Job
Chapter 15
1
Then Eliphaz the Temanite spoke and said:
2
Should a wise man answer with airy opinions, or puff himself up with wind?
3
Should he argue in speech which does not avail, and in words which are to no profit?
4
You in fact do away with piety, and you lessen devotion toward God,
5
Because your wickedness instructs your mouth, and you choose to speak like the crafty.
6
Your own mouth condemns you, not I; you own lips refute you.
7
Are you indeed the first-born of mankind, or were you brought forth before the hills?
8
Are you privy to the counsels of God, and do you restrict wisdom to yourself?
9
What do you know that we do not know? What intelligence have you which we have not?
10
There are gray-haired old men among us more advanced in years than your father.
11
Are the consolations of God not enough for you, and speech that deals gently with you?
12
Why do your notions carry you away, and why do your eyes blink,
13
So that you turn your anger against God and let such words escape your mouth!
14
What is a man that he should be blameless, one born of woman that he should be righteous?
15
If in his holy ones God places no confidence, and if the heavens are not clean in his sight,
16
How much less so is the abominable, the corrupt: man, who drinks in iniquity like water!
17
I will show you, if you listen to me; what I have seen I will tell--
18
What wise men relate and have not contradicted since the days of their fathers,
19
To whom alone the land was given, when no foreigner moved among them.
20
The wicked man is in torment all his days, and limited years are in store for the tyrant;
21
The sound of terrors is in his ears; when all is prosperous, the spoiler comes upon him.
22
He despairs of escaping the darkness, and looks ever for the sword;
23
A wanderer, food for the vultures, he knows that his destruction is imminent.
24
By day the darkness fills him with dread; distress and anguish overpower him.
25
Because he has stretched out his hand against God and bade defiance to the Almighty,
26
One shall rush sternly upon him with the stout bosses of his shield, like a king prepared for the charge.
27
Because he has blinded himself with his crassness, padding his loins with fat,
28
He shall dwell in ruinous cities, in houses that are deserted, That are crumbling into clay
29
with no shadow to lengthen over the ground. He shall not be rich, and his possessions shall not endure;
31
for vain shall be his bartering.
30
A flame shall wither him up in his early growth, and with the wind his blossoms shall disappear.
32
His stalk shall wither before its time, and his branches shall be green no more.
33
He shall be like a vine that sheds its grapes unripened, and like an olive tree casting off its bloom.
34
For the breed of the impious shall be sterile, and fire shall consume the tents of extortioners.
35
1 They conceive malice and bring forth emptiness; they give birth to failure.
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Footnotes

1 [35] They give birth to failure: their wicked plans yield nothing but futile results. Cf Psalm 7:14; Isaiah 59:4.


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