Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Job
Book: Job
Chapter: 15
Overview:
Eliphaz reproves
Job.
(1-16) The unquietness of wicked men.
(17-35)
1-16 Eliphaz begins a second attack upon
Job, instead of being
softened
By his complaints. He unjustly charges
Job with casting
off the fear of
God, and all regard to him, and restraining
Prayer. See in what religion is summed up, fearing
God, and
praying to him; the former the most needful principle, the
latter the most needful practice.
Eliphaz charges
Job with
self-conceit. He charges him with contempt of the counsels and
comforts given him
By his friends. We are apt to think that
which we ourselves say is important, when others, with reason,
think little of it. He charges him with opposition to
God.
Eliphaz ought not to have
Put harsh constructions upon the words
of one
Well known for
Piety, and now in
Temptation. It is
Plain
that these disputants were deeply convinced of the doctrine of
original
Sin, and the total depravity of human nature. Shall we
not admire the patience of
God in bearing with us? and still
more his
Love to us in the
Redemption of
Christ Jesus his
beloved Son?
17-35 Eliphaz maintains that the wicked are certainly
miserable: whence he would infer, that the miserable are
certainly wicked, and therefore
Job was
So. But because many of
God's people have prospered in this world, it does not therefore
follow that those who are crossed and made
Poor, as
Job, are not
God's people.
Eliphaz shows also that wicked people,
particularly oppressors, are subject to continual terror, live
very uncomfortably, and perish very miserably. Will the
prosperity of presumptuous sinners
End miserably as here
described? Then let the mischiefs which befall others, be our
warnings. Though
No chastening for the present seemeth to be
joyous, but grievous, nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the
peaceable fruits of
Righteousness to them that are exercised
thereby.
No calamity,
No trouble, however heavy, however severe,
can rob a follower of the
Lord of his favour. What shall
separate him from the
Love of
Christ?