Job 15:17 - Meaning and Application

Eliphaz, after rebuking Job for his answers, now tries to support the claim behind his criticism. He believes that wicked people are always miserable, and from that he reasons that miserable people must be wicked, which is why he thinks Job must be guilty. Here he begins with a serious introduction, as if he were offering Job something worth hearing. Yet he has already shown little respect for what Job said, so he has little ground to ask for careful attention.

He says that what he speaks about comes from two sources, his own experience and the wisdom of older generations. He claims he will tell Job what he has seen in many cases. There is real value in noticing God’s care and rule in human life, because we can learn much from it. What we have learned well ourselves, we should be willing to share for the good of others.

He also appeals to the teaching of the wise men of old, people who learned from their fathers and passed that wisdom on. Much of what later generations know comes from those before them. Good children learn from good parents, and what one age learns should be handed down faithfully to the next (Psalm 78:3-6). If one generation carelessly breaks that chain, all who come after suffer for it.

The men Eliphaz points to were men of rank and importance, to whom, as he says, the earth had been given. He thinks their standing gives weight to their observations. Wisdom often does come with advantage from those in high places, as with Solomon. Even so, there is also a wisdom the rulers of this age did not know (1 Corinthians 2:7-8).

Eliphaz’s main point is that wise and good people usually prosper in this world. He only hints at this here, saying that the earth had been given to the kind of men he has in mind, and no stranger passed among them to trouble or rob them. Job had said, “The earth is given into the hand of the wicked” (Job 9:24). Eliphaz rejects that and says it is given into the hands of the saints, who are not overwhelmed by invading enemies as Job had been by the Sabeans and Chaldeans.

Still, even if many of God’s people have greatly prospered in this life, like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that does not mean all who suffer loss are not God’s people. Eliphaz then turns to the opposite case, saying that wicked people, especially violent rulers and oppressors, live in fear and die in misery. He describes the wicked man as if no ordinary sinner could fit the picture, but one who openly defies God and harms others. Some think he has Nimrod in mind, or perhaps Chedorlaomer, a mighty ruler and “hunter” before the Lord. Others think he is really pointing at Job himself.

The first feature of this sinner is bold rebellion against God. He breaks God’s commands as if they were chains and refuses to be ruled by his Maker. He also acts as if God’s judgments mean nothing, as if the Almighty can do his worst and still he will keep his own way. This is the kind of shameless rebellion seen in those who hate God (Romans 1:30), whose minds are not merely hostile to him, but full of hostility itself (Romans 8:7).

Yet this pride is as powerless as it is arrogant. What can a sinner really do against God? Still, he tries to strengthen himself against the Almighty, as though he could match divine power. He behaves as if he could change times and laws and force his way through by violence and injustice (Daniel 7:25). This is the great madness of proud sinners, that they enter a fight with the Almighty. “Woe to him who argues with his Maker.”

Eliphaz goes on to say that this man rushes at God directly, as a desperate fighter who attacks even when he knows he is outmatched. He runs upon God, so to speak, even upon his neck, though such a charge only brings ruin on himself. Most sinners run from God, but the bold sinner runs toward him in open defiance. The result can be foreseen.

Next, Eliphaz says that this man wraps himself in comfort and pleasure. He “covers his face with his fatness,” which means he pampers his body with rich food and drink, and at the same time hardens his heart against God’s warnings. When the body is fed without restraint, the soul often suffers. People forget God because they make the belly their god and place happiness in the pleasures of the senses. Those who fill themselves with wine and strong drink stop caring about what is serious and act as if tomorrow will always be like today (Isaiah 56:12). Woe to those who are at ease in Zion (Amos 6:1, Amos 6:3-4; Luke 12:19). The very things that make him look bold and comfortable will be poor shelter when God’s wrath comes.

He also says this man enriches himself with the spoil of all around him.

He lives in cities he has made desolate by driving out the people, so that he can live there alone (Isaiah 5:8). Proud and cruel men even take a strange satisfaction in ruins when they made them themselves, destroying cities (Psalm 9:6) and boasting over the wreckage. They cannot make cities their own except by turning them into heaps and frightening the people away.

