"_Behold, God will not cast away the perfect: He will yet fill thy mouth with laughter And thy lips with shouting._" Zophar had said that if Job would put away iniquity he should be led into fearless calm. "_Thou shall be steadfast and not fear, For thou shalt forget thy misery; Remember it as waters that are passed by._" That is a note of the first series of arguments; we hear nothing of it in the second. One after another drives home a stern, uncompromising judgment. * * * * * The dramatic art of the author has introduced several touches into the second speech of Eliphaz which maintain the personality. For example, the formula "I have seen" is carried on from the former address where it repeatedly occurs, and is now used quite incidentally, therefore with all the more effect. Again the "crafty" are spoken of in both addresses with contempt and aversion, neither of the other interlocutors of Job nor Job himself using the word. The thought of chap. xv. 15 is also the same as that ventured upon in chap. iv. 18, a return to the oracle which gave Eliphaz his claim to be a prophet. Meanwhile he adopts from Bildad the appeal to ancient belief in support of his position; but he has an original way of enforcing this appeal. As a pure Temanite he is animated by the pride of race and claims more for his progenitors than could be allowed to a Shuchite or Naamathite, more, certainly, than could be allowed to one who dwelt among worshippers of the sun and moon. As a whole the thought of Eliphaz remains what it was, but more closely brought to a point. He does not wander now in search of possible explanations. He fancies that Job has convicted himself and that little remains but to show most definitely the fate he seems bent on provoking. It will be a kindness to impress this on his mind. The first part of the address, extending to verse 13, is an expostulation with Job, whom in irony he calls "wise." Should a wise man use empty unprofitable talk, filling his bosom, as it were, with the east wind, peculiarly blustering and arid? Yet what Job says is not only unprofitable, it is profane. "_Thou doest away with piety And hinderest devotion before God. For thine iniquity instructs thy mouth, And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty. Thine own mouth condemneth thee; not I; Thine own lips testify against thee._"