Chapter Fifteen

The second speech of Eliphaz. 1–16. Reproach to Job for the lack of wisdom. 17–35. A description of the destruction of the wicked.

Job 15:1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: Job 15:2. Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the hot east wind, Job 15:3. and justify himself with words without value, and speeches that profit nothing? Job 15:4. Indeed, you cast off the fear and diminish devotion toward God. In reproaching his friends for lack of wisdom (Job 12:1-6), Job himself deserves the same accusation. That he lacks wisdom is evidenced by the emptiness (see note on Job 11:2), heat, and irritability of his speeches (“fills his belly with the hot east wind,” more precisely “with the wind of the east”), while the words of a wise man are penetrated by calm (Prov 14:29; Eccl 9:17), and finally by the denial of the fear of God—the beginning of all wisdom (Job 28:28; Prov 1:7; Prov 9:10; Ps 110:10; Sir 1:15-16). Those who deny the fear of God and are not firm in piety are, in Eliphaz’s view, why Job appears because he rejects God’s Justice in regard to himself, thinking himself innocently punished, and in regard to all people (Job 9:22 etc.). With the loss of the fear, the feeling of reverence toward God, there is no proper respect for the Lord seen in Job’s speeches: “you diminish devotion toward God” (v. 4).

Job 15:5. Your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty. Job 15:6. Your own mouth condemns you, not I; and your lips testify against you. The denial of the fear of God is a direct manifestation of wickedness (Ps 9:25). Consequently, Job himself bears witness to his own sinfulness and guilt, becomes his own accuser: “your own mouth condemns you, not I.”

Job 15:7. Were you the first man born, and were you brought forth before the hills? Job 15:8. Have you listened in the council of God, and do you limit wisdom to yourself? In his speeches, Job has not demonstrated the ordinary wisdom belonging to man. Much less does he have grounds to claim for himself some special wisdom that compels his friends to complete silence (Job 12:13). He is not the first man, and therefore is not endowed with those higher qualities that were characteristic of the latter. He was not created before the hills, as if from eternity (Ps 89:3; Prov 8:25), does not stand in direct relations with God, and has not been initiated by Him into the plans of God’s rule (Wis 9:13).

Job 15:9. What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not also ours? Job 15:10. Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, older in days than your father. Job is an ordinary mortal man; his knowledge is in no way above the knowledge of his friends. But since the latter cite in their speeches the experience of ancestors, older than Job’s ancestors, and therefore wiser, he must agree with them.

Job 15:11. Is the comfort of God too small for you? And is there anything unknown to you? Job 15:12. What do your impulses carry you away with, and what do your proud eyes look to? Job 15:13. That you turn your spirit against God and allow such words to proceed from your mouth? Job 15:14. What is man, that he should be clean, and he who is born of woman, that he should be righteous? Job 15:15. Behold, He does not trust even His holy ones, and the heavens are not clean in His sight: Job 15:16. how much less a man who is abominable and corrupt, who drinks iniquity like water. According to his knowledge, Job is an ordinary mortal man. Therefore, first of all, it is inappropriate on his part to show contempt (Job 12:1-6) toward the reasoning of his friends, their gentle speeches (“Is the comfort of God too small for you, and the gentle words addressed to you?” v. 11); second, bold, full of pride speeches to God (v. 12–13) are not allowed. In them he accuses Him of injustice, thinking himself innocently punished. Job has no right to reason thus, because the inclination toward sin is, for him as for all men, a necessity of nature (v. 16). He cannot be clean in God’s eyes (v. 14): the calamity that has befallen him is fully deserved.

Job 15:17. I will tell you, hear me; I will recount what I have seen, Job 15:18. what the wise have declared, and have not concealed from their fathers, Job 15:19. to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them. Eliphaz’s confidence in Job’s lack of wisdom gives him the right to express his view on the disputed question of earthly retribution. Contrary to Job’s judgments, the teaching set forth by the elder friend is distinguished by absolute certainty. It is not his personal view, but the view of the wise men of former times, handed down to him by his ancestors and compiled by the latter on the basis of personal experience and observation; there are no foreign influences in it: the ancestors lived at a time when strangers had not invaded their land (v. 19).

