Job 15 Eliphaz’s reproof: Job’s knowledge and talk vain; he feareth not God, nor prayeth to him; but his own mouth uttered his iniquity, and should condemn him, Job 15:1–6. Job not the wisest of men, Job 15:7–8; nor wiser than they, who were elder than he, Job 15:9–10.

A wise man; such as thou seemest and pretendest to be. Vain knowledge, i.e. empty words, without any sense or solidity in them. Fill his belly, i.e. satisfy his own mind and conscience, which being secret is compared to the inwards of the belly; as Job 32:19, Prov. 20:27, Prov. 22:18.

Either to himself or others, but much hurt; which is implied by the contrary, as is usual.

Heb. Thou makest void fear, i.e. the fear of God, as the word is oft used for the word of God; or piety and religion, which oft cometh under the name of fear. This may be understood either, 1.

i.e. Thy words discover the naughtiness of thy heart, and justify my charge against time, that thou castest off fear, &c. Thou speakest wickedly, but craftily; thou coverest thy impious principles and passions with fair pretences of piety and respect to God, wherewith thou endeavourest to mock God,…

My condemnation of thee is grounded upon thine own words.

Hast thou lived ever since the creation of the world, and treasured up the experiences of all ages in thy own breast, that thou speakest so arrogantly and magisterially, and with such contempt of other men? Art thou the most ancient and the wisest of all mortal men? Whom dost thou make thyself?…

Hath God acquainted thee with all his secret counsels, whereby he governs the world, that thou dost pass so bold a censure upon all his designs and actions? Art thou the only wise man in the world, and we and all others but fools?

He retorts upon Job his own expressions, Job 12:3, Job 13:2.

With us, i.e. among us; either, 1. Some of us, who seem to have been very ancient from Job 32:7. Or, 2. Some others with whom we have conversed, and who are of our opinion in this matter. And this they oppose to that passage of Job’s, Job 12:12.

Are those comforts, which we in the name, and according to the mind, and by the direction, of God have propounded to thee, upon condition of thy true repentance, Job 11:13–14;c., small and contemptible in thine eyes? Hast thou any secret and peculiar ground or way of comfort which is unknown to us,…

Why dost thou suffer thyself to be transported by the pride and lusts of thy heart to use such unworthy and unbecoming expressions, both concerning us, and concerning God and his providence. What do thine eyes wink at, i.e.

That, or for, or surely. Thy spirit, i.e. either thy breath, or thy rage, or thy soul; for all these the spirit signifies. Heb. Thou makest thy spirit to return to, or to return again against, that God from whom thou didst receive it.

What is man, Heb. frail, or sick, or wretched man? his mean original and corrupt nature showeth him to be unclean. Which is born of a woman; from whom he derives infirmity, and corruption, and guilt, and the curse consequent upon it. Righteous, to wit, in his own eyes, as thou, O Job, art.

In his saints, i.e. in his angels, as appears by comparing Job 4:18, who are called his saints or holy ones, Deut. 33:2, Ps. 103:20, Dan. 4:13, Dan. 4:23, Matt. 18:10, Matt.

Who, besides his natural proneness to sin, hath contracted habits and customs of sinning, and sinneth as freely and easily, as greedily and delightfully, as frequently and abundantly, as men, especially in those hot countries, used to drink up water.

I will prove what I have affirmed, that such strokes as thine are peculiar to hypocrites and wicked men. I speak not by hearsay only, but from my own experience.

Wise men; who are most able to be witnesses and judges in these matters. From their fathers, or ancestors; who diligently observed this, and carefully transmitted their own judgment and experience successively to their posterity.

Unto whom alone the earth was given; either, 1. By the special and gracious gift of God; whereas wicked men invaded their parts of the earth, and took them away by force. Or, 2.

Travaileth with pain, i.e. lives a life of care, and fear, and grief, by reason of God’s wrath, and the torments of his own mind, and his manifold and dreadful outward calamities. The number of his years is hidden, i.e.

Even when he feels no evil, he is tormented with perpetual fears and expectations of it from the sense of his own guilt, and of God’s all-seeing eye and righteous judgment. See Lev. 26:36, Deut. 28:65.

i.e. When he falls into trouble, he despairs of God’s mercy, and of deliverance, by reason of his guilty conscience; which he speaks with particular reflection upon Job, who would receive no comfort nor matter of hope. He is waited for of the sword, i.e.

His poverty is so great, that he is forced to wander hither and thither to seek for bread, and cannot find it. A just punishment for him that took away the bread and substance of others by violence. He knoweth; he is assured of it from his own guilty conscience. The day of darkness, i.e.

i.e. When trouble comes, instead of trusting, and hoping, and comforting himself in God, as good men do in such cases, as 1 Sam. 30:6, he is full of torment and dread of the issue of it, and concludes it will end in his utter ruin, as he hath great reason to do.

Now he gives the reason of all the forementioned calamities which befell him, which was his great wickedness in the time of his peace and prosperity. He stretcheth out his hand against God, i.e. he commonly and customarily sinned against God with a high and out-stretched hand, i.e.

Runneth upon him, i.e. assaults him, or rusheth upon him with great swiftness and fury, as this phrase signifies, Dan. 8:6. This he is either, 1. God, who was expressed twice in the last verse, and who is here produced as entering the lists and fighting with his daring adversary. Or rather, 2.

With his fatness: this is mentioned as the reason of his insolent carriage towards God, because he was fat, i.e. rich, and potent, and successful, as that expression signifies, Deut. 32:15, Ps. 78:31, Jer. 46:21. His great prosperity made him proud and secure, and regardless of God and men.

He dwelleth in desolate cities: these words may note either, 1. His tyranny and cruelty, whereby he makes the places of his abode and dominion desolate by his frequent murders, spoils, and oppressions, wherewith he destroyeth great numbers of his people, and forceth others to flee out of his reach.

He shall not be rich, i. e not abide rich, but shall become poor. Neither shall his substance continue; what he had gotten shall be taken from him. The perfection thereof, i.e.

He shall not depart out of darkness; his misery shall have no end. The flame; God’s anger and judgment upon him. His branches; either, 1. His children; or, 2. Wealth, and power, and glory, wherewith he was encompassed, and adorned, and secured, as trees are with their branches. Of his mouth, i.e.

In vanity, i.e. in the vain and deceitful things of this world, such as power, riches, honour, &c., of which, and of the loss of them, he had been largely discoursing; and now he subjoins a general caution to all men to take heed of running into the same error and mischief with the forementioned…

It shall be accomplished, to wit, that which was last mentioned, that vanity should be his recompence. Or, it, i.e. his branch, mentioned in the next clause of the verse, from which it is understood in this former clause, as is very usual in the Holy Scripture, shall be consumed, or cut off.

He; either, 1. The wicked man, who by his sins is the author of his own ruin. Or, 2. God, who is easily understood, both from the matter and context. Shall shake off, Heb. shall take away by violence. His unripe grape, i. e. his fruit, his children, or other comforts, before their time.

The congregation, i.e. their children, and servants, and friends, and dependents. Desolate, i.e. utterly destroyed. Fire, i.e. some eminent and terrible judgment of God, which is oft expressed by fire; as Isa. 9:19, Isa. 26:11. The tabernacles of bribery, i.e.

They conceive mischief, i.e. they devise and contrive injurious and pernicious enterprises against others. Vanity, or iniquity, or injury, or trouble; either, 1. To others; they execute what they had contrived. Or, 2.