What is the meaning of Job 22:15? Will you stay Eliphaz challenges Job with a pointed question: “Will you stay…?” (Job 22:15). • “Stay” implies a personal choice to remain or to depart. Scripture frequently presents two diverging roads—one of life, one of destruction (Deuteronomy 30:19; Matthew 7:13-14). • The verb also hints at stubborn resolve. Choosing the wrong course isn’t merely a momentary lapse but a settled lifestyle (Hebrews 3:12-13). • Eliphaz assumes Job is clinging to a perilous route, yet the larger narrative proves Job’s innocence. Still, the warning stands for every reader: we are responsible for where we “stay” (Joshua 24:15). on the ancient path Eliphaz labels this roadway “ancient,” suggesting a pattern long embedded in human history. • Jeremiah 6:16 contrasts the “ancient paths” of righteousness God commends with the corrupt “ancient path” Eliphaz condemns; the term itself is morally neutral until paired with the traveler. • Sin’s ways are indeed old—dating back to Eden’s rebellion (Genesis 3:6). The persistence of wickedness through generations shows how easily sinful habits become entrenched traditions (Romans 5:12). • Conversely, Scripture sometimes celebrates an “ancient path” of faith (Proverbs 4:18). Discernment is essential: age alone does not guarantee truth. that wicked men have trod? Here is the heart of the accusation: Job is allegedly walking the trail blazed by “wicked men.” • The imagery recalls travelers wearing a rut through constant use—habitual, deliberate sin (Psalm 1:1). • Examples fill Scripture: the violent world before the flood (Genesis 6:5-7), Sodom’s depravity (Genesis 19:24-25), and those who “refused to love the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:10). Each proves that God eventually confronts such a path with judgment (2 Peter 2:6). • Eliphaz’s charge is misplaced, yet his theology about the fate of the wicked is sound (Job 22:16-20). The sober lesson: walking the same road invites the same end (Proverbs 13:20). summary Job 22:15 portrays a fork in the road: remain on a time-worn trail stamped down by the wicked, or turn onto God’s way. Eliphaz misreads Job, but the verse still presses every reader to evaluate loyalties, resist the pull of inherited sin patterns, and choose the narrow road that leads to life. |
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