How does Job 15:35 relate to the concept of divine justice? Canonical Text and Immediate Context Job 15:35 : “They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; their womb fashions deceit.” Eliphaz, giving his second speech, asserts a natural moral order in which sin inevitably gestates into judgment. His imagery mirrors conception, gestation, and birth, transferring biological processes to ethical realities. In Eliphaz’s view, divine justice is so woven into the cosmos that wrongdoing is self-retributive—evil conceived will, quite literally, deliver evil consequences. Intertextual Echoes of the “Conception–Birth” Motif Psalm 7:14-16, Proverbs 6:12-15, and Isaiah 59:4-5 employ nearly identical language. Each passage presents evil as something that begins invisibly, develops internally, and finally emerges destructively. James 1:14-15 completes the canonical arc: “After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” . Job 15:35 thus participates in a consistent, Spirit-inspired testimony that God’s justice is organic, not arbitrary; moral causality is baked into creation. Retributive Logic and the Law of Sowing and Reaping Galatians 6:7 states, “God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.” Eliphaz’s words align with this sow-reap principle: deceit sown internally reaps divine censure externally. From Eden onward (Genesis 3:8-19), Scripture affirms a moral feedback loop ordained by God: unrighteous choices trigger predictable consequences. Job 15:35 encapsulates this theology in one sentence. The Wisdom Tradition’s Take on Divine Justice Proverbs predicates human flourishing on alignment with Yahweh’s moral order; Ecclesiastes acknowledges apparent exceptions but still ends with, “Fear God and keep His commandments…for God will bring every deed into judgment” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). Within that tradition, Eliphaz’s aphorism in Job 15:35 is orthodox in content, though misapplied to Job’s specific situation. The verse asserts a timeless axiom: moral wrongdoing carries within itself the seed of its own exposure and punishment. Correct Principle, Wrong Application Job’s narrator repudiates the friends’ assumption that suffering is always the immediate fruit of personal sin (cf. Job 42:7-8). Divine justice is more complex: righteous people can suffer mysteriously; the wicked may prosper for a season. Therefore, Job 15:35 illustrates both (1) a true doctrine of eventual moral recompense and (2) the danger of weaponizing that doctrine without divine insight. Eschatological Fulfillment New-covenant revelation sharpens the picture. Jesus warns of hidden sin coming to light (Luke 12:2-3) and promises final judgment (John 5:28-29). Revelation 20:11-15 portrays the ultimate outworking of Job 15:35: evil conceived and enacted is eternally accounted for at the great white throne. Divine justice culminates in Christ’s reign, vindicating every right and punishing every wrong. Pastoral and Behavioral Implications 1. Internal motives matter. Sin gestates in thought-life long before public manifestation; thus repentance must start at the “conception” stage (Psalm 139:23-24). 2. Suffering cannot be simplistically traced to specific sins—a corrective learned from Job’s trial. 3. Believers find hope in God’s eventual setting-right of all wrongs, while also recognizing the present-day providential feedback that often exposes and disciplines deceit. Summary Job 15:35 pictures sin as a pregnancy that cannot be aborted; evil conceived will be birthed, and God’s justice ensures its eventual exposure and punishment. While Eliphaz misapplies the principle to Job, the verse itself stands as a concise statement of the moral structure God embedded in creation, echoed across Scripture and ultimately consummated in the final judgment of Christ. |
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