Job 15:17-27

17 "I will tell you, hear me; What I have seen I will declare,
18 What wise men have told, Not hiding anything received from their fathers,
19 To whom alone the land was given, And no alien passed among them:
20 The wicked man writhes with pain all his days, And the number of years is hidden from the oppressor.
21 Dreadful sounds are in his ears; In prosperity the destroyer comes upon him.
22 He does not believe that he will return from darkness, For a sword is waiting for him.
23 He wanders about for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand.
24 Trouble and anguish make him afraid; They overpower him, like a king ready for battle.
25 For he stretches out his hand against God, And acts defiantly against the Almighty,
26 Running stubbornly against Him With his strong, embossed shield.
27 "Though he has covered his face with his fatness, And made his waist heavy with fat,

Job 15:17-27 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.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.