Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 15:34
For the congregation of hypocrites [shall be] desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.
34. The same truth as that expressed in Job 15:31-32 now taught without figure, and reduced to a general principle.
congregation of hypocrites ] Or, company of the ungodly, ch. Job 8:13; Job 13:16. “Desolate” is barren (ch. Job 3:7), unfruitful. The households of the godless are unfruitful, under God’s curse they come to nought; but it is puerile to make the grapes and flowers of Job 15:33 figures for children.
tabernacles of bribery ] Bribery, a common method of perverting justice in the East, is here a general name for wrong and injustice.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For the congregation of hypocrites – The word rendered congregation here ( edah) means properly an appointed meeting; a meeting convened by appointment or at stated times (from yadah), and hence, an assembly of any kind. It is commonly applied to an assembly for public worship; but it may refer to a more private company – a family, or circle of friends, dependents, etc. It refers here, I suppose, to such a community that a man can get around him in his own dwelling – his family, servants, dependents, etc. The word rendered hypocrites ( chaneph) is in the singular number, and should be so rendered here. It does not mean that a worshipping assembly composed of hypocrites would be desolate – which may be true – but that the community which a man who is a hypocrite can gather around him shall be swept away. His children, his dependents, and his retinue of servants, shall be taken away from him, and he shall be left to solitude. Probably there was an allusion here to Job, who had been stripped in this manner; or at any rate the remark was one, if it were a quotation from the ancient sayings of the Arabians, which Job could not but regard as applied to himself.
And fire shall consume – This has all the appearance of being a proverb. The meaning is, that they who received a bribe would be certainly punished.
The tabernacles of bribery – The tents or dwellings of those who receive bribes, and who therefore are easily corrupted, and have no solid principles. There is probably an allusion here to Job; and no doubt Eliphaz meant to apply this severe remark to him. Job was a Sheik, an Emir, a head of a tribe, and, therefore, a magistrate; see Job 29:7, seq. Yet a part of his possessions and servants had been cut off by fire from heaven Job 1:16; and Eliphaz means probably to imply that it had been because he had been guilty of receiving a bribe. This ancient proverb declared that the dwellings of the man who could be bribed would be consumed by fire; and now he presumes that the fact that Job had been visited by the fire of heaven was full proof that he had been guilty in this manner. It was about on principles such as these that the reasoning of the friends of Job was conducted.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 34. The congregation of hypocrites]
11. Job is here classed with hypocrites, or rather the impious of all kinds. The congregation, or adath, society, of such, shall be desolate, or a barren rock, galmud. See this Arabic word explained in Clarke’s note on “Job 3:7“.
Fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.]
12. Another insinuation against Job, that he had perverted justice and judgment, and had taken bribes.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The congregation, i.e. their children, and servants, and friends, and dependents.
Desolate, i.e. utterly destroyed. Fire, i.e. some eminent and terrible judgment of God, which is oft expressed by fire; as Isa 9:19; 26:11.
The tabernacles of bribery, i.e. which were either built or maintained by extortion and bribery, and suchlike unrighteous courses, whereof they thought Job guilty, Job 22:8.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
