Job 15 · a question people ask
Does the wicked man really suffer all his days, as Eliphaz says?
Eliphaz says so: "the wicked man writhes in pain all his days" (15:20), and "He will not be rich, neither will his substance continue" (15:29). He gives his grounds: "that which I have seen I will declare" (15:17), "which wise men have told by their fathers" (15:18). Other Scripture also speaks of the end of the wicked: "I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil. But he passed away, and behold, he was not" (Psalm 37:35-36). Other Scripture also asks why they prosper: "For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked" (Psalm 73:3), and "Why does the way of the wicked prosper?" (Jeremiah 12:1). Job asks it too, answering the friends: "Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?" (21:7), and "How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out" (21:17). In 15:20-35 Eliphaz doesn't say you, and he never names Job in this speech. The book had told you what the LORD said to Satan about Job's troubles: "you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause" (2:3). What the book says of the friends' words is 42:7. These notes don't make Eliphaz's picture a rule for anyone's life today.
The verses
““I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare (which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it; to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them): the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.”
“He will not be rich, neither will his substance continue, neither will their possessions be extended on the earth.”
“I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil. But he passed away, and behold, he was not. Yes, I sought him, but he could not be found.”
“For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”