Bible Commentaries

The Second Speech of Eliphaz

Job 15:5-6).

Some men are great in parallel columns: they put down upon one side what was said the day before yesterday, and on the other side what was said only yester-morning, and they say, Look on this picture and on that: here is a man who has blown hot and cold, sent forth sweet water and bitter; here is a man between whose utterances there is really no organic or vital consistency. They did not understand Job. His consistency was in his integrity, in his purpose, in his motive, in his character. Herein we do not altogether hold with those who say to preachers, Always be sure to agree with yourselves,—so that the sermon preached twenty years ago shall exactly match in length and in colour the sermon you preach today. No: a man must take the day as he finds it; be the self of the passing day as to utterance, attitude, expression: but he must. be yesterday, today, and for ever the same in holy desire, in upward looking, in waiting upon God. That is consistency enough for any mortal man. Job acknowledged that he was talking roughly and with some measure of incoherence, because he was talking in the dark, he was groping at midnight, and he was almost trying to speak himself into the right kind of music,—as a man who says, By-and-by I shall warm to my subject; by talking about it I shall presently talk the thing itself, by hovering above it I shall get a better aspect of it, and then at the end I shall proclaim the solid and tranquil truth.

But Eliphaz proceeded along a most natural line to accuse Job of downright presumption:—

"Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills? Hast thou heard the secret of God? ... What knowest thou, that we know not? What understandest thou, which is not in us?" ( Job 15:7-9).

A most difficult position to occupy in life,—namely, to know something which the next man does not know, and which he could not understand if he did hear all about it; to attempt his enlightenment would only be a contribution which would end in his regarding the speaker as even wilder and more presumptuous than he had originally supposed him to be. Hast thou been in the cabinet of God? Why this self-exaggeration? You are really setting yourself up above the whole age and manner of things, and this is a conspicuousness which is irreligious; fall down into the common level, and speak like other men. There is a Hindoo proverb which is barbed with the same sarcasm. We are told that the Hindoos say about a man who is well-informed, progressive, almost audacious in thinking, "Yes, this is the first Job 15:14).

As we have said, Eliphaz, as a Temanite, belonged to the Arabic race. The Arabs were always proud of purity of descent, even as to animals; they would have no intermixture; they would stand by the original line, and, be it horse or Job 15:15).

We do God injustice oftentimes by assigning to him an unimaginable holiness. There is a kind of adoration which if not carefully guarded separates God from man too widely. That God is ineffably holy no soul will deny, but there is a way of dwelling upon the holiness of God which may even discourage human penitence. We cannot reach God through the line of holiness. Is there no other word—no softer, shorter, tenderer word? Yea, truly: "God is love." He will not cast out any that come to him upon their knees, their eyes blinded with tears, and their throats choked with sobs of emotion: then he opens heaven's door, and would send all the angels to bid the home-comer welcome to his father's house. We must not, therefore, work altogether along the higher intellectual line of pure reverence, and absolute adoration, and that awe which becomes oppressive, which hides from us the atmosphere in which it has pleased God himself to dwell—an attempered atmosphere suited to human need and human weakness. Let God come as he himself pleases. We must not so drive the mind as to leave the heart in hopeless despair. Say, where you can,—"God is love"; "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"; " Job 15:28). At this point he was dwelling upon the destiny of the wicked; he was delivering a general lecture upon that destiny in the hope that Job would apply the whole of it to himself. The Arabs and other Oriental tribes had a great horror of cities which they supposed to have been cursed by God. Call it superstition—for so it was—but still it had a most energetic effect upon their thought and action. When the caravans were driving through such cities the men never looked round, never said a word to one another, but went on in silence and in terror: for the ban of God lay right across the city. What of those, then, who "dwelt" in desolate cities, as Job was about to do? Job actually built himself a house there, or bought one, and decorated and enjoyed it! "Why," said Eliphaz, "the Arabs will cry out against thee; they go through the desolate place silently, fearsomely,—what will they say if they hear of the patriarch building a house that he may there take up his permanent abode?"

