Job 15: 1 - 17: 16
| 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, |
| 2“Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, |
| and fill himself with the east wind? |
| 3Should he reason with unprofitable talk, |
| or with speeches with which he can do no good? |
| 4Yes, you do away with fear, |
| and hinder devotion before God. |
| 5For your iniquity teaches your mouth, |
| and you choose the language of the crafty. |
| 6Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. |
| Yes, your own lips testify against you. |
| 7“Are you the first man who was born? |
| Or were you brought out before the hills? |
| 8Have you heard the secret counsel of God? |
| Do you limit wisdom to yourself? |
| 9What do you know that we don’t know? |
| What do you understand which is not in us? |
| 10With us are both the grey-headed and the very aged men, |
| much older than your father. |
| 11Are the consolations of God too small for you, |
| even the word that is gentle towards you? |
| 12Why does your heart carry you away? |
| Why do your eyes flash, |
| 13that you turn your spirit against God, |
| and let such words go out of your mouth? |
| 14What is man, that he should be clean? |
| What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? |
| 15Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. |
| Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight; |
| 16how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, |
| a man who drinks iniquity like water! |
| 17“I will show you, listen to me; |
| that which I have seen I will declare |
| 18(which wise men have told by their fathers, |
| and have not hidden it; |
| 19to whom alone the land was given, |
| and no stranger passed amongst them): |
| 20the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, |
| even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor. |
| 21A sound of terrors is in his ears. |
| In prosperity the destroyer will come on him. |
| 22He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness. |
| He is waited for by the sword. |
| 23He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ |
| He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. |
| 24Distress and anguish make him afraid. |
| They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle. |
| 25Because he has stretched out his hand against God, |
| and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty, |
| 26he runs at him with a stiff neck, |
| with the thick shields of his bucklers, |
| 27because he has covered his face with his fatness, |
| and gathered fat on his thighs. |
| 28He has lived in desolate cities, |
| in houses which no one inhabited, |
| which were ready to become heaps. |
| 29He will not be rich, neither will his substance continue, |
| neither will their possessions be extended on the earth. |
| 30He will not depart out of darkness. |
| The flame will dry up his branches. |
| He will go away by the breath of God’s mouth. |
| 31Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; |
| for emptiness will be his reward. |
| 32It will be accomplished before his time. |
| His branch will not be green. |
| 33He will shake off his unripe grape as the vine, |
| and will cast off his flower as the olive tree. |
| 34For the company of the godless will be barren, |
| and fire will consume the tents of bribery. |
| 35They conceive mischief and produce iniquity. |
| Their heart prepares deceit.” |
| 1Then Job answered, |
| 2“I have heard many such things. |
| You are all miserable comforters! |
| 3Shall vain words have an end? |
| Or what provokes you that you answer? |
| 4I also could speak as you do. |
| If your soul were in my soul’s place, |
| I could join words together against you, |
| and shake my head at you, |
| 5but I would strengthen you with my mouth. |
| The solace of my lips would relieve you. |
| 6“Though I speak, my grief is not subsided. |
| Though I forbear, what am I eased? |
| 7But now, God, you have surely worn me out. |
| You have made all my company desolate. |
| 8You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. |
| My leanness rises up against me. |
| It testifies to my face. |
| 9He has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me. |
| He has gnashed on me with his teeth. |
| My adversary sharpens his eyes on me. |
| 10They have gaped on me with their mouth. |
| They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully. |
| They gather themselves together against me. |
| 11God delivers me to the ungodly, |
| and casts me into the hands of the wicked. |
| 12I was at ease, and he broke me apart. |
| Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces. |
| He has also set me up for his target. |
| 13His archers surround me. |
| He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare. |
| He pours out my bile on the ground. |
| 14He breaks me with breach on breach. |
| He runs at me like a giant. |
| 15I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, |
| and have thrust my horn in the dust. |
| 16My face is red with weeping. |
| Deep darkness is on my eyelids, |
| 17although there is no violence in my hands, |
| and my prayer is pure. |
| 18“Earth, don’t cover my blood. |
| Let my cry have no place to rest. |
| 19Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. |
| He who vouches for me is on high. |
| 20My friends scoff at me. |
| My eyes pour out tears to God, |
| 21that he would maintain the right of a man with God, |
| of a son of man with his neighbour! |
| 22For when a few years have come, |
| I will go the way of no return. |
| 1“My spirit is consumed. |
| My days are extinct, |
| and the grave is ready for me. |
| 2Surely there are mockers with me. |
| My eye dwells on their provocation. |
| 3“Now give a pledge. Be collateral for me with yourself. |
| Who is there who will strike hands with me? |
| 4For you have hidden their heart from understanding, |
| Therefore you will not exalt them. |
| 5He who denounces his friends for plunder, |
| Even the eyes of his children will fail. |
| 6“But he has made me a byword of the people. |
| They spit in my face. |
| 7My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. |
| All my members are as a shadow. |
| 8Upright men will be astonished at this. |
| The innocent will stir himself up against the godless. |
| 9Yet the righteous will hold to his way. |
| He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger. |
| 10But as for you all, come back. |
| I will not find a wise man amongst you. |
| 11My days are past. |
| My plans are broken off, |
| as are the thoughts of my heart. |
| 12They change the night into day, |
| saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness. |
| 13If I look for Sheol as my house, |
| if I have spread my couch in the darkness, |
| 14if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father;’ |
| to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’ |
| 15where then is my hope? |
| As for my hope, who will see it? |
| 16Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, |
| or descend together into the dust?” |
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