Job 15:35

They conceive mischief, &c.— Conceiving in misery, and bringing forth in sorrow, their belly hath at last proved a deception. This whole description is evidently pointed at the situation of Job. His prosperity, was become vanity; his children were all cut off before their time; his family become solitary; and his hopes, to all appearance, an illusion. All the fine prospect with which the wicked man entertained himself, and for which he endured all the anguish here described, produceth only a deceit. He hath imposed on himself. Heath.

REFLECTIONS.—1st, Job's friends had all spoken in turn; and Eliphaz, who had opened the dispute, undertakes again to reply, much offended that Job presumed to controvert their arguments, and endeavouring, from his own words, to produce sundry accusations in confirmation of the point which he so strenuously denied.

1. He reproaches him with folly and emptiness in his arguments, whereby he had for ever forfeited the character of a wise man. His reasonings were vain, and his words blustering as the east wind, yet without solidity; unprofitable and useless. Note; (1.) It is much easier to treat an adversary with contempt, than to answer him. (2.) Unprofitable talk deserves censure: they who must give an account of every idle word had need keep well the door of their lips.

2. He charges him with great impiety, as casting off the fear of God, and restraining prayer before him; since the principles that he advanced, according to Eliphaz's opinion, made all religion void. If the tabernacles of robbers prospered, if just men were laughed to scorn, and God destroys the perfect and the wicked, then, says he, of what use is it to fear him, or to pray to him, who laugheth at the trial of the innocent? Such speeches Eliphaz regards as deep iniquity, and the crafty glosses of piety, with which Job covered his words, but could not conceal the hypocrisy within. His own lips spoke his condemnation, and there was no need for further proof. Note; (1.) It is too common for angry disputants to distort the arguments of their adversaries and to charge them with inferences from them, not only never dreamt of, but utterly abhorred. (2.) They that cast off the fear of God will not think of prayer; and they who restrain prayer, can have no fear of God before them; and such a prayerless and careless state is the sum proof of a man's impiety, and the forerunner of eternal ruin.

3. He arraigns him of arrogance and self-conceit, as if his claim to an equality of understanding, chap. Job 13:2 was to be interpreted a monopoly of wisdom. Art thou the first man that was born? or before Adam? that all knowledge and experience must center in thee? Yea, art thou wise as God, pretending to be from everlasting? Wast thou made before the hills? or, did God consult with thee in his glorious works, and communicate to thee his great designs? Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou arrogate and restrain wisdom to thyself? What knowest thou that we know not? respecting numbers, and the current of antiquity, all are on our side: with us are both the gray-headed, and very aged men, much elder than thy father. Note; (1.) Nothing is easier than to triumph over our adversary, by making him speak what he never meant, and then confuting our own suppositions. (2.) There are secret things which belong unto God; to pretend to fathom which, proves not our wisdom, but our pride and folly. (3.) Many appeal to antiquity, who would often find it hard to support their pretensions; not that error supported by antiquity is at all the better for being the older: God's word is the only sure guide. (4.) Gray-heads are not always oracles; whatever veneration is due to them, truth is too great a sacrifice to make to any man.

4. He accuses him of contemning the counsels of his friends, and the consolations of God, when those were the very things that he wanted, and for want of which his complaint was bitter; but, because he declared them miserable comforters, they would infer, as they spoke for God, that it was a slight put upon him. Are the consolations of God small with thee? despised and slighted? Is there any secret thing with thee? any charm which others know not of, to support thee; or any secret sin, which being indulged prevents the entrance of divine comforts? Note; (1.) Many speak in God's name, whom he never sent; and would interest him in their quarrel, though he disowns any relation to them. (2.) The consolations of God are what an afflicted soul wants above all things; with these every trial is lightened; without them, every burden is grievous. (3.) Allowed sin necessarily cuts off the sources of true comfort.

5. He charges him with insolence against God. Why doth thine heart carry thee away? like an unruly horse, which refuses bit or bridle; and what do thine eyes wink at? Why so contemptuous of us? or what is thy aim and intention in those hard speeches of thine, that thou turnest thy spirit against God, as if daring to contend with him, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth? arraigning his wisdom, justice, and providence. It must be owned, that Job had given some handle for this charge, chap. Job 9:12 Job 10:3 Job 13:22 but Eliphaz draws a sudden temptation into a settled enmity and opposition against God, exaggerates the evil, and makes no allowance for Job's heavy afflictions, nor any account of the expressions of unfeigned piety which he constantly mingles with his most impatient complaints.

