John Gill Commentary Job 15

Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite
Or, who was of Teman, as the Targum, the first of Job's friends and comforters, the oldest of them, who first began the dispute with him; which was carried on by his two other companions, who had spoken in their turns; and now in course it fell to him to answer a second time, as he here does,

and said ,
as follows.

Should a wise man utter vain knowledge As Job had been thought to be, or as he himself thought he was, which he might say sarcastically; or as he really was, not worldly wise, nor merely wise in things natural, but in things divine; being one that had the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom, and wisdom itself; believed in Christ, and walked wisely and circumspectly before men.

Now it is not becoming such a man to utter vain knowledge, or such knowledge as is like the wind, or, as the Targum, windy knowledge; empty, not solid, nor satisfying, but swells and puffs up, and is knowledge falsely so called.

But it does not appear that Job did utter such vain and fruitless things as deserved to be compared to the wind:

and fill his belly with the east wind ; which is noisy and blusterous, rapid and forcible, bearing all before it, and very infectious in hot countries.

And such notions Job, according to Eliphaz, satisfied himself with, and endeavoured to insinuate them into others; which were nothing but great swelling words of vanity, and tended to subvert the faith of men, and overthrow all religion, and were very unwholesome, infectious, and ruinous to the minds of men, as suggested.

Should he reason with unprofitable talk ?
That is, the wise man, such a man as Job; does it become him to talk such idle stuff? that which is false, and foolish, and frothy, that does not minister grace to the hearer, and is not for the use of edifying; as whatever is untrue, unwise, vain, and empty, must be useless and answer no good end;

nothing is profitable but what tends to increase solid wisdom and spiritual knowledge, and to exercise grace, and influence an holy life; wherefore what are profitable to the souls of men are the doctrines of the word of God, and the experiences of the grace of God, communicated by his people one to another; and nothing but these, or what agrees with them, should come out of the mouth of a wise and good man; nor can such an one expect to convince men of their errors, or reprove them for their sins with success, who deals in words of no profit:

or with speeches wherewith he can do no good ?
but may do a great deal of hurt both to himself and others; but the same thing is here signified in different words,

Yea, thou castest off fear
Not of man; a slavish fear of man is to be cast off, because that brings a snare, deters men from their duty, and leads into sin; though there is a fear and reverence of men which ought to be given to them, "fear to whom fear", (Romans 13:7); but here the fear of God is meant, which is to be understood of the grace of fear, of which Job was possessed; that could not be cast off, for this is not what is in a man naturally, or is by the light of nature, and arises from natural conviction, which may be cast off, as was by Pharaoh; but this is a blessing of the covenant of grace, sure and firm, and is one of the gifts of grace that are without repentance; it is a part of internal grace, which can never be lost; it is improved and increased by fresh discoveries of the grace and goodness of God, and is an antidote and preservative against apostasy.

Perhaps the whole worship of God may be meant, external worship, or outward religion in the form of it, which is sometimes signified by the fear of God: (Ecclesiastes 12:14) (Isaiah 29:13); and it is cast off when it is neglected and not attended to, or when men become profane, after they have made a profession of religion.

But as neither of these can be thought to be the case of Job, rather the meaning of Eliphaz may be, that Job did not show that reverence to God he should, as his words may seem, in (Job 13:20–22); or that by your way of talk and reasoning, and by the notions he had imbibed and gave out, and the assertions he laid down, all religion would be made void among men; for if, as he had said, God "destroys the perfect and the wicked, [and] the tabernacles of robbers prosper, [and] the just men are laughed to scorn", (Job 9:22) (Job 12:4Job 12:6); who would fear God? it might be inferred from hence, that it is a vain thing to serve him, and there can be no profit got by keeping his ordinances, and walking before him; this is the way to put an end to all religion, as if Eliphaz should say, and discourage all regard unto it:

and restrainest prayer before God ;
prayer is to be made to God and to him only, it is a part of religious worship, directed to by the light of nature, and ought to be performed by every man; it is a special privilege of the saints, who have a covenant God on a throne of grace to go to, and can pray in a spiritual manner for spiritual things; and especially is to be observed in times of trouble, in which Job now was, and never to be disused;

Now this charge either respects Job himself, that he left off praying, which can hardly be supposed; or that he drew out prayer to a great length, as some understand the words ^F23 , like the tautologies of the Heathen; or he diminished prayer, as others ^F24 , lessened the times of prayer, and the petitions in it: or rather it may respect others; not that it can be thought he should lay his injunctions on those over whom he had any authority, forbidding his servants, or those about him, to pray; but that by his manner of reasoning he discouraged prayer, as Eliphaz thought, as an useless thing; for if God laughs at the trials and afflictions of the innocent, and suffers wicked men to prosper, who would pray to him, or serve him? see (Job 9:23) (12:6) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F23: (ergt) "tulisti", V. L. "traheres", Cocceius; "multiplicasti", so some in Bar Tzemach.
• F24: "Imminues", Montanus; "imminuisti", Bolducius; "diminuis", Schmidt; "minuis", Schultens.

For your mouth utters your iniquity
Which was in his heart, and so was an evidence against him, and proved him perverse, and made good the above charges exhibited against him.

Or "your iniquity teaches your mouth" ^F25 ; the wickedness that was in his heart prompted his mouth to speak the things he did, see (Matthew 12:34) ; and this, as it was an instance of his folly, (Proverbs 15:2) ; so a proof of his casting off the fear of the Lord; for if that has been before his eyes, he would have bridled his lips, and not uttered all the wickedness of his heart: for he that "bridles not his tongue, this man's religion is vain", (James 1:26) ;

and you choose the tongue of the crafty ;
coloured over things under specious pretences of religion and godliness, so that the simple and ignorant took him for a holy good man, when he was at heart an hypocrite; in this light Eliphaz puts Job, as one that walked and talked in craftiness, and was a deceitful worker, and imposed upon men with false glosses and plausible pretences.

FOOTNOTES:

• F25: (Kyp Knwe Play) "docuit iniquitas tua os tuum", V. L. Pagninus, Bolducius; "docebit", Montanus; "docet", Piscator, Cocceius; so Tigurine version.