Job 15:12 Meaning and Explanation

Eliphaz turns to Job's inner state, asking why his heart carries him away and what his flashing eyes are signaling. He pictures Job as swept off by passion, his very glance betraying defiance or scorn toward the counsel being offered.

The heart that carries a person away is a real danger; Scripture often warns that the heart can deceive. Yet here the diagnosis is wrong, for Job's turmoil is grief, not arrogance. The verse reminds us how easily strong emotion in a sufferer is read as rebellion by an onlooker who has not shared the pain. Before judging where another's heart is going, we do well to remember how little we can read from the outside, and how much God alone truly sees within.