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Job 15-17
Lexham English Bible

Eliphaz’s Second Response to Job

15 Then[a] Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

2 “Should the wise answer with windy knowledge,
and should he fill his stomach with the east wind?
3 Should he argue in talk that is not profitable
or in words with which he cannot do good?
4 “What is worse,[b] you yourself[c] are doing away with fear,
and you are lessening meditation before[d] God.
5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
6 Your mouth condemns you, and not I;
and your lips testify against you.
7 “Were you born the firstborn of the human race?
And were you brought forth before[e] the hills?
8 Have you listened in God’s confidential discussion?
And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9 What do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that is not clear to us?
10 Both the gray-haired and the old are among us—
those older than your father.[f]
11 “Are the consolations of God too small for you,
a word spoken gently with you?
12 Why does your heart carry you away?
And why do your eyes flash,
13 that you turn your spirit against God,
and you let such words go out of your mouth?
14 “What is a human being, that he can be clean,
or[g] that one born of a woman can be righteous?
15 Look, he does not trust his holy ones,
and the heavens are not clean in his eyes.
16 How much less[h] he who is abominable and corrupt,[i]
a man drinking wickedness like water.
17 “I will show you, listen to me;
and what I have seen, I will tell[j]—
18 what wise men have told,
and they have not hidden that which is from their ancestors,
19 to whom alone[k] the land was given,
and no stranger passed through their midst.
20 “All of the wicked one’s days he is writhing,
even[l] through the number of years that are laid up for the tyrant.
21 Sounds of terror are in his ears;
in prosperity the destroyer will come against him.
22 He cannot trust that he will return[m] from darkness,
and he himself[n] is destined for the sword.
23 “He is wandering for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
He knows that a day of darkness is ready at hand.[o]
24 Anguish and distress terrify him;
they[p] overpower him like a king ready for the battle.
25 Because he stretched out his hand against God,
and he was arrogant to Shaddai;
26 he stubbornly[q] runs against him
with his thick-bossed shield.[r]
27 “Because he has covered his face with his fat
and has gathered fat upon his loins,
28 he will dwell[s] in desolate cities,
in houses that they should not inhabit,
which are destined for rubble.
29 He will not become rich, and his wealth will not endure,
and their possessions will not stretch across the earth.[t]
30 “He will not escape from darkness;
a flame will dry up his new shoot,
and by the wind of his mouth he shall be removed.
31 Let him not trust in emptiness—he will be deceiving himself—
for worthlessness will be his recompense.
32 It will be paid in full before his time,[u]
and his branch will not flourish.
33 “He will shake off his unripe fruit like the vine,
and he will cast off his blossom like the olive tree;
34 for the company of the godless is barren,
and fire consumes the tents of those who accept bribes.
35 They conceive trouble and bring forth mischief,
and their womb prepares deceit.”

Job’s Fifth Speech

16 Then[v] Job answered and said,

2 “I have heard many things like these;
all of you are miserable comforters.[w]
3 Is there a limit to windy words?
What provokes you that you answer?
4 I myself[x] also could talk as you,
if you were in my place;[y]
I could join against you with words,
and I could shake at you with my head.
5 I could[z] encourage you with my mouth,
and the solace of my lips would[aa] ease the pain.
6 If I speak, my pain is not relieved;
and if I cease, how much will leave me?
7 “Surely now he has worn me out;
you[ab] have devastated all my company.
8 Thus[ac] you shriveled me up;[ad]
it became a witness.
And my leanness has risen up against me;
it testifies to my face.
9 His wrath has torn, and he has been hostile toward me;
he gnashed at me with his teeth.
My foe sharpens his eyes against me.
10 They gaped at me with their mouth;
they struck my cheeks with disgrace;
they have massed themselves together against me.
11 God delivers me to an evil one,
and he casts me into the hands of the wicked.
12 “I was at ease, then[ae] he broke me in two,
and he seized me by my neck;
then[af] he shattered me
and set me up as a target for him.
13 His archers surround me;
he slashes open my kidneys, and he does not have compassion;
he pours out my gall on the ground.
14 He breached me breach upon breach;[ag]
he rushes at me like a warrior.
15 “I have sewed sackcloth on my skin,
and I have inserted my pride[ah] in the dust.
16 My face is red because of weeping,
and deep shadows are on my eyelids,
17 although[ai] violence is not on my hands,
and my prayer is pure.
18 “O earth, you should not cover my blood,
and let there be no place[aj] for my cry for help.
19 So now look, my witness is in the heavens,
and he who vouches for me is in the heights.
20 My friends scorn me;
my eye pours out tears to God,
21 and it argues[ak] for a mortal with God,
and as a human[al] for his friend.
22 Indeed, after a few years[am] have come,
then[an] I will go the way from which I will not return.

