Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

A dreadful sound is in his ears - If he be an oppressor or tyrant, he can have no rest: he is full of suspicions that the cruelties he has exercised on others shall be one day exercised on himself; for even in his prosperity he may expect the destroyer to rush upon him.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

A dreadful sound is in his ears - Margin, “A sound of fears.” He hears sudden, frightful sounds, and is alarmed. Or when he thinks himself safe, he is suddenly surprised. The enemy steals upon him, and in his fancied security he dies. This sentiment might be illustrated at almost any length by the mode of savage warfare in America, and by the sudden attacks which the American savage makes, in the silence of the night, on his unsuspecting foes. The Chaldee renders this, “the fear of the terrors in Gehenna are in his ears; when the righteous dwell in peace and eternal life, destruction comes upon him.”

In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him - When he supposes he is safe, and his affairs seem to be prosperous, then sudden destruction comes; see 1 Thessalonians 5:3. The history of wicked people, who have encompassed themselves with wealth, and as they supposed with every thing necessary to happiness, and who have been suddenly cut off, would furnish all the instances which would be necessary to illustrate this sentiment of Eliphaz. See an exquisitely beautiful illustration of it in Psalm 37:35-36:

I have seen the wicked in great power,

And spreading himself like a green bay-tree.

Yet he passed away, and lo he was not;

Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.

So, also, in Psalm 73:18-20:

Surely thou didst set them in slippery places;

Thou castedst them down into destruction.

How are they brought into desolation as in a moment!

They are utterly consumed with terrors.

As a dream when one awaketh,

O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

A dreadful sound is in his ears,.... Or "a voice", or "sound of fears"^F20קול פחדים "sonitus timorum", Pagninus, Montanus, Bolducius; to the same sense Codurcus, Junius & Tremellius, Mercerus, Cocceius, Schmidt, Schultens. , of what causes fears; and which are either imaginary; sometimes wicked men, fear when there is no cause or occasion for it; they fancy an enemy at their heels, and flee, when none pursues them; they are a "Magormissabib", or "terror on every side", a fear to themselves and all about them, Jeremiah 20:3; like Cain, who fancied and feared that every man that met him would slay him Genesis 4:13; such is the effect of a guilty conscience: or real; and these either extraordinary sounds, such as were made in the ears of the Syrian host, which caused them to flee, and leave their tents, and all their substance in them, 2 Kings 7:6; or ordinary, as the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war, wars and rumours which are very terrible, especially to some persons; or sounds of fears, reports of one calamity after another, which cause fears; and so may respect Job's troubles, and the dreadful sound of them in his ears, brought by one messenger of bad tidings after another: but there is a more dreadful sound than either of these, which is sometimes in the ears of wicked men; the terrors of the law of God broken by them, the menaces and curses of it, and a sound of hell and damnation, which continually rings in their ears, and fills the with horror and black despair; and so the Targum,

"the voice or sound of the fears in hell is in his ears;'

and among the rest of his fears what follows is one, and so some connect the words, that^F21"Vastatorem invasurum eum", Junius & Tremellius. .

in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him; either God the lawgiver, whose law he has transgressed, and who is able, as to save his people, so to destroy the wicked, soul and body, in hell; and destruction from the Almighty, Job himself says, was a terror to him, Job 31:23; or a destroying angel, such an one as went through the land of Egypt, and destroyed the firstborn, and into the camp of Israel, when they committed sin, and were destroyed of the destroyer; or some enemy, plunderer, and robber, such as the Sabeans and Chaldeans were, and to whom respect may be had; or even the devil himself, Apollyon, the destroyer of the souls of men, and who sometimes wicked men fear will come and carry them away, soul and body, to hell; or it may be death is meant, which kills and destroys all men; and wicked men are afraid that in the midst of all their peace and prosperity sudden destruction by death should come upon them, like a thief in the night, and remove them from all their enjoyments; and whether they are or no under any fearful apprehensions of this, it certainly will be their case.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

An evil conscience conceives alarm at every sudden sound, though it be in a time of peace (“prosperity”), when there is no real danger (Leviticus 26:36; Proverbs 28:1; 2 Kings 7:6).

