17 Take note and give ear to my words; and I will say what I have seen: 18 (The things which wise men have got from their fathers, and have not kept secret from us; 19 For only to them was the land given, and no strange people were among them:) 20 The evil man is in pain all his days, and the number of the years stored up for the cruel is small. 21 A sound of fear is in his ears; in time of peace destruction will come on him: 22 He has no hope of coming safe out of the dark, and his fate will be the sword; 23 He is wandering about in search of bread, saying, Where is it? and he is certain that the day of trouble is ready for him: 24 He is greatly in fear of the dark day, trouble and pain overcome him: 25 Because his hand is stretched out against God, and his heart is lifted up against the Ruler of all, 26 Running against him like a man of war, covered by his thick breastplate; even like a king ready for the fight, 27 Because his face is covered with fat, and his body has become thick; 28 And he has made his resting-place in the towns which have been pulled down, in houses where no man had a right to be, whose fate was to become masses of broken walls. 29 He does not get wealth for himself, and is unable to keep what he has got; the heads of his grain are not bent down to the earth. 30 He does not come out of the dark; his branches are burned by the flame, and the wind takes away his bud. 31 Let him not put his hope in what is false, falling into error: for he will get deceit as his reward. 32 His branch is cut off before its time, and his leaf is no longer green. 33 He is like a vine whose grapes do not come to full growth, or an olive-tree dropping its flowers. 34 For the band of the evil-doers gives no fruit, and the tents of those who give wrong decisions for reward are burned with fire. 35 Evil has made them with child, and they give birth to trouble; and the fruit of their body is shame for themselves.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 15:17-35
Commentary on Job 15:17-35
(Read Job 15:17-35)
Eliphaz maintains that the wicked are certainly miserable: whence he would infer, that the miserable are certainly wicked, and therefore Job was so. But because many of God's people have prospered in this world, it does not therefore follow that those who are crossed and made poor, as Job, are not God's people. Eliphaz shows also that wicked people, particularly oppressors, are subject to continual terror, live very uncomfortably, and perish very miserably. Will the prosperity of presumptuous sinners end miserably as here described? Then let the mischiefs which befal others, be our warnings. Though no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. No calamity, no trouble, however heavy, however severe, can rob a follower of the Lord of his favour. What shall separate him from the love of Christ?