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Job 15 · a question people ask

Had Job done away with the fear of God?

In the text

Eliphaz says he had: "Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God" (15:4), and he asks why Job would "turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth" (15:13). Job had spoken hard words to God: "I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul" (7:11), and "I desire to reason with God" (13:3). He had also said, "Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him" (13:15). The book opened with Job as "one who feared God" (1:1), and said, after his first losses and his sores, "In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips" (2:10). When the LORD answers Job, he asks, "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?" (38:2); Job answers, "I have uttered that which I didn’t understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know" (42:3); and the LORD says to Eliphaz, "you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has" (42:7). The book sets these side by side and doesn't explain how they fit, and these notes don't either.

The verses

“Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.”
Job 15:4 · World English Bible
“that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?”
Job 15:13 · World English Bible
““Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.”
Job 7:11 · World English Bible
““Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God.”
Job 13:3 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Job 15

Job 15: Your own mouth condemns you

Eliphaz's "Your own mouth condemns you" (15:6) is nearly Job's own "my own mouth will condemn me" (9:20), and his "he puts no trust in his holy ones" (15:15) is nearly what the voice in the night had said (4:18), now said by Eliphaz himself.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions