Job 15:1-35

Eliphaz’s Second Speech

15:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

15:2 “Does a wise man answer with blustery knowledge,

or fill his belly with the east wind?

15:3 Does he argue with useless talk,

with words that have no value in them?

15:4 But you even break off piety,

and hinder meditation before God.

15:5 Your sin inspires your mouth;

you choose the language of the crafty.

15:6 Your own mouth condemns you, not I;

your own lips testify against you.

15:7 “Were you the first man ever born?

Were you brought forth before the hills?

15:8 Do you listen in on God’s secret council?

Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

15:9 What do you know that we don’t know?

What do you understand that we don’t understand?

15:10 The gray-haired and the aged are on our side,

men far older than your father.

15:11 Are God’s consolations too trivial for you;

or a word spoken in gentleness to you?

15:12 Why has your heart carried you away,

and why do your eyes flash,

15:13 when you turn your rage against God

and allow such words to escape from your mouth?

15:14 What is man that he should be pure,

or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?

15:15 If God places no trust in his holy ones,

if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes,

15:16 how much less man, who is abominable and corrupt,

who drinks in evil like water!

15:17 “I will explain to you;

listen to me,

and what I have seen, I will declare,

15:18 what wise men declare,

hiding nothing,

from the tradition of their ancestors,

15:19 to whom alone the land was given

when no foreigner passed among them.

15:20 All his days the wicked man suffers torment,

throughout the number of the years

that are stored up for the tyrant.

15:21 Terrifying sounds fill his ears;

in a time of peace marauders attack him.

15:22 He does not expect to escape from darkness;

he is marked for the sword;

15:23 he wanders about – food for vultures;

he knows that the day of darkness is at hand.

15:24 Distress and anguish terrify him;

they prevail against him

like a king ready to launch an attack,

15:25 for he stretches out his hand against God,

and vaunts himself against the Almighty,

15:26 defiantly charging against him

with a thick, strong shield!

15:27 Because he covered his face with fat,

and made his hips bulge with fat,

15:28 he lived in ruined towns

and in houses where no one lives,

where they are ready to crumble into heaps.

15:29 He will not grow rich,

and his wealth will not endure,

nor will his possessions spread over the land.

15:30 He will not escape the darkness;

a flame will wither his shoots

and he will depart

by the breath of God’s mouth.

15:31 Let him not trust in what is worthless,

deceiving himself;

for worthlessness will be his reward.

15:32 Before his time he will be paid in full,

and his branches will not flourish.

15:33 Like a vine he will let his sour grapes fall,

and like an olive tree

he will shed his blossoms.

15:34 For the company of the godless is barren,

and fire consumes the tents of those who accept bribes.

15:35 They conceive trouble and bring forth evil;

their belly prepares deception.”