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Eliphaz’s Second Speech[a]

15 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

“Does a wise man answer with blustery knowledge,[b]
or fill his belly[c] with the east wind?[d]
Does he argue[e] with useless[f] talk,
with words that have no value in them?
But you even break off[g] piety,[h]
and hinder[i] meditation[j] before God.
Your sin inspires[k] your mouth;
you choose the language[l] of the crafty.[m]
Your own mouth condemns[n] you, not I;
your own lips testify against[o] you.
“Were you the first man ever born?

Were you brought forth before the hills?
Do you listen in on God’s secret council?[p]
Do you limit[q] wisdom to yourself?
What do you know that we don’t know?
What do you understand that we don’t understand?[r]
10 The gray-haired[s] and the aged are on our side,[t]
men far older than your father.[u]
11 Are God’s consolations[v] too trivial for you,[w]
or a word spoken[x] in gentleness to you?
12 Why[y] has your heart carried you away,[z]
and why do your eyes flash,[aa]
13 when you turn your rage[ab] against God
and allow such words to escape[ac] from your mouth?

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Footnotes

  1. Job 15:1 sn In the first round of speeches, Eliphaz had emphasized the moral perfection of God, Bildad his unwavering justice, and Zophar his omniscience. Since this did not bring the expected response from Job, the friends see him as a menace to true religion, and so they intensify their approach. Eliphaz, as dignified as ever, rebukes Job for his arrogance and warns about the judgment the wicked bring on themselves. The speech of Eliphaz falls into three parts: the rebuke of Job for his irreverence (2-6); the analysis of Job’s presumption about wisdom (7-16), and his warning about the fate of the wicked (17-35).
  2. Job 15:2 tn The Hebrew is דַעַת־רוּחַ (daʿat ruakh). This means knowledge without any content, vain knowledge.
  3. Job 15:2 tn The image is rather graphic. It is saying that he puffs himself up with the wind and then brings out of his mouth blasts of this wind.
  4. Job 15:2 tn The word for “east wind,” קָדִים (qadim), is parallel to “spirit/wind” also in Hos 12:2. The east wind is maleficent, but here in the parallelism it is so much hot air.
  5. Job 15:3 tn The infinitive absolute in this place is functioning either as an explanatory adverb or as a finite verb.sn Eliphaz draws on Job’s claim with this word (cf. Job 13:3), but will declare it hollow.
  6. Job 15:3 tn The verb סָכַן (sakhan) means “to be useful, profitable.” It is found 5 times in the book with this meaning. The Hiphil of יָעַל (yaʿal) has the same connotation. E. Lipiński offers a new meaning on a second root, “incur danger” or “run risks” with words, but this does not fit the parallelism (FO 21 [1980]: 65-82).
  7. Job 15:4 tn The word פָּרַר (parar) in the Hiphil means “to annul; to frustrate; to destroy; to break,” and this fits the line quite well. The NEB reflects G. R. Driver’s suggestion of an Arabic cognate meaning “to expel; to banish” (“Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 77).
  8. Job 15:4 tn Heb “fear, reverence.”
  9. Job 15:4 tn The word גָּרַע (garaʿ) means “to diminish,” regard as insignificant, occasionally with the sense of “pull down” (Deut 4:2; 13:1). It is here that Eliphaz is portraying Job as a menace to the religion of society because he dissuades people from seeking God.
  10. Job 15:4 tn The word שִׂיחָה (sikhah) is “complaint; cry; meditation.” Job would be influencing people to challenge God and not to meditate before or pray to him.
  11. Job 15:5 tn The verb אַלֵּף (ʾallef) has the meaning of “to teach; to instruct,” but it is unlikely that the idea of revealing is intended. If the verb is understood metonymically, then “to inspire; to prompt” will be sufficient. Dahood and others find another root, and render the verb “to increase,” reversing subject and object: “your mouth increases your iniquity.”
  12. Job 15:5 tn Heb “tongue.”
  13. Job 15:5 tn The word means “shrewd; crafty; cunning” (see Gen 3:1). Job uses clever speech that is misleading and destructive.
  14. Job 15:6 tn The Hiphil of this root means “declare wicked, guilty” (a declarative Hiphil), and so “condemns.”
  15. Job 15:6 tn The verb עָנָה (ʿanah) with the ל (lamed) preposition following it means “to testify against.” For Eliphaz, it is enough to listen to Job to condemn him.
