Lenten Study Job Ch 15
Despite what Job has said, Eliphaz still thinks he is right about what is causing Job’s problems. Eliphaz is doubling down on his opinion, but he isn’t restating it. Eliphaz is attacking Job’s opinion that he, Eliphaz, doesn’t know what he’s talking about. They are both partially right. Eliphaz is right because he knows what he is talking about and is usually correct, just not in Job’s case. Job is right because Eliphaz has not understood that Job really has done nothing wrong.
"There was a man in the land of Uz" by andrevanb is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite responded,
Job 15:1 (NASB)
Job has had a lot to say, and much of it is unvarnished from his perspective. Eliphaz’s biggest problem in this exchange is that he cannot see into Job’s heart to know what is really going on there, and he cannot fathom that Job really hasn’t done anything wrong. That thought either hasn’t occurred to him, or he’s dismissed it as not possible.
2 “Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge And fill himself with the east wind?
3 “Should he argue with useless talk, Or with words which are not profitable?
Job 15:2-3 (NASB)
Essentially, this boils down to Eliphaz thinking Job is full of hot air.
4 “Indeed, you do away with reverence And hinder meditation before God.
Job 15:4 (NASB)
This passage speaks to the tone and tenor of what Job sounded like when he spoke to his friends. He was loud, sounding as though he were boasting, wildly gesticulating with his arms, and making a general spectacle of the exchange. It is to be understood, though, given what has happened to him and how hard he has tried to do the right thing and assuage God’s anger at him.
5 “For your guilt teaches your mouth, And you choose the language of the crafty.
6 “Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; And your own lips testify against you.
Job 15:5-6 (NASB)
Eliphaz seems to agree with Shakespear in Hamlet when Queen Gertrude says, “She doth protest too much, methinks.” Eliphaz believes Job’s protestation of his innocence is “too much” here.
7 “Were you the first man to be born, Or were you brought forth before the hills?
8 “Do you hear the secret counsel of God, And limit wisdom to yourself?
9 “What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that we do not?
Job 15:7-9 (NASB)
Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar know what Job knows, are as smart as Job is, and have seen what Job has seen. They do not know that Job does understand something they do not, and they won’t be able to because he has already told them. Job knows he is innocent of the charges his friends have leveled at him, but he cannot convince them of that.
10 “Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, Older than your father.
Job 15:10 (NASB)
This is a statement of experience. One of them either is older, or they have consulted someone older than Job. The point here is that the older person has experienced more of life and has wisdom Job has not yet experienced. As such, that typically should place the older person in a position of authority so long as they are conversing on a topic that person has some experience within their life.
11 “Are the consolations of God too small for you, Even the word spoken gently with you?
12 “Why does your heart carry you away? And why do your eyes flash,
13 That you should turn your spirit against God And allow such words to go out of your mouth?
Job 15:11-13 (NASB)
The three friend’s responses have all been rooted in scripture, God’s Word. Job has still gotten mad at what they have said to him. Eliphaz considers Job’s anger at God’s Word, essentially what they see as God’s opinion of Job’s life, to be misplaced. We as human beings cannot be angry at God if He holds a thing we like or like to do as bad. If God thinks something is bad or good, that is not an opinion. God created that thing. If He thinks it is bad or good, that’s not an opinion. That’s a fact. Our opinion is irrelevant to the material fact that God made everything. His opinion of good and bad are the final word in all things, no matter what any human might think.
14 “What is man, that he should be pure, Or he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15 “Behold, He puts no trust in His holy ones, And the heavens are not pure in His sight;
16 How much less one who is detestable and corrupt, Man, who drinks iniquity like water!
Job 15:14-16 (NASB)
This is Eliphaz saying to Job what I just wrote above: Man doesn’t get to set what is and is not good or bad. God gets to tell us what is good and what is bad.
17 “I will tell you, listen to me; And what I have seen I will also declare;
18 What wise men have told, And have not concealed from their fathers,
19 To whom alone the land was given, And no alien passed among them.
Job 15:17-19 (NASB)
This is as authoritative as Eliphaz can get. He is about to draw on his personal experience based on what he has seen and heard in his life. He has been taught by the wise men of old and seen that wisdom proven out in his personal experience. All three of the men there know this to be true.