Job’s Fifth Speech, Continued

17 “My spirit is pulled down; my days are extinguished;
the graveyard is for me.
2 Surely[ao] mockery is with me,
and my eye rests[ap] on their provocation.
3 Please lay down a pledge for me with yourself;
who is he who will give security for my hand?[aq]
4 Indeed,[ar] you have closed their mind from understanding;
therefore, you will not let them triumph.
5 He denounces friends for reward,
so[as] his children’s eyes will fail.
6 “And he has made me a proverb for[at] the peoples,
and I am one before whom people spit.[au]
7 And my eye has grown dim from grief,
and the limbs of my body are all[av] like a shadow.
8 The upright are appalled at this,
and the innocent excites himself over the godless.
9 But[aw] the righteous holds on to his way,
and he who has clean hands[ax] increases in strength.
10 But[ay] all of you must return[az]—please come![ba]
But[bb] I shall not find a wise person among you.
11 “My days are past; my plans are broken down—
even the desires of my heart.
12 They make night into day,
saying, ‘Light is near to darkness.’[bc]
13 If I hope for Sheol as my house,
if I spread my couch in the darkness,
14 if I call to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
to the maggot, ‘You are my mother or[bd] my sister,’
15 where[be] then is my hope?
And who will see my hope?[bf]
16 Will they go down to the bars of Sheol?
Or shall we descend together into the dust?”

Footnotes

  1. Job 15:1 Hebrew “And”
  2. Job 15:4 Literally “Also,” or “Even”
  3. Job 15:4 Emphatic personal pronoun
  4. Job 15:4 Literally “to the faces of”
  5. Job 15:7 Literally “to the faces of”
  6. Job 15:10 Literally “more aged than your father in days”
  7. Job 15:14 Or “and”
  8. Job 15:16 Literally “Also for,” or “Indeed for,” or “Indeed that”
  9. Job 15:16 Or “he who is corrupt”
  10. Job 15:17 Literally “and I will tell”
  11. Job 15:19 Literally “to them to alone them”
  12. Job 15:20 Hebrew “and”
  13. Job 15:22 Literally “He cannot trust to return,” or “He is not certain to return,” or “He cannot be sure to return” (compare NJPS)
  14. Job 15:22 Emphatic personal pronoun
  15. Job 15:23 Hebrew “at his hand”; the meaning seems to be, “his ruin is certain”
  16. Job 15:24 Hebrew “it”
  17. Job 15:26 Literally “with neck”
  18. Job 15:26 Literally “with the thickness of the boss of his shield”
  19. Job 15:28 Hebrew “and he will dwell”
  20. Job 15:29 See HCSB, ESV; or “will not reach to the earth”; perhaps “his possessions will not go to the underworld”
  21. Job 15:32 Literally “in not his day,” or “without his day”
  22. Job 16:1 Hebrew “And”
  23. Job 16:2 Literally “comforters of trouble”
  24. Job 16:4 Emphatic personal pronoun;
  25. Job 16:4 Literally “there is your soul in place of my soul”
  26. Job 16:5 Or “would”
  27. Job 16:5 Or “should”
  28. Job 16:7 Singular
  29. Job 16:8 Hebrew “And”
  30. Job 16:8 Or “you have seized me”
  31. Job 16:12 Hebrew “and”
  32. Job 16:12 Hebrew “and”
  33. Job 16:14 Literally “breach upon the faces of breach”
  34. Job 16:15 Literally “my horn”
  35. Job 16:17 Literally “upon,” or “because”
  36. Job 16:18 Or “do not let it become a place”
  37. Job 16:21 Or “but may someone argue”
  38. Job 16:21 Literally “a son of man”
  39. Job 16:22 Literally “years of number”
  40. Job 16:22 Hebrew “and”
  41. Job 17:2 Literally “If not”
  42. Job 17:2 Literally “spends the night”
  43. Job 17:3 Or “who will give security for me?”
  44. Job 17:4 Or “For”
  45. Job 17:5 Hebrew “and”
  46. Job 17:6 Hebrew “of”
  47. Job 17:6 Literally “and spitting to the faces I am”
  48. Job 17:7 Hebrew “all of them”
  49. Job 17:9 Hebrew “And”
  50. Job 17:9 Literally “the clean of hands”
  51. Job 17:10 Literally “And but”
  52. Job 17:10 Literally “all of them you must return”
  53. Job 17:10 Literally “and please come,” or “come on!”
  54. Job 17:10 Hebrew “And”
  55. Job 17:12 Literally “near from the faces of darkness”
  56. Job 17:14 Or “and”
  57. Job 17:15 Hebrew “and where”
  58. Job 17:15 Literally “my hope who will see it”
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