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Job 15

Eliphaz uses inherited wisdom about human corruption and the wicked person’s ruin to build an accusation against Job.

Eliphaz the Temanite answers Job with a second speech that sharpens the dispute. He accuses Job of empty talk, weakened devotion, and words that condemn their speaker. Appealing to the wisdom of elders, Eliphaz challenges Job’s understanding and stresses human corruption before God. He then describes the wicked person’s terror and coming ruin. The speech turns these claims toward Job, though Eliphaz supplies no evidence that Job has committed the oppression or deceit he describes.

church hurtinjustice and angersermon or Bible study notes
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1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
2“Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?
3Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?
4Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.
5For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
6Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.
7“Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought out before the hills?
8Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9What do you know that we don’t know? What do you understand which is not in us?
10With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much older than your father.
11Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?
12Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,
13that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?
14What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;
16how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
17“I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare
18(which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;
19to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):
20the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
21A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer will come on him.
22He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.
23He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
24Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
25Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty,
26he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers,
27because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.
28He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.
29He will not be rich, neither will his substance continue, neither will their possessions be extended on the earth.
30He will not depart out of darkness. The flame will dry up his branches. He will go away by the breath of God’s mouth.
31Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his reward.
32It will be accomplished before his time. His branch will not be green.
33He will shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and will cast off his flower as the olive tree.
34For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.
35They conceive mischief and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Job 15:14Eliphaz’s question shifts his attack from Job’s words to the broader problem of human righteousness before God.
Job 15:21This picture of terror amid prosperity anchors Eliphaz’s claim that the wicked live under the threat of destruction.
Job 15:16The image of drinking iniquity like water intensifies Eliphaz’s account of corruption within his accusation against Job.
Where this chapter reaches

Eliphaz’s questions about human cleanness share with Romans and Psalm the theme of human sin before God. His account of the wicked person’s fear and collapse shares with Proverbs and Isaiah images of threatened wealth, darkness, and ruined growth.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

Where does Eliphaz move from describing wickedness to making claims about Job?

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How might Eliphaz’s claim to offer gentle comfort shape your own words to someone who suffers?

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Questions people ask about Job 15

What does Job 15:14 mean?

Eliphaz asks whether anyone born human can be clean or righteous before God. The surrounding verses stress God’s holiness and human corruption. Within this speech, the question supports Eliphaz’s attack on Job. A general claim about human sinfulness does not establish that Job’s suffering is punishment for a particular offense.

Does Job 15 say suffering proves someone is wicked?

Eliphaz describes wicked people as fearful, distressed, and headed for ruin, with Job as the implied target. Yet the speech offers no evidence that Job has committed the crimes described. These are Eliphaz’s accusations within a dispute; the chapter does not present a divine verdict declaring Job guilty.

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What the Bible says about anger →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).