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Eliphaz: Job Does Not Fear God
In Job 15, Eliphaz answers Job again. He claims Job’s own speech shows guilt, says Job is pushing aside reverence for God, and then describes what he believes happens to wicked people.
Understanding the passage
Listening in context
This passage is wisdom and dialogue. Eliphaz the Temanite replies to Job with accusations about Job’s words, questions Job’s claim to understanding, and appeals to what he says wise men have handed down. The whole chapter presents Eliphaz’s argument in his own speech.
Job 15:1–35Main takeaway
Job 15 presents Eliphaz arguing that Job’s words reveal guilt and that suffering belongs to the wicked, but these claims are part of Eliphaz’s speech within the dialogue.
Look closely at the words
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Eliphaz says Job’s words are empty and harmfulEliphaz opens with sharp questions about speech. He asks whether a wise man should answer with “vain knowledge” and fill himself with the east wind.
Explanation
Eliphaz opens with sharp questions about speech. He asks whether a wise man should answer with “vain knowledge” and fill himself with the east wind. He says such talk is unprofitable and does no good. He also claims Job’s words weaken fear and devotion before God, and that Job’s own lips testify against him.
02Eliphaz challenges Job’s claim to understandingEliphaz then mocks any idea that Job has unique wisdom. He asks whether Job was the first man born or has heard God’s secret counsel.
Explanation
Eliphaz then mocks any idea that Job has unique wisdom. He asks whether Job was the first man born or has heard God’s secret counsel. He says others know these things too, and points to the presence of aged men. He also asks whether God’s consolations and gentle word are too small for Job.
03Eliphaz says Job has turned against God and that humans are not cleanBefore making a broader claim, Eliphaz says Job has turned his spirit against God and let such words come from his mouth.
Explanation
Before making a broader claim, Eliphaz says Job has turned his spirit against God and let such words come from his mouth. Then he asks how any person could be clean or righteous. If God puts no trust in his holy ones and even the heavens are not clean in his sight, Eliphaz argues that human corruption is even greater.
04Eliphaz describes the troubles of the wickedEliphaz says he will declare what wise men have told. He describes the wicked as living with pain, terrors, darkness, hunger, distress, and fear.
Explanation
Eliphaz says he will declare what wise men have told. He describes the wicked as living with pain, terrors, darkness, hunger, distress, and fear. He says this happens because the wicked act proudly against God. His pictures include failing wealth, dried branches, fruit falling early, barren company, tents consumed by fire, and hearts preparing deceit.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What does Eliphaz think Job’s words are doing wrong?
02How does Eliphaz challenge the idea that Job has special wisdom?
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Job 15:1–35
1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
2“Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?
3Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?
4Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.
5For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
6Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.
7“Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought out before the hills?
8Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9What do you know that we don’t know? What do you understand which is not in us?
10With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much older than your father.
11Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?
12Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,
13that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?
14What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;
16how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
17“I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare
18(which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;
19to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):
20the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
21A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer will come on him.
22He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.
23He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
24Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
25Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty,
26he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers,
27because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.
28He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.
29He will not be rich, neither will his substance continue, neither will their possessions be extended on the earth.
30He will not depart out of darkness. The flame will dry up his branches. He will go away by the breath of God’s mouth.
31Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his reward.
32It will be accomplished before his time. His branch will not be green.
33He will shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and will cast off his flower as the olive tree.
34For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.
35They conceive mischief and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”