Eliphaz the Temanite asserts that Job does not fear God. He accuses Job of all sorts of sins against God, none of which Job had done.
VERSE 1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
VERSE 2. “Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?
VERSE 3. Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?
The things Eliphaz says are not true.
devotion. Literally “meditation.”
hinder devotion before God. This is similar to the accusation against Socrates.
your iniquity. This is an accusation. And it is false.
VERSE 6. Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.
VERSE 7. “Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought out before the hills?
Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Job never said he did.
But now Eliphaz is putting words in Job’s mouth.
VERSE 9. What do you know, that we don’t know? What do you understand, which is not in us?
the gray-headed. How old is Job?
This verse suggests that his father has gray hair. How old would that make Job?
VERSE 11. Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?
VERSE 12. Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,
VERSE 13. That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?
VERSE 14. What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
born of a woman … righteous. The Lord Jesus Christ was born of a woman. Yet he was fully righteous.
his holy ones. The Hebrew word is “ketoshim.”
the heavens are not clean in his sight. Eliphaz thinks everything is utterly corrupt.
VERSE 16. how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
VERSE 17. “I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare
VERSE 18. (which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;
VERSE 19. to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):
VERSE 20. the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
VERSE 21. A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.
VERSE 22. He doesn’t believe that he shall return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.
VERSE 23. He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
VERSE 24. Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
VERSE 25. Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty;
stretched out his hand against God. Job never did this.
behaves himself proudly against the Almighty. Job never did this.
VERSE 26. he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers;
VERSE 27. because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.
VERSE 28. He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.
VERSE 29. He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.
VERSE 30. He shall not depart out of darkness. The flame shall dry up his branches. By the breath of God’s mouth shall he go away.
VERSE 31. Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness shall be his reward.
VERSE 32. It shall be accomplished before his time. His branch shall not be green.
VERSE 33. He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive tree.
VERSE 34. For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
VERSE 35. They conceive mischief, and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”
Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.