Eliphaz said—"Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompense" ( Job 15:31). A Hebrew pun, a play upon words, not evident upon our English page: If you trust in vanity, you shall have vanity for your wages; if you trust in that which is wrong, you shall have calamity in the end. Vanity brings forth vanity, was the argument of Eliphaz. Then said Genesis 8:11), as we find it the most prominent tree in the earliest allegory ( Judges 9:8-9). With David it is the emblem of prosperity and the divine blessing ( Psalm 52:8); and he compares the children of a righteous man to the "olive-branches round about his table" ( Psalm 128:3). So with the later prophets it is the symbol of beauty, luxuriance, and strength; and hence the symbol of religious privileges: "His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive-tree," are the words in the concluding promise of Hosea ( Hosea 14:6). "The Lord called thy name a green olive-tree, fair, and of goodly fruit," is the expostulation of Jeremiah when he foretells retribution for advantages abused ( Jeremiah 11:16). The olive was among the most abundant and characteristic vegetation of Judaea.... Nor must the flower be passed over without notice:—

"Si bene floruerint oleae, nitidissimus annus."—Ov. Fast. v365.

The wind was dreaded by the cultivator of the olive; for the least ruffling of a breeze is apt to cause the flowers to fall:—

"Florebant oleae: venti nocuere protervi."—Ov. Fast. v321.

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"Art thou the first man that was born?"— Job 15:7

The humbling questions which may be put to men!—The very strongest man is thrown down from his high position by the force of a blow like this.—How difficult it is to be an originator, the very first in the field, the man who had the earliest revelation and the first message to bring from heaven! We cannot get at that man; he is removed from us by a distance we cannot measure.—So when the poet sings he accompanies himself upon a harp which other men made; when a book is published it is only an advance upon a book published long before: when a man puts down upon paper all the knowledge he has acquired, he is bound to say that it was an acquisition and not an origination on his part; he says, in effect, Other men have told me this; whether they are right or wrong, I cannot tell; I merely repeat what I have been told.—We must distinguish between a voice and an echo.—The application of an inquiry of this kind lies in the direction of modifying our infallibility.—As I am not the first man that was born, I am obliged to consult some other man, so that we may come to a common opinion about beginnings, and operations, and issues: he may have seen more than I have seen: he may be better able to express himself than I am: he may have the very thing which I want.—Here is the great principle of traditional knowledge and relative knowledge; and this principle must be recognised in the interpretation of the universe, and even in the interpretation of the Bible.—God takes away from us all privileges which could be ruined into boasting, or he limits those privileges by showing how many other people have shared them, and have borne their elevation in a modest spirit and with a thankful heart.—The question would admit of application in regard to all the worlds into which men are born: for example, a man is born into the world of literature, and there he finds himself crowded by ancestors;—a man is born into the spiritual world, in which he sings and prays, and holds communion with God, and suddenly he feels himself surrounded by an infinite host of fellow-worshippers;—he is born into a world of intellectual activity, and he is surprised at his own mental miracles, and scarcely has he plumed himself upon their originality or novelty when he finds that all he has looked upon as new are the commonplaces of ages forgotten.—Thus there is a subtle action of encouragement, and a concurrent action of humiliation, so that between the two the man's mind may be established in modesty and reason.—We should beware how we go about boasting of our originality, lest the man to whom we speak has given up our novelties as commonplaces he could no longer tolerate.—Thus infallibility goes down; thus all papacy is overthrown; thus all priesthood is dispossessed of authority: we can only live healthfully by mental concession, by discussion, by acknowledgment of indebtedness one to another, and by preserving the fellowship which eventuates in common truths, and sentiments which are sustained by a large common practice.—Never listen to any teacher who claims to be the first man that was born; be thankful for any wise man's word who is willing to regard it as but a contribution to the sum-total; and in proportion as the man refers to his authorities, and endeavours to found his claim upon his own gratitude, rather than upon his own inspiration, have confidence in the elevation of his intention.