Job 15 · WEB
Eliphaz's Second Speech: You Condemn Yourself
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Summary
In his second speech, Eliphaz drops any remaining gentleness. He attacks Job's claims of innocence directly: your own words condemn you; you speak like a crafty man. He appeals to tradition — wise men far older than Job say the wicked suffer. Were you born first? Did you sit in God's council? Why do you limit wisdom to yourself? Then he delivers a long description of the fate of the wicked — unending terror, darkness, destruction, barrenness. The implication is clear and merciless: this is Job's portrait.
Themes
- The escalation from counsel to accusation in the friends' responses
- The abuse of tradition and precedent to silence the suffering
- The human inability to stand before God as proof of guilt
Key verses
- Job 15:14 — “What is man, that he could be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous?”
- Job 15:5-6 — “Your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty. Your own mouth condemns you, and not I.”
- Job 15:8 — “Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?”
Context & background
The friends' speeches escalate over the three cycles — each becomes harsher and more accusatory. Eliphaz began gently in chapter 4-5; now in chapter 15 he is essentially calling Job a liar. His appeal to "secret counsel of God" (v. 8) is ironic — the reader knows the heavenly court scene of chapters 1-2, which is exactly the kind of secret counsel Eliphaz doesn't know. Job's speeches have been read by Eliphaz as evidence of sinfulness: the way you talk proves you're guilty. The description of the wicked man's fate (vv. 20-35) is vivid poetry — but it is being applied as a verdict against Job, and the reader knows it is wrong.
Cross-references
- 1 John 1:10 — "If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar" — a real concern that Eliphaz overapplies
- Job 4-5 — Eliphaz's first speech; comparing reveals the escalating harshness
- Job 42:7 — God's final rebuke of Eliphaz for not speaking what is right
- Psalm 14:1-3 — "They have all turned aside... there is none who does good" — similarly universal, but used differently
- Romans 3:10 — "There is none righteous, no, not one" — the general principle Eliphaz applies without nuance