Job 22:18 - Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Bible Comments

Yet he filled their houses with good things - This is undoubtedly a biting sarcasm. Job had maintained that such people were prosperous. “Yes,” says Eliphaz, “their houses were well filled! They were signally blessed and prospered!”

But the counsel of the wicked is far from me - This is the very language of Job, Job 21:16. It is used here sarcastically. “Far from me,” you say, “be the counsel of the wicked. Thus you defend them, and attempt to show that they are the favorites of heaven! You attempt to prove that God must and will bless them! Far from me, say I, be the counsel of the wicked! With them I have no part, no lot. I will not defend them ... I will not be their advocate!” The object is, to show that, notwithstanding all that Job had said, he was secretly the advocate of the wicked, and stood up as their friend.

Job 22:18

18 Yet he filled their houses with good things: but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.