  16. Job 15:8 tn The meaning of סוֹד (sod) is “confidence.” In the context the implication is “secret counsel” of the Lord God (see Jer 23:18). It is a question of confidence on the part of God, that only wisdom can know (see Prov 8:30, 31). Job seemed to them to claim to have access to the mind of God.
  17. Job 15:8 tn In v. 4 the word meant “limit”; here it has a slightly different sense, namely, “to reserve for oneself.”
  18. Job 15:9 tn The last clause simply has “and it is not with us.” It means that one possesses something through knowledge. Note the parallelism of “know” and “with me” in Ps 50:11.
  19. Job 15:10 tn The participle שָׂב (sav), from שִׂיב (siv, “to have white hair”; 1 Sam 12:2), only occurs elsewhere in the Bible in the Aramaic sections of Ezra. The word יָשִׁישׁ (yashish, “aged”) occurred in 12:12.
  20. Job 15:10 tn Heb “with us.”
  21. Job 15:10 tn The line reads: “[men] greater than your father [in] days.” The expression “in days” underscores their age—they were older than Job’s father, and therefore wiser.
  22. Job 15:11 sn The words of comfort and consolation that they have been offering to Job are here said to be from God, but Job will call them miserable comforters (16:2).
  23. Job 15:11 tn The formula “is it too little for you” or “is it too slight a matter for you” is also found in Isa 7:13 (see GKC 430 §133.c).
  24. Job 15:11 tn The word “spoken” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation.
  25. Job 15:12 tn The interrogative מָה (mah) here has the sense of “why?” (see Job 7:21).
  26. Job 15:12 tn The verb simply means “to take.” The RSV has “carry you away.” E. Dhorme (Job, 212-13) goes further, saying that it implies being unhinged by passion, to be carried away by the passions beyond good sense (pp. 212-13). Pope and Tur-Sinai suggest that the suffix on the verb is datival, and translate it, “What has taken from you your mind?” But the parallelism shows that “your heart” and “your eyes” are subjects.
  27. Job 15:12 tn Here is another word that occurs only here, and in the absence of a completely convincing suggestion, probably should be left as it is. The verb is רָזַם (razam, “wink, flash”). Targum Job and the Syriac equate it with a verb found in Aramaic and postbiblical Hebrew with the same letters but metathesized—רָמַז (ramaz). It would mean “to make a sign” or “to wink.” Budde, following the LXX probably, has “Why are your eyes lofty?” Others follow an Arabic root meaning “become weak.”
  28. Job 15:13 tn The Hebrew is רוּחֶךָ (rukhekha, “your spirit” or “your breath”). But the fact that this is turned “against God,” means that it must be given a derived meaning, or a meaning that is metonymical. It is used in the Bible in the sense of anger—what the spirit vents (see Judg 8:3; Prov 16:32; and Job 4:9 with “blast”).
  29. Job 15:13 tn The verb is a Hiphil perfect of yasa’, “to go out, proceed, issue forth.”

Eliphaz’s Second Response to Job

15 Then[a] Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

“Should the wise answer with windy knowledge,
and should he fill his stomach with the east wind?
Should he argue in talk that is not profitable
or in words with which he cannot do good?
What is worse,[b] you yourself[c] are doing away with fear,
and you are lessening meditation before[d] God.
For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
Your mouth condemns you, and not I;
and your lips testify against you.
“Were you born the firstborn of the human race?
And were you brought forth before[e] the hills?
Have you listened in God’s confidential discussion?
And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
What do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that is not clear to us?
10 Both the gray-haired and the old are among us—
those older than your father.[f]
11 “Are the consolations of God too small for you,
a word spoken gently with you?
12 Why does your heart carry you away?
And why do your eyes flash,
13 that you turn your spirit against God,
and you let such words go out of your mouth?

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Footnotes

  1. Job 15:1 Hebrew “And”
  2. Job 15:4 Literally “Also,” or “Even”
  3. Job 15:4 Emphatic personal pronoun
  4. Job 15:4 Literally “to the faces of”
  5. Job 15:7 Literally “to the faces of”
  6. Job 15:10 Literally “more aged than your father in days”