Add parallel Print Page Options

Eliphaz’s Second Response to Job

15 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

“A wise man wouldn’t answer with such empty talk!
    You are nothing but a windbag.
The wise don’t engage in empty chatter.
    What good are such words?
Have you no fear of God,
    no reverence for him?
Your sins are telling your mouth what to say.
    Your words are based on clever deception.
Your own mouth condemns you, not I.
    Your own lips testify against you.

“Were you the first person ever born?
    Were you born before the hills were made?
Were you listening at God’s secret council?
    Do you have a monopoly on wisdom?
What do you know that we don’t?
    What do you understand that we do not?
10 On our side are aged, gray-haired men
    much older than your father!

11 “Is God’s comfort too little for you?
    Is his gentle word not enough?
12 What has taken away your reason?
    What has weakened your vision,[a]
13 that you turn against God
    and say all these evil things?

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 15:12 Or Why do your eyes flash with anger; Hebrew reads Why do your eyes blink.

Eliphaz’s Second Response to Job

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

“Should the wise answer with windy knowledge,
and should he fill his stomach with the east wind?
Should he argue in talk that is not profitable
or in words with which he cannot do good?
What is worse,[b] you yourself[c] are doing away with fear,
and you are lessening meditation before[d] God.
For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
Your mouth condemns you, and not I;
and your lips testify against you.
“Were you born the firstborn of the human race?
And were you brought forth before[e] the hills?
Have you listened in God’s confidential discussion?
And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
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?

Read full chapter

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”