en_cjb - Job 15 - Ozzuu Bible

¹ Then Elifaz the Teimani spoke:

² “Should a wise man answer with hot-air arguments? Should he fill up his belly with the hot east wind?

³ Should he reason with useless talk or make speeches that do him no good?

⁴ “Why, you are abolishing fear of God and hindering prayer to him!

⁵ Your iniquity is teaching you how to speak, and deceit is your language of choice.

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

⁷ “Were you the firstborn of the human race, brought forth before the hills?

⁸ Do you listen in on God’s secrets? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

⁹ What do you know that we don’t know? What discernment do you have that we don’t?

¹⁰ With us are gray-haired men, old men, men much older than your father.

¹¹ Are the comfortings of God not enough for you, or a word that deals gently with you?

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

¹³ so that you turn your spirit against God and let such words escape your mouth?

¹⁴ “What is a human being, that he could be innocent, someone born from a woman, that he could be righteous?

¹⁵ God doesn’t trust even his holy ones; no, even the heavens are not innocent in his view.

¹⁶ How much less one loathesome and corrupt, a human being, who drinks iniquity like water.

¹⁷ “I will tell you — hear me out! I will recount what I have seen;

¹⁸ wise men have told it, and it wasn’t hidden from their fathers either,

¹⁹ to whom alone the land was given — no foreigner passed among them.

²⁰ “The wicked is in torment all his life, for all the years allotted to the tyrant.

²¹ Terrifying sounds are in his ears; in prosperity, robbers swoop down on him.

²² He despairs of returning from darkness — he is destined to meet the sword.

²³ He wanders and looks for food, which isn’t there. He knows the day of darkness is ready, at hand.

²⁴ Distress and anguish overwhelm him, assaulting him like a king about to enter battle.

²⁵ “He raises his hand against God and boldly defies Shaddai,

²⁶ running against him with head held high and thickly ornamented shield.

²⁷ “He lets his face grow gross and fat, and the rest of him bulges with blubber;

²⁸ he lives in abandoned cities, in houses no one would inhabit, houses about to become ruins;

²⁹ therefore he will not remain rich, his wealth will not endure, his produce will not bend [the grain stalks] to the earth.

³⁰ “He will not escape from darkness. The flame will dry up his branches. By a breath from the mouth of [God], he will go away.

³¹ Let him not rely on futile methods, thereby deceiving himself; for what he will receive in exchange will be only futility.

³² This will be accomplished in advance of its day. His palm frond will not be fresh and green;

³³ he will be like a vine that sheds its unripe grapes, like an olive tree that drops its flowers.

³⁴ “For the community of the ungodly is sterile; fire consumes the tents of bribery.

³⁵ They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; their womb prepares deceit.”