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collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)
JFB: Job 15:34 - -- Rather, The binding together of the hypocrites (wicked) shall be fruitless [UMBREIT].
Rather, The binding together of the hypocrites (wicked) shall be fruitless [UMBREIT].

JFB: Job 15:34 - -- Namely, dwellings of unjust judges, often reprobated in the Old Testament (Isa 1:23). The "fire of God" that consumed Job's possessions (Job 1:16) Eli...

JFB: Job 15:35 - -- Bitter irony, illustrating the "unfruitfulness" (Job 15:34) of the wicked. Their conceptions and birthgivings consist solely in mischief, &c. (Isa 33:...
Clarke: Job 15:34 - -- The congregation of hypocrites -
11. Job is here classed with hypocrites, or rather the impious of all kinds. The congregation, or...
The congregation of hypocrites -
11. Job is here classed with hypocrites, or rather the impious of all kinds. The congregation, or

Clarke: Job 15:34 - -- Fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery -
12. Another insinuation against Job, that he had perverted justice and judgment, a...
Fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery -
12. Another insinuation against Job, that he had perverted justice and judgment, and had taken bribes.

Clarke: Job 15:35 - -- They conceive mischief - The figure here is both elegant and impressive. The wicked conceive mischief, from the seed which Satan sows in their heart...
They conceive mischief - The figure here is both elegant and impressive. The wicked conceive mischief, from the seed which Satan sows in their hearts; in producing which they travail with many pangs, (for sin is a sore labor), and at last their womb produces fraud or deception. This is an accursed birth, from an iniquitous conception. St. James gives the figure at full length, most beautifully touched in all its parts: When lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death; Jam 1:15 (note), where see the note. Poor Job! what a fight of affliction had he to contend with! His body wasted and tortured with sore disease; his mind harassed by Satan; and his heart wrung with the unkindness, and false accusations of his friends. No wonder he was greatly agitated, often distracted, and sometimes even thrown off his guard. However, all his enemies were chained; and beyond that chain they could not go. God was his unseen Protector, and did not suffer his faithful servant to be greatly moved.
TSK: Job 15:34 - -- the congregation : Job 8:13, Job 20:1, Job 27:8, Job 36:13; Isa 33:14, Isa 33:15; Mat 24:51
the tabernacles : Job 11:14, Job 12:6, Job 22:5-9, Job 29:...

collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)
Barnes: Job 15:34 - -- For the congregation of hypocrites - The word rendered "congregation"here ( עדה ‛êdâh ) means properly an appointed meeting; a me...
For the congregation of hypocrites - The word rendered "congregation"here (
And fire shall consume - This has all the appearance of being a proverb. The meaning is, that they who received a bribe would be certainly punished.
The tabernacles of bribery - The tents or dwellings of those who receive bribes, and who therefore are easily corrupted, and have no solid principles. There is probably an allusion here to Job; and no doubt Eliphaz meant to apply this severe remark to him. Job was a Sheik, an Emir, a head of a tribe, and, therefore, a magistrate; see Job 29:7, seq. Yet a part of his possessions and servants had been cut off by fire from heaven Job 1:16; and Eliphaz means probably to imply that it had been because he had been guilty of receiving a bribe. This ancient proverb declared that the dwellings of the man who could be bribed would be consumed by fire; and now he presumes that the fact that Job had been visited by the fire of heaven was full proof that he had been guilty in this manner. It was about on principles such as these that the reasoning of the friends of Job was conducted.

Barnes: Job 15:35 - -- They conceive mischief - The meaning of this verse is, that they form and execute plans of evil. It is the characteristic of such men that they...
They conceive mischief - The meaning of this verse is, that they form and execute plans of evil. It is the characteristic of such men that they form such plans and live to execute them, and they must abide the consequences. All this was evidently meant for Job; and few things could be more trying to a man’ s patience than to sit and hear those ancient apothegms, designed to describe the wicked, applied so unfeelingly to himself.
Poole: Job 15:34 - -- The congregation i.e. their children, and servants, and friends, and dependents.
Desolate i.e. utterly destroyed. Fire , i.e. some eminent and ter...
The congregation i.e. their children, and servants, and friends, and dependents.
Desolate i.e. utterly destroyed. Fire , i.e. some eminent and terrible judgment of God, which is oft expressed by fire; as Isa 9:19 26:11 .
The tabernacles of bribery i.e. which were either built or maintained by extortion and bribery, and suchlike unrighteous courses, whereof they thought Job guilty, Job 22:8 .

Poole: Job 15:35 - -- They conceive mischief i.e. they devise and contrive injurious and pernicious enterprises against others.
Vanity or iniquity, or injury, or trouble...
They conceive mischief i.e. they devise and contrive injurious and pernicious enterprises against others.
Vanity or iniquity, or injury, or trouble ; either,
1. To others; they execute what they had contrived. Or,
2. To themselves; the mischief they designed for others falleth upon their own heads, and they reap what they sowed. And their belly , i.e. their inward parts, their hearts and minds. See Poole "Job 15:2" .
Prepareth deceit either,
1. For others, whom they design to cheat; or,
2. For themselves, who whilst they seek to deceive others, shall find that they themselves are most deceived, as being deprived of all their desires and hopes wherewith they fed themselves, and cast into all those calamities which they thought to prevent by these artifices.
Haydock: Job 15:34 - -- Congregation, or family. ---
Bribes. Literally, "presents," which (Haydock) frequently were not given freely, but extorted as a real tribute. (Ca...
Congregation, or family. ---
Bribes. Literally, "presents," which (Haydock) frequently were not given freely, but extorted as a real tribute. (Calmet) ---
Septuagint, "for the death of the wicked is a martyrdom," or proof of his impiety. "But fire shall consume the houses of the present (or bribe) receivers."

