Job 15:1-35
15 And Elʹi·phaz the Teʹman·ite proceeded to answer and say:
2 “Will a wise person himself answer with windy knowledge,*+Or will he fill his belly with the east wind?+
3 Merely reproving with a word will be of no use,And mere utterances will be of no benefit by themselves.
4 However, you yourself make fear [before God] to have no force,And you diminish the having of any concern before God.*
5 For your error trains your mouth,*And you choose the tongue of shrewd people.
6 Your mouth pronounces you wicked, and not I;And your own lips answer against you.+
7 Were you the very first man* to be born,+Or before the hills+ were you brought forth with labor pains?
8 To the confidential talk of God* do you listen,+And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9 What do you actually know that we do not know?+What do you understand that is not also with us?
10 Both the gray-headed and the aged one are with us,+The one greater than your father in days.
11 Are the consolations of God* not enough for you,Or a word [spoken] gently with you?
12 Why does your heart carry you away,And why do your eyes flash?
13 For you turn your spirit against God himself,And you have caused words to go forth from your own mouth.
14 What is mortal man* that he should be clean,+Or that anyone born of a woman should be in the right?
15 Look! In his holy ones he has no faith,+And the heavens themselves are actually not clean in his eyes.+
16 How much less so when one is detestable and corrupt,+A man who is drinking in unrighteousness just like water!
17 I shall declare it to you. Listen to me!+Even this I have beheld, so let me relate [it],
18 That which wise ones+ themselves tellAnd which they did not hide, [it being] from their fathers.
19 To them alone the land was given,And no stranger passed through the midst of them.
20 All his days a wicked one is suffering torture,Even the very number of years that have been reserved for the tyrant.
21 The sound of dreadful things is in his ears;During peace a despoiler himself comes upon him.+
22 He does not believe that he will come back out of darkness,+And he is reserved for a sword.
23 He is straying about in search of bread*—where is it?+He well knows that the day of darkness+ is ready at his hand.
24 Distress and anguish keep terrifying him;+They overpower him like a king in readiness for the assault.
25 Because he stretches out his hand against God* himself,And over the Almighty he tries to show himself superior;+
26 [Because] he runs against him stiff-neckedly,With the thick bosses of his shields;
27 Because he actually covers his face with his fattinessAnd he puts on fat upon his loins,+
28 He merely resides in cities that are to be effaced;In houses in which people will not keep dwelling,Which certainly prove destined for heaps of stones.
29 He will not grow rich and his wealth will not mount up,Nor will he spread out the acquisition* of them over the earth.+
30 He will not turn away from darkness;His twig a flame will dry up,And he will turn aside by a blast* of His mouth.+
31 Let him put no faith in worthlessness, being led astray,For mere worthlessness will prove to be what he gets in exchange;
32 Before his day* will it be fulfilled.And his shoot itself will certainly not grow luxuriantly.+
33 He will thrust away his unripe grapes just like a vine,And cast off his blossoms just like an olive tree.
34 For the assembly of apostates is sterile,+And fire itself must eat up the tents of bribery.+
35 There is a conceiving of trouble and a giving birth to what is hurtful,+And their belly itself prepares deceit.”
Footnotes
^ Lit., “knowledge of wind.” Heb., dha·ʽath-ruʹach.
^ “God.” Heb., ʼEl.
^ Or, “your mouth teaches your error.” LXX, “you are guilty by the words of your mouth”; Sy, “your mouth teaches sin.”
^ “Man.” Heb., ʼa·dhamʹ.
^ “God.” Heb., ʼElohʹah.
^ “God.” Heb., ʼEl.
^ “Mortal man.” Heb., ʼenohshʹ.
^ Or, “food.”
^ “God.” Heb., ʼEl.
^ “Acquisition.” The meaning in M is uncertain; LXX, “shadow”; Vg, “root.”
^ “By a blast of.” Heb., beruʹach.
^ Lit., “in not his day.”
