The big picture
Another speech comes from Eliphaz, a friend who has heard Job defend himself. Job is the man whose deep losses and illness remain unexplained to those beside him. Eliphaz now treats the protest itself as proof of sin. He appeals to older teachers and pictures the wicked as fearful, ruined and without a future. His descriptions are warnings aimed at Job, not a new disclosure from God that Job has secretly lived that way.
In this chapter
- The Protest Becomes the Evidence Against Job Job 15:1-6
Empty knowledge, like a hot wind, has filled Job, according to Eliphaz.
- Age and Human Impurity Are Used to Rebuke Job 15:7-16
Was Job the first human, or has he heard God's secret counsel?
- Eliphaz Describes the Wicked as Always Afraid Job 15:17-26
Eliphaz asks Job to hear what he has seen and what wise ancestors handed down.
- The Predicted Ruin Leaves No Lasting Fruit Job 15:27-35
Well-fed people living among ruins begin Eliphaz's final picture of the wicked.
Central truth
Eliphaz turns Job's protest into an accusation and uses inherited claims about the wicked to press a verdict he has not proved.
Scripture beside the summary
Job · King James Version · 35Job 15:1-6
The Protest Becomes the Evidence Against Job
Empty knowledge, like a hot wind, has filled Job, according to Eliphaz. He asks whether a wise man would speak this way. He says Job's words do no good and weaken reverence and prayer before God. He accuses Job's speech of coming from guilt and crafty intent. His final claim is that Job's own mouth condemns him, so Eliphaz need not do so. This turns the argument away from showing an actual wrong. The sufferer's effort to defend himself becomes the charge against him. Eliphaz has not proved the hidden crime he believes those words reveal.
In everyday life
The passenger complaints clerk hears a traveller's angry account of being stranded and calls the anger proof that the traveller caused the trouble. She does not check the cancelled ticket or failed connection. The attempt to be heard becomes another mark against the complainant. Eliphaz treats Job's anguished speech as evidence of sin before God.
Notice
Job 15:6 Eliphaz claims Job's lips supply the verdict. That move lets him accuse without identifying an act of wrongdoing that explains the suffering under discussion.
Job 15:1-6
King James Version1Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
2Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
3Should he reason with unprofitable talk? or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?
4Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.
5For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
6Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee.
Job 15:7-16
Age and Human Impurity Are Used to Rebuke
Was Job the first human, or has he heard God's secret counsel? Eliphaz uses these questions to challenge him. The friends know what he knows, and some are older than his father. Eliphaz treats their advice as God's comfort and asks why Job rejects it. He says Job's anger turns him against God. No human born of a woman can be pure, he argues; even heavenly beings fall short before God. How much more corrupt are people who drink sin like water. The claims about human limits still do not prove that Job's losses punish a concealed offence.
In everyday life
A rowing captain dismisses a younger teammate's question by pointing to the older crew's years on the river. He then says everyone makes mistakes, as though that settles who caused this morning's collision. Experience and human fallibility replace the missing evidence. Eliphaz uses age and impurity to accuse Job before God, not to settle a boating dispute.
Notice
Job 15:10 The friends' age is offered as support for their authority. More years of experience do not by themselves reveal the hidden cause of the particular pain Job faces.
Job 15:7-16
King James Version7Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills?
8Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?
9What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?
10With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.
11Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any secret thing with thee?
12Why doth thine heart carry thee away? and what do thy eyes wink at,
13That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?
14What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.
16How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?
Job 15:17-26
Eliphaz Describes the Wicked as Always Afraid
Eliphaz asks Job to hear what he has seen and what wise ancestors handed down. He pictures a wicked oppressor living in pain and fear. Even prosperity cannot quiet the sound of danger. Darkness, hunger and a waiting sword haunt him. Trouble bears down like a king ready for battle. Eliphaz explains the terror as the result of charging defiantly against God, like an attacker striking a shield. This is his account of the wicked person's inner life. Its force against Job depends on assuming that Job belongs in that class.
In everyday life
The cobbler tells an anxious customer that sleeplessness always comes from a guilty conscience. He recalls an old employer whose fraud made every knock at the door frightening. One remembered case becomes a rule for a stranger he barely knows. The customer's fear receives no fair hearing. Eliphaz links terror with rebellion against God and applies it toward Job.
Notice
Job 15:21 Eliphaz places dread inside the wicked person's prosperity. His argument shifts from visible loss to inner fear, but he still has not shown that Job's fear comes from guilt.
Job 15:17-26
King James Version17I will shew thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare;
18Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it:
19Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.
20The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.
21A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
22He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword.
23He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
24Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
25For he stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty.
26He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers:
Job 15:27-35
The Predicted Ruin Leaves No Lasting Fruit
Well-fed people living among ruins begin Eliphaz's final picture of the wicked. Wealth will not last, darkness will remain, and fire will consume the branches of their lives. Trust placed in emptiness yields emptiness. Like a vine losing unripe grapes or an olive tree dropping its flowers, their future falls away before it matures. He ends with corrupt households made barren and deceit producing further trouble. The images are severe predictions within his speech. They are not evidence that every ruined home, lost child or failed hope belongs to a wicked person.
In everyday life
The retired builder points at a derelict cinema and tells a neighbour that every failed enterprise began with dishonesty. The crumbling walls make his claim sound convincing, but he has not read this building's records. Visible ruin cannot supply the missing history by itself. Eliphaz predicts divine destruction and loss of future fruit for the wicked.
Job 15:27-35
King James Version27Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks.
28And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps.
29He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth.
30He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.
31Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence.
32It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.
33He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.
34For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.
35They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Job 15:1 begins with “Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,”
Where the chapter turns
Job 15:16 forms a natural hinge: “How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?”
The final note
Job 15:35 leaves the reader with “They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.”
A word trail through the chapter
The words mouth, darkness, ready, vanity, belly, born help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- behold
- look, or pay close attention
- unto
- to
- thee
- you
- thou
- you
- thy
- your
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
