Job 15
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
Then Eliphaz replied to Job:
2 “Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?
“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].
3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?
You should not [RHQ] be saying things that do not benefit anyone, using words that do no one any good.
4 Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.
[By what you say, ] you show that you do not revere God, and you are hindering people from meditating/thinking about God.
5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
[It is as though] your sins are telling you what to say; you talk like people who will not admit that they are wicked.
6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.
Everything that you say [MTY] shows that you should be punished; so, it is not necessary for me to show that.
7 “Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought out before the hills?
[“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]?
8 Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
Were you listening when God made all his plans? [SAR, RHQ] Or do you think that you are the only person who is wise?
9 What do you know that we don’t know? What do you understand which is not in us?
(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.
10 With us are both the grey-headed and the very aged men, much older than your father.
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.
11 Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle towards you?
God wants to comfort you, and to speak gently/kindly to you; (is that not enough for you/do you need more than that)?
12 Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,
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?
13 that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?
You are angry [IDM] with God, and so you [MTY] are criticizing/denouncing him.
14 What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
“(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]
15 Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;
Hey, God does not even trust his angels; he does not consider even them to be [completely] pure.
16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
So, he certainly does not [trust] abominable/disgusting and depraved/corrupt people who do evil things [as easily] as they drink water [MET].
17 “I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare
Job, listen to what I will tell you. I will declare to you what I know,
18 (which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;
things that wise men have told me, truths that their ancestors did not keep hidden.
19 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed amongst them):
God gave this land to those ancestors, who were truly wise; no one from another country caused them to think wrongly [IDM].
20 the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
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.
21 A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer will come on him.
They constantly hear sounds that terrify them; while they are prospering, bandits attack them.
22 He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.
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.
23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
They wander around, searching for food, saying ‘Where can I find some?’ And they know that they will soon experience disasters.
24 Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
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].
25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty,
[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.
26 he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers,
They stubbornly [IDM] rush to attack God [as though they were carrying] a strong shield [to protect themselves].
27 because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.
They are so fat [that they are unable to fight].
28 He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.
They will live in cities that have been abandoned, cities which have become a heap of ruins.
29 He will not be rich, neither will his substance continue, neither will their possessions be extended on the earth.
But they will not remain rich very long; Everything that they own will be taken from them; their possessions will all disappear.
30 He will not depart out of darkness. The flame will dry up his branches. He will go away by the breath of God’s mouth.
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.
31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his reward.
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.
32 It will be accomplished before his time. His branch will not be green.
Before they are old, they will wither; they will be like [MET] branches that wither and never become green again.
33 He will shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and will cast off his flower as the olive tree.
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.
34 For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.
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.
35 They conceive mischief and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”
They plan to cause trouble and to do evil things, and they are always preparing to deceive people.”
