1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, 2 "Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind? 3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good? 4 Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God. 5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty. 6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you. 7 "Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills? 8 Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself? 9 What do you know, that we don't know? What do you understand, which is not in us? 10 With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much elder than your father. 11 Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you? 12 Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash, 13 That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth? 14 What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? 15 Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight; 16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water! 17 "I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare: 18 (Which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it; 19 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them): 20 the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor. 21 A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him. 22 He doesn't believe that he shall return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword. 23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. 24 Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle. 25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty; 26 he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers; 27 because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs. 28 He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps. 29 He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth. 30 He shall not depart out of darkness. The flame shall dry up his branches. By the breath of God's mouth shall he go away. 31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness shall be his reward. 32 It shall be accomplished before his time. His branch shall not be green. 33 He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive tree. 34 For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery. 35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit."
Eliphaz charges Job with impiety in attempting to justify himself, Job 15:1-13; asserts the utter corruption and abominable state of man, Job 15:14-16; 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, vv. 17-35.
INTRODUCTION TO JOB 15
Job's three friends having in their turns attacked him, and he having given answer respectively to them, Eliphaz, who began the attack, first enters the debate with him again, and proceeds upon the same plan as before, and endeavours to defend his former sentiments, falling upon Job with greater vehemence and severity; he charges him with vanity, imprudence, and unprofitableness in his talk, and acting a part unbecoming his character as a wise man; yea, with impiety and a neglect of religion, or at least as a discourager of it by his words and doctrines, of which his mouth and lips were witnesses against him, Job 15:1; he charges him with arrogance and a high conceit of himself, as if he was the first man that was made, nay, as if he was the eternal wisdom of God, and had been in his council; and, to check his vanity, retorts his own words upon him, or however the sense of them, Job 15:7; and also with slighting the consolations of God; upon which he warmly expostulates with him, Job 15:11; and in order to convince him of his self-righteousness, which he thought he was full of, he argues from the angels, the heavens, and the general case of man, Job 15:14; and then he declares from his own knowledge, and from the relation of wise and ancient men in former times, who made it their observation, that wicked men are afflicted all their days, attended with terror and despair, and liable to various calamities, Job 15:17; the reasons of which are their insolence to God, and hostilities committed against him, which they are encouraged in by their prosperous circumstances, Job 15:25; notwithstanding all, their estates, riches, and wealth, will come to nothing, Job 15:28; and the chapter is closed with an exhortation to such, not to feed themselves up with vain hopes, or trust in uncertain riches, since their destruction would be sure, sudden, and terrible, Job 15:31.
(v. 1-16) Eliphaz reproves Job.
(v. 17-35) The unquietness of wicked men.
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.