall not depart out of darkness, and the flames shall dry up his branches.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Job 15:1. Here begins the second cycle of the debate. Eliphaz had before said everything possible, presuming Jobs real goodnesshe had explained how he must accept his sufferings as a Divine chastisement, and be instructed by them. Job, however, rejects all this, and Eliphaz is consequently compelled to conclude that Job is a despiser of religion and wholly impious: all he can do is to point out the consequences of such irreligion and impiety.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

ELIPHAZ CLAIMS JOB CONDEMNS HIMSELF

(vv.1-6)

This response of Eliphaz lacks the measure of self-restraint he had shown in his first address. He had first at least spoken with a measure of consideration for Job, but now he directly accuses him of gross sin and hypocrisy. He says in effect, if Job considered himself wise, why did he speak with empty knowledge, his words like the east wind? Eliphaz does not directly answer what Job has said, but accuses him of unprofitable talk and speeches that can do no good (vv.2-3). He says, “You cast off fear, and restrain prayer before God.” But Job’s words showed very definite fear and he had actually prayed to God in the presence of his friends. What was Eliphaz talking about?

He tells Job that his own iniquity leads him to speak as he does and that Job chose cunningly devised words to cover up his sin (v.5). Plainly, Eliphaz was strongly condemning Job, but he says that was not condemning him, but that Job’s own words condemned him. He does not tell Job what words actually condemned him, but used this sweeping accusation to nullify all that Job had said. Of course this was grossly unfair, but he smugly insists, “Your own lips testify against you” (v.6).

DID JOB THINK HIMSELF WISER THAN OTHERS?

(vv.7-13)

In this accusation of Eliphaz, suggesting that Job inferred that he was wiser than all others, Eliphaz is again absolutely unfair. Zophar had told Job, “O that God would speak and open his lips against you, that He would show you the secrets of wisdom” (ch.11:5-6). He inferred that he knew the secrets of wisdom, and Job did not. Job had answered this, “No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you” and he had protested, not that he was wiser than his friends, but that “I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you” (ch.12:2-3).

Therefore it was dishonest of Eliphaz to ask him, “Are you the first man who was born? or were you made before the hills? Have you heard the counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?” (vv.7-8). Job had asked his friends virtually the same question that Eliphaz asks in verse 9, “What do you know that we do not know? He had said, “What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you” (ch.13:2), but Eliphaz accused him of claiming to be superior to them. Eliphaz ought to have reproved Zophar for assuming that he knew the secrets of wisdom and that Job did not, but the arguments of Eliphaz only exposed his partiality.

He proceeds also to imply that he and his friends were actually wiser than Job, for he tells Job, “Both the grey-haired and the aged are among us, much older than your father” (v.10). He had appealed to tradition before: now he says that not only tradition, but those who originated tradition, were on the side of these three men!

What does Eliphaz mean by asking, “Are the consolations of God too small for you, and the word spoken gently with you?” (v.11). No doubt he meant that he and his friends had brought the consolations of God to Job, and Job did not appreciate such help. Also, he says that they had spoken the word gently to Job. Why did Job not respond to this gentleness? Of course Job did not think their words were gentle, nor did he consider that they were showing him “the consolations of God.” No wonder Job said in chapter 16:2, “miserable comforters are you all!”

Eliphaz considered that Job’s heart was carrying him away and he was turning his spirit against God (vv.12-13). Why? Because his spirit was turned against what his friends were saying, and Eliphaz thought they were speaking for God. He could strongly reprove Job for his letting such words as Job spoke ever come forth from his mouth. But Eliphaz did not stop to consider that he needed to restrain such words as came from his own mouth.

GOD’S HOLINESS IN CONTRAST TO MEN

(vv.14-16)

There is excellent truth in these verses, if Eliphaz would apply it as positively to himself as to Job, but he wanted to convict Job by the truth he expressed rather than take it seriously to his own heart. In any absolute sense, no man is pure or righteous, as verse 14 implies. But Eliphaz wanted Job to therefore confess to sins that Job had not actually committed. Yet if we think of Job as compared to other men, God had said that Job was the most righteous man on earth.

Eliphaz continues, “If God puts no trust in His saints (evidently angels), and the heavens are not pure in His sight, how much less man, who is abominable and filthy, who drinks iniquity like water!” (vv.15-16). From God’s viewpoint this too is true, but would Eliphaz have appreciated it if Job called him “abominable and filthy?” Thus Eliphaz was seeking to use a general truth to convict Job of worse guilt than was actually true of Job.

THE STUBBORNNESS OF WICKED MEN

(vv.17-26)

Though Eliphaz had shown mankind generally to be “abominable and filthy,” now he dwells on the character and actions of wicked men, so that he does make a distinction between the wicked and the righteous, but he wants to compare Job to the wicked man. “I will tell you, hear me,” he says, implying that this was the instruction Job needed. For he was depending on what wise men had told, receiving it from their fathers, showing again that tradition was most important to Eliphaz. He says, “No alien passed among them,” that is, that there were none to disagree with their conclusions.

