The Continuing Saga of How NOT to Comfort a Friend in Distress

Back to my study of Job, continuing in chapter 15:

(Job 15:1) Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, (2) "Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?"

The word translated as "vain" in the KJV is translated as "empty" in NKJV. Both are good attempts at the exact translation, but actually the word "ruach" means to blow as the wind or breath. In our day and time, Eliphaz would be saying that Job is blowing hot air! And in their part of the world, the east wind was tempestuous and the most destructive. Eliphaz reiterates that Job is full of boisterous hot air at the least, perhaps even destructive. Once again we see a friend of Job's on the attack and not very gentle in his criticisms, again illustrating how NOT to comfort a friend in distress.

(3) "Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good? (4) Yes, you cast off fear, and restrain prayer before God."

The word translated as "cast off" more completely means "break up" and "make void". Fear is the reverential fear of God, so Eliphaz insinuates that Job through his speeches and principles, has made void reverence to God and made prayer (more completely, devotion to God) useless and unprofitable to men.

(5) "For your mouth utters your iniquity, and you choose the tongue 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 made before the hills?"

Paraphrased, "Have you been here since the beginning?", implying that would have given Job greater knowledge and wisdom.

(8) "Have you heard the secret of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself? (9) What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not in us? (10) Both the gray-headed and very aged men are among us, much older than your father."

Once again the implication is that the older and the further back in time one lived, the wiser he was. There were older and thus wiser men among Job's friends than Job and what he could have learned from his father.

(11) "Are the consolations of God small with you? Is there any secret thing with you?"

Paraphrased, "Are the mercies of God of little value to you? Do you have a better way known only to you?"

(12) "Why does your heart carry you away, and what do your eyes wink at, (13) That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?"

Eliphaz is accusing Job of being prideful, carried away by his own pride, winking at his own sin, and turning against God, speaking such rash words.

(14) "What is man, that he should be clean? And he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? (15) Behold, God puts no trust in His saints; yes, the heavens are not clean in His sight. (16) How much more abominable and filthy is man, who drinks iniquity like water?"

The word translated as "saints" here means sacred or holy ones, angels. So if even the angels and the heavens are not perfect and pure compared to God, how much less is mortal sinful man!

(17) "I will show you, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare; (18) What wise men have told as received from their fathers, and have not hidden anything, (19) To whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them."

Eliphaz declares he will set Job straight with the wisdom of their fathers who were first given the land by God Himself, pure godly wisdom not corrupted by foreign philosophy.

(20) "The wicked man writhes with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden from the oppressor."

The wicked man is a man of constant sorrows living a life of uncertainty, not knowing when or what his end will be.

(21) "A dreadful sound is in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him. (22) He does not believe that he will return out of darkness, for a sword is waiting for him. (23) He wanders about for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. (24) Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready for battle. (25) For he stretches out his hand against God, and strengthens himself against the Almighty, (26) Running upon Him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers."

Whew! That last one is difficult. Not sure whose neck is referenced, whether the proud erect neck of the wicked one with his mighty shield charging against God, or if he is charging stubbornly into God's mighty shield. Either way, we have a picture of the wicked one who never has peace and security because he has chosen a path against God.

(27) "Because he covers his face with his fatness, and makes collops of fat on his flanks,"

Collops are slices of meat, so he "packs on the flesh". The sense here is that he lives an indulgent life, forgetting God.

(28) "And he dwells in desolate cities, in houses which no man inhabits, which are ready to become heaps."

Thus begins a listing of the consequences because of the wicked one's opposition to God. Eliphaz, in his way, is probably outlining the sequence of events that have happened to Job and is explaining why they happened to him.

(29) "He will not be rich, neither will his wealth continue, nor it spread upon the earth. (30) He will not depart out of darkness; the flame will dry up his branches, and by the breath of His mouth he will go away."

Because the pronouns are not capitalized in the Old Testament, I am assuming as did the NKJV translators and the old commentators, that the last "His" refers to God.

(31) "Let him who is deceived not trust in vanity, for vanity will be his reward."

Every wicked man is deceived, either by Satan or by his own selfish heart. Anyone who trusts in anything other than God will be rewarded with only vanity or emptiness.

(32) "It will be accomplished before his time, and his branch will not be green. (33) He will shake off his unripe grape like a vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive."

Emptiness as his reward will occur sooner than it might have by the natural course of nature. Once again, I believe the "He" here refers to God who will shake off all that was dear and valuable to the wicked man.

(34) "For the company of hypocrites will be desolate, and fire will consume the tents of bribery. (35) They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepares deceit."

Some nasty final accusations of Eliphaz are that Job is a hypocrite and may have taken bribes, calling down the fire of God. The final verse may be a picture of birth. Satan sows the seed of wickedness with his deception, and the wicked man or hypocrite conceives mischief, brings forth only vanity and emptiness, more accurately, death. Sin brings forth death. This is a picture of the deceptive and fruitless birth of the wicked.