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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?
14 Can any mortal be pure?
    Can anyone born of a woman be just?
15 Look, God does not even trust the angels.[b]
    Even the heavens are not absolutely pure in his sight.
16 How much less pure is a corrupt and sinful person
    with a thirst for wickedness!

17 “If you will listen, I will show you.
    I will answer you from my own experience.
18 And it is confirmed by the reports of wise men
    who have heard the same thing from their fathers—
19 from those to whom the land was given
    long before any foreigners arrived.

20 “The wicked writhe in pain throughout their lives.
    Years of trouble are stored up for the ruthless.
21 The sound of terror rings in their ears,
    and even on good days they fear the attack of the destroyer.
22 They dare not go out into the darkness
    for fear they will be murdered.
23 They wander around, saying, ‘Where can I find bread?’[c]
    They know their day of destruction is near.
24 That dark day terrifies them.
    They live in distress and anguish,
    like a king preparing for battle.
25 For they shake their fists at God,
    defying the Almighty.
26 Holding their strong shields,
    they defiantly charge against him.

27 “These wicked people are heavy and prosperous;
    their waists bulge with fat.
28 But their cities will be ruined.
    They will live in abandoned houses
    that are ready to tumble down.
29 Their riches will not last,
    and their wealth will not endure.
    Their possessions will no longer spread across the horizon.

30 “They will not escape the darkness.
    The burning sun will wither their shoots,
    and the breath of God will destroy them.
31 Let them no longer fool themselves by trusting in empty riches,
    for emptiness will be their only reward.
32 They will be cut down in the prime of life;
    their branches will never again be green.
33 They will be like a vine whose grapes are harvested too early,
    like an olive tree that loses its blossoms before the fruit can form.
34 For the godless are barren.
    Their homes, enriched through bribery, will burn.
35 They conceive trouble and give birth to evil.
    Their womb produces deceit.”

Job’s Fifth Speech: A Response to Eliphaz

16 Then Job spoke again:

“I have heard all this before.
    What miserable comforters you are!
Won’t you ever stop blowing hot air?
    What makes you keep on talking?
I could say the same things if you were in my place.
    I could spout off criticism and shake my head at you.
But if it were me, I would encourage you.
    I would try to take away your grief.
Instead, I suffer if I defend myself,
    and I suffer no less if I refuse to speak.

“O God, you have ground me down
    and devastated my family.
As if to prove I have sinned, you’ve reduced me to skin and bones.
    My gaunt flesh testifies against me.
God hates me and angrily tears me apart.
    He snaps his teeth at me
    and pierces me with his eyes.
10 People jeer and laugh at me.
    They slap my cheek in contempt.
    A mob gathers against me.
11 God has handed me over to sinners.
    He has tossed me into the hands of the wicked.

12 “I was living quietly until he shattered me.
    He took me by the neck and broke me in pieces.
Then he set me up as his target,
13     and now his archers surround me.
His arrows pierce me without mercy.
    The ground is wet with my blood.[d]
14 Again and again he smashes against me,
    charging at me like a warrior.
15 I wear burlap to show my grief.
    My pride lies in the dust.
16 My eyes are red with weeping;
    dark shadows circle my eyes.
17 Yet I have done no wrong,
    and my prayer is pure.

18 “O earth, do not conceal my blood.
    Let it cry out on my behalf.
19 Even now my witness is in heaven.
    My advocate is there on high.
20 My friends scorn me,
    but I pour out my tears to God.
21 I need someone to mediate between God and me,
    as a person mediates between friends.
22 For soon I must go down that road
    from which I will never return.

Footnotes

  1. 15:12 Or Why do your eyes flash with anger; Hebrew reads Why do your eyes blink.
  2. 15:15 Hebrew the holy ones.
  3. 15:23 Greek version reads He is appointed to be food for a vulture.
  4. 16:13 Hebrew my gall.

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