Job 5:13

13 He taketh [lakad] the wise [chakam] in their own craftiness [`orem]: and the counsel [`etsah] of the froward [pathal] is carried headlong [mahar]. KJV-Interlinear

13 'He captures the wise by their own shrewdness And the advice of the cunning is quickly thwarted. NASB

Those who ignore God, Christ, and doctrine, become the victims of their own devices. Those who ignore God, Christ, and doctrine are by default subscribers of disobedience to truth.

The wise and the cunning can apply to anyone who has ever been born. You do not have to be a con artist, a swindler, imposter, quack, or a pretender to fall within this description. You do not have to be a political leader, celebrity, professor, scientist, instructor, or anyone of notoriety to fall within this description. You do not have to be anyone of renown, or position in order to fall within this description.

In fact you can be any John or Jane Doe boyfriend, or girlfriend, or neighbor, or social club member, or office worker, or anyone alive, and be included within the description, wise or cunning.

World wisdom simply means intelligence, or one with the ability to reason or think. That doesn't mean that you reasoning or thinking abilities are correct. You just have the ability to consider things and draw conclusions. 'Joe is tall. Professional basketball players are tall. Joe is basketball player.' A thought that seems reasonable, but if you add other facts, such as Joe being a gorilla, then the conclusion falls apart.

Human wisdom runs a broad gamut of thinking, from a man wanting to be a woman, to the universe beginning with a big bang, to witches should be burned. Humanity can rationalize virtually anything when truth is absent from the thought process. And people will flock by the billions to an idea when truth is excluded from their thinking. That is how religions begin and continue. That is how crime and tyranny begin and continue.

The 'cunning' can include the sly, the crafty, the shrewd, the clever, the sharp, or the perceptive. In fact this too can include anyone who pursues a life for themselves in this world, while at the same time excluding or ignoring God, Christ, and doctrine from their lives.

Just plodding along at your eight to five job, while at the same time being indifferent toward God, tells God that you can make a life on your own, without His help. In fact your perpetual pursuit of a life, maintaining indifference toward God, suggests that you can do things better than God.

When you exclude God, by whatever means, either through indifference, apathy, by pretense, or substitution, or even by active hate against God, then you are saying that you are cunning enough to get through life on your own.

A jerk boyfriend or girlfriend, husband or wife can be untruthful toward their opposite in the most common of human activities, and just how is that any different for anyone who plays games with God.

Eliphaz is hinting that Job tried to be wise or cunning in his life, trying to fool everyone, but God found him out and he is now paying the price for his arrogance.

Such is not the case for Job, but it is the most common case with people in general throughout history.

Don't think that you can get by in life without God in your life.

Don't think that any success you might be enjoying, is due to your own intelligence, effort, or cleverness.

Don't think that you can blame your way out of your problems, refusing to ever take responsibility for what you have done in life.

Don't think that you can complain your way out of your problems, just because they weren't your fault.

There is only one source of truth, one source of valid counsel, only one source that sustains life, and it doesn't come from this world, or from you.

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