| 章 |
| 15:1 |
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
|
| 15:2 |
"Should the wise answer with windy knowledge, and fill themselves with the east wind?
|
| 15:3 |
Should they argue in unprofitable talk, or in words with which they can do no good?
|
| 15:4 |
But you are doing away with the fear of God, and hindering meditation before God.
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| 15:5 |
For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
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| 15:6 |
Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips testify against you.
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| 15:7 |
"Are you the firstborn of the human race? Were you brought forth before the hills?
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| 15:8 |
Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
|
| 15:9 |
What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us?
|
| 15:10 |
The gray-haired and the aged are on our side, those older than your father.
|
| 15:11 |
Are the consolations of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you?
|
| 15:12 |
Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash,
|
| 15:13 |
so that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?
|
| 15:14 |
What are mortals, that they can be clean? Or those born of woman, that they can be righteous?
|
| 15:15 |
God puts no trust even in his holy ones, and the heavens are not clean in his sight;
|
| 15:16 |
how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, one who drinks iniquity like water!
|
| 15:17 |
"I will show you; listen to me; what I have seen I will declare--
|
| 15:18 |
what sages have told, and their ancestors have not hidden,
|
| 15:19 |
to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them.
|
| 15:20 |
The wicked writhe in pain all their days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.
|
| 15:21 |
Terrifying sounds are in their ears; in prosperity the destroyer will come upon them.
|
| 15:22 |
They despair of returning from darkness, and they are destined for the sword.
|
| 15:23 |
They wander abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' They know that a day of darkness is ready at hand;
|
| 15:24 |
distress and anguish terrify them; they prevail against them, like a king prepared for battle.
|
| 15:25 |
Because they stretched out their hands against God, and bid defiance to the Almighty,
|
| 15:26 |
running stubbornly against him with a thick-bossed shield;
|
| 15:27 |
because they have covered their faces with their fat, and gathered fat upon their loins,
|
| 15:28 |
they will live in desolate cities, in houses that no one should inhabit, houses destined to become heaps of ruins;
|
| 15:29 |
they will not be rich, and their wealth will not endure, nor will they strike root in the earth;
|
| 15:30 |
they will not escape from darkness; the flame will dry up their shoots, and their blossom will be swept away by the wind.
|
| 15:31 |
Let them not trust in emptiness, deceiving themselves; for emptiness will be their recompense.
|
| 15:32 |
It will be paid in full before their time, and their branch will not be green.
|
| 15:33 |
They will shake off their unripe grape, like the vine, and cast off their blossoms, like the olive tree.
|
| 15:34 |
For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery.
|
| 15:35 |
They conceive mischief and bring forth evil and their heart prepares deceit."
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