Job 15–21
Eliphaz Says Job Presumes Much
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite 1responded,
2 “Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge
aAnd fill 1himself with the east wind?
3 “Should he argue with useless talk,
Or with words which are not profitable?
4 “Indeed, you do away with 1reverence
And hinder meditation before God.
5 “For ayour guilt teaches your mouth,
And you choose the language of bthe crafty.
6 “Your aown mouth condemns you, and not I;
And your own lips testify against you.
7 “Were you the first man to be born,
Or awere you brought forth before the hills?
8 “Do you hear the asecret counsel of God,
And limit wisdom to yourself?
9 “aWhat do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that 1we do not?
10 “Both the agray-haired and the aged are among us,
Older than your father.
11 “Are athe consolations of God too small for you,
Even the bword spoken gently with you?
12 “Why does your aheart carry you away?
And why do your eyes flash,
13 That you should turn your spirit against God
And allow such words to go out of your mouth?
14 “What is man, that ahe should be pure,
Or bhe who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15 “Behold, He puts no trust in His aholy ones,
And the bheavens are not pure in His sight;
16 How much less one who is adetestable and corrupt,
Man, who bdrinks iniquity like water!
17 “I will tell you, listen to me;
And what I have seen I will also declare;
And have not concealed from atheir fathers,
19 To whom alone the land was given,
And no alien passed among them.
20 “The wicked man writhes ain pain all his days,
And 1numbered are the years bstored up for the ruthless.
21 “1Sounds of aterror are in his ears;
bWhile at peace the destroyer comes upon him.
22 “He does not believe that he will areturn from darkness,
And he is destined for bthe sword.
23 “He wanders about for food, saying, ‘Where is it?’
He knows that a day of adarkness is 1at hand.
24 “Distress and anguish terrify him,
They overpower him like a king ready for the attack,
25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God
And conducts himself aarrogantly against 1the Almighty.
26 “He rushes 1headlong at Him
With 2his massive shield.
27 “For he has acovered his face with his fat
And made his thighs heavy with flesh.
28 “He has alived in desolate cities,
In houses no one would inhabit,
Which are destined to become 1ruins.
29 “He awill not become rich, nor will his wealth endure;
And his grain will not bend down to the ground.
30 “He will anot 1escape from darkness;
The bflame will wither his shoots,
And by cthe breath of His mouth he will go away.
31 “Let him not atrust in emptiness, deceiving himself;
For emptiness will be his 1reward.
32 “It will be accomplished abefore his time,
And his palm bbranch will not be green.
33 “He will drop off his unripe grape like the vine,
And will acast off his flower like the olive tree.
34 “For the company of athe godless is barren,
And fire consumes bthe tents of 1the corrupt.
35 “They aconceive 1mischief and bring forth iniquity,
And their 2mind prepares deception.”
Job Says Friends Are Sorry Comforters
1 Then Job 1answered,
2 “I have heard many such things;
1aSorry comforters are you all.
3 “Is there no limit to awindy words?
Or what plagues you that you answer?
4 “I too could speak like you,
If 1I were in your place.
I could compose words against you
And ashake my head at you.
5 “I could strengthen you with my mouth,
And the solace of my lips could lessen your pain.
6 “If I speak, amy pain is not lessened,
And if I hold back, what has left me?
7 “But now He has aexhausted me;
You have laid bwaste all my company.
aIt has become a witness;
And my bleanness rises up against me,
It testifies to my face.
9 “His anger has atorn me and 1hunted me down,
He has bgnashed at me with His teeth;
10 “They have agaped at me with their mouth,
They have 1bslapped me on the cheek with contempt;
They have cmassed themselves against me.
11 “God hands me over to ruffians
And tosses me into the hands of the wicked.
12 “I was at ease, but aHe shattered me,
And He has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces;
He has also set me up as His btarget.
13 “His aarrows surround me.
Without mercy He splits my kidneys open;
He pours out bmy gall on the ground.
14 “He abreaks through me with breach after breach;
He bruns at me like a warrior.
15 “I have sewed asackcloth over my skin
And bthrust my horn in the dust.
16 “My face is flushed from aweeping,
bAnd deep darkness is on my eyelids,
17 Although there is no aviolence in my hands,
And bmy prayer is pure.
18 “O earth, do not cover my blood,
And let there be no resting place for my cry.
19 “Even now, behold, amy witness is in heaven,
20 “My friends are my scoffers;
21 “O that a man might plead with God
As a man with his neighbor!
22 “For when a few years are past,
I shall go the way aof no return.
Job Says He Has Become a Byword
1 “My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished,
2 “aSurely mockers are with me,
And my eye 1gazes on their provocation.
3 “Lay down, now, a pledge afor me with Yourself;
Who is there that will 1be my guarantor?
4 “For You have 1akept their heart from understanding,
Therefore You will not exalt them.
5 “He who ainforms against friends for a share of the spoil,
The beyes of his children also will languish.
6 “But He has made me a abyword of the people,
And I am 1one at whom men bspit.
7 “My eye has also grown adim because of grief,
And all my bmembers are as a shadow.
8 “The upright will be appalled at this,
And the ainnocent will stir up himself against the godless.
9 “Nevertheless athe righteous will hold to his way,
And bhe who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
10 “But come again all of 1you now,
For I ado not find a wise man among you.
11 “My adays are past, my plans are torn apart,
Even the wishes of my heart.
12 “They make night into day, saying,
‘The light is near,’ in the presence of darkness.
13 “If I look for aSheol as my home,
I 1make my bed in the darkness;
14 If I call to the apit, ‘You are my father’;
To the bworm, ‘my mother and my sister’;
15 Where now is amy hope?
And who regards my hope?
16 “1Will it go down with me to Sheol?
Shall we together ago down into the dust?”
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite 1responded,
2 “How long will you hunt for words?
Show understanding and then we can talk.
3 “Why are we aregarded as beasts,
As stupid in your eyes?
4 “O 1you who tear yourself in your anger—
For your sake is the earth to be abandoned,
Or the rock to be moved from its place?
5 “Indeed, the alight of the wicked goes out,
And the 1flame of his fire gives no light.
6 “The light in his tent is adarkened,
And his lamp goes out above him.
7 “His 1vigorous stride is shortened,
And his aown scheme brings him down.
8 “For he is athrown into the net by his own feet,
And he steps on the webbing.
9 “A snare seizes him by the heel,
And a trap snaps shut on him.
10 “A noose for him is hidden in the ground,
And a trap for him on the path.
11 “All around aterrors frighten him,
And bharry him at every step.
12 “His strength is afamished,
And calamity is ready at his side.
13 “1His skin is devoured by disease,
The firstborn of death adevours his 2limbs.
14 “He is atorn from 1the security of his tent,
And 2they march him before the king of bterrors.
15 “1There dwells in his tent nothing of his;
aBrimstone is scattered on his habitation.
16 “His aroots are dried below,
And his bbranch is cut off above.
17 “aMemory of him perishes from the earth,
And he has no name abroad.
18 “1He is driven from light ainto darkness,
And bchased from the inhabited world.
19 “He has no aoffspring or posterity among his people,
Nor any survivor where he sojourned.
20 “Those 1in the west are appalled at ahis 2fate,
And those 3in the east are seized with horror.
21 “Surely such are the adwellings of the wicked,
And this is the place of him who does not know God.”
1 Then Job 1responded,
2 “How long will you torment 1me
And crush me with words?
3 “These ten times you have insulted me;
You are not ashamed to wrong me.
4 “Even if I have truly erred,
My error lodges with me.
5 “If indeed you avaunt yourselves against me
And prove my disgrace to me,
6 Know then that aGod has wronged me
And has closed bHis net around me.
7 “Behold, aI cry, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer;
I shout for help, but there is no justice.
8 “He has awalled up my way so that I cannot pass,
And He has put bdarkness on my paths.
9 “He has astripped my honor from me
And removed the bcrown from my head.
10 “He abreaks me down on every side, and I am gone;
And He has uprooted my bhope clike a tree.
11 “He has also akindled His anger against me
And bconsidered me as His enemy.
12 “His atroops come together,
And bbuild up their 1way against me
And camp around my tent.
13 “He has aremoved my brothers far from me,
And my bacquaintances are completely estranged from me.
And my aintimate friends have forgotten me.
15 “Those who live in my house and my maids consider me a stranger.
I am a foreigner in their sight.
16 “I call to my servant, but he does not answer;
I have to implore him with my mouth.
17 “My breath is 1offensive to my wife,
And I am loathsome to my own brothers.
18 “Even young children despise me;
I rise up and they speak against me.
19 “All 1my aassociates abhor me,
And those I love have turned against me.
20 “My abone clings to my skin and my flesh,
And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
21 “Pity me, pity me, O you my friends,
For the ahand of God has struck me.
22 “Why do you apersecute me as God does,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 “Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were ainscribed in a book!
24 “That with an iron stylus and lead
They were engraved in the rock forever…