17 "I will show you; hear me, and what I have seen I will declare 18 (what wise men have told, without hiding it from their fathers, 19 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them). 20 The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless. 21 Dreadful sounds are in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him. 22 He does not believe that he will return out of darkness, and he is marked for the sword. 23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand; 24 distress and anguish terrify him; they prevail against him, like a king ready for battle. 25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God and defies the Almighty, 26 running stubbornly against him with a thickly bossed shield; 27 because he has covered his face with his fat and gathered fat upon his waist 28 and has lived in desolate cities, in houses that none should inhabit, which were ready to become heaps of ruins; 29 he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the earth;[1] 30 he will not depart from darkness; the flame will dry up his shoots, and by the breath of his mouth he will depart. 31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his payment. 32 It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not be green. 33 He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine, and cast off his blossom like the olive tree. 34 For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery. 35 They conceive trouble and give birth to evil, and their womb prepares 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?