Job 15:27

Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Job 15:27. He covereth his face with his fatness — This is mentioned as the reason of his insolent carriage toward God. because he was fat, rich, potent, and successful, as that expression signifies, Deuteronomy 32:15; Psalm 78:31; Jeremiah 46:21. His great prosperity made him proud and secure, and regardless of God and men. Maketh collops of fat on his flanks — His only care is to pamper and please himself, and satisfy his own lusts, and in defence and pursuance of them he contends with God.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

15:17-35 Eliphaz maintains that the wicked are certainly miserable: whence he would infer, that the miserable are certainly wicked, and therefore Job was so. But because many of God's people have prospered in this world, it does not therefore follow that those who are crossed and made poor, as Job, are not God's people. Eliphaz shows also that wicked people, particularly oppressors, are subject to continual terror, live very uncomfortably, and perish very miserably. Will the prosperity of presumptuous sinners end miserably as here described? Then let the mischiefs which befal others, be our warnings. Though no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. No calamity, no trouble, however heavy, however severe, can rob a follower of the Lord of his favour. What shall separate him from the love of Christ?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Because he covereth his face with his fatness - That is, he not only stretches out his hand against God Job 15:25 and rushes upon him as an armed foe Job 15:26, but he gives himself up to a life of luxury, gluttony, and licentiousness; and therefore, these calamities must come upon him. This is designed to be a description of a luxurious and licentious person - a man who is an enemy of God, and who, therefore, must incur his displeasure.

And maketh collops of fat - Like an ox that is fattened. The word collop properly means "a small slice of meat, a piece of flesh" (Webster), but here it means a thick piece, or a mass. The word is used in this sense in New England. The sense is, that he becomes excessively fat and gross - as they usually do who live in sensual indulgence and who forget God.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

27. The well-nourished body of the rebel is the sign of his prosperity.

collops—masses of fat. He pampers and fattens himself with sensual indulgences; hence his rebellion against God (De 32:15; 1Sa 2:29).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

With his fatness: this is mentioned as the reason of his insolent carriage towards God, because he was fat, i.e. rich, and potent, and successful, as that expression signifies, Deu 32:15 Psalm 78:31 Jeremiah 46:21. His great prosperity made him proud and secure, and regardless of God and men.

Maketh collops of fat on his flanks; his only care and study is to pamper and please himself, and obey his own mind and lusts, and in defence and pursuance of them he contends with God.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Because he covereth his face with his fatness,.... He has no fear of God, nor shame for his sin; he blushes not to rise up against God in the manner he does, because his eyes stand out with fatness; or rather his face is covered with it, that is, he abounds in riches, he enjoys great prosperity, a large affluence of all good things; and this makes him haughty and imperious, neither to fear God, nor regard man like Jeshurun, who, when he "waxed fat, was grown thick, and covered with fatness, kicked" against God, and his providences, sinned and rebelled against him; "forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation", Deuteronomy 32:15; and to the same purpose is the following clause:

and maketh collops of fat in his flanks; a description of a very fat man, and one that pampers the flesh, and indulges himself in eating and drinking; and, figuratively, of one that abounds in the good things of this world, and which make him vain and proud, and lead him on to commit sin in a bold and daring way, promising himself impunity in it, but without any just ground for it, as the following verses show; perhaps some respect may be had to Job's children feasting with one another in their prosperity, which led on to sin, and issued in their ruin, as Eliphaz would suggest.

Geneva Study Bible

Because he covereth his face with {q} his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks.

(q) That is, he was so puffed up with prosperity and abundance for all things, that he forgave God: noting that Job in his happiness did not have the true fear of God.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

27. he covereth] Rather, he covered; and similarly, he made collops. The words express the idea of falling into a brutish fleshliness, which causes insensibility to all that is spiritual and resistance of it, cf. Deuteronomy 32:15; Psalm 73:7.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 27. - Because he covereth his face with his fatness. The ground and origin of the wicked man's audacity is his luxurious and intemperate living. In the days of his prosperity he pampered his body, freely indulged all his carnal appetites, and gave himself up to gluttony and gourmandism. This depraved his moral nature, separated between him and God, and finally produced in him the insolence and presumption described in vers. 25, 26 And maketh collops of fat on his flanks. The same idea, only very slightly varied, as so often in the second member of a verse. Job 15:27

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

25 Because he stretched out his hand against God,

And was insolent towards the Almighty;

26 He assailed Him with a stiff neck,

With the thick bosses of his shield;

27 Because he covered his face with his fatness,

And addeth fat to his loins,

28 And inhabited desolated cities,

Houses which should not be inhabited,

Which were appointed to be ruins.

29 He shall not be rich, and his substance shall not continue

And their substance boweth not to the ground.

30 He escapeth not darkness;

The flame withereth his shoots;

And he perisheth in the breath of His mouth.

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