He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success.
Eliphaz answers a suffering Job by describing a God who smashes the plans of clever schemers. His words are true — the New Testament even quotes the next verse as Scripture — yet the chapter asks whether a true statement can still be used to wound.
The Words of the Verse
The verse pictures plans smashed before anyone can act on them. One translation of these lines shows hands grasping at nothing:
William KellyHe smashes the plans of the crafty, so that they achieve nothing. He catches the wise in their own craftiness, and He overturns the advice of the cunning. By day they run into darkness, and at noon they grope about as if it were night.
True in Itself, Wrong as Applied
Eliphaz is not saying anything false. The problem is where he aims it. Everything he says lands on the man sitting in front of him:
F. B. HoleIt is certainly true that God "takes the wise in their own craftiness," and that "Happy is the man whom God corrects." But we can see that all these facts are put in a way that turned them against poor Job… He had appeared to be wise, but now he was caught in his craftiness — so it seemed to Eliphaz.
Eliphaz never makes the accusation outright. He leaves Job to draw it. And his reasoning has a hole:
Leslie M. GrantHe does not at first accuse Job of deceit, but he hints that this might be the case, since Job's plans had failed. Eliphaz had noticed that such things happen to crafty men. But why did he not also notice that righteous people often see their plans fail in the same way?
Words God Rebuked, Yet the Spirit Quoted
God later rebukes Eliphaz for what he said. Yet Paul quotes verse 13 as Scripture. Both are true at once, and the key is the difference between the words and their use:
William KellyYou only have to look at the words of Eliphaz to see that in themselves they contain nothing but truth. But weigh them as applied to Job, and they are wrong beyond excuse… The New Testament quotes the words of Eliphaz, both in the first letter to the Corinthians and in the letter to the Hebrews. There the application is perfectly good. In the Old Testament history the application was wrong, and God reproved the speakers for it.
This gives a rule for reading every speech in Job. Recording a speech is not the same as approving it:
Samuel RidoutBut people often mistake inspiration for revelation, that is, for the infallible statement of divine truth. We have the inspired record of what Satan said to Eve and to our Lord, and of the words of wicked men like Pharaoh and Rabshakeh. Yet no one thinks of these words as the truth of God. In the same way, here we have an inspired record of what Job and his three friends said. Most of it was true, but it was out of place and wrongly applied.
Cleverness That Catches Its Owner
The verse does not say God fights craftiness with greater craftiness. It says craftiness collapses under its own weight:
Hamilton SmithThe wisdom of this world wins the respect of the natural man. At times it may look very attractive even to the Christian, as it did to the believers at Corinth. Still, it is foolishness with God. The very wisdom of the world becomes its undoing, for it is written, "He takes the wise in their own craftiness." The wisdom of this world is mere craft, and it traps those who boast in it.
Paul applies the words to God's temple. That turns the verse into a warning about what we bring in with us:
W. T. P. Wolston"The temple of God" is in view. As I come up to this building — and it is God's building — I see these words written over the entrance, as it were: "He takes the wise in their own craftiness." That says this to me: if you bring the wisdom of the world into this building, you will be found out.
God's Triumph on God's Terms
The hope in these verses is real. Eliphaz got the timing and the method wrong:
Samuel RidoutYes, God will triumph over evil, and He will make His people "more than conquerors through Him that loved them." But it will not be in man's way, and He alone will be exalted.
Summary
- The claim. God breaks the plans of the crafty. Their hands achieve nothing, and the schemer gropes at noon as if it were night.
- The misuse. Eliphaz aims a true statement at an innocent man. If Job's plans failed, Job must be crafty — yet he never asks why righteous people also see their plans fail.
- The record. God preserved the speech and then rebuked the speaker. Inspiration keeps the record exact. It does not make every speech in it God's own verdict.
- The right application. Paul quotes these words as Scripture, and there the aim is right. Worldly cleverness is the trap that catches the one who boasts in it.
- The outcome. God will defeat evil, and He alone will be exalted — but in His way and in His time, not by the neat formula Eliphaz was selling.