Job

Job 15

35 verses · Wisdom · Old Testament

1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

2“Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind? 3Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good? 4Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God. 5For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty. 6Your 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 out before the hills? 8Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself? 9What do you know that we don’t know? What do you understand which is not in us? 10With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much elder than your father. 11Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you? 12Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash, 13That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth? 14What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? 15Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight; 16how 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; 19to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them): 20the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor. 21A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer will come on him. 22He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword. 23He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. 24Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle. 25Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty, 26he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers, 27because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs. 28He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps. 29He will not be rich, neither will his substance continue, neither will their possessions be extended on the earth. 30He will not depart out of darkness. The flame will dry up his branches. He will go away by the breath of God’s mouth. 31Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness will be his reward. 32It will be accomplished before his time. His branch will not be green. 33He will shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and will cast off his flower as the olive tree. 34For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery. 35They conceive mischief, and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”

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What others are saying

4 commentators · 77 notes on this chapter

Matthew HenryEnglish Puritan / Nonconformist · 1708–17142

Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.

Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.

v. 1–16

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…

v. 17–35

Eliphaz, having reproved Job for his answers, here comes to maintain his own thesis, upon which he built his censure of Job. His opinion is that those who are wicked are certainly miserable, whence he would infer that those who are miserable are certainly…

John GillParticular Baptist / High Calvinist · 1746–176335

The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.

Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.

v. 1

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…

v. 2

Should a wise man utter vain knowledge,.... As Job had been thought to be, or as he himself thought he was, which he might say sarcastically; or as he really was, not worldly wise, nor merely wise in things natural, but in things divine; being one that had…

v. 3

Should he reason with unprofitable talk?.... That is, the wise man, such a man as Job; does it become him to talk such idle stuff? that which is false, and foolish, and frothy, that does not minister grace to the hearer, and is not for the use of edifying; as…

Keil & DelitzschGerman Lutheran, conservative-critical · 1861–18758

The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.

Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.

v. 1–6

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…

v. 7–10

7 Wast thou as the first one born as a man, And hast thou been brought forth before the hills? 8 Hast thou attended to the counsel of Eloah, And hast thou kept wisdom to thyself? 9 What dost thou know that we have not known? Doest thou understand what we have…

v. 11–13

11 Are the consolations of God too small for thee, And a word thus tenderly spoken with thee? 12 What overpowers thy hearts? And why do thine eyes wink, 13 That thou turnest thy snorting against God, And sendest forth such words from thy mouth? By the…

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownScottish Presbyterian / Reformed · 187132

The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.

Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.

v. 4

fear--reverence for God (Job 4:6; Psa 2:11). prayer--meditation, in Psa 104:34; so devotion. If thy views were right, reasons Eliphaz, that God disregards the afflictions of the righteous and makes the wicked to prosper, all devotion would be at an end.

v. 5

The sophistry of thine own speeches proves thy guilt.

v. 6

No pious man would utter such sentiments.

World English Bible — Public domain