In Job, chapter fifteen, verse one, Eliphaz is the first from chapters fifteen through twenty-one that continued their dispute, developing what they had said before, only with more tenacity. Job steadfastly clung to God while at the same time maintaining his innocence and insisting on the unfairness of his calamity, as in chapter sixteen, verses nineteen through twenty-one.
Eliphaz begins a second attack upon Job instead of being softened by his complaints. He unjustly charges Job with casting off the fear of God and all regard to him and restraining prayer. See what religion summed up: fearing God and praying to him. The former is the most needful principle, the latter the most needful practice. Eliphaz charges Job with self-conceit. He charges him with contempt of the counsel and comforts given him by his friends.
We are apt to think that what we say is important. When others, with reason, think little of it. Eliphaz charges him with opposition to God. He ought not to have put harsh constructions upon the words of one well-known for piety and now in temptation. It is plain that these friends were deeply convinced of the doctrine of original sin and the total depravity of human nature. Shall we not admire the patience of God in bearing with us? And still more of His love to us in the redemption of Christ Jesus, His beloved Son?
Eliphaz rebukes Job’s contemptuous treatment of the opinions of his friends and his irreverence toward God. First, Job’s claim of wisdom is beyond that of his friends, as in chapter twelve, verse three, verse seven, and chapter thirteen, verse two. Eliphaz asks if it is in the manner of a wise man to use loud and empty words as arguments. Second, coming back upon these two points, Job’s claim to wisdom and his irreverence, Eliphaz develops each separately, as in chapter fifteen, verses seven through eleven.