ReverendRestrained judgment

Job 15

Eliphaz: Your Own Mouth Condemns You

The Second Speech of Eliphaz

15:1Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

15:2“Will a wise person give an answer from understanding of spirit
and fill himself with pain of the belly,

15:3arguing with words that ought not be spoken,
with speeches in which there is no benefit?

15:4Did you not also reject fear
and complete such words before the Lord?

15:5You are guilty through the words of your mouth,
and you did not discern the words of rulers.

15:6May your own mouth reprove you, not I;
your lips will testify against you.

15:7What then? Were you the first of human beings to come to be,
or were you formed before the hills?

15:8Have you heard the Lord’s command,
and has wisdom arrived at you?

15:9For what do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that we do not also understand?

15:10Among us are both an elder and an ancient one,
weightier in days than your father.

15:11You have been scourged for few of the sins you committed;
you have spoken in an exceedingly excessive way.

15:12What did your heart dare,
or what did your eyes bring on,

15:13that you burst out in anger before the Lord
and brought such words out of your mouth?

15:14For what mortal can be blameless,
or one born of woman be righteous?

15:15If He puts no trust in holy ones,
and heaven is not pure before Him,

15:16let alone the loathsome and unclean man,
who drinks injustice as a drink.

15:17I will report to you—hear me;
what I have seen I will report to you,

15:18what wise people will say;
they did not conceal their fathers.

15:19To them alone the land was given,
and no foreigner came upon them.

15:20An ungodly person’s whole life is in anxiety,
and numbered years are given to a ruler.

15:21His fear is in his ears;
when he thinks he is already at peace, his overthrow will come.

15:22Let him not trust that he will turn back from darkness,
for he has already been assigned to the hands of iron,

15:23and he has been assigned as food for vultures.
He knows within himself that he remains destined to fall.
A dark day will whirl him about,

15:24and distress and affliction will hold him fast,
like a general falling in the front rank,

15:25because he raised his hands against the Lord
and stiffened his neck before the Lord Almighty,

15:26and ran against Him in insolence,
with the thick back of his shield,

15:27because he covered his face with his fat
and made a collar upon his thighs.

15:28May he lodge in deserted cities
and enter uninhabited houses;
what those people prepared, others will carry away.

15:29He will certainly not become rich, nor will his belongings remain;
he will not cast a shadow upon the earth

15:30nor will he escape darkness.
May wind wither his shoot,
and may his flower fall away.

15:31Let him not trust that he will endure,
for empty things will result for him.

15:32His cutting will be destroyed before its time,
and his shoot will not grow dense.

15:33May he be harvested like an unripe grape before its time;
may he fall like an olive blossom.

15:34For death is the testimony of an ungodly person,
and fire will burn the houses of those who take bribes.

15:35He will conceive pains in the womb;
empty things will result for him,
and his belly will bear deceit.”

Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.