link Bottom link Table of Contents link Index to Key Themes link Burning Coal link New Wine Online

open bookCommentary on
The Book of Job

Chapter Twenty-two: Eliphaz Concludes

chapter linkback chapter linknext

[top]

Eliphaz Concludes

Job: chapter 22
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite, answered and said,

2 Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?
3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect?
4 Will he reprove thee for fear of thee? will he enter with thee into judgment?
5 Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite?
6 For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
7 Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.
8 But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; and the honourable man dwelt in it.
9 Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
10 Therefore snares are round about thee, and sudden fear troubleth thee;
11 Or darkness, that thou canst not see; and abundance of waters cover thee.
12 Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!
13 And thou sayest, How doth God know? can he judge through the dark cloud?
14 Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not; and he walketh in the circuit of heaven.
15 Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?
16 Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood:
17 Which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them?
18 Yet he filled their houses with good things: but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
19 The righteous see it, and are glad: and the innocent laugh them to scorn.
20 Whereas our substance is not cut down, but the remnant of them the fire consumeth.
21 Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.
22 Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.
23 If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.
24 Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.
25 Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver.
26 For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God.
27 Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows.
28 Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.
29 When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.
30 He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands.

In his third and last dialog, Eliphaz begins, “Can a man be profitable unto God” (22:2)? For Job is seeking to be justified based on his works. Sad to say, Eliphaz picks up the refrain of his ‘night vision’ now. “Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous” (22:3), he asks. This is exactly how Satan would like us to think. God's only interest is in reproof and condemnation. Eliphaz accuses Job of infinite sin (22:5), or sins without number (Barnes, notes to 22:5). He then goes on to recount imagined wickedness, namely ill-treatment of the poor (22:6-9), which he lays on Job's account. ‘Because of this the Lord has ensnared you’ (22:10), Eliphaz chides with confidence, ‘did you think God could not see?’ (22:12-14).

There is a great deal of confusion concerning the notion of fruit, profit and justification. Job's perfect ways are a delight to God and an irritant to Satan. God not only wants fruit from us, He demands it. “I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be” (Rev. 22:12 & 20:12-13). “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent” (Rev. 2:5). “If it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down” (Luke 13:6-9). The important thing that Job is not understanding is that perfect works do not give him any rights. Our bill of “inalienable rights” is human fabrication. We have no rights before God. The good we do, does not profit God, but if submitted in humility to God, it does profit us, for God does delight in our cheerful obediance.

A minor translation difficulty can be found in verse 11, which Clarke deals with extensively: “The sense of this passage, in the connection that the particle or gives it with the preceding verse, is not easy to be ascertained. To me it seems very probable that a letter has been lost from the first word; and that ô which we translate OR, was originally or LIGHT. The copy used by the Septuagint had certainly this reading; and therefore they translate the verse thus: Thy LIGHT is changed into darkness; that is, Thy prosperity is turned into adversity.

“Houbigant corrects the text thus: instead of o chosech lo tireh, or darkness thou canst not see, he reads chosech lo or tireh, darkness, not light, shalt thou behold; that is, Thou shalt dwell in thick darkness. Mr. Good translates: ‘Or darkness which thou canst not penetrate, and a flood of waters shall cover thee.’ Thou shalt either be enveloped in deep darkness, or overwhelmed with a flood” (Clarke, note on 22:11; NET Bible, footnote to 22:11).

We Who are Not Cut Down

Verses 15 and 16 appear to be a reference to the flood, God's ultimate reproof for the wicked. The wicked, turning their back on Noah, “Which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them?” (22:17). Eliphaz is describing the wicked who Job states live in comfort (21:7-16), but he says, they were “overflown with a flood” (22:16). Job separates himself from the wicked, stating, “the counsel of the wicked is far from me” (21:16). Eliphaz, meaningfully, attaches Job's statement to the wicked (22:18) who are then laughed to scorn by the righteous (22:19). In a final bit of smugness, Eliphaz adds, “Whereas our substance is not cut down” “the remnant of them the fire consumeth” (22:20), a possible reference to Sodom and Gomorrah. Unfortunately, this could also be a reference to the fire which consumed Job's sheep (1:16).

“Acquaint now thyself with him” (22:21), Eliphaz returns to his earlier theme: if Job turns to God and repents then everything will be set right. “Receive, I pray thee, the law from His mouth, and lay up His words in thine heart” (22:22). The implication that Job is totally ignorant of God is all too clear. While Job's relationship with God is in need of improvement, the three friends are desperately in need of a relationship with God, rather than with their doctrines and creeds. While the three friends become more and more obtuse, Job, who understands Gods character much better than his friends, is beginning to receive morsels of insight into the true nature of his current situation. We will see more of this in the chapter that follows.

You Will Lay Up Gold

“If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up” (22:23), continues Eliphaz, “Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks” (22:24). The glitter of gold and the consuming fire (22:20) for the wicked, occupy Eliphaz's thought. Where Bildad shows us a home and hearth insularity, and Zophar is academic in his approach, Eliphaz is worldly. His arguments are large, colorful and widely varied. This is likely why he takes the leadership. Gold, silver and precious stones dance in his imagery.

In an odd moment of seeming prescience Eliphaz says, “When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person” (22:29). “And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Matt. 23:12; also: Luke 14:11 & 18:14, James 1:9, 1 Pet. 5:6). Unknown to Eliphaz, who clearly has Job cast in the role of the humbled one, Job is to take the place of Eliphaz'sintercessor. When you [Job] say, ‘there is lifting up’, then the humbled person is saved. In a translation note, the “island” of verse 30, “He shall deliver the island of the innocent”, is an apparent mistranslation. “The word rendered island ('îy) commonly means, indeed, an island, or a maritime country; [Barnes note to Isa. 20:6]. It is, however, used as a ‘negative’ in 1 Sam. 4:21, in the name ‘I-chabod’–'îy-kâbôd...It is probably an abbreviated form of ('ayîn) ‘not, nothing’” (Barnes, notes to 22:30). Therefore the NIV Bible reads: “He will deliver even one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.” (22:30, NIV). Eliphaz cannot imagine at this point that he is one who is ‘not innocent’ and that ironically he will be delivered by the cleanness of Job's hands. This is not intended to be prophecy, but is further expostulation on Eliphaz's part.

Job sees fire and gold in an entirely different light from that of Eliphaz. Job isn't ready to comprehend the gold that is coming. The gold that he is to receive will give him the ability to deliver Eliphaz from wrath, turning back-handed encouragement into genuine prophecy. But first Job returns to his lament.


chapter linkback chapter linknext
*All Bible quotes are from the King James Version unless otherwise indicated.



link Top link Table of Contents link Index to Key Themes link Burning Coal link New Wine Online
Copyright © 2003 Wm W Wells.