to be (or become) pregnant · verb, qal infinitive absolute
mischief
עָ֭מָל'A.mol
H5999
toil · noun, common both genders singular absolute
forth
וְיָ֣לֹדve.Ya.lod
H3205
to bear young · conjunction + verb, qal infinitive absolute
vanity
אָ֑וֶן'A.ven
H205
strictly nothingness · noun, common masculine singular absolute
belly
וּ֝בִטְנָ֗םu.vit.Nam
H990
the belly · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
prepareth
תָּכִ֥יןta.Khin
H3559
properly · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
deceit
מִרְמָֽהmir.Mah
H4820
fraud · 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
Psalms 7:14 Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.
Hosea 10:13 Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude o…
Isaiah 59:4-5 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity…
James 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Galatians 6:7-8 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
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.…
Bitter irony, illustrating the "unfruitfulness" (Job 15:34) of the wicked. Their conceptions and birthgivings consist solely in mischief, &c. (Isa 33:11).
prepareth--hatcheth.
Next: Job Chapter 16
John Gill on Job 15:35
They conceive mischief,.... That is, such wicked persons as before described; they meditate sin in their minds, and contrive how to commit it, and form schemes within themselves to do mischief to others:
forth vanity; or sin; for lust when it is conceived bringeth forth sin, and that is vanity, an empty thing, and neither yields profit nor pleasure in the issue, but that which is useless and unserviceable, yea, harmful and ruinous; for sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death, even death eternal, James 1:14;
and their belly prepareth deceit; their inward part frames and devises that which is designed to deceive others, and in the end proves deceitful to themselves: the allusion is to…
31 Let him not trust in evil-he is deceived,
For evil shall be his possession.
32 His day is not yet, then it is accomplished,
And his palm-branch loseth its freshness.
33 He teareth off as a vine his young grapes,
And He casteth down as an olive-tree his flower.
34 The company of the hypocrite is rigid,
And fire consumeth the tents of bribery.
35 They conceive sorrow and bring forth iniquity,
And their inward part worketh self-deceit.
אל does not merely introduce a declaration respecting the future (Luther: he will not continue, which moreover must have been expressed by the Niph.), but is admonitory: may he only not trust in vanity (Munach here instead of Dech, according to the rule of tra…
The Church Fathers
"She will conceive within her groans. The object of his hopes will be the instrument of his torture.
Ver. 35. They conceive woe, and bring forth iniquity, and their womb prepareth deceit. For he conceives 'woe,' when he devises wicked things; he 'brings forth iniquity,' when he has begun to fulfil what he has devised; by entertaining envy, he 'conceives woe;' by uttering slanders, he 'brings forth iniquity.' For it is grievous wickedness when he who is wicked strives to make others appear wicked, that he may himself thereby appear as holy, because he has shewn that others are not holy. But we ought to bear in mind, that in Holy Writ by the title of the 'belly' or the 'womb' the mind is used to be understood. Hence it is that it is said by Solomon, For the candle of the Lord is the breathway of man, searching all the inward parts of the belly. For the light of grace, which comes from above, affords a 'breathway' to man unto life, which same light is said to 'search all the inward parts of the belly,' in that it penetrates all the secrets of the heart, that the things which were hidden from the soul touching itself it may bring back before the eyes thereof with weeping. Hence Jeremiah saith, My bowels! my bowels! I am pained. Who, that he might shew what he had called his belly, added, the senses of my heart are troubled. So by the title of the womb the mind is rightly understood, in that like as the offspring is conceived in the womb, so is thought engendered in the mind. And as meats are contained in the belly, so are thoughts in the mind; and so the 'womb' of the hypocrite 'prepares deceits,' in that he is ever conceiving in his mind the greater wickedness against his neighbours, in proportion as he aims to appear by himself above all men innocent. Eliphaz therefore put forward these things, in that he looked upon blessed Job as stricken with that great scourge on account of his hypocrisy. But his words, though they apply to many, are at odds with him alone, for whom alone they were said, in that the holy man had nought of double-dealing in his conduct, whom Truth being witness to him praised for the singleness of his heart.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Deceit · Hypocrites — Hypocrites
Malice · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The flame of judgment (15:30) will burn the unjust gain of the godless.
Rashi on Job 15:35
They conceive trouble and bear iniquity They commit evil and are recompensed. The recompense of the birth is in accordance with the conception.
prepares makes ready.
deceit Their desire shall be converted for them into deceit.
