17 I will shew thee, listen to me; and what I have seen I will declare; 18 Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hidden; 19 Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them. 20 All his days the wicked man is tormented, and numbered years are allotted to the violent. 21 The sound of terrors is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer cometh upon him. 22 He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is singled out for the sword. 23 He wandereth abroad for bread,—where may it be? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. 24 Distress and anguish make him afraid; they prevail against him, as a king ready for the battle. 25 For he hath stretched out his hand against God, and strengthened himself against the Almighty: 26 He runneth against him, with [outstretched] neck, with the thick bosses of his bucklers; 27 For he hath covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat upon [his] flanks. 28 And he dwelleth in desolate cities, in houses that no man inhabiteth, which are destined to become heaps. 29 He shall not become rich, neither shall his substance continue, and their possessions shall not extend upon the earth. 30 He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches; and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away. 31 Let him not trust in vanity: he is deceived, for vanity shall be his recompense; 32 It shall be complete before his day, and his branch shall not be green. 33 He shall shake off his unripe grapes as a vine, and shall cast his flower as an olive. 34 For the family of the ungodly shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery. 35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, and their belly prepareth deceit.
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?