Notice this: those who try to own everything lose the comfort of everything and make themselves miserable in the middle of it all. How does this tyrant gain control of cities that show clear signs of age and long use? The text says he does it through malice and deceit, the two main parts of his wickedness. He is like the one who was a liar and a murderer from the beginning. He plans evil, then carries it out by preparing lies, pretending to protect the very people he means to crush, and making peace treaties so he can carry on war more effectively. May God deliver all good people from such wicked men.

Now let us see the miserable condition of this wicked man, both under spiritual and outward judgments. His inward peace is always disturbed. To people around him, he may seem calm, and so they envy him and wish for his place. But the One who knows what is in people tells us that a wicked man has so little comfort in his own heart that he is more to be pitied than envied.

First, his own conscience accuses him, and with those pains he goes through life in misery, all his days (Job 15:20). He is always troubled by the cruelties he has committed and the blood on his hands. His sins keep appearing before him at every turn. Conscious guilt stuns and confuses a person.

Second, he is upset by the uncertainty of how long his wealth and power will last: the number of years is hidden from the oppressor. He knows, whatever he claims, that they will not last forever, and he has reason to fear that they will not last long. That uncertainty gnaws at him.

Third, he lives under a fearful expectation of judgment and fiery anger (Hebrews 10:27). This keeps him in constant terror and panic, so he dwells with Cain in the land of Nod, meaning restlessness or wandering, (Genesis 4:16), and he becomes like Pashur, called “terror on every side” (Jeremiah 20:3, Jeremiah 20:4). A dreadful sound is in his ears (Job 15:21). He knows heaven and earth are against him, that God is angry with him, and that the whole world hates him. Since he has done nothing to make peace with either, he thinks that everyone he meets will kill him (Genesis 4:14). Or he is like a man hiding from debt, who thinks every person he sees is a sheriff.

Fear entered with sin at the beginning (Genesis 3:10), and it still follows sin. Even in prosperity, he fears that the destroyer will come, either an angel sent by God to judge him or injured subjects who will avenge themselves. Those who are the terror of the mighty in the land of the living usually go down slain to the grave (Ezekiel 32:25), and their expected end makes them a terror to themselves. This is made clear in Job 15:22, where he is, in his own mind, waiting for the sword. He knows that whoever kills with the sword must be killed with the sword (Revelation 13:10). A guilty conscience shows the sinner a flaming sword turning every way (Genesis 3:24), with himself running straight onto it.

Again, Job 15:23 says he knows that the day of darkness, or rather the night of darkness, is near. It is set for him and cannot be avoided. It is coming quickly and cannot be delayed. This day of darkness is more than death. It is the day of the Lord that will bring darkness, not light, for all wicked people, and they will be sentenced to utter, endless darkness. Some wicked people, though they seem calm, have already received the sentence of eternal death within themselves, and they can clearly see hell opening before them.

So it is no surprise that Job 15:24 says trouble and anguish, that inward distress of soul spoken of in Romans 2:8, Romans 2:9, will make him afraid of what is still worse. What is hell before him if he already has hell within? He may try to shake off his fears, drink them away, or laugh them away, but it will not work. They will overpower him like a king ready for battle with too many forces to resist. If a person wants to keep peace, let him keep a good conscience.

Fourth, if trouble does come, he despairs of getting out of it (Job 15:22). He does not believe he will return from darkness. He gives himself up as lost in an endless night. Good people expect light at evening time, light coming out of darkness, but what reason do people have to expect return from trouble if they would not turn back from sin but kept going in it? (Psalm 82:5). This is part of the misery of condemned sinners: they know they will never come out of that deep darkness or cross the fixed gulf.

Fifth, he wears himself out with constant worry, especially if Providence frowns on him even a little (Job 15:23). He is so afraid of becoming poor, and sees such losses in his estate, that in his own mind he is already wandering around for bread, going begging for a meal, and asking, Where is it? The rich fool in his plenty cried, “What should I do?” (Luke 12:17). Perhaps he pretends to fear want as an excuse for his greedy behavior, and in the end he may truly be brought to that condition. We read of those who were full, but had to hire themselves out for bread (1 Samuel 2:5), and this sinner will not even do that. He cannot dig, because he is too fat (Job 15:27), but he may well be ashamed to beg. See (Psalm 109:10). David never saw the righteous so forsaken that they had to beg for bread, for they will be fed, often by the kindness of others without asking (Psalm 37:3, Psalm 37:25). But the wicked are in need and cannot expect help so easily. How should those find mercy who never showed mercy?

