The Geneva Bible Translation Notes, [1599], at sacred-texts.com
Job Chapter 15
Should a wise man utter (a) vain knowledge, and fill his belly (b) with the east wind?
(a) That is, vain words, and without consolation?
(b) Meaning, with matters that are of no importance, which are forgotten as soon as they are uttered, as the East wind dries up moisture as soon as it falls.
Yea, thou castest off (c) fear, and restrainest prayer before God.
(c) He charges Job as though his talk caused men to cast off the fear of God and prayer.
For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the (d) tongue of the crafty.
(d) You speak as the mockers and contemners of God do.
[Art] thou the (e) first man [that] was born? or wast thou made before the hills?
(e) That is, the most ancient and so by reason the most wise?
Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom (f) to thyself?
(f) Are you only wise?
[Are] the consolations of God (g) small with thee? is there any secret thing with thee?
(g) He accuses Job's pride and ingratitude, that will not be comforted by God, but by their counsel.
Why doth thine heart (h) carry thee away? and what do thy eyes wink at,
(h) Why do you stand in your own conceit?
What [is] man, that he should be clean? and [he which is] born of a woman, that he should (i) be righteous?
(i) His purpose is to prove that Job, as an unjust man and a hypocrite, is punished for his sins, as he did before, (Job 4:8).
How much more abominable and filthy [is] man, which (k) drinketh iniquity like water?
(k) Who has a desire to sin, as he who is thirsty to drink.
Unto whom alone the earth was (l) given, and no stranger passed among them.
(l) Who by their wisdom so governed, that no stranger invaded them, and so the land seemed to be given to them alone.
The wicked man travaileth with pain all [his] days, and the number (m) of years is hidden to the oppressor.
(m) The cruel man is always in danger of death, and is never quiet in conscience.
He believeth not that he shall return out of (n) darkness, and he is waited for of the sword.
(n) Out of that misery to which he once fell.
He wandereth (o) abroad for bread, [saying], Where [is it]? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
(o) God not only impoverishes the wicked often, but even in their prosperity he punishes them with a greediness to gain even more: which is as a beggary.
Trouble and (p) anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
(p) He shows the weapons God uses against the wicked, who lift up themselves against him, that is, terror of conscience and outward afflictions.
Because he covereth his face with (q) his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on [his] flanks.
(q) That is, he was so puffed up with prosperity and abundance for all things, that he forgave God: noting that Job in his happiness did not have the true fear of God.
And he dwelleth (r) in desolate cities, [and] in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps.
(r) Though he build and repair ruinous places to gain fame, yet God will bring all to nothing, and turn his great prosperity into extreme misery.
He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall he prolong the (s) perfection thereof upon the earth.
(s) Meaning, that his sumptuous buildings would never come to perfection.
Let not him that is (t) deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence.
(t) He stands in his own conceit, that he will give no place to good counsel, therefore his own pride will bring him to destruction.
He shall shake off his unripe (u) grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.
(u) As one who gathers grapes before they are ripe.
For the congregation of hypocrites [shall be] desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of (x) bribery.
(x) Who were built or maintained by bribery.
They (y) conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.
(y) Therefore all their vain devises will turn to their own destruction.