Job Chapter 15

From The Open Bible Project

15:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

15:2 "Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?

• (a) That is, vain words, and without consolation?
• (b) Meaning, with matters that are of no importance, which are forgotten as soon as they are uttered, as the East wind dries up moisture as soon as it falls.

15:3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?

15:4 Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.

• (c) He charges Job as though his talk caused men to cast off the fear of God and prayer.

15:5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.

• (d) You speak as the mockers and contemners of God do.

15:6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.

15:7 "Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?

• (e) That is, the most ancient and so by reason the most wise?

15:8 Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

• (f) Are you only wise?

15:9 What do you know, that we don't know? What do you understand, which is not in us?

15:10 With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much elder than your father.

15:11 Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?

• (g) He accuses Job’s pride and ingratitude, that will not be comforted by God, but by their counsel.

15:12 Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,

• (h) Why do you stand in your own conceit?

15:13 That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?

15:14 What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

• (i) His purpose is to prove that Job, as an unjust man and a hypocrite, is punished for his sins, as he did before, (Job 4:8).

15:15 Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;

15:16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!

• (k) Who has a desire to sin, as he who is thirsty to drink.

15:17 "I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare:

15:18 (Which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;

15:19 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):

• (l) Who by their wisdom so governed, that no stranger invaded them, and so the land seemed to be given to them alone.

15:20 the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

• (m) The cruel man is always in danger of death, and is never quiet in conscience.

15:21 A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.

15:22 He doesn't believe that he shall return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.

• (n) Out of that misery to which he once fell.

15:23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

• (o) God not only impoverishes the wicked often, but even in their prosperity he punishes them with a greediness to gain even more: which is as a beggary.

15:24 Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

• (p) He shows the weapons God uses against the wicked, who lift up themselves against him, that is, terror of conscience and outward afflictions.

15:25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty;

15:26 he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers;

15:27 because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.

• (q) That is, he was so puffed up with prosperity and abundance for all things, that he forgave God: noting that Job in his happiness did not have the true fear of God.

15:28 He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.

• (r) Though he build and repair ruinous places to gain fame, yet God will bring all to nothing, and turn his great prosperity into extreme misery.

15:29 He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.

• (s) Meaning, that his sumptuous buildings would never come to perfection.

15:30 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.

15:31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness shall be his reward.

• (t) He stands in his own conceit, that he will give no place to good counsel, therefore his own pride will bring him to destruction.

15:32 It shall be accomplished before his time. His branch shall not be green.

15:33 He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive tree.

• (u) As one who gathers grapes before they are ripe.

15:34 For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

• (x) Who were built or maintained by bribery.

15:35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit."

• (y) Therefore all their vain devises will turn to their own destruction.