1And Eliphaz the Temanite made answer and said, 2Will a wise man make answer with knowledge of no value, or will he give birth to the east wind? 3Will he make arguments with words in which is no profit, and with sayings which have no value? 4Truly, you make the fear of God without effect, so that the time of quiet worship before God is made less by your outcry. 5For your mouth is guided by your sin, and you have taken the tongue of the false for yourself. 6It is by your mouth, even yours, that you are judged to be in the wrong, and not by me; and your lips give witness against you. 7Were you the first man to come into the world? or did you come into being before the hills? 8Were you present at the secret meeting of God? and have you taken all wisdom for yourself? 9What knowledge have you which we have not? is there anything in your mind which is not in ours? 10With us are men who are grey-haired and full of years, much older than your father. 11Are the comforts of God not enough for you, and the gentle word which was said to you? 12Why is your heart uncontrolled, and why are your eyes lifted up; 13So that you are turning your spirit against God, and letting such words go out of your mouth? 14What is man, that he may be clean? and how may the son of woman be upright? 15Truly, he puts no faith in his holy ones, and the heavens are not clean in his eyes; 16How much less one who is disgusting and unclean, a man who takes in evil like water! 17Take note and give ear to my words; and I will say what I have seen: 18(The things which wise men have got from their fathers, and have not kept secret from us; 19For only to them was the land given, and no strange people were among them:) 20The evil man is in pain all his days, and the number of the years stored up for the cruel is small. 21A sound of fear is in his ears; in time of peace destruction will come on him: 22He has no hope of coming safe out of the dark, and his fate will be the sword; 23He is wandering about in search of bread, saying, Where is it? and he is certain that the day of trouble is ready for him: 24He is greatly in fear of the dark day, trouble and pain overcome him: 25Because his hand is stretched out against God, and his heart is lifted up against the Ruler of all, 26Running against him like a man of war, covered by his thick breastplate; even like a king ready for the fight, 27Because his face is covered with fat, and his body has become thick; 28And he has made his resting-place in the towns which have been pulled down, in houses where no man had a right to be, whose fate was to become masses of broken walls. 29He does not get wealth for himself, and is unable to keep what he has got; the heads of his grain are not bent down to the earth. 30He does not come out of the dark; his branches are burned by the flame, and the wind takes away his bud. 31Let him not put his hope in what is false, falling into error: for he will get deceit as his reward. 32His branch is cut off before its time, and his leaf is no longer green. 33He is like a vine whose grapes do not come to full growth, or an olive-tree dropping its flowers. 34For the band of the evil-doers gives no fruit, and the tents of those who give wrong decisions for reward are burned with fire. 35Evil has made them with child, and they give birth to trouble; and the fruit of their body is shame for themselves.
Matthew Henry's Commentary
Eliphaz reproves Job. (1-16) The unquietness of wicked men. (17-35) 1-16 Eliphaz begins a second attack upon Job, instead of being softened by his complaints. He unjustly charges Job with casting off the fear of God, and all regard to him, and restraining prayer. See in what religion is summed up, fearing God, and praying to him; the former the most needful principle, the latter the most needful practice. Eliphaz charges Job with self-conceit. He charges him with contempt of the counsels and comforts given him by his friends. We are apt to think that which we ourselves say is important, when others, with reason, think little of it. He charges him with opposition to God. Eliphaz ought not to have put harsh constructions upon the words of one well known for piety, and now in temptation. It is plain that these disputants were deeply convinced of the doctrine of original sin, and the total depravity of human nature. Shall we not admire the patience of God in bearing with us? and still more his love to us in the redemption of Christ Jesus his beloved Son? 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 separate him from the love of Christ?