Job 15

Then Eliphaz, the man from Teman, answered:

1Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

NoteTeman was a district of Edom, southeast of Israel, with a reputation in the ancient world for wise men. Eliphaz is the oldest of Job's three friends, and this is his second of three speeches.

2"Should a wise man answer with empty knowledge? Should he fill his belly with the hot east wind?

2Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?

NoteThe east wind in this region blew off the desert: scorching, dry and destructive. To be 'full of wind' was a stock insult for talk with nothing in it, and the image here is of someone gorging himself on hot air.

3Should he argue with talk that gets nowhere, with speeches that do no good?

3Should he reason with unprofitable talk? or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

4But you are tearing down the fear of God, and you hold back prayer to him.

4Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.

Note'Fear of God' is not terror but reverence, the whole attitude of respect that religion was built on. The second half is uncertain in the Hebrew: the word can mean prayer, or quiet devotion and reflection before God.

5Your sin is what teaches your mouth what to say, and you choose the language of tricky men.

5For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.

NoteThe word for 'tricky' is the one used for shrewdness or cunning, the same term applied to the serpent in Genesis. It can be a compliment (prudence) or an accusation (slyness); here it is an accusation.

6Your own mouth condemns you, not I. Your own lips speak against you.

6Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee.

7Were you the first man ever born? Were you brought into the world before the hills were made?

7Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills?

NoteBoth questions mock Job for claiming knowledge no living person could have. Some ancient traditions spoke of a first human being who existed before the world was finished and so knew its secrets; Wisdom herself is described in Proverbs as brought forth before the hills.

8Have you listened in on God's private council? Do you keep all wisdom for yourself?

8Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?

NoteGod was pictured as ruling with a council of heavenly beings around him, and prophets were said to have stood in that assembly and overheard its deliberations. Eliphaz is asking whether Job claims that kind of access.

9What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that we do not?

9What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?

10On our side are gray-haired men and very old men, much older than your father.

10With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.

NoteIn this culture age carried authority: long life meant long observation, and the sayings of the old were treated as evidence. Eliphaz is claiming the weight of tradition, not making a personal boast.

11Are God's comforts too small a thing for you? Is the word spoken gently to you too small?

11Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any secret thing with thee?

Note'God's comforts' means the consolation the three friends believe they have been offering Job on God's behalf. The last phrase is uncertain in the Hebrew: it has been read as 'a word spoken gently to you' and also as 'is there some secret thing you are holding back?'

12Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,

12Why doth thine heart carry thee away? and what do thy eyes wink at,

NoteThe gesture behind 'eyes flash' is obscure; the Hebrew suggests eyes that blink, glare or signal, and it is taken as a sign of anger, or of contempt.

13so that you turn your spirit against God and let words like these pour out of your mouth?

13That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?

14What is a human being, that he should be clean? What is one born of a woman, that he should be right with God?

14What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

Note'Clean' here is the language of ritual purity, fit to come near what is holy. 'Born of a woman' is a set phrase for a human being, used when the point is human frailty and short life.

15Look: God puts no trust even in his holy ones, and the heavens are not clean in his eyes.

15Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

Note'His holy ones' are the heavenly beings of God's court, the angels and members of the divine council, not human saints. The argument runs from greater to lesser: if even they do not measure up, no human could.

16How much less a man, who is disgusting and rotten, who drinks in wrongdoing the way he drinks water.

16How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?

NoteDrinking something 'like water' is an idiom for doing it constantly and without effort, the way a person drinks without thinking about it.

17I will show you. Listen to me. What I have seen I will tell you,

17I will shew thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare;

18what wise men have said, passed down to them from their fathers, and never kept hidden.

18Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it:

19They were the only ones the land was given to, and no foreigner passed through among them.

19Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.

NoteEliphaz is dating his wisdom to an early age when the ancestors held the land by themselves, before outsiders came through, the claim being that this teaching is pure, unmixed with foreign ideas, and therefore reliable.

20The wicked man twists in pain all his days, and only a set number of years is stored up for the cruel man.

20The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.

NoteThe second line is ambiguous in the Hebrew. It can mean that only a few years are allotted to the tyrant, or that the number of his years is hidden from him, so he lives without knowing when the end comes.

21Terrifying sounds fill his ears. When things are going well, the destroyer comes for him.

21A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

Note'The destroyer' is a raider or plunderer, the sudden armed attack that falls on a settlement without warning. The word can also be read as a destroying power sent against him.

22He does not believe he will come back out of the darkness, and the sword is waiting for him.

22He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword.

Note'The sword is waiting for him' means he is marked out for a violent death, the standard image for being killed in a raid or a war.

23He wanders around looking for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows the day of darkness is close at hand.

23He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

NoteThe Hebrew here is disputed. It can be read as a hungry man wandering and asking where food is, or, with the same consonants read differently, as a corpse thrown out as food for vultures.

24Trouble and deep distress make him afraid. They overpower him, like a king ready to attack.

24Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

25This is because he reached out his hand against God and made himself strong against the Almighty.

25For he stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty.

Note'The Almighty' translates Shaddai, an ancient title for God used throughout Job, older than the name used elsewhere in Israel's scriptures; its exact original sense is no longer certain.

26He charged straight at God, head down, behind the thick metal studs of his shields.

26He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers:

NoteA picture from battle: a soldier charging with his neck lowered behind his shield. The 'studs' are the thick metal bosses on the face of a shield, which took the blow and could be driven into an enemy.

27His face is covered with fat, and thick rolls of fat hang at his sides.

27Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks.

NoteBody fat was a sign of wealth and easy living, and in Hebrew idiom a fat, covered heart or face also meant a man grown insensitive and arrogant, too well fed to feel anything or listen to anyone.

28But he will live in ruined cities, in houses where no one lives, houses about to fall into piles of rubble.

28And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps.

NoteRuined and abandoned sites were considered dangerous, sometimes cursed places that were never to be rebuilt. The picture is of a man ending up squatting in exactly the kind of rubble he once made of others' towns.

29He will not stay rich. What he owns will not last. His property will not spread out across the land.

29He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth.

30He will not get out of the darkness. A flame will dry up his young branches, and the breath of God's mouth will sweep him away.

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.

NoteThe image is a tree: young shoots scorched dry, and the tree itself blown away. 'Breath' and 'wind' are the same word in Hebrew, so the last line is at once God's breath and a wind that carries him off.

31Let the man who is fooled not trust in what is empty, because empty is what he will get back.

31Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence.

32It will be paid out in full before his time is up, and his branch will not stay green.

32It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.

NoteThe Hebrew of the first line is obscure. It is read as his account being settled early, or as his being cut down and withered before his natural time.

33He will be like a vine that shakes off its unripe grapes, like an olive tree that drops its blossoms.

33He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.

NoteBoth are pictures of loss before harvest. Vines drop unripe fruit under stress, and olive trees shed huge numbers of blossoms that never set into fruit, a promising start that comes to nothing.

34For the company of godless people will end up with nothing, and fire will burn up the tents of those who take bribes.

34For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.

Note'Tent' stands for a household and everything in it. Taking bribes meant perverting a legal case, since disputes were judged by elders at the town gate and a paid-off judge destroyed the only protection the poor had.

35They become pregnant with trouble and give birth to evil, and inside them deceit is being made ready."

35They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.

NoteA proverbial way of speaking, found elsewhere in the Hebrew scriptures: what a person plots is described as a pregnancy that eventually delivers its offspring into the open.