Chap. 15
Verses 1-6
Job 15:1-6 1 Then began Eliphaz the Temanite, and said: 2 Doth a wise man utter vain knowledge,
And fill his breast with the east wind? 3 Contending with words, that profit not,
And speeches, by which no good is done? 4 Moreover, thou makest void the fear of God,
And thou restrainest devotion before God; 5 For thy mouth exposeth thy misdeeds,
And thou choosest the language of the crafty. 6 Thine own mouth condemneth thee and not I,
And thine own lips testify against thee.
The second course of the controversy is again opened by Eliphaz, the most respectable, most influential, and perhaps oldest of the friends. Job's detailed and bitter answers seem to him as empty words and impassioned tirades, which ill become a wise man, such as he claims to be in assertions like Job 12:3; Job 13:2. החלם with He interr., like העלה, Job 13:25. רוּח, wind, is the opposite of what is solid and sure; and קדים in the parallel (like Hos 12:2) signifies what is worthless, with the additional notion of vehement action. If we translate בּטן by “belly,” the meaning is apt to be misunderstood; it is not intended as the opposite of לב fo et (Ewald), but it means, especially in the book of Job, not only that which feels, but also thinks and wills, the spiritually receptive and active inner nature of man (Psychol. S. 266); as also in Arabic, el-battin signifies that which is within, in the deepest mystical sense. Hirz. and Renan translate the inf. abs. הוכח, which follows in Job 15:3,
