Job 15 - 16 - Legacy Standard Bible

Job 15 - 16

Eliphaz Says Job’s Lips Answer Against Him

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, 2

“Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge

And fill his belly with the east wind?

Should he argue with a word that cannot be used,

Or with speech which is not profitable?

Indeed, you annul reverent fear

And cut off musing before God.

For your iniquity teaches your mouth,

And you choose the tongue of the crafty.

Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;

And your own lips answer against you.

“Were you the first man to be born,

Or were you brought forth before the hills?

Do you hear the secret counsel of God,

And cut down wisdom only unto yourself?

What do you know that we do not know?

What do you understand that is not with us?

Both the gray‑haired and the aged are among us,

Older than your father.

Are the consolations of God too small for you,

Even the word spoken gently with you?

Why does your heart take you away?

And why do your eyes flash,

That you should turn your spirit against God

And allow such words to go out of your mouth?

What is man, that he should be pure,

Or he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

Behold, He puts no faith in His holy ones,

And the heavens are not pure in His sight;

How much less one who is abominable and corrupt,

Man, who drinks unrighteousness like water!

“I will tell you, listen to me;

And what I have beheld I will also recount;

What wise men have told,

And have not concealed from their fathers,

To whom alone the land was given,

And no stranger passed among them.

The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,

And numbered are the years stored up for the ruthless.

Sounds of dread are in his ears;

While at peace the destroyer comes upon him.

He does not believe that he will return from darkness,

And he is destined for the sword.

He wanders about for food, saying, ‘Where is it?’

He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand.

Distress and anguish terrify him;

They overpower him like a king ready for the attack,

Because he has stretched out his hand against God

And magnifies himself against the Almighty.

He rushes headlong at Him

With his massive shield.

For he has covered his face with his fat

And made his thighs heavy with flesh.

He has dwelt in desolate cities,

In houses no one would inhabit,

Which are destined to become ruins.

He will not become rich, nor will his wealth endure;

And his grain will not stretch out over the land.

He will not be able to depart from darkness;

The flame will wither his shoots,

And by the breath of His mouth he will depart.

Let him not believe in emptiness, deceiving himself;

For emptiness will be his reward,

When his days are not yet fulfilled,

And his palm branch is not green.

He will drop off his unripe grape like the vine,

And will cast off his flower like the olive tree.

For the company of the godless is barren,

And fire consumes the tents of the corrupt.

They conceive trouble and give birth to wickedness,

And their belly prepares deception.”

Troublesome Comforters

Then Job answered and said, 2

“I have heard many such things;

Troublesome comforters are you all.

Is there no end to windy words?

Or what pains you that you answer?

I too could speak like you,

If your soul were in the place of my soul.

I could compose words against you

And shake my head at you.

I could encourage you with my mouth,

And the solace of my lips could lessen your pain.

“If I speak, my pain is not lessened,

And if I cease, what will go forth from me?

But now He has exhausted me;

You have made desolate all my company.

You have shriveled me up,

It has become a witness;

And my leanness rises up against me,

It answers to my face.

His anger has torn me and hunted me down;

He has gnashed at me with His teeth;

My adversary sharpens his eyes to look at me.

They have opened their mouth wide at me;

They have struck me on the cheek in reproach;

They have massed themselves against me.

God hands me over to ruffians

And tosses me into the hands of the wicked.

I was at ease, but He shattered me,

And He has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces;

He has also set me up as His target.

His arrows surround me.

Without mercy He splits my kidneys open;

He pours out my gall on the ground.

He breaks through me with breach after breach;

He runs at me like a warrior.

I have sewed sackcloth over my skin

And thrust my horn in the dust.

My face is flushed from weeping,

And the shadow of death is on my eyelids,

Why?—because there is no violence in my hands,

And my prayer is pure.

“O earth, do not cover my blood,

And let there be no resting place for my cry.

Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,

And my advocate is on high.

My friends are my scoffers;

My eye weeps to God.

O that a man might argue with God

As a man with his neighbor!

For when a few years are past,

I shall go the way of no return.