Whatsoever is really or by common estimation excellent in men, all their natural, and moral, and civil accomplishments, as high birth, great riches, power, and wisdom, &c.; these are so far from preserving men from perishing, as one would think they should do, that they perish themselves, together with those houses of clay in which they are lodged. Which is in them go away; or, go away (i.e. die and perish, as that phrase is oft used as Genesis 15:15 Joshua 23:14 Job 10:21 Psalms 58:9 Ecclesiastes 12:5 Matthew 26:21) with, (as beth is oft used) them; it doth not survive them. Without wisdom: either,
1. Like fools. Wise men and fools die alike, Ecclesiastes 2:16. Or,
2. They never attain to perfect wisdom, to that wisdom which man once had, much less to that wisdom which is in God, which Job conceiveth he hath; otherwise he would not so boldly censure the counsels and works of God as unrighteous or unreasonable, because his human and narrow capacity cannot fully understand them. Moreover, as folly is oft put for unrighteousness and wickedness, so is wisdom for justice and goodness; which is so known, that it is needless to prove it; and so by wisdom here may be meant that perfect justice and purity which Job arrogated to himself, and which Eliphaz here denies to all men, Job 4:17, &c.