Opening the second cycle of dialogue, Eliphaz reacts to Job’s stubborn contention that he is in the right and the deity in the wrong. First, he berates Job for claiming to have received a divine revelation, parodying Job’s report of the spirit’s message in 4:17–19 in verses 14–16. (The failure of almost all interpreters to recognize this leads to their missing the point of the discourse and to the widespread mistranslation of several verses, contrary to the normal meanings of the words.) Then Eliphaz counters Job’s denial of just retribution by citing ostensibly traditional sayings, enumerating the misfortunes attending the wicked. Both arguments of Eliphaz extend statements he had made in the first round (5:1 and 8; and 4:8–11, respectively). Eliphaz may be understood benevolently to be warning Job to repent before it is too late.
[15:1] Up spoke Eliphaz the Teimanite, and he said:
[2–3] Does a sage1 utter such windy speech,
And fill his belly with an east wind,
Arguing a case to no advantage,
With words that bring no benefit?
[4] You go so far as to abrogate piety,
And expropriate talk from the presence of El.2
[5–6] For your own mouth denounces your crime,
As you adopt a devious tongue.
Your own mouth condemns you, not I;
Your own lips testify against you.3
[7] Are you the first human to have been born?
Were you engendered before the hills?4
[8] Have you been listening in the divine council,
Expropriating wisdom to yourself?
[9–10] What do you know that we do not know,
That you understand—but not intelligible to us?5
With us are the gray-haired and aged—
Greater in years than your father.
[11] Are the consolations of these (men)6 too few for you—
That you (claim to) have7 a secret word?8
[12–13] How your heart carries you away,
And how haughty are your eyes,9
That you answer El with your wind,10
And out of your mouth put forth such words:11
[14–16] “What is a mortal that he be rendered-pure?
That a man born of a woman12 be found-right?
If he13 puts no trust in his holy ones,14
And the heavens15 are not pure in his eyes,
All the more one detested and depraved,16
Who drinks corruption as though it were water!”17
[17–18] I will declare to you—listen to me!
What I have seen18—I’ll recount to you.
What the sages have revealed
And did not conceal from our ancestors:19
[19] “To them alone20 was the land given,21
And no alien has passed among them.22
[20–21] The wicked all his days is caught up in a tempest,23
And the years in store for the terrible are few.
The sound of the frightful is ever in his ears,
Even in peace-time, the marauder overtakes him.24
[22–23] He’ll not again feel secure25 in the dark,
And he’s destined for the sword.
He’s ordained to be food for the vulture,26
He knows a dark day is set firm for him.
[24] Hostility terrifies him27 and distress attacks him,
Like a king fitted out for the fray.”
[25–27] Because he bent his arm toward El,28
And played the warrior against Shaddai,29
Would run against him with strong neck,30
With his thickly plated armor—
Because he has covered his face with fat,31
And put blubber32 over his sinews,
[28] Now he must dwell in ruined towns,
In uninhabitable houses,
Fated to be mounds.
[29] He will not be rich,33
His substance will not last,
And his wealth will not grow.34
[30] He cannot move out of the dark,35
Fierce heat dries up his shoot,36
He’s removed by the wind of his mouth.37
[31] Let him not trust in salvation,38
For it will prove false.39
[32–33] His palm tree40 will wither41 before its time,
And his foliage will not thrive.
He sheds his unripened fruit like a grapevine,
Casts off his blossoms like an olive tree.
[34] For the impudent’s company is sterile and lone,42
As fire consumes the tents of graft.
[35] They conceive travail and give birth to suffering;43
Their own bellies44 generate deceit.
1. In the preceding discourse (especially chapters 12 and 14), Job had sought to demonstrate his familiarity with wisdom sayings and images.
2. That is, the divine council. Only prophets can participate in the heavenly council (see Jeremiah 23:22). The plain meaning of this verse, missed by virtually all preceding translators, is evident from verse 8 below. Job claimed to have heard the report from a member of the divine council in 4:12–21. The fact that that passage is misplaced in the book (see there) is clear from what Eliphaz says in this chapter. Eavesdropping on conversations in heaven is regarded as a severe offense; compare the Qur’an 37:35, where those listening in on divine dialogue are destined for meteor and comet attacks.
