Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his payment.
Eliphaz is near the end of his second speech, painting the wicked man who prospers and then loses everything. He aims that general warning at one suffering man, which raises two questions: is the principle true, and was it true of Job?
A warning with a target
The closing section of the chapter is not neutral teaching. One writer notes that Eliphaz builds his case on what he says he saw God do. Even his closing words still aim at Job.
F. B. HoleFrom verse 17 to the end of the chapter we find a vivid description of God's governmental judgment against the wicked. Eliphaz assured Job that he had really seen God act this way. He was declaring what he had observed himself. And as he closed, he made more indirect charges against Job, speaking of men who were "deceived," of "hypocrites," of "tents of bribery," and of "deceit."
Emptiness pays in its own coin
The heart of the verse is an exchange. What a man lives for is what he gets back in the end.
Leslie M. GrantDarkness would overcome him, fire would dry up his branches. As he had lived in futile pursuits, futility would be his reward.
The root is a life without the fear of God
Eliphaz traces the emptiness back to its cause. Leave God out, and nothing a man builds carries weight. The promise shows itself false only when trouble comes.
William KellyThis is a terrible picture Eliphaz paints of the hollow prosperity, the real misery, and the certain ruin of the godless. Since God was not feared, emptiness is the stamp on everything. A man's life does not consist in how much he owns. Those who set their minds on possessions must learn how empty they are in the day of trial. They may promise like the palm, or the vine, or the olive; but it is all in vain.
Deceiving himself
The verse says the man deceives himself, and names no other deceiver. One writer shows how far this ran in Eliphaz's own thinking. Eliphaz held that denying God's punishment now would pull down His whole moral order.
William KellySo we see that Eliphaz accuses Job of the moral folly that forgets God's presence and light. He says Job used proud words to blind others to what God was judging beneath the fair surface of his life… Eliphaz thought that to deny God's punishment here and now was to undermine confidence in His ways, and to encourage men into complete lawlessness.
True words, wrong man
The statement is sound; the aim is not. One writer notes what that means for how we read the book of Job.
Samuel RidoutWe have an inspired record of what Job and his three friends said, but while most of it was true, it was out of place and misapplied.
Another writer explains why misapplied truth does so much damage.
William KellyTruth that is misunderstood and misapplied may do more harm than many a false thing. Misapplied truth gives an error the apparent authority of God, and that error carries all the more weight because it comes as the truth. People despise a foolish saying, or one that is clearly false. But no believer can brush aside the truth of God. So if someone misuses the truth of God — if he applies it to crush a person who is at that very moment an object of intense interest to God — how foreign and offensive that is to His mind!
Commentators differ on how much credit Eliphaz deserves. Some say his principles were right and only his aim was wrong. Another writer rejects even that, pointing to God's verdict at the end of the book:
Frederick W GrantGod's own words draw a clear line between Job and his three friends: Job had spoken what was right ABOUT HIM, and they had not.
The accusation that rebounds
Eliphaz never applies his own warning to himself. That is the flaw a reader should notice, and it is the same flaw running through his whole speech.
Samuel RidoutBut is not Eliphaz one of these, as well as the poor sufferer? Why then apply it to Job as if it proved him a worse sinner than all others? … Let Eliphaz take his place beside Job and confess that he too is "abominable and corrupt." The poor sufferer might have answered that.
Summary
- Trust — what a man leans on decides what he receives; live for empty things and emptiness is the wage paid out.
- Deceit — no outsider tricks him; the verse says he deceives himself while trusting what cannot hold.
- Root — God was not feared, so emptiness is stamped on everything. Palm, vine and olive all promise, and all fail.
- Misuse — the words are true, but "out of place and misapplied." Misapplied truth wounds harder than an open lie, because it seems to carry God's authority.
- Test — before aiming this verse at anyone, sit beside the sufferer, not above him. A warning you exempt yourself from is one you have not understood.