17 "I will show you; listen to me; what I have seen I will declare- 18 what sages have told, and their ancestors have not hidden, 19 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them. 20 The wicked writhe in pain all their days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless. 21 Terrifying sounds are in their ears; in prosperity the destroyer will come upon them. 22 They despair of returning from darkness, and they are destined for the sword. 23 They wander abroad for bread, saying, "Where is it?' They know that a day of darkness is ready at hand; 24 distress and anguish terrify them; they prevail against them, like a king prepared for battle. 25 Because they stretched out their hands against God, and bid defiance to the Almighty, 26 running stubbornly against him with a thick-bossed shield; 27 because they have covered their faces with their fat, and gathered fat upon their loins, 28 they will live in desolate cities, in houses that no one should inhabit, houses destined to become heaps of ruins; 29 they will not be rich, and their wealth will not endure, nor will they strike root in the earth; 30 they will not escape from darkness; the flame will dry up their shoots, and their blossom will be swept away by the wind. 31 Let them not trust in emptiness, deceiving themselves; for emptiness will be their recompense. 32 It will be paid in full before their time, and their branch will not be green. 33 They will shake off their unripe grape, like the vine, and cast off their blossoms, like the olive tree. 34 For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery. 35 They conceive mischief and bring forth evil and their heart 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?