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Eliphaz’s Response Continues

“Cry for help, but will anyone answer you?
    Which of the angels[a] will help you?
Surely resentment destroys the fool,
    and jealousy kills the simple.
I have seen that fools may be successful for the moment,
    but then comes sudden disaster.
Their children are abandoned far from help;
    they are crushed in court with no one to defend them.
The hungry devour their harvest,
    even when it is guarded by brambles.[b]
    The thirsty pant after their wealth.[c]
But evil does not spring from the soil,
    and trouble does not sprout from the earth.
People are born for trouble
    as readily as sparks fly up from a fire.

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Footnotes

  1. 5:1 Hebrew the holy ones.
  2. 5:5a The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.
  3. 5:5b As in Greek and Syriac versions; Hebrew reads A snare snatches their wealth.

“They cry for help but no one listens; they turn to their gods, but none gives them aid. They die in helpless frustration, overcome by their own anger. Those who turn from God may be successful for the moment, but then comes sudden disaster. Their children are cheated, with no one to defend them. Their harvests are stolen, and their wealth slakes the thirst of many others, not themselves! Misery comes upon them to punish them for sowing seeds of sin. Mankind heads for sin and misery as predictably as flames shoot upwards from a fire.

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