Job 15:1

The Second Stage of the Controversy.

Chaps. 15-21.

SECOND ADDRESS OF ELIPHAZ.

1. Answered, etc. Eliphaz, who was the first speaker in the first circle of debate, now urges that the talk of Job was not only as unprofitable as an east wind, but really destructive to all piety. He taunts him with assuming a monopoly of wisdom such as could only have been gathered from some prior existence or from the council chamber of God. To convince Job of the folly of his arrogance, he alludes again to the revelation he had himself received, from which Job may learn that man’s place in the scale of righteousness is lower even than in that of wisdom. His own observation agreed with the sentiment of an ancient poem, that there is a perfect scheme of retribution in this world. The prosperity of the wicked man is only apparent. He lives a life of anguish; his fields are covered with blasted fruit; he reaps the vanity he has sown. The view of Eliphaz is limited by the theorem that suffering is an evidence either of a guilty life or an impure heart.