1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, 2 “Should a wise man answer with useless knowledge and fill himself with the east wind? 3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk or with speeches with which he can do no good? 4 Indeed, you diminish respect for God; you obstruct devotion to him, 5 for your iniquity teaches your mouth; you choose to have the tongue of a crafty man. 6 Your own mouth condemns you, not mine; indeed, your own lips testify against you. 7 Are you the first man that was born? Were you brought into existence before the hills? 8 Have you heard the secret knowledge of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself? 9 What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not also in us? 10 With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men who are much older than your father. 11 Are the consolations of God too small for you, the words that are gentle toward you? 12 Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash, 13 so that you turn your spirit against God and bring out such words from your mouth? 14 What is man that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman that he should be righteous? 15 See, God puts no trust even in his holy ones; indeed, the heavens are not clean in his sight; 16 how much less clean is one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water! 17 I will show you; listen to me; I will announce to you the things I have seen, 18 the things that wise men have passed down from their fathers, the things that their ancestors did not hide. 19 These were their ancestors, to whom alone the land was given, and among whom no stranger ever passed. 20 The wicked man twists in pain all his days, the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor to suffer. 21 A sound of terrors is in his ears; while he is in prosperity, the destroyer will come upon him. 22 He does not think that he will return out of darkness; the sword waits for him. 23 He goes to various places for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that the day of darkness is at hand. 24 Distress and anguish make him afraid; they prevail against him, as a king ready for battle. 25 Because he has reached out with his hand against God and has behaved proudly against the Almighty, 26 this wicked man runs at God with a stiff neck, with a thick shield. 27 This is true, even though he has covered his face with his fat and gathered fat on his loins, 28 and has lived in desolate cities; in houses which no man inhabits now and which were ready to become heaps. 29 He will not be rich; his wealth will not last and his possessions will not spread over the land. 30 He will not depart out of darkness; a flame will dry up his stalks; at the breath of God's mouth he will go away. 31 Let him not trust in useless things, deceiving himself; for uselessness will be his reward. 32 It will happen before his time should come to die; his branch will not be green. 33 He will drop his unripe grapes like a grapevine; he will cast off his flowers like the olive tree. 34 For the company of godless people will be barren; fire will consume their tents of bribery. 35 They conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity; their womb conceives deceit.”
Job 15 Unlocked Literal Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
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Eliphaz the Temanite
One of Job's three friends who came to sympathize and comfort him, and whom the LORD rebuked at the end of the book for not speaking rightly of Him.
Cited in the guide: Job 2:11; Job 4:1; Job 15:1
Cross references (35)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Job 2:11; Job 42:7; Job 4:1; Job 42:9; Job 22:1
- 2 Job 6:26; Job 8:2; Hosea 12:1; Job 11:2–3; James 3:13
- 3 Matthew 12:36–37; Colossians 4:6; Malachi 3:13–15; Job 26:1–3; 1 Timothy 6:4–5
- 4 Romans 3:31; Psalm 36:1–3; Job 6:14; 1 Chronicles 10:13–14; Galatians 2:21
- 5 Jeremiah 9:3–5; James 1:26; Luke 6:45; Psalm 52:2–4; Jeremiah 9:8
- 6 Luke 19:22; Matthew 12:37; Job 9:20; Job 40:8; Job 34:5–9
- 7 Psalm 90:2; Job 38:4–41; Job 12:12; Proverbs 8:22–25; Genesis 4:1
- 8 Romans 11:34; Jeremiah 23:18; 1 Corinthians 2:16; Psalm 25:14; Matthew 11:25
- 9 Job 13:2; 2 Corinthians 11:5; 2 Corinthians 10:7; Job 26:3–4; Job 12:3
- 10 Job 32:6–7; Job 12:12; Job 8:8–10; Deuteronomy 32:7; Proverbs 16:31
- 11 2 Corinthians 1:3–5; Job 13:2; Job 5:8–26; 1 Kings 22:24; 2 Corinthians 7:6
- 12 Psalm 35:19; Mark 7:21–22; Job 17:2; Job 11:13; James 1:14–15
- 13 James 3:2–6; Job 15:25–27; Psalm 34:13; Job 12:6; Malachi 3:13
- 14 Ecclesiastes 7:20; Job 14:4; Proverbs 20:9; Romans 7:18; Job 25:4–6
- 15 Job 25:5; Job 4:18; Isaiah 6:2–5; Job 5:1
- 16 Proverbs 19:28; Job 34:7; Romans 3:9–19; Titus 3:3; Psalm 53:3
- 17 Job 33:1; Job 13:5–6; Job 5:27; Job 34:2; Job 36:2
- 18 Job 8:8; Psalm 71:18; Isaiah 38:19; Psalm 78:3–6; Job 15:10
- 19 Joel 3:17; Deuteronomy 32:8; Genesis 10:25; Genesis 10:32
- 20 James 5:1–6; Job 27:13; Job 24:1; Luke 12:19–21; Psalm 90:12
- 21 Job 18:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:3; Leviticus 26:36; 1 Corinthians 10:10; Job 1:13–19
- 22 Job 20:24–25; Job 27:14; Isaiah 8:21–22; Matthew 27:5; Job 19:29
- 23 Job 18:12; Psalm 109:10; Psalm 59:15; Amos 5:20; Ecclesiastes 11:8
- 24 Proverbs 6:11; Proverbs 24:34; Romans 2:9; Job 6:2–4; Psalm 119:143
- 25 Psalm 52:7; Job 9:4; Daniel 5:23; Psalm 73:9; Malachi 3:13
- 26 2 Chronicles 32:13–17; 2 Chronicles 28:22; Genesis 49:8; Psalm 18:40; Job 16:12
- 27 Psalm 17:10; Psalm 73:7; Jeremiah 5:28; Isaiah 6:10; Deuteronomy 32:15
- 28 Job 3:14; Jeremiah 51:37; Micah 7:18; Jeremiah 26:18; Jeremiah 9:11
- 29 Job 27:16–17; James 1:11; Luke 12:19–21; Psalm 49:16–17; Luke 16:19–22
- 30 Job 4:9; Job 15:22; Job 18:5–6; Job 20:26; Matthew 25:41
- 31 Isaiah 59:4; Galatians 6:3; Psalm 62:10; Galatians 6:7–8; Hosea 8:7
- 32 Ecclesiastes 7:17; Psalm 55:23; Job 22:16; Hosea 9:16; Isaiah 27:11
- 33 Deuteronomy 28:39–40; Isaiah 33:9; Revelation 6:13
- 34 Job 8:13; Job 27:8; Micah 7:2; Job 8:22; Matthew 24:51
- 35 Psalm 7:14; Hosea 10:13; Isaiah 59:4–5; James 1:15; Galatians 6:7–8
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
But when I lifted myself proudly against Thee, and "ran against the Lord, even on His neck, with the thick bosses" of my buckler, even these inferior things were placed above me, and pressed upon me, and nowhere was there alleviation or breathing space.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
… the Lord;" for enantion means both "before" and "against." In the Psalm this word is rendered, "Let us weep before the Lord our Maker." The same word occurs in the book of Job, where it is written, "Thou hast broken into fury against the Lord." And so this giant is to be recognized as a "hunter against the Lord." And …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
"He runneth against God, upon the stiff neck of his shield." What is, "upon the stiff neck of his shield"?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)