Job15

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

²“Would a wise person answer with empty notions or fill their belly with the hot east wind?

³Would they argue with useless words, with speeches that have no value?

⁴But you even undermine piety and hinder devotion to God.

⁵Your sin prompts your mouth; you adopt the tongue of the crafty.

⁶Your own mouth condemns you, not mine; your own lips testify against you.

⁷“Are you the first man ever born? Were you brought forth before the hills?

⁸Do you listen in on God’s council? Do you have a monopoly on wisdom?

⁹What do you know that we do not know? What insights do you have that we do not have?

¹⁰The gray-haired and the aged are on our side, men even older than your father.

¹¹Are God’s consolations not enough for you, words spoken gently to you?

¹²Why has your heart carried you away, and why do your eyes flash,

¹³so that you vent your rage against God and pour out such words from your mouth?

¹⁴“What are mortals, that they could be pure, or those born of woman, that they could be righteous?

¹⁵If God places no trust in his holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes,

¹⁶how much less mortals, who are vile and corrupt, who drink up evil like water!

¹⁷“Listen to me and I will explain to you; let me tell you what I have seen,

¹⁸what the wise have declared, hiding nothing received from their ancestors

¹⁹(to whom alone the land was given when no foreigners moved among them):

²⁰All his days the wicked man suffers torment, the ruthless man through all the years stored up for him.

²¹Terrifying sounds fill his ears; when all seems well, marauders attack him.

²²He despairs of escaping the realm of darkness; he is marked for the sword.

²³He wanders about for food like a vulture; he knows the day of darkness is at hand.

²⁴Distress and anguish fill him with terror; troubles overwhelm him, like a king poised to attack,

²⁵because he shakes his fist at God and vaunts himself against the Almighty,

²⁶defiantly charging against him with a thick, strong shield.

²⁷“Though his face is covered with fat and his waist bulges with flesh,

²⁸he will inhabit ruined towns and houses where no one lives, houses crumbling to rubble.

²⁹He will no longer be rich and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the land.

³⁰He will not escape the darkness; a flame will wither his shoots, and the breath of God’s mouth will carry him away.

³¹Let him not deceive himself by trusting what is worthless, for he will get nothing in return.

³²Before his time he will wither, and his branches will not flourish.

³³He will be like a vine stripped of its unripe grapes, like an olive tree shedding its blossoms.

³⁴For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of those who love bribes.

³⁵They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; their womb fashions deceit.”