Job 15:35

_THEY CONCEIVE MISCHIEF, AND BRING FORTH VANITY, AND THEIR BELLY PREPARETH DECEIT._ Bitter irony, illustrating the "unfruitfulness" (Job 15:34) of the wicked. Their conceptions and birth-givings consist solely in mischief etc. BRING FORTH VANITY. Their plans, when on the eve of execution, are brought to nought (Psalms 7:14; Isaiah 59:4; Isaiah 33:11, "Ye, shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble"). THEIR BELLY - as a womb. PREPARETH - hatcheth. DECEIT - what deceives their expectation. The evil which they meditate against others falls on themselves. Remarks:...

17-35 Eliphaz maintains that the wicked are certainly miserable: whence he would infer, that the miserable are certainly wicked, and therefore Job was so. But because many of God's people have prospered in this world, it does not therefore follow that those who are crossed and made poor, as Job, are not God's people. Eliphaz shows also that wicked people, particularly oppressors, are subject to continual terror, live very uncomfortably, and perish very miserably. Will the prosperity of presumptuous sinners end miserably as here described? Then let the mischiefs which befal others, be our warnings. Though no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. No calamity, no trouble, however heavy, however severe, can rob a follower of the Lord of his favour. What shall...

Verse Job 15:35. _THEY CONCEIVE MISCHIEF_] The figure here is both elegant and impressive. The wicked _conceive_ mischief, from the seed which Satan sows in their hearts; in producing which they _travail_ with many pangs, (for sin is a sore labour,) and at last their _womb_ produces _fraud_ or _deception_. This is an _accursed_ birth, from an _iniquitous_ conception. St. _James_ gives the figure at full length, most beautifully touched in all its parts: _When_ _lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is_ _finished, bringeth forth death_; James 1:15, where see the note. Poor Job! what a fight of affliction had he to contend with! His _body_ wasted and tortured with sore _disease_; his _mind_ harassed by S

THEY CONCEIVE MISCHIEF - The meaning of this verse is, that they form and execute plans of evil. It is the characteristic of such men that they form such plans and live to execute them, and they must abide the consequences. All this was evidently meant for Job; and few things could be more trying to a man’s patience than to sit and hear those ancient apothegms, designed to describe the wicked, applied so unfeelingly to himself....

EXPOSITION The second colloquy between Job and his friends is, like the first (ch. 3-14.), one in which all of them take part, and the same order of speakers is maintained. Job answers each speaker in turn; Eliphaz at some length (Job 16:1; Job 17:1.), the other two more briefly. The present chapter contains the second speech of Eliphaz. Compared with the first, it is harsh and violent in tone, assuming Job's guilt, and reproaching him fiercely and rudely. It naturally divides into three portions: (1) a direct reproof of Job for presumption and impiety (verses 1-6); (2) a sarcastic reflection on him for conceit and arrogance (verses 7-16); (3) an exposition of God's ways with man, based upon the experience of ancient sages (verses 17-3

THEY CONCEIVE MISCHIEF,.... That is, such wicked persons as before described; they meditate sin in their minds, and contrive how to commit it, and form schemes within themselves to do mischief to others: AND BRING FORTH VANITY; or sin; for lust when it is conceived bringeth forth sin, and that is vanity, an empty thing, and neither yields profit nor pleasure in the issue, but that which is useless and unserviceable, yea, harmful and ruinous; for sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death, even death eternal, James 1:14; AND THEIR BELLY PREPARETH DECEIT; their inward part frames and devises that which is designed to deceive others, and in the end proves deceitful to themselves: the allusion is to a pregnant woman, or rather to one who seems to be so, and whose conception proves abortive, and so deceives and disappoints herself and others; see...

THE SECOND SERIES OF CONTROVERSIES CHAPTER 15 Eliphaz's Second Address _ 1. Tells Job that he is self-condemned (Job 15:1)_ 2. Charges him with pride (Job 15:7) 3. The wicked and their lot (Job 15:17) Job 15:1. His second address is not as lofty as his first. Job's language has evidently annoyed him very much. He characterizes his words as vain, unprofitable, which can do no good. He charges him with having cast off fear and having become one who restrained devotion before God. He tells Job that what he has spoken only confirms their views of him, that he is a wicked man and suffers justly for his sins. Thine own m

MISCHIEF. Hebrew. _'amal._ App-44. BELLY. Put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Subject), App-6, for the thoughts produced by emotion....

Eliphaz instructs Job regarding the troubled conscience And the Disastrous Fate of the Wicked Man Having sufficiently rebuked Job's presumption and irreverence Eliphaz proceeds to take up his principles, which "did away with the fear of God," Job 15:4. They are such principles as Job gave forth ch. Job 9:22 _seq_., Job 12:6. The passage has two parts: First, Job 15:17, a brief preface, in which Eliphaz states that his doctrine is that of the wise of all times among the pure-blooded races of men, who have never been contaminated by mixture with foreign tribes, and whose traditions are uncorrupted. Second,...

THEY CONCEIVE MISCHIEF, &C.— _Conceiving in misery, and bringing forth in sorrow, their belly hath at last proved a deception._ This whole description is evidently pointed at the situation of Job. His _prosperity,_ was become vanity; his children were all cut off before their time; his family become solitary; and his hopes, to all appearance, an illusion. All the fine prospect with which the wicked man entertained himself, and for which he endured all the anguish here described, produceth only a deceit. He hath imposed on himself. Heath. REFLECTIONS.—1st, Job's friends had all spoken in turn; and Eliphaz, who had opened the dispute, undertakes again to reply, much offended that Job presumed to controvert their arguments, and endeavouring, from his own words, to produce sundry accusations in confirmation of the point which he so strenuously denied. 1. He reproaches him with folly and emp...