What is the meaning of Job 15:22?

He despairs

• The voice in Job 15 is Eliphaz, describing what happens to the stubbornly wicked.

• “Despair” pictures the heart that has run out of hope. Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick,” and Eliphaz claims that is the wicked man’s constant state.

• In Scripture, despair is never presented as God’s goal for His people (Psalm 42:11), but it is a fitting end for those who refuse His light (John 3:19).

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of his return from darkness

• “Darkness” is a frequent image for moral confusion and divine judgment (Isaiah 59:9).

• Eliphaz insists there is no “return” or escape route; the darkness is a prison, not a tunnel. Compare Proverbs 4:19: “The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.”

• Unlike Job, who longs for God’s light (Job 10:21-22), the person Eliphaz paints has surrendered to the gloom.

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he is marked

• “Marked” suggests a deliberate designation. God sets a visible target on the unrepentant (Psalm 37:38).

• The idea echoes the angelic marking in Ezekiel 9:4-6—there God spares the marked righteous, but here the wicked are marked for ruin.

• Revelation 14:9-11 shows a similar certainty: those who receive the beast’s mark are reserved for wrath.

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for the sword

• The “sword” stands for violent, decisive judgment (Ezekiel 21:4).

• Romans 13:4 reminds us that earthly rulers “do not bear the sword in vain,” and ultimately God wields that sword against persistent evil.

• Genesis 3:24 first married sword imagery to separation from God; Eliphaz sees the same outcome for the hardened sinner—cut off from life and presence.

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summary

Job 15:22, spoken by Eliphaz, pictures the destiny of the unrepentant: hopelessness replaces hope, darkness replaces light, a divine mark seals the verdict, and the sword of judgment finishes the story. The verse is a sober warning that apart from God’s mercy, sin leads only to despair, deeper darkness, and certain destruction.