Job 15:15 Commentary and Bible Study

Eliphaz makes a distinction between God’s saints and man who drinks iniquity like water: God does not trust his saints; far less will he trust those who immerse themselves in sin, and drink deeply from pools of iniquity. But who are meant by saints? The same word is used in Job 5:1. In spite of the Scripture’s use of the word ‘saints’ to describe believing men and women, it is unlikely that Eliphaz is contrasting believers and unbelievers, for he has never before distinguished between the two in such clear terms, and the term ‘man’ seems to include all mankind and to refer to all members of the class. A number of commentators therefore understand saints to refer here to angels. The thought is then similar to Job 4:18b. This interpretation also fits better with the reference to the heavens in 15:15b, which would naturally follow after mentioning the angels, being their dwelling place. God uses the angels as his servants and he certainly knows that the elect angels will obey him and remain constant and loyal to him, but even these he cannot be accepted on their own terms. The angels too must be upheld in holiness and it is only because they were chosen that they have remained stable. God could never delegate his own work to them; he knows their limitations; even heaven is not clean in his sight. So far Eliphaz speaks correctly. How much more, as he says, does God look on mankind as unclean and far from holy in his sight, for man is created below the angels. But man’s state is now far worse, for since the fall his desire is for sin and he is led by his lusts. Calvin says, ‘First it is necessary for us to know in what way the angels lack steadfastness before God. Some have expounded this of the devil, but there is no reason for doing so … Here express mention is made of the angels. It is not only because they would not have the constancy to continue in goodness unless God preserved them by his power, but because truly they do not have such a sound and exquisite righteousness that they can rely on it when they come to present themselves to give account before God … The obedience which the angels render to God is unimpeachable and not an imperfect and feeble obedience like ours … And yet there is another higher righteousness in God which surpasses all creatures, so that no angel is able to satisfy it … God is an infinite being, so that when we think about him, we ought to be ravished with astonishment … If God was to use the extreme examination referred to on the angels, they would vanish away (Calvin – English updated).