Job 15
1 Then Eliphaz the Thaemanite answered and said,
Then Eliphaz replied to Job:
2 Will a wise man give for answer a [mere] breath of wisdom? and does he fill up the pain of his belly,
“If you were truly wise [RHQ], you would not have replied to us by claiming that you know a lot; what you are saying is just a lot of hot air [MET].
3 reasoning with improper sayings, and with words wherein is no profit?
You should not [RHQ] be saying things that do not benefit anyone, using words that do no one any good.
4 Hast not you moreover cast off fear, and accomplished such words before the Lord?
[By what you say, ] you show that you do not revere God, and you are hindering people from meditating/thinking about God.
5 You are guilty by the words of your mouth, neither have you discerned the words of the mighty.
[It is as though] your sins are telling you what to say; you talk like people who will not admit that they are wicked.
6 Let your own mouth, and not me, reprove you: and your lips shall testify against you.
Everything that you say [MTY] shows that you should be punished; so, it is not necessary for me to show that.
7 What! are you the first man that was born? or were you established before the hills?
[“Tell me do you know more than everyone else because you think that] you are the first person who was ever born? [SAR, RHQ] Were you born before the hills [were created]?
8 Or have you heard the ordinance of the Lord? or has God used you as [his] counsellor? and has wisdom come [only] to you?
Were you listening when God made all his plans? [SAR, RHQ] Or do you think that you are the only person who is wise?
9 For what know you, that, we know not? or what understand you, which we do not also?
(What do you know that we do not know?/You do not know anything that we do not know.) [RHQ] You do not understand [RHQ] anything that is not also clear to us.
10 Truly among us [are] both the old and very aged man, more advanced in days than your father.
My friends and I are also wise; we acquired [wisdom] from old gray-haired people, from people who were born before your father was born.
11 You have been scourged for [but] few of your sins: you have spoken haughtily [and] extravagantly.
God wants to comfort you, and to speak gently/kindly to you; (is that not enough for you/do you need more than that)?
12 What has your heart dared? or what have your eyes [aimed at],
Why do you allow yourself to be (carried away/excited) by your emotions? Why are [you very angry, with the result that] your eyes flash?
13 that you have vented [your] rage before the Lord, and delivered such words from [your] mouth?
You are angry [IDM] with God, and so you [MTY] are criticizing/denouncing him.
14 For who, being a mortal, [is such] that he shall be blameless? or, [who that is] born of a woman, that he should be just?
“(How can any person, [including you, ] be sinless?/No person, [including you], can be sinless.) [RHQ] (How can anyone on the earth be [completely] righteous?/No one on the earth can be [completely] righteous.) [RHQ]
15 Forasmuch as he trusts not his saints; and the heaven is not pure before him.
Hey, God does not even trust his angels; he does not consider even them to be [completely] pure.
16 Alas then, abominable and unclean is man, drinking unrighteousness as a draught.
So, he certainly does not [trust] abominable/disgusting and depraved/corrupt people who do evil things [as easily] as they drink water [MET].
17 But I will tell you, listen to me; I will tell you now what I have seen;
Job, listen to what I will tell you. I will declare to you what I know,
18 things wise men say, and their fathers have not hidden.
things that wise men have told me, truths that their ancestors did not keep hidden.
19 To them alone the earth was given, and no stranger came upon them.
God gave this land to those ancestors, who were truly wise; no one from another country caused them to think wrongly [IDM].
20 All the life of the ungodly [is spent] in care, and the years granted to the oppressor are numbered.
It is wicked people who suffer with great pain all the time that they are alive; that is what happens to those who (oppress/act violently toward) others.
21 And his terror is in his ears: just when he seems to be at peace, his overthrow will come.
They constantly hear sounds that terrify them; while they are prospering, bandits attack them.
22 Let him not trust that he shall return from darkness, for he has been already made over to the power of the sword.
Wicked people surely know that they will not escape from darkness/death, because [they are sure that someone] is waiting to kill them with a sword.
23 And he has been appointed to be food for vultures; and he knows within himself that he is doomed to be a carcass: and a dark day shall carry him away as with a whirlwind.
They wander around, searching for food, saying ‘Where can I find some?’ And they know that they will soon experience disasters.
24 Distress also and anguish shall come upon him: he shall fall as a captain in the first rank.
Because they are afraid of those things happening to them, they are afraid and worry that these things will come to them like [the army of] a king comes to attack [their enemies and cause them to suffer] [SIM].
25 For he has lifted his hands against the Lord, and he has hardened his neck against the Almighty Lord.
[Those things happen to them] because they (shook their fists/dared to fight) against Almighty God, and thought that they were strong enough to defeat him.
26 And he has run against him with insolence, on the thickness of the back of his shield.
They stubbornly [IDM] rush to attack God [as though they were carrying] a strong shield [to protect themselves].
27 For he has covered his face with his fat, and made layers of fat upon his thighs.
They are so fat [that they are unable to fight].
28 And let him lodge in desolate cities, and enter into houses without inhabitant: and what they have prepared, others shall carry away.
They will live in cities that have been abandoned, cities which have become a heap of ruins.
29 Neither shall he at all grow rich, nor shall his substance remain: he shall not cast a shadow upon the earth.
But they will not remain rich very long; Everything that they own will be taken from them; their possessions will all disappear.
30 Neither shall he in any wise escape the darkness: let the wind blast his blossom, and let his flower fall off.
They will not escape from the darkness [of death]; they will be like trees whose branches are burned by fire and whose blossoms are blown away by the wind.
31 Let him not think that he shall endure; for his end shall be vanity.
Since they are very foolish, with the result that they trust in things that are really worthless, then things that are worthless will be all that they get.
32 His harvest shall perish before the time, and his branch shall not flourish.
Before they are old, they will wither; they will be like [MET] branches that wither and never become green again.
33 And let him be gathered as the unripe grape before the time, and let him fall as the blossom of the olive.
They will be like [SIM] vines whose grapes fall off before they are ripe, like olive trees whose blossoms fall off before they produce any fruit.
34 For death is the witness of an ungodly man, and fire shall burn the houses of them that receive gifts.
Wicked/godless people will not have any descendants, and fires will completely burn up the homes of [those who built those homes using] money they received from bribes.
35 And he shall conceive sorrows, and his end shall be vanity, and his belly shall bear deceit.
They plan to cause trouble and to do evil things, and they are always preparing to deceive people.”
