Job 15:32

Job 15:32 It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.

Ver. 32. It shall be accomplished before his time] Heb. In not his day. That recompense before mentioned of calamity and death shall be hastened, so that they shall not live out half their days, Psa 55:22, but die tempore non suo, Ecc 7:15, then when it were better for them to do anything rather than to die, since they perish in their corruptions, they are killed with death, Rev 2:23; see Pro 7:27. Death ever taketh a wicked man unprovided, Haec enim vena nobis ab Adam agnata est, ut nullam arborem ad suspendium aptam invenire possimus: neque unquam caro mortem eligit, nisi pressa iudicio (Brent. in loc.). We naturally dream of an immortality here, neither yield we to die till there be a necessity, Miserandum est autem, saith Lavater; but it is a pitiful thing, that, being all so desirous of life, we should so little care for those things that would lengthen our lives, such as are piety, justice, temperance, &c.; we forget that short way to long life, Psa 34:12.

His branch shall not be green] Heb. His crooked or bowed down branch; this is his full estate or numerous issue, those boughs of his, laden and bowed down with fruit, shall not be green, but blasted and dried up; ramificans eius non virescet. It is a misery to be the branch of a wicked stock, for such, as they leave the rest of their substance to their little ones, Psa 17:14, so they leave them God’s curse, as Joab’s legacy, 2Sa 3:29, or as Gehazi’s leprosy, 2Ki 5:27, a wretched bequeath.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job 15:32-33. It shall be accomplished — Namely, that which was last mentioned, that vanity should be his recompense: before his time — When, by the course of nature, and common providence, he might have continued and flourished much longer. And his branch — His glory and prosperity, or his children; shall not be green — Shall not continue to flourish as heretofore. He shall shake off his unripe grapes — The wicked man, who, by his sins, is the author of his own ruin, shall be deprived of his fruit, of his children, and other comforts, before their time; as the vine — Which either of itself drops its tender grapes, or loses them when they are plucked off by a violent hand; and shall cast off his flower as the olive — Which flourishes much about the same time with the vine, and commonly suffers similar injuries.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Literally, "it (the tree to which he is compared, Job 15:30, or else his life) shall not be filled up in its time"; that is, "he shall be ended before his time."

shall not be green--image from a withered tree; the childless extinction of the wicked.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 32. It shall be accomplished before his time] I believe the Vulgate gives the true sense: Antequam dies ejus impleantur, peribit; "He shall perish before his time; before his days are completed."

8. He shall be removed by a violent death, and not live out half his days.

9. And his branch shall not be green - there shall be no scion from his roots; all his posterity shall fail.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(32) It shall be accomplished.—That is, paid in full before its time.

The remainder of this chapter calls for little explanation. In it the speaker only repeats the orthodox and familiar saw that the wicked are punished in life, and therefore, by implication, the good rewarded: a maxim which fails utterly in the face of afflictions like those of Job, unless, as his friends insinuated, he was one of the wicked. After stating the doom of the ungodly, Eliphaz, in the last verse, sums up the character of those he has been denouncing. Not only are they evil in themselves, but they hatch evil; but it is evil that recoils on themselves.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

32. Before his time] lit. before his day, that is, the natural day of his death, cf. ch. Job_22:16; and the clause means, in the midst of his years (Psa_55:23) his recompence, or exchange, is fulfilled and goes into accomplishment—he is cut off. The words might also mean that his recompence accrues to him in its fulness. In the second clause “branch” is the palm-branch, or crowning tuft (Isa_9:14), and the figure is that of such a tree withered and dead.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine,.... Either the wicked man himself shall shake off or lose his substance; or God shall shake off from him all that was dear and valuable to him; or he shall be shaken by one providence or another, just as a vine is shaken by a violent wind and tempest, and its unripe grapes are battered off by an hailstorm, or plucked off by the hand, or drop off through rottenness; so it is signified by this metaphor, that a wicked man should be stripped of his wealth and riches in a sudden manner; or his children should be snatched from him in their youth, before they were well grown up to maturity, and so like the unripe grape; perhaps respect is had to Job's case, both with regard to his substance and his family:

and shall cast off his flower, as the olive: which tree, when shaken in a violent manner, drops its flower, and so brings forth no fruit; it is observed by naturalists (h), that these two trees, the vine and the olive, flourish much about the same time, and suffer much by storms and tempests, which destroy their fruits, and especially when rain falls in the time of their flowering; the some thing is intended in this clause as in the former.

(h) Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 16. c. 25. l. 17. c. 2. 24.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

It shall be accomplished before his time - Margin, “cut off.” The image here is that of a tree, which had been suggested in Job 15:30. Here it is followed up by various illustrations drawn from the flower, the fruit, etc., all of which are designed to denote the same thing - that a wicked man will not be permanently prosperous; he will not live and flourish as he would if he were righteous. He will be like a tree that is cut down before its proper time, or that casts its flowers and fruits and brings nothing to perfection. The phrase here literally is, “It shall not be filled up in its time;” that is, a wicked man will be cut off before he has filled up the measure of his days, like a tree that decays and falls before its proper time. A similar idea occurs in Psa 55:23. “Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days.” As a general fact this is all true, and the observation of the ancient Idumeans was correct. The temperate live longer than the intemperate; the chaste longer than the licentious; he that controls and governs his passions longer than he who gives the reins to them; and he who leads a life of honesty and virtue longer than he who lives for crime. Pure religion makes a man temperate, sober, chaste, calm, dispassionate, and equable in his temper; saves from broils, contentions, and strifes; subdues the angry passions, and thus tends to lengthen out life.

His branch shall not be green - It shall be dried up and withered away - retaining the image of a tree.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Hands; strength and prosperity. (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "his branch shall not grow thick." (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

It shall be accomplished, to wit, that which was last mentioned, that vanity should be his recompence. Or, it, i.e. his branch, mentioned in the next clause of the verse, from which it is understood in this former clause, as is very usual in the Holy Scripture, shall be consumed, or cut off.

Before his time, i.e. when by the course of nature and common providence it might have continued and flourished much longer.

His branch; either,

1. His glory and prosperity. Or rather,

2. His children, by comparing Job 15:34, where the desolation is said to fall upon all the congregation and tabernacles of these men; and so he reflects upon Job, who lost his children.

Shall not be green, i.e. shall not continue to flourish, as it had done.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

32. Accomplished before his time — Literally, In not his day it (the exchange) is fulfilled. The wicked man dies prematurely. The day he dies “is not his appointed day.” — Dillmann, Hirtzel. See note, Job_14:5. Compare Psa_55:23. Branch — The top branch (of the palm.)

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

It shall be accomplished before his time. "It i.e. the recompense shall be accomplished or, "paid in full before its time i.e. before payment is due." A vague threat, probably intended to signify that death will come upon the wicked man prematurely, before he has lived out halt the days of his natural life. And his branch shall not be green; i.e. he shall wither and fade, like a tree not planted by the waterside. (Psa_1:3)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Accomplished - That vanity should be his recompence. Before - When by the course of nature, and common providence he might have continued much longer.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Before his time his recompense will be complete [and will cease] from growing and prospering anymore, like (Gen. 50:3), “were fulfilled for him,” i.e., they were completed.

and his branches His bent-over branches. All branches of a tree resemble a dome.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.