Job 15:20-30

20 Those who live by their own rules, not God's, can expect nothing but trouble, and the longer they live, the worse it gets.
21 Every little sound terrifies them. Just when they think they have it made, disaster strikes.
22 They despair of things ever getting better - they're on the list of people for whom things always turn out for the worst.
23 They wander here and there, never knowing where the next meal is coming from - every day is doomsday!
24 They live in constant terror, always with their backs up against the wall
25 Because they insist on shaking their fists at God, defying God Almighty to his face,
26 Always and ever at odds with God, always on the defensive.
27 "Even if they're the picture of health, trim and fit and youthful,
28 They'll end up living in a ghost town sleeping in a hovel not fit for a dog, a ramshackle shack.
29 They'll never get ahead, never amount to a hill of beans.
30 And then death - don't think they'll escape that! They'll end up shriveled weeds, brought down by a puff of God's breath.

Job 15:20-30 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 15

Job's three friends having in their turns attacked him, and he having given answer respectively to them, Eliphaz, who began the attack, first enters the debate with him again, and proceeds upon the same plan as before, and endeavours to defend his former sentiments, falling upon Job with greater vehemence and severity; he charges him with vanity, imprudence, and unprofitableness in his talk, and acting a part unbecoming his character as a wise man; yea, with impiety and a neglect of religion, or at least as a discourager of it by his words and doctrines, of which his mouth and lips were witnesses against him, Job 15:1-6; he charges him with arrogance and a high conceit of himself, as if he was the first man that was made, nay, as if he was the eternal wisdom of God, and had been in his council; and, to check his vanity, retorts his own words upon him, or however the sense of them, Job 15:7-10; and also with slighting the consolations of God; upon which he warmly expostulates with him, Job 15:11-13; and in order to convince him of his self-righteousness, which he thought he was full of, he argues from the angels, the heavens, and the general case of man, Job 15:14-16; and then he declares from his own knowledge, and from the relation of wise and ancient men in former times, who made it their observation, that wicked men are afflicted all their days, attended with terror and despair, and liable to various calamities, Job 15:17-24; the reasons of which are their insolence to God, and hostilities committed against him, which they are encouraged in by their prosperous circumstances, Job 15:25-27; notwithstanding all, their estates, riches, and wealth, will come to nothing, Job 15:28-30; and the chapter is closed with an exhortation to such, not to feed themselves up with vain hopes, or trust in uncertain riches, since their destruction would be sure, sudden, and terrible, Job 15:31-35.

Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.