Thus tradition said, “The wicked man writhes with pain all his days” (v.20). Of course Job was writhing with pain, so this was another cruel thrust at Job. “And the number of years is hidden from the oppressor.” Did he mean that Job did not know for how many years he would writhe in pain because he was guilty of being an oppressor? “In prosperity the destroyer comes upon him” (v.21). It was when Job was enjoying prosperity that trouble came suddenly to him, therefore Eliphaz concluded that Job must be a wicked man, for he did not stop to consider that others beside wicked men had trouble too. And because Job had expressed himself as despairing of any hope of returning from the dark state into which he had come, Eliphaz took advantage of this to further convict Job (v.22).

He speaks of the wicked wandering in search of bread, that is, some return to a former state. “Trouble and anguish make him afraid” (v.24). Therefore since Job admitted he was afraid because of his great suffering, Eliphaz considered this another proof of Job’s wickedness. “He stretches out his hand against God, and acts defiantly against the Almighty, running stubbornly against Him” (vv.25-26). These were things that Eliphaz saw in Job, so that he felt himself right in comparing Job to wicked men. Certainly in all this Eliphaz showed painful lack of discernment and unfeeling cruelty.

THE RECOMPENSE OF THE WICKED

(vv.27-35)

But now Eliphaz proceeds to warn Job as to what the wicked can expect to reap as reward for their wickedness. Though he built himself up with great prosperity, he would dwell in desolate cities, in houses that were coming to ruin (vv.27-28). His riches would dissipate (v.29). Darkness would overcome him, fire would dry up his branches. As he had lived in futile pursuits, futility would be his reward (vv.30-31). This would be accomplished before he had time to enjoy life (v.32). He may have grapes on his vine, but not ripe, cast off before being of any use. Blossoms on his olive tree, showing promise of fruit, would also be cast off before fruit came. “The company of hypocrites will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery” (v.34). Eliphaz had before implied that Job was a hypocrite (vv.5-6), now he suggests that Job might be guilty of bribery too. At any rate, all that the wicked conceive is trouble, and this ends in futility (v.35). This is what he considered Job’s end would be!

Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible

1. Eliphaz’s second speech ch. 15

Job’s responses so far had evidently convinced Eliphaz that Job was a hardened sinner in defiant rebellion against God. [Note: Pope, p. 114.]

"There is a great change in tone between this address of Eliphaz and the first. There is no tenderness here. The philosophy of life is stated wholly on the negative side, and it was impossible for Job to misunderstand the meaning." [Note: Morgan, p. 208.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

C. The Second Cycle of Speeches between Job and His Three Friends chs. 15-21

In the second cycle of speeches, Job’s companions did not change their minds about why Job was suffering and the larger issue of the basis of the divine-human relationship. They continued to hold the dogma of retribution: that God without exception blesses good people and punishes bad people in this life. Gal 6:7 says, "Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap." However, it is wrong to conclude that we will inevitably reap what we sow before we die. Our final judgment will come after death. Job and his friends lacked this long view of life and focused on life before death. The spirit of Job’s "friends" did change, however, to one of greater hostility. They seem to have abandoned hope that direct appeals to Job would move him to repent, because they no longer called on him to repent. Instead they stressed the fate of the wicked and only indirectly urged him to repent. In their first speeches, their approach was more intellectual; they challenged Job to think logically. In their second speeches, their approach was more emotional; they sought to convict Job’s conscience.

"In the first [cycle of speeches] Eliphaz had emphasised [sic] the moral perfection of God, Bildad his unwavering justice, and Zophar his omniscience. Job in reply had dwelt on his own unmerited sufferings and declared his willingness to meet God face to face to argue his case. Having failed to stir his conscience, the friends see in him a menace to all true religion, and in the second cycle their rebukes are sharper than in the first, though their characters are still carefully preserved." [Note: Rowley, p. 107.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Job’s attitude rebuked 15:1-16

Specifically, Eliphaz accused Job of speaking irreverently (Job 15:1-6) and of pretending to be wiser and purer than he was (Job 15:7-16). For a second time one of his friends said Job was full of hot air (Job 15:2-3; cf. Job 8:2). The east wind (Job 15:2) was the dreaded sirocco that blew in destruction from the Arabian Desert.

"Eliphaz was using one of the oldest tactics in debate-if you can’t refute your opponent’s arguments, attack his words and make them sound like a lot of hot air.’" [Note: Wiersbe, p. 32.]

Eliphaz judged that Job’s iniquity (better than "guilt," Job 15:5) caused him to speak as he did.

"This is another debater’s trick: when you can’t refute the speech, ridicule the speaker." [Note: Ibid.]

Eliphaz felt insulted that Job, a younger man, had rejected the wisdom of his older friends. This was an act of disrespect on Job’s part, and Eliphaz interpreted it as a claim to superior wisdom. Job had made no such claim, however; he only said he had equal intelligence (Job 12:3; Job 13:2). He did not claim to know why he was suffering as he was, only that his friends’ explanation was wrong. Eliphaz interpreted Job’s prayers of frustration to God as rebellion against God (Job 15:12-13), which they were not. We need to be careful to avoid this error too. Eliphaz was correct in judging all people to be corrupt sinners (Job 15:14), but he was wrong to conclude that Job was suffering because he was rebelling against God.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

XIII.

THE TRADITION OF A PURE RACE

Job 15:1-35

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 fight for 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 the holiness 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.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary

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