Job 15

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

“Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?

Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?

Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.

For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.

Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.

“Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought out before the hills?

Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

What do you know that we don’t know? What do you understand which is not in us?

With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much older than your father.

Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?

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

that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?

What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;

how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!

“I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare

(which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;

to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):

the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer will come on him.

He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.

He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty,

he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers,

because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.

He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.

He will not be rich, neither will his substance continue, neither will their possessions be extended on the earth.

He will not depart out of darkness. The flame will dry up his branches. He will go away by the breath of God’s mouth.

Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his reward.

It will be accomplished before his time. His branch will not be green.

He will shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and will cast off his flower as the olive tree.

For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.

They conceive mischief and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”

Chapter overviewAI-generated

Overview.
This chapter records the second response of Eliphaz, who increasingly frames Job’s suffering as evidence of hidden wickedness, insisting that only the godless endure such calamity. Rather than comfort, Eliphaz offers a rigid theology of retribution, arguing that suffering must be punishment, and thus Job’s protests are not only futile but blasphemous. The chapter stands within the cycle of speeches that escalate in intensity, moving from sympathy to accusation.

Flow.

Eliphaz opens with disdain, accusing Job of speaking empty, arrogant words that undermine reverence for God.
He appeals to tradition and seniority, implying Job’s claims of innocence contradict the wisdom of the aged and the moral order upheld by God.
Invoking a vision he claims to have received, Eliphaz describes the miserable fate of the wicked, marked by inner terror, divine hostility, and ultimate ruin.
He concludes by asserting that the godless conceive evil and bring forth deception, their lives culminating in barrenness and divine judgment.

Connections.
Following chapter 14, where Job laments the brevity and suffering of human life and longs for hope beyond death, Eliphaz in chapter 15 replies not with hope but with stern dogmatism, interpreting Job’s laments as proof of rebellion rather than anguish. His portrayal of the doomed wicked contrasts sharply with Job’s yearning for a mediator (a theme hinted in 9:33 and later developed). Chapter 15 hardens the false equivalence between suffering and sin, which chapter 16 will challenge as Job denounces such comforters as “miserable comforters” and intensifies his appeal to a witness in heaven.

What it teaches.
Eliphaz articulates a conventional theology that emphasizes human depravity and the inescapable judgment awaiting the wicked (WCF 6.6), yet he misapplies it by assuming Job’s guilt. His claim that “the heavens are not clean in God’s sight” (v. 15) reflects a biblical acknowledgment of creaturely imperfection (HC LD 2), but he omits any room for mercy or the possibility of righteous suffering. The speech assumes that divine justice is always visible and immediate—a view later corrected in the book’s conclusion. While Eliphaz rightly affirms God’s transcendence and human frailty (cf. WCF 3.2), he fails to acknowledge that God’s dealings with humanity are not limited to retributive justice, neglecting the place of discipline, mystery, and redemption.

Apply.
When others suffer, resist the impulse to explain their pain by measuring their sin.

AI-generated. Not a substitute for Scripture, your pastor, or the confessions.