^15:28 He will dwell in desolate cities and in deserted houses, which have been reduced to mounds.
^15:29 He will not be enriched, nor will his substance endure, nor will he send his root into the earth.
^15:30 He will not depart from darkness; flame will dry up his branches, and he will be taken away by the breath of his mouth.
^15:31 Let him not believe, deceived in vain by error, that he is to be redeemed at any price.
^15:32 Before his days are fulfilled he will perish, and his hands will wither.
^15:33 His cluster will be harmed like a vine in its first flower, and like an olive tree casting off its flower.
^15:34 For the congregation of the hypocrite is sterile, and fire will devour the tabernacles of those who gladly accept gifts.
^15:35 He has conceived sorrow and given birth to iniquity, and his womb prepares deceits.

257. He will dwell in desolate cities, etc. After Eliphaz has shown the anxieties of fear that the impious man suffers even while existing in a state of prosperity, he now speaks of the bitternesses by which, cast down into adversity, he is consumed, on account of what Job had said: You write bitter things against me, and do you wish to consume me for the sins of my youth? Among other bitternesses, he sets down first that he is made a fugitive; now it is the custom of fugitives to seek hidden and uninhabited places, and therefore he says: He will dwell in desolate cities and in deserted houses, which have been reduced to mounds; for places of this kind are accustomed to be the refuges of fugitives.

The second bitterness is that he is stripped of his riches, whence he says: He will not be enriched, namely, so as to acquire riches anew, nor will his substance endure, so that he can retain riches previously acquired.

The third he sets down as the impossibility of recovery, saying: nor will he send his root into the earth; for if a tree is uprooted and planted again, it recovers strength if it sends a root into the earth, but if it cannot send a root into the earth, it cannot recover again. And, as though explaining this, he adds: He will not depart from darkness, that is, from the state of adversity; and he assigns the reason for not returning to the light, adding: flame will dry up his branches. For if a tree has been uprooted, while its branches are still green there remains hope of restoration, because they can be grafted or planted; but if the branches are burned, no further hope of recovery remains. But the branches of a man are his children and other persons joined to him, through whom a man sometimes rises again from the state of adversity; but Job’s children had been killed and his household had perished. And he himself was oppressed by infirmity, which he indicates by adding: and he will be taken away by the breath of his mouth, that is, by the pride of his words, so that he could not hope for recovery in any way, not even from God, whom the pride of words offends. Whence he adds: Let him not believe, deceived in vain by error, that he is to be redeemed at any price, that is, that by any help he is to be delivered from tribulation.

The fourth bitterness he sets down as the shortening of life, whence he adds: Before his days are fulfilled he will perish, that is, he will die before the time of his age is completed, and his hands will wither, that is, his children and relatives will fail. And he adds an example, saying: His cluster will be harmed like a vine in its first flower, which harm is accustomed to happen from cold, whence it signifies exterior persecution; and like an olive tree casting off its flower, which is accustomed to happen from some interior cause, whence it signifies the merit of adversity on the part of the one who suffers. Hence concerning this merit he adds: For the congregation of the hypocrite is sterile, that is, the things gathered by the hypocrite are rendered fruitless, and fire will devour the tabernacles of those who gladly accept gifts; for it sometimes happens by divine judgment that things badly acquired are easily consumed. And he says this marking Job with rapacity and hypocrisy, as though adversity had happened to him because of sins of this kind. And he adds a third sin, namely deceitfulness, whence there follows: He has conceived sorrow, that is, he has premeditated in his heart how he might inflict sorrow on another; the birth of this conception is harm unjustly inflicted, whence there follows: and given birth to iniquity. He consequently adds the manner in which he accomplishes this, saying: and his womb prepares deceits; for it belongs to hypocrites to inflict harm on others not openly but deceitfully. By the womb, however, the heart is understood, in which spiritual conceptions take place, just as bodily conceptions take place in the womb.