6. From the glaring proofs of man's original corruption, Eliphaz would infer Job's falsehood in his self-vindication. What is man that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? If the saints in glory are not trusted by him, and the bright heavens are not clean in his sight, how much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water? as naturally disposed to it, as the appetite craves for food, and swallows it as greedily and copiously as those who are parched with thirst do the cooling draught. Note; (1.) Man is naturally disposed to evil, and only evil, and that continually. (2.) Indulgence in sin makes our bestial appetites only the more craving. (3.) Sin is the abominable thing which God hates, and will assuredly punish, unless the soul be washed in that blood of Jesus which alone can make us clean.

2nd, Eliphaz proceeds with his arguments, which are as weak as his reproaches are unjust. He insists that the wicked are always miserable; and Job's sufferings, therefore, are to him a sufficient proof of his guilt.
1. He bespeaks Job's attention; I will shew thee, hear me, something worth notice, and not such unprofitable talk as he had declared his to be, Job 15:3. He had claimed antiquity for his voucher, and professed to speak not more his own sentiments, than the traditions of the wisest and best of men, who were as great as they were good; and no stranger passed among them, either to share their blessings, or, as robbers, to plunder them; but their prosperity, the reward of their piety, was uninterrupted: in which he seems to glance at Job, unlike them in prosperity, and therefore unlike them in piety.

2. He describes the wicked man, and his constant misery, wherein, though he speaks in a third person throughout, it is easy to see that the application is designed for Job himself. He draws the character of the wicked man, as daring in iniquity, fearless of God's threatenings, mocking at his wrath as a bugbear, and, as a combatant in arms, rushing on the thick bosses of his buckler, as if defying his power. In ease and luxury he riots, fed to the full, fattened as an ox in a rich pasture, gratifying every lust, and ministering to the cravings of a pampered appetite. By oppression he enlarges his habitation, and, having seized the houses of others, makes desolations around him, as if he would dwell alone in the earth, to enjoy the fruits of his ill-gotten abundance. Note; (1.) God is patient toward daring sinners; but their time of ruin is at hand. (2.) Sensual appetite is the soul's ruin, and fleshly indulgence stupifies the conscience against all fear of God, or sense of danger.

3. The misery of the wicked man is largely described. His mischievous devices cost him much painful thought, his conscience feels at times the pangs of guilt; and short is the reign of iniquity. Terror haunts him, a dreadful found is in his ears, a fearful looking-for of judgment. In the midst of his prosperity, some calamity sweeps away his wealth, or disease embitters all his portion, and Death seizes him as his prey. In his afflictions he sinks under despair, and in hell it will be the consummation of his misery. The sword of vengeance hangs terrible over him, threatening each moment to fall. Reduced to beggary, he wanders, famished with hunger, and none give unto him. The day of death approaching scares him, and still more the dreadful darkness which obscures his prospect beyond the grave. Increasing troubles expected distress him; eternal anguish in his view dismays him; and, unable to resist, as a man before an armed host, he falls a prey to his own fears. Poor in the midst of his abundance, his covetousness and carking care withhold from him enjoyment; or, squandered on his lusts, he wastes quickly his ill-gotten wealth: at least, his possessions are transitory and vanishing as a dream. His afflictive dispensations are without any prospect of an end; his children, like withered branches struck with lightning, die around him; and, at last, himself is cut off by the blasts of God's displeasure. Deluded by Satan to trust in present vanities, he finds a lie in his right-hand: let others see and dread such fatal delusion! An immature death shall seize him, before the time that his vain hope suggested; and, like a dry stick, all his wealth, family, and friends, shall perish before him, or forsake him. Stripped by the tempest of wrath, like the unripe grape, or the flower of the olive, he shall see the desolation of all that was dear to him. Though hand join in hand, the congregation of the hypocrites shall be desolate: vain will be their pretexts of religion, when God comes to detect and punish them; his fire will consume the tabernacles of the wicked magistrates, where bribery and corruption dwelt. Thus shall the mischief, craft, and falsehood of the wicked return upon his own head, and vanity, vexation, and ruin, be his only portion. Throughout all this description he seems to keep Job in his eyes; whose losses, calamities, afflictions in his children, family, substance, and person, he would intimate, proved him to be this wicked man, this oppressor and hypocrite. Note; (1.) It is true, the curse of God is upon the houses of the wicked, and sometimes, though not always, visible in this world. (2.) The happiest sinner has inward terrors, which all his enjoyments cannot sooth or chase away. (3.) A dying hour and judgment-day, at farthest, will verify all that is here asserted of the wicked, and much more.