Job, 15

1. Eliphaz of Teman spoke next. He said:

1. Then Eli'phaz the Te'manite answered:

2. Does anyone wise respond with windy arguments, or feed on an east wind?

2. "Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?

3. Or make a defence with ineffectual words and speeches good for nothing?

3. Should he argue in unprofitable talk, or in words with which he can do no good?

4. You do worse: you suppress reverence, you discredit discussion before God.

4. But you are doing away with the fear of God, and hindering meditation before God.

5. Your very fault incites you to speak like this, hence you adopt this language of cunning.

5. For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.

6. Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips bear witness against you.

6. Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips testify against you.

7. Are you the first-born of the human race, brought into the world before the hills?

7. "Are you the first man that was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?

8. Have you been a listener at God's council, or established a monopoly of wisdom?

8. Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself?

9. What knowledge do you have that we have not, what understanding that is not ours too?

9. What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us?

10. One of us is an old, grey-headed man loaded with more years than your father!

10. Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, older than your father.

11. Can you ignore these divine consolations and the moderate tone of our words?

11. Are the consolations of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you?

12. How passion carries you away! And how you roll your eyes,

12. Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash,

13. when you vent your anger on God and speeches come tripping off your tongue!

13. that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?

14. How can anyone be pure, anyone born of woman be upright?

14. What is man, that he can be clean? Or he that is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?

15. God cannot rely even on his holy ones, to him, even the heavens seem impure.

15. Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not clean in his sight;

16. How much more, this hateful, corrupt thing, humanity, which soaks up wickedness like water!

16. how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!

17. Listen to me, I have a lesson for you: I am going to impart my own experience

17. "I will show you, hear me; and what I have seen I will declare

18. and the tradition of the sages who have remained faithful to their ancestors,

18. (what wise men have told, and their fathers have not hidden,

19. to whom alone the land was given -- no foreigner included among them.

19. to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them).

20. The life of the wicked is unceasing torment, the years allotted to the tyrant are numbered.

20. The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.

21. A cry of panic echoes in his ear; when all is peace, his destroyer swoops down on him.

21. Terrifying sounds are in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.

22. No more can he count on escaping from the dark, but knows that he is destined for the sword,

22. He does not believe that he will return out of darkness, and he is destined for the sword.

23. marked down as meat for the vulture. He knows that his ruin is at hand.

23. He wanders abroad for bread, saying, `Where is it?' He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;

24. The hour of darkness terrifies him, distress and anguish assail him as when a king is poised for the assault.

24. distress and anguish terrify him; they prevail against him, like a king prepared for battle.

25. He raised his hand against God, boldly he defied Shaddai!

25. Because he has stretched forth his hand against God, and bids defiance to the Almighty,

26. Head lowered, he charged him, with his massively bossed shield.

26. running stubbornly against him with a thick-bossed shield;

27. His face had grown full and fat, and his thighs too heavy with flesh.

27. because he has covered his face with his fat, and gathered fat upon his loins,

28. He had occupied the towns he had destroyed, with their uninhabited houses about to fall into ruins;

28. and has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no man should inhabit, which were destined to become heaps of ruins;

29. but no great profit to him, his luck will not hold, he will cast his shadow over the country no longer,

29. he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will he strike root in the earth;

30. (he will not escape the dark). A flame will scorch his young shoots, the wind will carry off his blossom.

30. he will not escape from darkness; the flame will dry up his shoots, and his blossom will be swept away by the wind.

31. Let him not trust in his great height or delusion will be his.

31. Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness will be his recompense.

32. His palm trees will wither before their time and his branches never again be green.

32. It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not be green.

33. Like the vine, he will shake off his unripe fruit, like the olive tree, shed his blossom.

33. He will shake off his unripe grape, like the vine, and cast off his blossom, like the olive tree.

34. Yes, sterile is the spawn of the sinner, and fire consumes the tents of the venal.

34. For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery.

35. Whoever conceives malice, breeds disaster, bears as offspring only a false hope.

35. They conceive mischief and bring forth evil and their heart prepares deceit."