Job 22:15

_HAST THOU MARKED THE OLD WAY WHICH WICKED MEN HAVE TRODDEN?_ Marked - rather, Dost thou keep to? i:e., wish to follow (so Hebrew, 2 Samuel 22:22). If so, beware of sharing their end. THE OLD WAY - the degenerate ways of the world before the flood (Genesis 6:5, "The Wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually")....

15-20 Eliphaz would have Job mark the old way that wicked men have trodden, and see what the end of their way was. It is good for us to mark it, that we may not walk therein. But if others are consumed, and we are not, instead of blaming them, and lifting up ourselves, as Eliphaz does here, we ought to be thankful to God, and take it for a warning....

Verse Job 22:15. _HAST THOU MARKED THE OLD WAY_] This is supposed to be another accusation; as i! he had said, "Thou hollowest the same way that the wicked of old have walked in." Here is an evident allusion to the FLOOD, as is particularly noted in the next verse....

HAST THOU MARKED THE OLD WAY WHICH WICKED MEN HAVE TRODDEN? - Hast thou seen what has happened in former times to wicked people? Job had maintained that God did not deal with people in this world according to their character. To meet this, Eliphaz now appeals to ancient facts, and especially refers to the deluge, when the wicked were cut off by a flood for their sins. Schultens, Dr. Good, Noyes, and Reiske, however, suppose that tbe word here rendered “mark,” means to “pursue,” or “imitate,” and that the sense is,” Are you willing to adopt the principles of those wicked people who lived in the time of the deluge?” But the sense is not materially affected. The general design is to refer Job to the case of the impious generation that was swept off by a flood. The judgments of God on them were a full refutation, in his view, of the sentiments of Job....

EXPOSITION JOB 22:1 Eliphaz returns to the attack, but with observations that are at first strangely pointless and irrelevant, _e.g._ on the unprofitableness of man to God (verses l, 2), and on the slight importance of Job's case (verse 3). After this weak prelude, however, there is more vigour in his assault. In verses 4-9 he directly charges Job with a number of specified sins, and in verses 10, 11 declares his sufferings to be the consequence of them. He then proceeds to accuse him of denying God's omniscience (verses 12-14), and, alter some not very successful attempts to retort on him his own words (verses 15-20), finally recurs to his favourite devices (see Job 5:17) of exhorting Job to submission and repentance, and promising him restoration to God's favour and a ret

HAST THOU MARKED THE OLD WAY WHICH WICKED MEN HAVE TRODDEN?] The evil way that wicked men have walked in ever since man apostatized from God, the way of Cain and his descendants, who were of the wicked one, and lived wicked lives and conversations; "the way of the old world", as Mr. Broughton renders the phrase here, the imagination of the thoughts of whose hearts was evil, and that continually; who filled the earth with rapine and violence, and all flesh corrupted their way with all manner of impurity and wickedness, and indulged themselves in the gratification of their sensual lusts and pleasures; and were, as the Apostle Peter calls them, "the world of the ungodly"; and here, "men of wickedness", or "iniquity" y; such who gave themselves up to it, and were immersed in it; these trod the paths of sin, and made it a beaten road; they frequented this way, they walked continually in it; t...

THE THIRD SERIES OF CONTROVERSIES CHAPTER 22 The Third Address of Eliphaz _ 1. Is not thy wickedness great? (Job 22:1)_ 2. In what Job had sinned (Job 22:6) 3. The omniscience of God and the ways of the wicked (Job 22:12) 4. Eliphaz's exhortation and promise (Job 22:21) Job 22:1. The third cycle of addresses begins again with Eliphaz, the wise man from Teman. He tries to maintain his dignity and lofty conception, but he proves too well that Job's accusation of insincerity is well-founded. He starts out with reminding Job of the majesty

JOB 22. THIRD SPEECH OF ELIPHAZ. The only new thing that Eliphaz has to say, is definitely to describe the sin of Job! Yet his mildness makes him end with bright promises. JOB 22:1. Is it not to Job's advantage to be pious? Will God chasten him for anything else but sin? Eliphaz would point out that it is Job s advantage to be pious, but he completes his statement by adding that it is no advantage to God. He means that God is too exalted to take any interest in man, except to reward and punish him. Hence the cause of man's calamities cannot be in God, but only in man (Job 22:6). Job 22:6 ascribes to Job the sins typical of the rich man....

The Third Circle of Speeches In the first round of speeches the three friends exhausted the argument from the general conception of God. In the second they exhausted the argument from the operation of His providence in the world, as observed in the fate of the wicked. To the last Job had replied by a direct contradiction, adducing facts and testimony in proof that the fate of the wicked man in God's providence was in no way so uniformly miserable as the three friends had represented (ch. 21.) There is, manifestly, now left but one weapon in the hands of the three friends, namely, to express openly what they had hinted at formerly in a veiled manner, and charge Job directly with great sins. This charge is made by Eliphaz in the opening speech of the third round of debate (ch. 22.) As in the two preceding circles of debate, Job's mind is too much absorbed in the contemplation of the grea...

HAST THOU MARKED? &C.— As the universal deluge was a most signal and memorable instance of God's displeasure against wickedness and wicked men, Eliphaz takes occasion to enlarge upon it for five or six verses together, as a proper lesson (so he thought it) for his friend; and then closes it with the mention of another destruction by fire, either past or to be expected, which is described to be as general and as fatal to the wicked: _and the remnant of them the fire consumeth,_ or _shall consume:_ Job 22:20. This, indeed, some refer to the judgment of God upon Sodom and Gomorrah; but it is much more natural to understand it of the last general conflagration; for how could the destroying a little city or two be said with any propriety to _consume the remnant?; i.e._ the whole remainder of wicked men? when at the same time Chaldea, and perhaps the greater part of the world, was ove