Job — Chapter 15

Respondens autem Eliphaz Themanites

On Eliphaz's second attack — charging Job with pride and impiety: In this second round of speeches, Eliphaz escalates his accusations. He charges Job with subverting the fear of God (v. 4), with his iniquity teaching his mouth (v. 5), and his lips testifying against him (v. 6). Corderius notes the structure of this second session of the debate: three sessions in the book, each involving Eliphaz, Baldad, and Sophar; Eliphaz always speaks first as the eldest. On vv. 1-3: the question "Will a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?" — this is genuine irony, matching Job's irony from ch. 12. The friends and Job now engage in a sophisticated rhetorical combat. On v. 4: "Yea, thou makest devotion of none effect" — Corderius interprets: Eliphaz accuses Job of implicitly denying divine justice, which he says is the logical consequence of Job's position (that the innocent can suffer unjustly). Corderius defends Job: his position does not subvert the fear of God but deepens it by acknowledging that divine ways transcend human categories.

Numquid primus homo tu natus es

On Eliphaz's deflation of Job's pretensions: "Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills? Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us?" Corderius notes that Eliphaz is alluding to the mythological tradition of a primordial wise man (perhaps connected to the Adamic tradition or the figure of the wise man who was in Eden, Ezek. 28:12-14). The reference to "the council of God" (sod El) is interpreted as the divine deliberative assembly — no human has direct access to this; only the prophets receive mediated revelations. Corderius develops the proper humility of the theologian: divine mysteries are revealed, not discovered; the theologian's task is faithful reception and ordered transmission, not independent speculation. On v. 11: "Are the consolations of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you?" — Corderius reads this as an inadvertent criticism of the friends themselves: if Job is not consoled, it is partly because the consolations offered are inadequate, too theoretical, too cold.

Quid est homo ut immaculatus sit

On the universal sinfulness of man: "What is man that he should be without blemish, and he that is born of woman that he should appear just? Behold among his saints none is unchangeable, and the heavens are not pure in his sight. How much more is man abominable and unprofitable, who drinketh iniquity like water?" Corderius treats this as one of the most important theological propositions in the book. On v. 15: "among his saints none is unchangeable" — Corderius gives the patristic understanding: this refers not to moral corruption of the angels but to creaturely changeability (mutability) as opposed to divine immutability. God alone is simply and infinitely holy; all creatures, even the highest angels, are holy only by participation and could in principle fall. On v. 16: "man who drinks iniquity like water" — a strong image for the almost natural proclivity of fallen humanity toward sin; not that sin is inevitable but that without grace it is the default tendency of a wounded nature.

Ostendam tibi audi me quod vidi

On Eliphaz's description of the fate of the wicked: "I will show you; hear me, and what I have seen I will declare — what wise men have told, without hiding it, from their fathers." Corderius notes that the subsequent description of the wicked man's misery (vv. 20-35) is a genuinely impressive theological poem, even if misapplied to Job. On v. 20: "The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless" — the interior torment of the guilty conscience. Corderius develops the psychology of sin: the sinner is never at peace; he always fears discovery, always suspects treachery, always hears imaginary threats (v. 21: "a sound of terror is in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him"). On v. 31: "Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his payment" — Corderius develops the theology of vanity (vanitas vanitatum): sin promises what it cannot deliver; the sinner is paid in the same currency he worshiped. On v. 35: "They conceive trouble and bring forth evil, and their womb prepares deceit" — the inversion of the natural order: instead of giving birth to life, the wicked generate destruction.