Job 15
Easy-to-Read Version
Eliphaz Answers Job
15 Then Eliphaz from Teman answered Job:
2 “If you were really wise,
you would not answer with your worthless personal opinions!
A wise man would not be so full of hot air.
3 Do you think a wise man would use empty words
and meaningless speeches to win his arguments?
4 If you had your way,
no one would respect God and pray to him.
5 What you say clearly shows your sin.
Job, you are trying to hide your sin by using clever words.
6 I don’t need to prove to you that you are wrong.
The words from your own mouth show that you are wrong.
Your own lips speak against you.
7 “Do you think you were the first person ever to be born?
Were you born before the hills?
8 Did you listen to God’s secret plans?
Do you think you are the only wise person?
9 We know as much as you do!
We understand as well as you.
10 The old, gray-haired men agree with us.
People older than your father are on our side.
11 God tries to comfort you, but that is not enough for you.
We have spoken his message to you in a gentle way.
12 Why will you not understand?
Why can you not see the truth?
13 You are expressing your anger against God
when you say these things.
14 “People cannot really be pure.
They[a] cannot be more right than God!
15 God does not even trust his angels.[b]
He does not even think the sky is pure.
16 People are even worse.
They are disgusting and dirty.
They drink up evil like water.
17 “Listen to me, and I will explain it to you.
Let me tell you what I have seen.
18 I will tell you what wise men would say,
things they heard from their fathers and then freely passed on.
They didn’t hide any secrets from me.
19 These are important people in our country!
Everyone knows who they are.
20 And they said that an evil man suffers all his life.
A cruel man suffers all his numbered years.
21 Every noise scares him.
His enemy will attack him when he thinks he is safe.
22 An evil man has no hope of escaping the darkness.
There is a sword somewhere waiting to kill him.
23 He wanders from place to place, looking for food.
But he knows a dark day is coming, which he brought on himself.
24 He lives in fear, with worry and suffering threatening him
like a king ready to attack.
25 That is because that evil man shook his fist at God, refusing to obey.
He dared to attack God All-Powerful,
26 like a soldier with a thick, strong shield
who runs at his enemy to strike him in the neck.
27 He might be rich and fat,
28 but his town will be ruined;
his home will be destroyed;
his house will be empty.
29 He will not be rich for long.
His wealth will not last.
His crops will not grow large.
30 He will not escape the darkness.
He will be like a tree whose leaves die from disease
and are blown away by the wind.
31 That evil man should not fool himself by trusting in worthless things,
because he will keep nothing.
32 He will die before his time,
like a tree whose top branches have already begun to die.
33 He will be like a vine that loses its grapes before they ripen.
He will be like an olive tree that loses its buds.
34 That is because people without God have nothing.
Those who take bribes will have their homes destroyed by fire.
35 They are always thinking of ways to do evil and cause trouble.
They are always planning how they might cheat others.”
Job 15
International Standard Version
Eliphaz Speaks Again
15 Then Eliphaz from Teman responded:
2 “Should a wise person respond with knowledge based on wind?
Should he fill his stomach with a wind storm from the east?
3 Should he engage in unprofitable argument,
or give a speech that benefits no one?
4 Yet you dispense with fear of God
and hinder meditations before God.
5 Because your sin dictates your speech,[a]
you have chosen the language[b] of the crafty.
6 Your own mouth is condemning you, not I;
your own lips will testify against you.”
Eliphaz Claims that Job is Guilty
7 “Were you the first person[c]to be born?
Were you brought forth before the hills were made?
8 Have you listened in on God’s secret council?
Have you limited wisdom only to yourself?
9 What do you know that we don’t know,
or that you understand and that isn’t clear to us?
10 “We have both the gray-haired and the aged with us,
and they are far older[d] than your father.
11 Are God’s encouragements inconsequential to you,
even a word that has been spoken[e] gently to you?
12 Why have your emotions[f] carried you away?
And why do your eyes flash
13 that you turn your anger[g] against God
and speak words like this?
14 “What is mankind, that he can be blameless?
Or does being born of a woman mean he’ll be in the right?
15 Look, if God[h] doesn’t trust his holy ones,[i]
if even the heavens aren’t pure as he looks at them,
16 then how much less is one who is abhorred and corrupted,
such as a man who drinks injustice like water?”
Eliphaz Describes the Plight of the Wicked
17 “I’ll tell you what, listen to me!
Let me relate what I’ve seen,
18 which is what wise men have explained,
who didn’t withhold anything from their ancestors.
19 To them alone was the land given,
when no invader[j] passed through their midst.
20 “The wicked person writhes in pain throughout his life,
a number of years has been reserved for the ruthless.
21 Terrifying sounds ring[k] in his ears;
when times are prosperous, the Destroyer will attack[l] him.
22 He does not believe he will escape[m] darkness;
he is destined for the sword.
23 He wanders around for food—where is it?
He knows that a time of darkness is near.[n]
24 Distress and pressure terrify him;
they overwhelm him, like a king poised for attack.
25 “For he has raised his fist against God,
defying the Almighty.
26 He defiantly ran against him
carrying his thick, reinforced shield.
27 Though he covered his face with fat,
and is grossly overweight at the waist,
28 He will live in devastated towns,
in abandoned houses
that are about to become heaps of rubble.
29 “He won’t become rich and his wealth won’t last;
he won’t expand his holdings to cover the land.
30 He won’t escape darkness;
a flame will wither his shoots;
and he’ll depart by the breath of God’s[o] mouth.
31 Let him not trust in a worthless speech.
He leads only himself astray,
for emptiness will be his reward.
32 This will be accomplished before his time;[p]
his branches won’t grow luxuriant.
33 “He is like a vine that drops its unripe grapes;
like an olive tree that loses its blossoms.
34 For the company of the godless is desolation,
and fire consumes the tents of those who[q] bribe.
35 For they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity;
their womb is pregnant[r] with deception.”
Footnotes
- Job 15:5 Lit. mouth
- Job 15:5 Lit. tongue
- Job 15:7 Lit. man
- Job 15:10 Lit. are older by many days
- Job 15:11 The Heb. lacks spoken
- Job 15:12 Lit. heart
- Job 15:13 Lit. spirit
- Job 15:15 Lit. he
- Job 15:15 Cf. Job 4:18
- Job 15:19 Or foreigner
- Job 15:21 The Heb. lacks ring
- Job 15:21 Or come upon him
- Job 15:22 Or turn aside
- Job 15:23 Lit. is at hand
- Job 15:30 Lit. his
- Job 15:32 Lit. day
- Job 15:34 The Heb. lacks those who
- Job 15:35 Lit. womb fashions; i.e., as a womb fashions a child
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.
