Job 15
Amplified Bible
Eliphaz Says Job Presumes Much
15 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered [Job] and said,
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“Should a wise man [such as you] utter such windy and vain knowledge [as we have just heard]
And fill himself with the east wind [of withering, parching, and violent accusations]?
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“Should he rebuke and argue with useless talk?
Or with words in which there is no benefit?
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“Indeed, you are doing away with fear,
And you are diminishing meditation before God.
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“For your guilt teaches your mouth,
And you choose [to speak] the language of the crafty and cunning.
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“Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;
Yes, your own lips testify against you.
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“Were you the first man to be born [the original wise man],
Or were you created before the hills?
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“Do you hear the secret counsel of God,
And do you limit [the possession of] wisdom to yourself?
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“What do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that is not equally clear to us?
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“Among us are both the gray-haired and the aged,
Older than your father.
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“Are the consolations of God [as we have interpreted them to you] too trivial for you,
[Or] were we too gentle toward you [in our first speech] to be effective?
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“Why does your heart carry you away [allowing you to be controlled by emotion]?
And why do your eyes flash [in anger or contempt],
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That you should turn your spirit against God
And let such words [as you have spoken] go out of your mouth?
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“What is man, that he should be pure and clean,
Or he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous and just?
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“Behold, God puts no trust in His holy ones (angels);
Indeed, the heavens are not pure in His sight—
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How much less [pure and clean is] the one who is repulsive and corrupt,
Man, who drinks unrighteousness and injustice like water!
What Eliphaz Has Seen of Life
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“I will tell you, listen to me;
And what I have seen I will also declare;
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What wise men have [freely] told,
And have not hidden [anything passed on to them] from their fathers,
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To whom alone the land was given,
And no stranger passed among them [corrupting the truth].
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“The wicked man writhes with pain all his days,
And numbered are the years stored up for him, the ruthless one.
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“A [dreadful] sound of terrors is in his ears;
While at peace and in a time of prosperity the destroyer comes upon him [the tent of the robber is not at peace].
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“He does not believe that he will return out of the darkness [for fear of being murdered],
And he is destined for the sword [of God’s vengeance].
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“He wanders about for food, saying, ‘Where is it?’
He knows that the day of darkness and destruction is already at hand.
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“Distress and anxiety terrify him,
They overpower him like a king ready for battle.
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“Because he has stretched out his hand against God
And behaves arrogantly against [a]the Almighty,
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Running and charging headlong against Him
With his ornamented and massive shield;
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For he has covered his face with his fat,
Adding layers of fat to his thighs [giving himself up to pleasures],
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And he has lived in desolate [God-forsaken] cities,
In houses which no one should inhabit,
Which were destined to become heaps [of ruins];
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He will not become rich, nor will his wealth endure;
And his grain will not bend to the earth nor his possessions be extended on the earth.
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“He will not escape from darkness [fleeing disaster];
The flame [of God’s wrath] will wither his branch,
And by the blast of His mouth he will go away.
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“Let him not trust in vanity (emptiness, futility) and be led astray;
For emptiness will be his [b]reward [for such living].
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“It will be fulfilled while he still lives,
And his branch will not be green [but shall wither away].
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“He will fail to bring his grapes to maturity [leaving them to wither unnourished] on the vine,
And will cast off blossoms [and fail to bring forth fruit] like the olive tree.
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“For the company of the godless is barren,
And fire consumes the tents of bribery (wrong and injustice).
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“They conceive mischief and bring forth wickedness,
And their inmost soul prepares deceit and fraud.”
Job 15
The Message
Eliphaz Attacks Again
You Trivialize Religion
15 1-16 Eliphaz of Teman spoke a second time:
“If you were truly wise, would you sound so much like a
windbag, belching hot air?
Would you talk nonsense in the middle of a serious argument,
babbling baloney?
Look at you! You trivialize religion,
turn spiritual conversation into empty gossip.
It’s your sin that taught you to talk this way.
You chose an education in fraud.
Your own words have exposed your guilt.
It’s nothing I’ve said—you’ve incriminated yourself!
Do you think you’re the first person to have to deal with these things?
Have you been around as long as the hills?
Were you listening in when God planned all this?
Do you think you’re the only one who knows anything?
What do you know that we don’t know?
What insights do you have that we’ve missed?
Gray beards and white hair back us up—
old folks who’ve been around a lot longer than you.
Are God’s promises not enough for you,
spoken so gently and tenderly?
Why do you let your emotions take over,
lashing out and spitting fire,
Pitting your whole being against God
by letting words like this come out of your mouth?
Do you think it’s possible for any mere mortal to be sinless in God’s sight,
for anyone born of a human mother to get it all together?
Why, God can’t even trust his holy angels.
He sees the flaws in the very heavens themselves,
So how much less we humans, smelly and foul,
who lap up evil like water?
Always at Odds with God
17-26 “I’ve a thing or two to tell you, so listen up!
I’m letting you in on my views;
It’s what wise men and women have always taught,
holding nothing back from what they were taught
By their parents, back in the days
when they had this land all to themselves:
Those who live by their own rules, not God’s, can expect nothing but trouble,
and the longer they live, the worse it gets.
Every little sound terrifies them.
Just when they think they have it made, disaster strikes.
They despair of things ever getting better—
they’re on the list of people for whom things always turn out for the worst.
They wander here and there,
never knowing where the next meal is coming from—
every day is doomsday!
They live in constant terror,
always with their backs up against the wall
Because they insist on shaking their fists at God,
defying God Almighty to his face,
Always and ever at odds with God,
always on the defensive.
27-35 “Even if they’re the picture of health,
trim and fit and youthful,
They’ll end up living in a ghost town
sleeping in a hovel not fit for a dog,
a ramshackle shack.
They’ll never get ahead,
never amount to much of anything.
And then death—don’t think they’ll escape that!
They’ll end up shriveled weeds,
brought down by a puff of God’s breath.
There’s a lesson here: Whoever invests in lies,
gets lies for interest,
Paid in full before the due date.
Some investment!
They’ll be like fruit frost-killed before it ripens,
like buds sheared off before they bloom.
The godless are fruitless—a barren crew;
a life built on bribes goes up in smoke.
They have sex with sin and give birth to evil.
Their lives are wombs for breeding deceit.”
Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson