Job 15
1 Then Eliphaz replied to Job:
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
2 “If you were truly wise [RHQ], you would not have replied to us by claiming that you know a lot; what you are saying is just a lot of hot air [MET].
“Should a wise man answer with useless knowledge and fill himself with the east wind?
3 You should not [RHQ] be saying things that do not benefit anyone, using words that do no one any good.
Should he reason with unprofitable talk or with speeches with which he can do no good?
4 [By what you say, ] you show that you do not revere God, and you are hindering people from meditating/thinking about God.
Indeed, you diminish respect for God; you obstruct devotion to him,
5 [It is as though] your sins are telling you what to say; you talk like people who will not admit that they are wicked.
for your iniquity teaches your mouth; you choose to have the tongue of a crafty man.
6 Everything that you say [MTY] shows that you should be punished; so, it is not necessary for me to show that.
Your own mouth condemns you, not mine; indeed, your own lips testify against you.
7 [“Tell me do you know more than everyone else because you think that] you are the first person who was ever born? [SAR, RHQ] Were you born before the hills [were created]?
Are you the first man that was born? Were you brought into existence before the hills?
8 Were you listening when God made all his plans? [SAR, RHQ] Or do you think that you are the only person who is wise?
Have you heard the secret knowledge of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9 (What do you know that we do not know?/You do not know anything that we do not know.) [RHQ] You do not understand [RHQ] anything that is not also clear to us.
What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not also in us?
10 My friends and I are also wise; we acquired [wisdom] from old gray-haired people, from people who were born before your father was born.
With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men who are much older than your father.
11 God wants to comfort you, and to speak gently/kindly to you; (is that not enough for you/do you need more than that)?
Are the consolations of God too small for you, the words that are gentle toward you?
12 Why do you allow yourself to be (carried away/excited) by your emotions? Why are [you very angry, with the result that] your eyes flash?
Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,
13 You are angry [IDM] with God, and so you [MTY] are criticizing/denouncing him.
so that you turn your spirit against God and bring out such words from your mouth?
14 “(How can any person, [including you, ] be sinless?/No person, [including you], can be sinless.) [RHQ] (How can anyone on the earth be [completely] righteous?/No one on the earth can be [completely] righteous.) [RHQ]
What is man that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman that he should be righteous?
15 Hey, God does not even trust his angels; he does not consider even them to be [completely] pure.
See, God puts no trust even in his holy ones; indeed, the heavens are not clean in his sight;
16 So, he certainly does not [trust] abominable/disgusting and depraved/corrupt people who do evil things [as easily] as they drink water [MET].
how much less clean is one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
17 Job, listen to what I will tell you. I will declare to you what I know,
I will show you; listen to me; I will announce to you the things I have seen,
18 things that wise men have told me, truths that their ancestors did not keep hidden.
the things that wise men have passed down from their fathers, the things that their ancestors did not hide.
19 God gave this land to those ancestors, who were truly wise; no one from another country caused them to think wrongly [IDM].
These were their ancestors, to whom alone the land was given, and among whom no stranger ever passed.
20 It is wicked people who suffer with great pain all the time that they are alive; that is what happens to those who (oppress/act violently toward) others.
The wicked man twists in pain all his days, the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor to suffer.
21 They constantly hear sounds that terrify them; while they are prospering, bandits attack them.
A sound of terrors is in his ears; while he is in prosperity, the destroyer will come upon him.
22 Wicked people surely know that they will not escape from darkness/death, because [they are sure that someone] is waiting to kill them with a sword.
He does not think that he will return out of darkness; the sword waits for him.
23 They wander around, searching for food, saying ‘Where can I find some?’ And they know that they will soon experience disasters.
He goes to various places for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that the day of darkness is at hand.
24 Because they are afraid of those things happening to them, they are afraid and worry that these things will come to them like [the army of] a king comes to attack [their enemies and cause them to suffer] [SIM].
Distress and anguish make him afraid; they prevail against him, as a king ready for battle.
25 [Those things happen to them] because they (shook their fists/dared to fight) against Almighty God, and thought that they were strong enough to defeat him.
Because he has reached out with his hand against God and has behaved proudly against the Almighty,
26 They stubbornly [IDM] rush to attack God [as though they were carrying] a strong shield [to protect themselves].
this wicked man runs at God with a stiff neck, with a thick shield.
27 They are so fat [that they are unable to fight].
This is true, even though he has covered his face with his fat and gathered fat on his loins,
28 They will live in cities that have been abandoned, cities which have become a heap of ruins.
and has lived in desolate cities; in houses which no man inhabits now and which were ready to become heaps.
29 But they will not remain rich very long; Everything that they own will be taken from them; their possessions will all disappear.
He will not be rich; his wealth will not last and his possessions will not spread over the land.
30 They will not escape from the darkness [of death]; they will be like trees whose branches are burned by fire and whose blossoms are blown away by the wind.
He will not depart out of darkness; a flame will dry up his stalks; at the breath of God's mouth he will go away.
31 Since they are very foolish, with the result that they trust in things that are really worthless, then things that are worthless will be all that they get.
Let him not trust in useless things, deceiving himself; for uselessness will be his reward.
32 Before they are old, they will wither; they will be like [MET] branches that wither and never become green again.
It will happen before his time should come to die; his branch will not be green.
33 They will be like [SIM] vines whose grapes fall off before they are ripe, like olive trees whose blossoms fall off before they produce any fruit.
He will drop his unripe grapes like a grapevine; he will cast off his flowers like the olive tree.
34 Wicked/godless people will not have any descendants, and fires will completely burn up the homes of [those who built those homes using] money they received from bribes.
For the company of godless people will be barren; fire will consume their tents of bribery.
35 They plan to cause trouble and to do evil things, and they are always preparing to deceive people.”
They conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity; their womb conceives deceit.”
