properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
substance
חֵיל֑וֹchei.Lo
H2428
probably a force · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
continue
יָק֣וּםya.Kum
H6965
to rise (in various applications · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
prolong
יִטֶּ֖הyi.Teh
H5186
to stretch or spread out · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
perfection
מִנְלָֽםmin.Lam
H4512
completion · noun, common masculine singular absolute + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
earth
לָאָ֣רֶץla.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 27:16-17 Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay;
James 1:11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion…
Job 20:22-28 In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.
Job 22:15-20 Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?
Psalms 49:16-17 Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;
Luke 12:19-21 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
Luke 16:2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer s…
Luke 16:19-22 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 15:17–end
Eliphaz, having reproved Job for his answers, here comes to maintain his own thesis, upon which he built his censure of Job. His opinion is that those who are wicked are certainly miserable, whence he would infer that those who are miserable are certainly wicked, and that therefore Job was so. Observe,
I. His solemn preface to this discourse, in which he bespeaks Job's attention, which he had little reason to expect, he having given so little heed to and put so little value upon what Job had said (Job 15:17): "I will show thee that which is worth hearing, and not reason, as thou dost, with unprofitable talk." Thus apt are men, when they condemn the reasonings of others, to commend their own.…
Rather, he shall not increase his riches; he has reached his highest point; his prosperity shall not continue.
perfection--rather, "His acquired wealth--what he possesses--shall not be extended," &c.
John Gill on Job 15:29
He shall not be rich,.... Though his heart is set upon it, he is determined at any rate to be rich; he labours for it with all his might and main, and yet shall not attain what he is so desirous of; many, who take a great deal of pains to be rich, and even in a lawful way, and are men of understanding in trade and business, and yet riches are not their portion; and some who got a great deal, yet do not grow rich; what they get, they put into a bag of holes, and it drops through as fast as they put in; what they get in one sinful way they consume in another, and so are always poor; and others, though they have amassed together a vast substance, yet still are but poor men, not using what they…
25 Because he stretched out his hand against God,
And was insolent towards the Almighty;
26 He assailed Him with a stiff neck,
With the thick bosses of his shield;
27 Because he covered his face with his fatness,
And addeth fat to his loins,
28 And inhabited desolated cities,
Houses which should not be inhabited,
Which were appointed to be ruins.
29 He shall not be rich, and his substance shall not continue
And their substance boweth not to the ground.
30 He escapeth not darkness;
The flame withereth his shoots;
And he perisheth in the breath of His mouth.
This strophe has periodic members: Job 15:25-28 an antecedent clause with a double beginning (כּי־נטה because he has stretched out, כּי־כ…
The Church Fathers
"He can not get rich, or even keep what he has. That is to say, the impious. "He will not shed any shadow. He will not prosper.
Ver. 29. He shall not be inhabited, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall he send forth his root into the earth. That which is here expressed, He shall not be inhabited, I have found in some copies, He shall not be enriched; but the sense is not at variance, though the phraseology is at variance. For he is 'enriched' with virtuous attainments whose mind is 'inhabited' by Almighty God. But because the thought of the proud man is not 'inhabited' by the grace of his Maker, hereby surely he is not 'enriched' with virtues. On this account then that he is empty within, let it be said, He shall not be inhabited. But in respect to that which is swollen up without, being of a transitory nature, it is rightly added, Nor shall his substance continue. As though it were said in plain speech, 'This which he seems to have outwardly passes away, and what was not capable of passing away, he has not within.' And hence it is fitly subjoined, Neither shall he send his root into the earth. Which if we take as spoken of this earth, doubtless it is plain, that the tree which has no root in the earth, is brought to the ground on being shaken by the very slightest gales of wind; and every proud man while he is 'strengthened against the Almighty Lord,' while he 'runs with erected neck,' and is 'uplifted with a stout neck against his Maker,' is seen to stand like a tree; but his standing is without root, in that as it were at a light breath, so at the stirring of the secret sentence, his life is rooted up. But if in this passage we take 'the earth' for the recompensing of the Eternal Country, concerning which the Prophet saith, My portion is in the land of the living, this wicked man does not 'send forth his root in the earth,' in that he never plants the thoughts of his heart into the desire of the eternal life. For what the root is to the tree, the same is the thought of his own heart to each one of mankind; for in the case of that which is seen outwardly, there is a holding by that which is not seen outwardly. And hence it is said by the Prophet, Shall again take root downwardly, and bear fruit upwards. For when we stretch our thought in sympathizing with a poor neighbour; 'we as it were send a root downwards, that we may bear the fruit of recompense above.'
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Job had complained earlier that God was treating him like a formidable foe (7:19-21; 13:24).
Rashi on Job 15:29
and his possessions will not remain They will not be preserved for long.
neither will...bend Heb. יטה, [like] ינטה, like (I Sam. 8:3), “and they turned (ויטו) after gain.” They themselves turned (וינטו). It means that they did not bend from heaven to earth. the gratification of their desire Heb. מנלם, the granting of their desire and the fulfillment of their plans. It is like two words, מן להם.
מן means their preparation, like (Dan. 1:5), “And the king prepared (וימן) for them.” Similar to it is (I Sam. 13:21), “a file (הפצירה פים),” in two words. [The analogy is obscure.] (Isa. 33:7), “Behold I will appear to them (אראלם),” which Jonathan renders: I will appear to them. So it appears to m…
