Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight;
Eliphaz speaks a second time. He reaches for his highest argument: if even heaven is not pure before God, what hope has a man like Job? The words are true. The question the book keeps pressing is whether a true word aimed at the wrong man still helps.
Who the "holy ones" are
The first line of the verse looks upward, to beings who already live in God's presence. Writers understand these as angels. From them Eliphaz moves straight down to Job.
Leslie M. GrantEliphaz continues, "If God puts no trust in His holy ones (evidently angels), and the heavens are not pure in His sight, how much less man, who is abominable and filthy, who drinks iniquity like water!" (vv.15-16). From God's viewpoint this is true too. But would Eliphaz have liked it if Job called him "abominable and filthy"? So Eliphaz was trying to use a general truth to convict Job of worse guilt than was really true of Job.
The word behind "holy ones" is qadosh. Its sense is consecration, not a record of flawless conduct.
Morrish Bible Dictionaryqadosh, 'consecrated, set apart, holy.' Deut. 33:3; Job 15:15; Ps. 89:5, 7; Dan. 7:18-27.
Why the heavens are not clean
The heavens are not charged with guilt. The creature has left a stain wherever it has gone, and heaven is not exempt.
J. N. DarbyThe heavens are not guilty, but they are defiled. That is why Christ has gone up "far above all heavens." Everything the creature has had dealings with is defiled. If we think of God as dwelling, in a sense, in His creation, He sees the whole of it defiled. Not where He is in His own being and nature, in unapproachable light. But where He is in connection with His creatures, there is defilement.
One writer names where that stain lies.
F. B. HoleThe lower heavens, defiled by Satan's presence, are indeed "not pure in His sight."
Right doctrine, wrong target
The truth of what Eliphaz says about God is not in question. What fails is the use he makes of it against the man in front of him.
William KellyAs before, there is weighty truth in what he presses, and he presses it with great force. But applying it to the sufferer had no ground, and so it was unjust in the highest degree.
Eliphaz leaves himself out of the standard he quotes. If the heavens fall short, so does he.
Samuel RidoutEliphaz repeats what he said in his first speech about the holiness of God (Job 4:17-19). If the very heavens are not pure in His sight, how much less is mortal, sinful man! But is not Eliphaz one of these, as well as the poor sufferer? Why then apply it to Job, as though it proved him a sinner above all others? This, surely, is more like crafty speech than all the heated words of Job. Let Eliphaz take his place beside Job and confess that he too is "abominable and filthy." The poor sufferer might have responded to that.
What the uncleanness of heaven required
Ask whose eyes see the heavens as impure. The answer moves the verse from debate to the nature of God Himself.
Frederick W GrantSo the heavenly things here are spoken of as purchased, purified, reconciled, redeemed. In whose eyes were they impure? In the eyes of the One to whom alone all true sacrifice was ever offered. It was the nature of God that required atonement, His holiness that needed satisfaction in it. In a deeper sense than Eliphaz probably knew, it could be said, "the heavens are not pure in His sight" (Job 15:15).
And what Eliphaz describes did not last.
A. PridhamHeaven itself must be purified by blood. Creation was God's first work, and the sinner's work did not pollute it only in part. The taint of sin reached heaven as well as earth... The heavens now are clean, through Jesus' blood; although they were not always so.
Holiness and human nature
Why does anything fall short in His sight? Because holiness describes what God is.
A J PollockBut God is holy. Now holiness has to do with nature. God has a nature that cannot tolerate sin. Sinful flesh cannot stand in His presence. "The heavens are not pure in His sight" (Job 15:15). That which marks sinful man cannot stand before Him.
Summary
- Height — "His holy ones" are understood as angels. The word means set apart, not flawless.
- Depth — the heavens are defiled, not guilty. Wherever the creature has reached, the stain has followed. One writer points to Satan's presence in the lower heavens.
- Misuse — the doctrine is sound, the aim is false. Eliphaz used a truth about everyone to convict one man, and left himself out of it.
- Cost — God's own nature measures the uncleanness. It took atonement, not argument, to answer it.
- Cleansing — blood purified heaven itself. The gap Eliphaz described is closed, and the heavens are now clean through Jesus.