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

A sound — Even when he feels no evil, he is tormented with perpetual fears.

Come upon him — Suddenly and unexpectedly.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

Job 15:21 A dreadful sound [is] in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

Ver. 21. A dreadfid sound is in his ears] Heb. A sound of fear and terror. Not one, but many at once, so that he is a Magormissabib, factus a corde sua fugitivus (Tertul.), as Cain, that wretch, and those Hivites, with their hornets of a clamorous conscience, worse to them than if their bodies had been tormented with stings or torn with stripes, Exodus 23:28. What a sound of terror in their ears frighted those Syrians! 2 Kings 7:6; and those Persians and Saracens overcome by Theodosius! Panico terrore incusso, saith the historian, afraid of their own shadows, they desperately cast themselves into the river Euphrates, and there perished above a hundred thousand of them, A.D. 394. The wicked flee when none pursueth, Proverbs 28:1; the sound of a shaken leaf chaseth him, Leviticus 26:36, when the righteous is bold as a lion, and not dismayed at evil tidings, Psalms 112:7. His heart is balanced with the fear of God; and thence it is that he floateth steadily; blow what wind it will, he sails to the port; storms and tempests do but beat him into it.

In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him] Heb. In peace, when he shall say, Peace and safety, 1 Thessalonians 5:3. When he is at the highest he shall be destroyed, Daniel 4:30-31. In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits, Job 20:22. His short spring shall have an eternal winter, Psalms 92:7. Ultimus sanitatis gradus est morbo proximus, say physicians, The utmost degree of health is nearest to sickness; so the wicked when nearest misery have greatest prosperity.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Even when he feels no evil, he is tormented with perpetual fears and expectations of it from the sense of his own guilt, and of God’s all-seeing eye and righteous judgment. See Leviticus 26:36 Deuteronomy 28:65.

Shall come upon him; or, shall invade and destroy him suddenly and unexpectedly; which is a great aggravation of it.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

21.Dreadful sound — Sound of terrors.

In prosperity — In (time of) peace. The words of Horace (Odes, Job 3:1) are in place: Post equitem sedet atra cura — Behind the knight sits dark care.

 

Mark Dunagan Commentary on the Bible

"One who strikes terror in others is himself terrified. Possibly this refers to imaginary sounds haunting his stricken conscience" (Zuck p. 72). "While at peace the destroyer comes upon him": Eliphaz insinuates that this is exactly what had happened to Job (1:13-19).

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged

A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

An evil conscience conceives alarm at every sudden sound, though it be in a time of peace ("prosperity"), when there is no real danger (Leviticus 26:36; Proverbs 28:1; 2 Kings 7:6).

A dreadful sound - Hebrew, 'a voice of terrors.'

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

dreadful sound

Heb. sound of fears.

18:11; Genesis 3:9,10; Leviticus 26:36; 2 Kings 7:6; Proverbs 1:26,27

in prosperity

1:13-19; 20:5-7,22-24; Leviticus 26:36; 1 Samuel 25:36-38; Psalms 73:18-20; 92:7; Acts 12:21-23; 1 Thessalonians 5:3

the destroyer

1 Corinthians 10:10; Revelation 9:11

Reciprocal: Genesis 43:18 - the men;  Genesis 50:15 - Joseph;  Leviticus 26:16 - terror;  Judges 7:21 - all the host;  1 Samuel 25:37 - his heart;  1 Samuel 28:5 - he was afraid;  1 Kings 1:41 - Wherefore;  2 Kings 19:7 - hear a rumour;  2 Chronicles 14:14 - the fear;  Esther 7:6 - was afraid;  Job 20:25 - terrors;  Job 21:9 - safe from fear;  Job 27:20 - Terrors;  Job 33:22 - his life;  Psalm 53:5 - There;  Psalm 73:19 - they are;  Proverbs 10:24 - fear;  Isaiah 33:14 - sinners;  Isaiah 37:7 - I will;  Jeremiah 49:5 - I will;  1 John 4:18 - fear hath