20 “The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, And numbered are the years stored up for the ruthless.
21 “Sounds of terror are in his ears; While at peace the destroyer comes upon him.
22 “He does not believe that he will return from darkness, And he is destined for the sword.
23 “He wanders about for food, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that a day of darkness is at hand.
Job 15:20-23 (NASB)
Evildoers have troubles all around them. They do not see joy, peace, or contentment in anything. They only see hardship and trouble. The unrighteous cannot see any happiness because they are constantly aware they are doing something they should not. Eliphaz is likening Job’s current state to this because he cannot see anything but hardship in his life. This is what tells Eliphaz that Job has somehow angered God.
24 “Distress and anguish terrify him, They overpower him like a king ready for the attack,
25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God And conducts himself arrogantly against the Almighty.
Job 15:24-25 (NASB)
Hardship terrifies the unrighteous and the wicked because they believe they are alone in their lives. They do not see God walking beside them because they know they are not walking in His ways. While they desire God’s blessings, they do not desire them enough to depart from the behavior that He doesn’t like, and as such, He will not put blessings into a disobedient life.
26 “He rushes headlong at Him With his massive shield.
Job 15:26 (NASB)
This is an illustrative statement by Eliphaz designed to explain how the wicked seek to rely upon their own strength instead of God’s in all things. People who choose to ignore God and His ways are saying in their pride their own ways are better, that they can do it better than God can. Essentially, those people make the same statements Satan made that got him cast out of Heaven.
27 “For he has covered his face with his fat And made his thighs heavy with flesh.
28 “He has lived in desolate cities, In houses no one would inhabit, Which are destined to become ruins.
Job 15:27-28 (NASB)
In Old Testament days, food was scarce. People had to work very hard to survive. The only way people grew fat in those days was through a life of luxury that did not require one to work for what one had. Eliphaz’s statement of covering his face with his fat and thighs heavy with flesh comments on the ungodly hiding from God in their riches, thinking those things that made them wealthy would shield them from God’s judgment about their wicked ways.
29 “He will not become rich, nor will his wealth endure; And his grain will not bend down to the ground.
Job 15:29 (NASB)
The wheat kernel on a stalk of grain is at the very tip. When the harvest is very bountiful, the wheat kernels are very thick and heavy, bending the stalk over, so the kernel touches the ground. Eliphaz explains that the evildoers will not receive a rich harvest from God because their “planting” and lives have not been productive for the Kingdom of Heaven.
30 “He will not escape from darkness; The flame will wither his shoots, And by the breath of His mouth he will go away.
Job 15:30 (NASB)
Judgment comes to us all. In this case, the wicked are judged by their own actions and the words they have uttered in their own lives, by the breath of his mouth. No one will be judged for the words or actions, and we cannot escape our own words and actions. We will be known by our fruits.
31 “Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; For emptiness will be his reward.
Job 15:31 (NASB)
Motivations and heart-positions. That is what God judges by. In the end, when we stand before Jesus Christ at the seat of judgment, that is what we will be judged by.
32 “It will be accomplished before his time, And his palm branch will not be green.
33 “He will drop off his unripe grape like the vine, And will cast off his flower like the olive tree.
Job 15:32-33 (NASB)
All these allusions are ones where a plant that bears fruit for some reason does not bear that fruit. With the wicked Eliphaz means that none of their actions or words have the desired effect in the long run with God. Everything evildoers try to accomplish in their own strength bears no fruit in the harvest of the Almighty.
34 “For the company of the godless is barren, And fire consumes the tents of the corrupt.
35 “They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity, And their mind prepares deception.”
Job 15:34-35 (NASB)
You will know them by their fruits. The unrighteous, wicked, evildoers, whatever name you care to ascribe to them; the people who reject God will not prosper in the things that truly matter because they will have been party to these things Eliphaz mentions. We have images of things that happen in this life, but Eliphaz’s point is that even if we see bad people appearing to succeed, those successes are empty ones because they are not mirrored with God in Heaven.