Eliphaz attacks Job's speech

This unit opens Eliphaz’s second speech within Job’s debate cycle. Instead of engaging Job’s claims in detail, Eliphaz targets Job’s manner of speaking, moving from rhetorical dismissal (vv. 2–3), to alleged social-religious damage (v. 4), to a charge that Job’s words are self-incriminating (vv. 5–6).

The scene reflects an ancient Near Eastern honor-shame environment in which speech was treated as a moral and social act. Formal disputation used sharp questions and claims that an opponent’s own words “testify” against them. Regional climate imagery (like the east wind) provided common metaphors for harshness and emptiness in public rhetoric.

Theological significance

Eliphaz opens by dismissing Job’s words as empty and harmful, then claims Job’s own speech exposes his wrongdoing. Eliphaz characterizes Job’s speech as empty and unprofitable, using east-wind imagery (Job 15:2–3). Eliphaz asserts that Job’s own mouth condemns him rather than vindicates him (Job 15:6). This unit opens Eliphaz’s second speech within Job’s debate cycle. Instead of engaging Job’s claims in detail, Eliphaz targets Job’s manner of speaking, moving from rhetorical dismissal (vv.