Job
15
- Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
- "Would a wise man answer with empty
notions or fill his belly with the hot east wind ?
- Would he argue with useless words, with
speeches that have no value ?
- But you even undermine piety and hinder
devotion to God.
- Your sin prompts your mouth; you adopt the
tongue of the crafty.
- Your own mouth condemns you, not mine; your
own lips testify against you.
- "Are you the first man ever born? Were
you brought forth before the hills ?
- Do you listen in on God's council? Do you
limit wisdom to yourself ?
- What do you know that we do not know? What
insights do you have that we do not have ?
- The gray-haired and the aged are on our
side, men even older than your father.
- Are God's consolations not enough for you,
words spoken gently to you ?
- Why has your heart carried you away, and
why do your eyes flash,
- so that you vent your rage against God and
pour out such words from your mouth ?
- "What is man, that he could be pure,
or one born of woman, that he could be righteous ?
- If God places no trust in his holy ones,
if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes,
- how much less man, who is vile and corrupt,
who drinks up evil like water !
- "Listen to me and I will explain to
you; let me tell you what I have seen,
- what wise men have declared, hiding nothing
received from their fathers
- (to whom alone the land was given when no
alien passed among them):
- All his days the wicked man suffers torment,
the ruthless through all the years stored up for him.
- Terrifying sounds fill his ears; when all
seems well, marauders attack him.
- He despairs of escaping the darkness; he
is marked for the sword.
- He wanders about -- food for vultures; he
knows the day of darkness is at hand.
- Distress and anguish fill him with terror;
they overwhelm him, like a king poised to attack,
- because he shakes his fist at God and vaunts
himself against the Almighty,
- defiantly charging against him with a thick,
strong shield.
- "Though his face is covered with fat
and his waist bulges with flesh,
- he will inhabit ruined towns and houses
where no one lives, houses crumbling to rubble.
- He will no longer be rich and his wealth
will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the land.
- He will not escape the darkness; a flame
will wither his shoots, and the breath of God's mouth will carry him away.
- Let him not deceive himself by trusting
what is worthless, for he will get nothing in return.
- Before his time he will be paid in full,
and his branches will not flourish.
- He will be like a vine stripped of its unripe
grapes, like an olive tree shedding its blossoms.
- For the company of the godless will be barren,
and fire will consume the tents of those who love bribes.
- They conceive trouble and give birth to
evil; their womb fashions deceit."
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