Job 15:20. The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden from the oppressor; Job 15:21. a dreadful sound is in his ears; in peace the destroyer comes upon him. Job 15:22. He does not believe he can escape the darkness; he sees the sword before him. Job 15:23. He wanders for bread wherever; he knows that darkness is ready at hand. Job 15:24. Distress and anguish terrify him; they overcome him like a king ready for battle, According to the teaching of the ancestors set forth by Eliphaz, the wicked never enjoys peace; his conscience, burdened by transgressions, constantly makes him fear calamities. The torments are heightened by the fact that the sinner does not know their end: “the number of years is hidden from the oppressor” (v. 20). The premonitions of calamity arising from the torment of conscience are justified: the wicked hears dreadful sounds that foretell his destruction. Although it overtakes him at a time when he is enjoying prosperity (v. 21), escape is impossible: the sword of God’s vengeance strikes the sinner (v. 22). The misery to which the wicked is doomed—for the rich it is complete poverty (v. 23)—overtakes him with irresistible force (v. 24).

Job 15:25. because he has stretched out his hand against God and boasts himself against the Almighty, Job 15:26. and rushes against Him with a stiffened neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers; Job 15:27. for he has covered his face with his fat, and gathered fat upon his loins, The cause of the wicked’s destruction is the haughty, arrogant resistance to God (v. 25; cf. Isa 23:11; Ezek 25:7; v. 26; cf. 1 Sam 2:3; Ps 72:3-9) combined with insensitivity to God’s dealings (v. 27 cf. Deut 32:15; Ps 72:7). Like a fattened, indifferent person, the sinner does not wish to see and understand the admonitions directed at him.

Job 15:28. He dwells in ruined cities, in houses where no one lives, which are destined for ruin. One manifestation of such a disposition is the settlement of the wicked in places associated with the memory of God’s punishment, and which, as visible monuments of righteous wrath, keep the God-fearing from attempting to settle in them. Based on the following v. 29, it seems that the settlement of the wicked in places destined for desolation is caused by greed, passion for acquiring riches.

Job 15:29. He will not become rich, and his wealth will not endure, and his possessions will not spread out over the land. Job 15:30. He will not escape from darkness; the flame will dry up his branches, and his breath will carry him away. Job 15:31. Let not the deceived trust in emptiness; it will be his recompense. Job 15:32. It will be accomplished before his time, and his branches will not flourish. Job 15:33. He will shake off his unripe grapes like the vine, and cast off his blossoms like the olive tree. Job 15:34. For the house of the wicked will be childless, and fire will consume the tents of bribery. Job 15:35. He conceives mischief and brings forth falsehood, and his belly prepares deceit. The end of the wicked man.

Job 15:29. He will not become rich, and his wealth will not endure, and his possessions will not spread out over the land. Job 15:30. He will not escape from darkness; the flame will dry up his branches, and his breath will carry him away. The prosperity created by the aforementioned path (v. 28) is unstable. His acquisition is not destined to flourish and reach maturity: “his possessions will not spread out over the land” (the figure is borrowed from a branch weighed down by fruit). It will perish like a tree thrown into fire. The “branches” are not Job’s children, since the speech about descendants comes later, but parts of accumulated growing wealth, which is compared to a tree.

Job 15:31. Let not the deceived trust in emptiness; it will be his recompense. In places destined for desolation and ruins (v. 29) one cannot establish oneself firmly: hope for this is vain, empty. Ruin awaits the one who thinks and acts otherwise (“the deceived”).

Job 15:32. It will be accomplished before his time, and his branches will not flourish. Job 15:33. He will shake off his unripe grapes like the vine, and cast off his blossoms like the olive tree. Job 15:34. For the house of the wicked will be childless, and fire will consume the tents of bribery. The fattened, indifferent sinner who has despised the divine decree is punished not only by the destruction of his possessions but also by premature death (v. 32; cf. Ps 54:24) and likewise destruction of his children (v. 33).

Job 15:35. He conceives mischief and brings forth falsehood, and his belly prepares deceit. A metaphorical summary of the preceding speech. Sin always and inevitably is accompanied by misery (Job 4:8; Ps 7:15-17; Isa 59:4).