| Geneva Study Bible He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away. Wesley's Notes 15:30 Depart - His misery shall have no end. Flame - God's anger and judgment upon him. Branches - His wealth, and power, and glory, wherewith he was encompassed, as trees are with their branches. His mouth - And this expression intimates, with how much ease God subdueth his enemies: his word, his blast; one act of his will is sufficient. Go - Heb. go back: that is, run away from God faster than he ran upon him, ver.26. So it is a continuation of the former metaphor of a conflict between two persons. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 30. depart-that is, escape (Job 15:22, 23). branches-namely, his offspring (Job 1:18, 19; Ps 37:35). dry up-The "flame" is the sultry wind in the East by which plants most full of sap are suddenly shrivelled. his mouth-that is, God's wrath (Isa 11:4). Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 15:17-35 Eliphaz maintains that the wicked are certainly miserable: whence he would infer, that the miserable are certainly wicked, and therefore Job was so. But because many of God's people have prospered in this world, it does not therefore follow that those who are crossed and made poor, as Job, are not God's people. Eliphaz shows also that wicked people, particularly oppressors, are subject to continual terror, live very uncomfortably, and perish very miserably. Will the prosperity of presumptuous sinners end miserably as here described? Then let the mischiefs which befal others, be our warnings. Though no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. No calamity, no trouble, however heavy, however severe, can rob a follower of the Lord of his favour. What shall separate him from the love of Christ? |