34. Rather, The binding togetherof the hypocrites (wicked) shall be fruitless [UMBREIT].
tabernacles ofbriberynamely, dwellings of unjust judges, often reprobated inthe Old Testament (Isa 1:23).The “fire of God” that consumed Job’s possessions (Job1:16) Eliphaz insinuates may have been on account of Job’sbribery as an Arab sheik or emir.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For the congregation of hypocrites [shall be] desolate,…. Hypocrites are such who seem to and would be thought to be, what they are not; they are outwardly righteous before men, but inwardly very wicked; have a form of godliness, but are destitute the power of it, 2Ti 3:5; pretend to much religion, and to be worshippers of God, when it is only in outward appearances, and not in reality and sincerity: and such as these have been in the congregations of the righteous, in all ages; but here Eliphaz speaks of a congregation of them, a society, a family of them; and very probably has his eye upon Job’s, and would represent hereby that he, the head of his family, and his children, when living, and his servants and associates, were all hypocrites, and now become desolate, reduced to want and poverty, and in distressed circumstances: or were “solitary” i and alone, as the word is rendered in Job 3:7; destitute of friends, and of the comforts of life; and perhaps reference may be had to the future state of such, when they shall aloud be bid to depart from God, have no society with angels and saints, but shall have their portion with those of the same character with them, hypocrites, in the highest degree of torment and misery, Mt 24:51;
and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery; either such tents, or houses, as were built with money taken as bribes; see Hab 2:12; or where such who received bribes dwelt; unjust judges, who took a gift that blinds the eyes, to pervert justice. Job is afterwards by Eliphaz represented as if he was an oppressor, a wicked magistrate, and guilty of such like crimes as here pointed at, Job 22:6; and the “fire” said to consume the dwelling places of such may be understood either of material fire, such as came down from heaven, and destroyed Job’s sheep, Job 1:16; or figuratively, the wrath of God often compared to fire, which would appear in one way or another, to the utter ruin of such persons, their habitations, and those that dwelt in them.
i “solitarium”, Montanus; and to the same sense Vatablus, Beza, Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(34) Desolate.This was Jobs own word (Job. 3:7), and as it is an uncommon word, there may be some intentional reference to his use of it.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
34. The congregation of hypocrites The household of the impure.
Desolate The figure is of a rock, hard and barren. Fire is often employed in the Bible for the wrath of God.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 15:34 For the congregation of hypocrites [shall be] desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.
Ver. 34. For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate ] Heb. Of the hypocrite; where he seemeth to point at Job, as by the unripe grapes, and blasted flowers of the olive, he had understood Job’s children and possessions, Job 15:33 . Now the whole congregation or train and retinue of the hypocrite God will unnest and ruin, saith Eliphaz; they shall all be as one desolated, so the original hath it.
And fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
congregation = assembly.
tabernacles = tents.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the congregation: Job 8:13, Job 20:1, Job 27:8, Job 36:13, Isa 33:14, Isa 33:15, Mat 24:51
the tabernacles: Job 11:14, Job 12:6, Job 22:5-9, Job 29:12-17, 1Sa 8:3, 1Sa 12:3, Mic 7:2, Amo 5:11, Amo 5:12
Reciprocal: Job 16:17 – Not for Job 32:3 – and yet Pro 14:11 – house Isa 9:17 – for every Act 24:26 – hoped
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 15:34-35. For the congregation of hypocrites Their children, servants, friends, and dependants; shall be desolate That is, utterly destroyed; and fire Some eminent and terrible judgment of God, often expressed by fire: see Isa 9:19; Isa 26:11; shall consume the tabernacles of bribery Which were either built or maintained by extortion and bribery, or such unrighteous practises, of which they thought Job guilty, Job 22:8. They conceive mischief They devise and contrive pernicious enterprises against others; and bring forth vanity They execute what they had contrived. They produce iniquity, injury, or trouble, either to others, or rather to themselves: for the mischief they designed for others falls upon their own heads, and they reap what they sowed. And their belly That is, their inward parts, their hearts and minds; prepareth deceit For others, whom they design to cheat; and especially for themselves, who, while they seek to deceive others, shall find that they themselves are most deceived, as being deprived of all their desires and hopes wherewith they fed themselves, and cast into all those calamities which they thought to prevent by these artifices. This whole description is evidently pointed at the situation of Job. His prosperity was become vanity; his children were all cut off before their time; his family become solitary; and his hopes, to all appearance, an illusion. All the fine prospect with which the wicked man entertained himself, and for which he endured all the anguish here described, produced only a deceit. He hath imposed on himself.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
15:34 For the congregation of hypocrites [shall be] desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of {x} bribery.
(x) Who were built or maintained by bribery.