Job 15:1-35 VOICE

[1] Eliphaz reiterated his points. [2] Eliphaz: Does a wise man reply with windy knowledge and fill up his belly with the hot east wind? [3] Does a wise man reason with impotent chatter, with bankrupt words of no account? [4] Indeed, Job, you have ignored your responsibility to revere God and depreciated your own thoughts toward God; [5] For your faults inform your speech, and your language is tricky. [6] Your own mouth condemns you, not I; your own lips volunteer as witnesses against you. [7] Were you the firstborn among men? Were you introduced to the earth before the hills were conceived? [8] Were you allowed to listen in on the deliberations in God's assembly? Do you imagine all knowledge to be confined to you and you only? [9] What do you know that we don't know? Do you have an understanding that has somehow eluded us? [10] We have gray hairs and elders among us weighed down with years, heavier than your father. [11] Do you find God's many comforts too meager and His gentle speech to you too mild? [12] What has stripped you of your reason, carried away your heart? Why do your eyes flash with anger- [13] So much so that you unleash your spirit and spray out such speeches against God? [14] What is humankind, that people would be considered pure? And among those born of women, who could possibly be innocent? [15] Look, if God refuses to trust even His holy attendants, if even the heavens above are impure in His eyes, [16] Then how much less regard must He show for humankind, who is base and corrupt, or for Adam's children who drink sin like water. [17] Eliphaz: I will tell it like it is, so listen. I'll recount what I have seen: [18] The very things that knowledgeable men have declared and which they do not hide that they heard from their fathers [19] To whom the land was granted long ago when no foreigners were among them. [20] The wicked man endures misery his whole life long; and many years of sorrow are stored up for the ruthless. [21] His ears are assailed by the sounds of terror; but when he is finally at peace, the destroyer seizes him. [22] Unsure that he will ever escape darkness, he lives ever-conscious of the sword. [23] He wanders aimlessly in search of food. "Where is it?" he asks. He knows all the while that the great day of darkness is imminent. [24] He is addled by strain and anxiety, terrified; he will be overwhelmed as if by a king about to descend upon his enemy in war. [25] For he raises his fist to God and acts arrogantly like a hero against the Highest One. [26] He runs at Him, headlong, headstrong, and leads his charge behind the thick protection of a massive shield. [27] Strong and healthy, he has nourished himself well and prospered until his face and his thighs are pleasantly fat. [28] He lodges in evacuated towns in empty houses unfit for habitation, in buildings condemned to rubble and ruin. [29] He will never be rich; his wealth will not last, nor will he have possessions enough for any to put down roots. [30] He will not manage to escape from darkness, as it scorches like tender branches that wilt in the flame; He will blow away like the breath of his mouth. [31] Don't let him fool himself; if he trusts in the emptiness of his vanity, emptiness will be his reward. [32] Before his time is up, it will all be finished and the branches of his trees will never leaf out. [33] He will be like the vine that drops its immature grapes, the olive tree that sheds its own blossoms. [34] O the gathering of the godless is unfruitful, and fire consumes the tents of those who pervert justice by giving bribes. [35] Their intercourse yields only the conception of misconduct, the birth of sinfulness, and their wombs carry only lies to term.