3. Your admission of listening in on divine conversation demonstrates your transgressive inclination. Eliphaz counters Job’s claim that God’s mouth indicts him unjustly (see 9:20).
4. Only someone present at the creation could have direct knowledge of God and God’s ways; see Proverbs 8:22–31, verse 25 of which is quoted here by Eliphaz.
5. Literally, “not with us”—a pun on “people-of-intelligence” in 12:2. Eliphaz counters Job’s claims in 12:3 and 13:1–2.
6. For the short form of “these” (not “El”—who is not known to have comforted Job!), see for example Genesis 19:25; 26:3 (Gersonides).
7. “Have”—literally, “is with you”—a play on “is not with (intelligible to) us” in verse 10 above.
8. An allusion to 4:12.
9. Reading yerumun “are elevated”; see Proverbs 6:17; 30:13 (Luzzatto).
10. Compare verse 2 above. It is a formulaic reference to speech; see 35:4.
11. A clear introduction to direct discourse; see 8:10 and the preface to this speech. Eliphaz is mocking Job.
12. Echoing Job in 14:1; compare 25:4.
13. The reference to the deity without a nearby antecedent demonstrates that the passage is based on 4:17–19, where the mention of God is explicit.
14. The angels; see 5:1 and the comment there.
15. A metonym for the angels; see Job 25:5.
16. Compare Psalm 14:1–3. Eliphaz’s characterization of humanity pushes Job’s satirically; Job had only said (in the name of the spirit) that humans were flawed and mortal, not altogether decadent.
17. Compare the image in 34:7.
18. Eliphaz’s reference to “seeing” is no more than a cliché of traditional wisdom; compare 4:8.
19. Reading ’aboteinu for the traditional text’s nonsensical ’abotam “their ancestors.” The letters nw were written close together and misread as final mem; compare at 8:8.
20. To the righteous, the antithesis of the wicked. The antecedent of “them” is missing because Eliphaz is quoting an excerpt from a known context.
21. Contra Job’s contention that “the land has been given to the hand of the wicked” (9:24).
22. And profaned the land; see Joel 4:17.
23. Literally, “he whirls.” An allusion to Jeremiah 23:19, the only other place this unusual verb form occurs, in which a “whirling storm” is said to befall the wicked.
24. An echo of Job’s quoted wisdom in 12:6.
25. The same expression as “puts no trust” in verse 15 above.
26. Reading no‘ad for noded “wandering”; and ’ayyah for ’ayyeh “where?” with support of the Old Greek translation.
27. Reading the verb as written as a singular, and joining the following verb to the noun that precedes it. The second verb echoes Job’s usage in 14:20.
28. Eliphaz turns from platitudes to an elaboration of the last image.
29. Taking a divine prerogative; see Isaiah 42:13. There is a subtle allusion to Job’s having characterized himself at the outset as a “man” (geber), cognate to “warrior” (gibbor).
30. A figure for arrogance; compare the phrase “strong neck” in Psalm 75:6.
31. That is, acted rebelliously; see Deuteronomy 32:15.
32. An Arabic borrowing.
33. It is possible that Eliphaz resumes his quotation of traditional wisdom, which reminds one of Bildad’s citation of conventional imagery in chapter 8. Verse 35 below is a virtual quotation of Psalm 7:15.
34. Literally, “their wealth will not extend over the land.” The term for “wealth” is borrowed from Babylonian nēmelu with metathesis.
35. The next clause makes clear that the image is of the wicked as a hapless plant; see 8:11–15.
36. An echo of Job’s use of the term in 14:7.
37. See 4:9. The reference to the deity is implicit by dint of the allusion.
38. Reading the sequence b-sh-w n-t-‘-h as a single word, partly corrupted: bitshu‘ah. For the idiom, see Psalms 78:22; 146:3.
39. Compare Psalms 60:13 and 108:12 for the phrase “and false is human salvation.”
40. Attaching the last word of the preceding verse and reading timorato “his palm tree” (see 1 Kings 6:29, 32, 35, with support from the ancient Greek translation) for temurato “his recompense.”
41. Reading timmal “it will wither”; see 18:16 and compare Abraham ibn Ezra’s commentary.
42. See 3:7 with the note.
43. An echo of 5:7 and a virtual quotation of Isaiah 59:4 and especially Psalm 7:15.
44. Connoting “womb, bowels,” as in 3:10–11 and elsewhere.