His outward prosperity will soon come to an end, and with it all his confidence and comfort. How can he prosper when God is running against him? That is one way to understand Job 15:26. Whoever God runs upon, God will surely bring down, for when he judges, he will win. See how God’s judgments oppose this worldly wicked man in all his plans, desires, and schemes, and so complete his misery. First, he is eager to get more, but he will not become rich (Job 15:29). His own greedy heart keeps him from being truly rich. A person is not rich if he does not have enough, and he does not have enough if he does not think he has enough. Only contentment is real wealth.

God’s providence often keeps people from becoming rich. He ruins their plans, breaks their schemes, and leaves them always short of what they want. Many get a lot by fraud and injustice, yet never really become wealthy, because what comes in by one sin is often spent on another.

Even when such people try to protect what they have gained, it does not last. Their wealth will not continue, but will shrink and come to nothing. God can blast it, and what seemed to grow overnight can vanish overnight. Wealth gained in empty or dishonest ways will always be reduced. Some people even live long enough to watch their estates, built on oppression, fall apart. If they do not, what remains often goes to their heirs with a curse. Ill-gotten property is hardly enjoyed even by the third generation.

They may buy land for themselves and their descendants forever, but what good does that do? They will not keep the full strength and glory of their wealth on earth. Once credit and comfort are gone, what is left of its perfection? In truth, nothing in this world stays perfect for long, because everything here is temporary.

Such a man may also hope to leave his riches to his children, so that his family will rise and continue his name. But he is crossed there too. The branches of his family will die out. They will not stay green, they will be dried up by the flame, and he will shake them off like blossoms that never form fruit, or like an unripe grape (Job 15:30-33). They die before their time and never reach maturity. Many a family has been ruined by a man’s sin.

He also wants to keep enjoying his wealth for a long time himself, but even that hope fails. He may be taken away from it by the breath of God’s mouth, that is, by God’s judgment, which destroys as surely as fire (Isaiah 30:33). God speaks, and it is done at once. So the wicked is driven away in his wickedness, and the worldly man in his worldliness.

Or his wealth may be taken from him and fly away like an eagle toward heaven. It will be ended before his time (Job 15:32). He may live on after his prosperity is gone and see himself stripped of it. When trouble comes, he hopes only to escape it, not to learn from it. But even there he is defeated. He will not come out of darkness. Like Haman, once he begins to fall, all men cry, “Down with him.” He had already feared that his misery would never end (Job 15:22), and God gives him over to the very fears he trusted. As God did with Israel, so here he confirms their distrust and despair (Isaiah 66:4; Numbers 14:28).

He also hopes to secure himself by joining with others. He thinks his partners will protect him, but that fails too (Job 15:34-35). Their whole company, with all their tents, will be desolate and burned up. Hypocrisy and bribery are laid to their charge, that is, deceit in dealing with both God and man. They honor God with false religion and harm people under the cover of justice. Such practices can never end well. Even if they stand together and support one another, the wicked will not go unpunished.

The lesson is plain. If the prosperity of bold sinners ends so miserably, then let no one who is deceived trust in empty things (Job 15:31). Let the harms that come to others warn us. We should not lean on that broken reed that has always failed those who trusted it.

Those who trust sinful ways of making money are trusting vanity, and vanity will be their reward. They will not get what they expected. Their tricks may deceive them and may even ruin them in this world. Those who trust in riches after they have gained them, especially if they were gained dishonestly, are also trusting vanity. Such wealth brings no true satisfaction. The guilt attached to it will destroy the joy of it. They sow the wind and will reap the whirlwind. In the end, they will have to admit, with deep shame, that a deceived heart led them away, and that they fooled themselves with a lie in their right hand.