Haydock: Job 15:35 - -- Sorrow. Hebrew, "mischief." (Haydock) See Psalm vii. 15., and Isaias xlix. 4. ---
The tree is known by its fruit. Eliphaz sufficiently insinuate...
Sorrow. Hebrew, "mischief." (Haydock) See Psalm vii. 15., and Isaias xlix. 4. ---
The tree is known by its fruit. Eliphaz sufficiently insinuates, that he is speaking of Job. (Calmet) ---
His, or "its," the congregation's womb, ver. 34. Protestants, "their belly." (Haydock)
Gill: Job 15:34 - -- For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate,.... Hypocrites are such who seem to and would be thought to be, what they are not; they are out...
For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate,.... Hypocrites are such who seem to and would be thought to be, what they are not; they are outwardly righteous before men, but inwardly very wicked; have a form of godliness, but are destitute the power of it, 2Ti 3:5; pretend to much religion, and to be worshippers of God, when it is only in outward appearances, and not in reality and sincerity: and such as these have been in the congregations of the righteous, in all ages; but here Eliphaz speaks of a congregation of them, a society, a family of them; and very probably has his eye upon Job's, and would represent hereby that he, the head of his family, and his children, when living, and his servants and associates, were all hypocrites, and now become desolate, reduced to want and poverty, and in distressed circumstances: or were "solitary" i and alone, as the word is rendered in Job 3:7; destitute of friends, and of the comforts of life; and perhaps reference may be had to the future state of such, when they shall aloud be bid to depart from God, have no society with angels and saints, but shall have their portion with those of the same character with them, hypocrites, in the highest degree of torment and misery, Mat 24:51;
and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery; either such tents, or houses, as were built with money taken as bribes; see Hab 2:12; or where such who received bribes dwelt; unjust judges, who took a gift that blinds the eyes, to pervert justice. Job is afterwards by Eliphaz represented as if he was an oppressor, a wicked magistrate, and guilty of such like crimes as here pointed at, Job 22:6; and the "fire" said to consume the dwelling places of such may be understood either of material fire, such as came down from heaven, and destroyed Job's sheep, Job 1:16; or figuratively, the wrath of God often compared to fire, which would appear in one way or another, to the utter ruin of such persons, their habitations, and those that dwelt in them.

Gill: Job 15:35 - -- They conceive mischief,.... That is, such wicked persons as before described; they meditate sin in their minds, and contrive how to commit it, and for...
They conceive mischief,.... That is, such wicked persons as before described; they meditate sin in their minds, and contrive how to commit it, and form schemes within themselves to do mischief to others:
forth vanity; or sin; for lust when it is conceived bringeth forth sin, and that is vanity, an empty thing, and neither yields profit nor pleasure in the issue, but that which is useless and unserviceable, yea, harmful and ruinous; for sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death, even death eternal, Jam 1:14;
and their belly prepareth deceit; their inward part frames and devises that which is designed to deceive others, and in the end proves deceitful to themselves: the allusion is to a pregnant woman, or rather to one who seems to be so, and whose conception proves abortive, and so deceives and disappoints herself and others; see Psa 7:14.

expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes: Job 15:34 Heb “the tents of bribery.” The word “bribery” can mean a “gift,” but most often in the sense of a bribe in court....

NET Notes: Job 15:35 At the start of the speech Eliphaz said Job’s belly was filled with the wind; now it is there that he prepares deception. This inclusio frames t...
Geneva Bible: Job 15:34 For the congregation of hypocrites [shall be] desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of ( x ) bribery.
( x ) Who were built or maintained b...

Geneva Bible: Job 15:35 They ( y ) conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.
( y ) Therefore all their vain devises will turn to their own...

expand allCommentary -- Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis -> Job 15:1-35
TSK Synopsis: Job 15:1-35 - --1 Eliphaz reproves Job for impiety in justifying himself.17 He proves by tradition the unquietness of wicked men.
MHCC -> Job 15:17-35
MHCC: Job 15:17-35 - --Eliphaz maintains that the wicked are certainly miserable: whence he would infer, that the miserable are certainly wicked, and therefore Job was so. B...
Matthew Henry -> Job 15:17-35
Matthew Henry: Job 15:17-35 - -- Eliphaz, having reproved Job for his answers, here comes to maintain his own thesis, upon which he built his censure of Job. His opinion is that tho...
Keil-Delitzsch -> Job 15:31-35
Keil-Delitzsch: Job 15:31-35 - --
31 Let him not trust in evil-he is deceived,
For evil shall be his possession.
32 His day is not yet, then it is accomplished,
And his palm-branc...
Constable: Job 15:1--21:34 - --C. The Second Cycle of Speeches between Job and His Three Friends chs. 15-21
In the second cycle of spee...

Constable: Job 15:1-35 - --1. Eliphaz's second speech ch. 15
Job's responses so far had evidently convinced Eliphaz that Jo...
