Job15

¹ Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

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

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

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

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

⁶ Your 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?

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

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

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

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

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

¹³ so 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?

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

¹⁶ how 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,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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