Job 22:15-20 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Hast thou marked? &c.— As the universal deluge was a most signal and memorable instance of God's displeasure against wickedness and wicked men, Eliphaz takes occasion to enlarge upon it for five or six verses together, as a proper lesson (so he thought it) for his friend; and then closes it with the mention of another destruction by fire, either past or to be expected, which is described to be as general and as fatal to the wicked: and the remnant of them the fire consumeth, or shall consume: Job 22:20. This, indeed, some refer to the judgment of God upon Sodom and Gomorrah; but it is much more natural to understand it of the last general conflagration; for how could the destroying a little city or two be said with any propriety to consume the remnant?; i.e. the whole remainder of wicked men? when at the same time Chaldea, and perhaps the greater part of the world, was overrun with idolatry. The dissolution of the world by fire, is what St. Peter calls expressly, a day of judgment and perdition to ungodly men: 2 Peter 3:7. And this St. Jude, Job 22:14 seems to say was prophesied of by Enoch before the flood; and if so, must be known to Noah, and by him, no doubt, transmitted to posterity; and so might be well known to Job and his friends. The righteous Noah and his family, who were so miraculously preserved, are very poetically introduced, Job 22:19 as triumphing over the wicked generation whom they had called in vain to repentance, and who had said unto God, depart from us; Job 22:17. And what can the Almighty do for them? defying him as it were, and contemning both his threatenings and his promises: Job 22:19-20. The righteous see it (i.e. see the destruction of this wicked race) and the innocent man נקי naki, (singular) laugheth them to scorn; whereas our substance is not cut down. There is some difficulty in this clause. The Hebrew is literally, is not our rising cut off? Are not we overwhelmed and sunk, never to rise more? Or, is not our insurrection and rebellion against God (for so impiety and wickedness is often styled in Scripture) justly punished by this terrible excision? They seem to be the words of those wicked men who were cut down out of time, Job 22:16 but here put into the mouth of the innocent Noah and his family by way of derision; as it is common to repeat the words of another, or to make a speech for him upon such occasions, κατα μιμησιν, as the rhetoricians speak, and without naming those whose words they are supposed to be. This gives a good sense to the passage, which is scarcely intelligible any other way; and thus it will be the same as if it were said, "The innocent mock them, saying, Are not these impious wretches justly punished? Is not our pride, may they say, and insurrection against our Maker, sadly humbled by this utter extirpation?" It follows, and the remnant of them the fire shall consume: which may be understood as the words of Eliphaz, or, perhaps, as a continuation of the speech of Noah; and then it will be as if he had said, "Though this judgment by water, extensive as it is, may not so thoroughly have purged the world but that wickedness and wicked men will again spring up, spread widely, and abound; yet, know, there shall come a time hereafter, when the world shall be consumed by fire; and then, the whole race and remainder of wicked men shall be delivered up, once for all, to such an absolute destruction, as that none shall ever spring from their ashes, nor shall the new world and its inhabitants know wickedness, or defection from God, any more." We see then, from this remarkable passage, that the doctrine of the future dissolution of the world by fire, so plainly taught us, and so immediately connected with the doctrine of the resurrection in the New Testament, was not unknown in Job's time; and, consequently, is a further confirmation of the point which we have endeavoured to establish, chap. Job 19:25 and elsewhere. The prophet Isaiah seems to handle this subject very copiously in the 24th and the two following Chapter s of his prophecy; and he uses an expression, chap. Job 26:11 very like to this of Eliphaz, The fire of thine enemies [which is prepared for thine enemies] shall consume them. Such an expression, I own, may be used in a metaphorical sense, and therefore little stress can be laid upon it, except the context favours, as here: but it is to be observed, that as the 24th chapter is taken up with a lively description of that utter dissolution and destruction which shall be brought upon the earth for the wickedness of its inhabitants; so the two following Chapter s contain hymns of praise to God on this occasion, both for his judgments on the wicked, and his mercies to the righteous. See those Chapter s, and Peters, p. 409.