Job 15

Eliphaz answers: windy words and a guilty mouth

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: ²Should a wise person answer with windy knowledge \q and fill his belly with the east wind? ³Should he argue with useless talk, \q with words that do no good? ⁴But you are doing away with the fear of God \q and hindering devotion before him. ⁵For your guilt instructs your mouth, \q and you choose the language of the crafty.^{a 6}Your own mouth condemns you, not I; \q your own lips testify against you. ⁷Were you the first human being ever born? \q Were you brought forth before the hills? ⁸Do you listen in on God’s council? \q Do you keep wisdom all to yourself? ⁹What do you know that we do not know? \q What do you understand that we do not? ¹⁰Both the gray-haired and the aged are on our side, \q people older than your father. ¹¹Are God’s comforts too small for you, \q or a word spoken gently to you? ¹²Why does your heart carry you away, \q and why do your eyes flash,^{b 13}so that you turn your anger against God \q and let such words come out of your mouth? ¹⁴How can a mortal be pure? \q How can one born of a woman be righteous? ¹⁵If God does not trust even his holy ones, \q and the heavens are not pure in his sight, ¹⁶how much less one who is vile and corrupt, \q a person who drinks in wrongdoing like water! ¹⁷Listen to me, and I will explain; \q I will tell you what I have seen, ¹⁸what the wise have declared \q and have not hidden, what came from their ancestors, ¹⁹to whom alone the land was given, \q when no foreigner moved among them. ²⁰The wicked person writhes in pain all his days, \q through all the years laid up for the ruthless.^{c 21}Sounds of terror fill his ears; \q when all is well, a destroyer attacks him. ²²He does not expect to escape from darkness; \q he is marked out for the sword. ²³He wanders about for food, saying, ‘Where is it?’ \q He knows that the day of darkness is close at hand.^{d 24}Distress and anguish fill him with terror; \q they overpower him like a king ready for battle. ²⁵For he has stretched out his hand against God \q and set himself up against the Almighty; ²⁶he charges at him defiantly, \q with his thick, studded shield. ²⁷for he has covered his face with fat \q and piled up fat on his waist, ²⁸and he has lived in ruined cities, \q in houses no one should live in, \q houses marked out to become heaps of rubble.^{e 29}He will not stay rich, his wealth will not last, \q and his possessions will not spread across the land.^{f 30}He will not escape the darkness; \q a flame will wither his young shoots, \q and he will be swept away by the breath of God’s mouth.^{g 31}Let him not deceive himself by trusting in what is empty, \q for emptiness will be his reward. ³²It will be paid in full before his time, \q and his branch will not flourish. ³³He will be like a vine that drops its grapes before they ripen, \q like an olive tree that sheds its blossoms. ³⁴For the household of the godless will be barren, \q and fire will consume the tents of those who take bribes. ³⁵They conceive trouble and give birth to wickedness; \q their womb breeds deceit.