because he has covered his face with his fat and gathered fat upon his waist
In his second speech, Eliphaz paints a man who charges at God and grows sleek doing it. The padded body is the proof he points to. The picture is aimed at Job. Does a well-fed body prove a hollow heart? Can wealth stand as God's verdict on a man?
What the fat stands for
The older translation speaks of "collops," a word that has dropped out of everyday English. One reference work gives the plain sense:
Morrish Bible DictionaryFat, fatness, lumps of fat. Job 15:27.
In the sacrifices, fat was the part burned to God, and writers read a meaning into it. Set beside other passages, the fat carries a definite symbol:
The Christian's FriendThe kidneys are the seat of the feelings. The fat expresses human will in the energy of life (Job 15:27; Psalm 17:10; Psalm 119:70). Both are here offered to God. Surely they express Him who came not to do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him.
So the man of verse 27 keeps for himself the very thing meant for God. His own will, at full strength, is what covers his face.
Fat that closes a heart
The same figure appears in the Psalms, where fat is not comfort but insulation. Commenting on that language, one writer traces where it leads:
Numerical Bible Notes"In their own fat are they closed up" — shut up in their own luxurious selfishness. This is the clearest penalty of sin. Even here sin begins to stiffen and harden the heart, until it is as unchangeable as eternity. Sin is the coffin, the grave, the final prison of the soul.
The padding is not just a sign of sin. It is part of the punishment.
Prosperity that is already empty
Verse 27 stands right after the man runs at God with a thick shield. Eliphaz means the two together: he charges heaven and thrives. The summary of the whole speech is blunt:
William KellySo Eliphaz describes the godless in dreadful terms. He speaks of their hollow prosperity, their real misery, and their certain destruction. Since God was not feared, vanity is the impress stamped on everything. A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Those who set their mind on possessions must learn how empty they are in the day of trial.
Where Eliphaz goes wrong
Everything Eliphaz says here may be true of some men. His mistake is the principle he builds it on, and that principle was already visible in his first speech:
William KellyEvery word may be true in itself. He says it all with the utmost dignity and force. Yet it is misapplied and one-sided, and so, in effect, wrong as a whole. Eliphaz assumes that God is displaying His government right now. He thinks God measures out prosperity or trouble to match exactly what men deserve. This is false ground, and it ruins the application. It fails above all with someone like Job, who was given up to Satan's attacks and tested to the end.
Aimed at Job
Eliphaz never names his target, but nobody in the room could miss it. Following the speech to its close, one writer catches the strangeness of it:
Samuel RidoutHe ends the dreadful picture by telling what such terrible godlessness brings back on itself. This imagined wicked man had stretched out his hand against the Almighty. With a stiff neck, and thick studs of wickedness for a shield, he dared to defy God! He had enjoyed the passing good things of life. His eyes stood out with fatness. He had lived in houses marked for ruin without a thought of change. But his wealth fails, the darkness falls, the fire reaches him, and he dies at the breath of God! A fearsome picture indeed — and he thinks he is describing Job!
The danger the verse still names
Strip away the false accusation and a real warning remains. It reaches Christians who enjoy God's favour, not just the godless:
W. H. Westcott"But Jeshurun grew fat." How easy it is, and yet how dangerous! God has provided a great wealth of favour for all Christians, and all may share in it freely. But our enjoyment of it can be twisted, so that it feeds our self-importance… Perhaps one of the greatest tests of grace is to be greatly privileged and yet stay lowly in mind and patient with others.
Summary
- Fat given away. Fat pictures human will at full strength. In sacrifice it belongs to God. This man keeps it, and wears his own will on his face.
- Fat closes. Kept fat turns to insulation — a heart shut up in its own comfort, hardening while there is still time to soften.
- Fat defies. The padding is not innocent comfort. It sits beside a hand stretched out against God. Kelly calls the whole show a hollow prosperity, already stamped with emptiness.
- Fat misjudged. Eliphaz reads present prosperity and present loss as an exact measure of desert. Kelly names that false ground — true words, wrongly aimed.
- Fat warned against. The test is not whether God's favour comes, but what it feeds. To be greatly privileged and still stay lowly is one of the hardest tests of grace.