Lecture 3 — The unhappy end of the wicked

^15:28^ He will live in desolate cities and in deserted houses which have been cut from mounds of earth.

^15:29^ He will not become wealthy nor preserve his substance, nor put forth roots in the earth.

^15:30^ He will not emerge from darkness; a flame burns his branches, and his mouth has lost its breath.

^15:31^ Let him not believe in vain nor be deceived that he must be redeemed by some price.

^15:32^ He will perish before his days are complete and his hands will dry up.

^15:33^ As a vine damaged in its first flower yields sour grapes, and as the olive lets its flowers fall,

^15:34^ what the hypocrite collects is truly sterile, and fire will devour the tents of those who freely accept bribes.

^15:35^ He conceives pain and gives birth to evil, and in his bosom he prepares evil intent.

257. He will live in desolate cities. After Eliphaz shows the anxieties of fear which the wicked man suffers even in the state of his prosperity, he now speaks about the bitter things which consume the one who is cast down in adversity, to answer Job’s statement, do you write bitter things against me and punish me for the sins of my youth? (Job 13:26) He places becoming a fugitive as the first of these bitter things. Fugitives normally seek out hidden and uninhabited places, and so he says, he will live in desolate cities and in deserted houses which have been cut from mounds of earth. These are the kind of places where fugitives usually take refuge.

Second is that he is despoiled of his riches, and so he says, he will not become wealthy, by acquiring new riches, nor will he preserve his substance, to retain the riches he has already acquired.

The third bitter thing is the impossibility of recovering his wealth. So he says, nor will he put forth his roots in the earth. If a tree is uprooted and replanted, it will recover its strength if it can put forth roots in the earth. But if it cannot put forth roots in the earth, it cannot return again to life. To explain this he says, he will not emerge from the darkness, that is, from adversity. He gives the reason for not returning to the light when he says, a flame burns his branches. For there is still hope of reviving an uprooted tree as long as its branches remain green, because they can be grafted and replanted. But if the branches are burned up, no further hope of reviving it remains. The branches of a man are his sons and other persons joined to him in whom a man can emerge from adversity. But the sons of Job had been killed and his household had perished. He himself was even afflicted with illness, which he states continuing, and his mouth has lost its breath, namely, his proud words. He cannot hope for any sort of renewal, not even from God, whom his proud words have offended, and so he says, let him not believe in vain and be deceived that he must be redeemed by some price, for he must be freed from tribulation by some help.

So he then says, he will perish before his days are complete, since he will die before his time, and his hands will dry up, for his sons and his relations are gone. Then he gives an example. As a vine damaged in its first flower yields sour grapes. This damage usually results from frost, and in this context it means exterior persecution. And as the olive lets its flowers fall, from some intrinsic cause, which means here the meriting of adversity on the part of the one who suffers. Respecting these merits he says, what the hypocrite collects is truly sterile, because they bear no fruit, and fire will devour the tents of those who freely accept bribes. For things acquired wickedly are sometimes easily destroyed from divine judgment. He says this, throwing the theft and hypocrisy of Job in relief, as though adversity had befallen him because of his sins. He adds a third sin of deceit to these. So the text continues, he conceives pain, because he premeditated in his heart the kind of sorrow he would inflict on others. What he conceived has born an unjust harm, and so the text continues, and he gives birth to evil. He adds as a consequence the manner in which he accomplished this, saying, and in his bosom he prepares evil intent. Truly, a hypocrite’s nature is to plot harm against others by deceit, not in the open. By the term bosom he means the heart, in which spiritual conception takes place after the manner of the corporeal conception which takes place in the bosom.