XV. Eliphaz returns to the argument with the repetition of what he and his friends have said before. He reproaches Job, professes a high idea of the majesty and righteousness of God, and reiterates the assertion that the wicked man, by the sure retribution of the Divine Providence, receives the rew... [ Continue Reading ]
SHOULD A WISE MAN UTTER VAIN KNOWLEDGE... — Job therefore is not wise, and his words have been vain and windy.... [ Continue Reading ]
SHOULD HE REASON WITH UNPROFITABLE TALK? — Nay, his arguments, though pretentious and apparently recondite, are unprofitable, and can do no good.... [ Continue Reading ]
YEA, THOU CASTEST OFF FEAR. — The tendency also of Job has been to encourage a kind of fatalism (_e.g.,_ Job 12:16), and therefore to check the offering of prayer to God, besides setting an example which, if followed, as from Job’s position it was likely to be, would lead to murmuring and blasphemy.... [ Continue Reading ]
THY MOUTH UTTERETH THINE INIQUITY. — These words may mean either “Thy mouth teacheth thine iniquity,” or “Thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth,” and the second clause must be taken adversatively or otherwise according as we understand the meaning, “Thy mouth proclaimeth thine iniquity, though thou choo... [ Continue Reading ]
ART THOU THE FIRST MAN THAT WAS BORN? — This is a retort upon Job 12:2; Job 12:7; Job 12:9, where Job had claimed equal knowledge for the inanimate creation.... [ Continue Reading ]
ARE THE CONSOLATIONS OF GOD SMALL WITH THEE? — This is one of the obscure phrases of Job upon which it is very difficult to decide. The Authorised Version gives very good sense, which seems to suit the context in the following verse; but it is susceptible of other phases of meaning: _e.g_., “or a wo... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT DO THY EYES WINK AT? — Or, Why do they wink? as though it was only thou who perceivedst it.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT is MAN? — This is the ceaseless burden.·(See Job 4:17; Job 9:2; Job 25:4, &c.)... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD. — Comp. Job 4:18; Job 5:5.... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW MUCH MORE ABOMINABLE AND FILTHY IS MAN... — This strong language, thus couched in general terms, is doubtless intended to reflect on Job, otherwise it would not need to have been so strong.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH WISE MEN HAVE TOLD FROM THEIR FATHERS. — Here he adopts the language of Bildad (Job 8:8), appealing both to his own experience and that of universal tradition in an age prior to civil commotion and foreign disturbance.... [ Continue Reading ]
TRAVAILETH WITH PAIN. — This and the following verses contain the result of this experience. Here, again, we have a highly-coloured and poetical description of the oppressor, true to the character of the speaker in Job 4:12, &c. We should read Job 15:20 : _The wicked man travaileth with pain all his... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WANDERETH ABROAD FOR BREAD. — This is one of the points in which the picture seems inconsistent, because overdrawn, except that forage as well as plunder may be the object of marauding raids.... [ Continue Reading ]
AS A KING READY TO THE BATTLE. — Or, They prevail against him like a king: he is destined to be like a ball (comp. Isaiah 22:18), the tennis-ball of calamity.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HE STRETCHETH OUT HIS HAND. — It is instructive to note the difference in time indicated here. “Because he _hath stretched_ out his hand against God. and _behaveth_ himself proudly against the Almighty. He runneth upon Him with haughty neck, with the thick bosses of his bucklers; “fully protecte... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH ARE READY TO BECOME HEAPS. — This completes the description of the haughty tyrant. He dwelt in cities that are to be desolate, or that are desolate, which are ready to become heaps. This may point either to what they were in his intention, or to what he had made them, or to what, in the opinio... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SHALL NOT BE RICH. — Now comes the destiny which awaits him in the judgment of the speaker. “Neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth.” The word rendered “perfection thereof” occurs nowhere else, so that it is very doubtful what it means. Some render, “Neither shall their pr... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SHALL NOT DEPART OUT OF DARKNESS. — See Job 15:22. “By the breath of his mouth shall he go away.” What this means is not very clear: probably as in Job 11:20; or, “When he expires it shall be the end of him; he shall leave nothing permanent that is destined to last;” or, “He shall pass away sudde... [ Continue Reading ]
LET NOT HIM THAT IS DECEIVED TRUST IN VANITY. — Or, _Let him not trust in vanity deceiving himself._ (Comp. James 1:26; 1 Samuel 12:21.)... [ Continue Reading ]
IT SHALL BE ACCOMPLISHED. — That is, paid in full before its time. The remainder of this chapter calls for little explanation. In it the speaker only repeats the orthodox and familiar saw that the wicked are punished in life, and therefore, by implication, the good rewarded: a maxim which fails utt... [ Continue Reading ]
DESOLATE. — This was Job’s own word (Job 3:7), and as it is an uncommon word, there may be some intentional reference to his use of it.... [ Continue Reading ]