17 "If you will listen, I will show you. I will answer you from my own experience. 18 And it is confirmed by the reports of wise men who have heard the same thing from their fathers- 19 from those to whom the land was given long before any foreigners arrived. 20 "The wicked writhe in pain throughout their lives. Years of trouble are stored up for the ruthless. 21 The sound of terror rings in their ears, and even on good days they fear the attack of the destroyer. 22 They dare not go out into the darkness for fear they will be murdered. 23 They wander around, saying, 'Where can I find bread?' They know their day of destruction is near. 24 That dark day terrifies them. They live in distress and anguish, like a king preparing for battle. 25 For they shake their fists at God, defying the Almighty. 26 Holding their strong shields, they defiantly charge against him. 27 "These wicked people are heavy and prosperous; their waists bulge with fat. 28 But their cities will be ruined. They will live in abandoned houses that are ready to tumble down. 29 Their riches will not last, and their wealth will not endure. Their possessions will no longer spread across the horizon. 30 "They will not escape the darkness. The burning sun will wither their shoots, and the breath of God will destroy them. 31 Let them no longer fool themselves by trusting in empty riches, for emptiness will be their only reward. 32 They will be cut down in the prime of life; their branches will never again be green. 33 They will be like a vine whose grapes are harvested too early, like an olive tree that loses its blossoms before the fruit can form. 34 For the godless are barren. Their homes, enriched through bribery, will burn. 35 They conceive trouble and give birth to evil. Their womb produces 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?