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Venerdi, 29 marzo 2024 - Santi Simplicio e Costantino ( Letture di oggi)

Job 15


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1Then Eliphaz the Temanite spoke and said:2Should a wise man answer with airy opinions, or puff himself up with wind?3Should he argue in speech which does not avail, and in words which are to no profit?4You in fact do away with piety, and you lessen devotion toward God,5Because your wickedness instructs your mouth, and you choose to speak like the crafty.6Your own mouth condemns you, not I; you own lips refute you.7Are you indeed the first-born of mankind, or were you brought forth before the hills?8Are you privy to the counsels of God, and do you restrict wisdom to yourself?9What do you know that we do not know? What intelligence have you which we have not?10There are gray-haired old men among us more advanced in years than your father.11Are the consolations of God not enough for you, and speech that deals gently with you?12Why do your notions carry you away, and why do your eyes blink,13So that you turn your anger against God and let such words escape your mouth!14What is a man that he should be blameless, one born of woman that he should be righteous?15If in his holy ones God places no confidence, and if the heavens are not clean in his sight,16How much less so is the abominable, the corrupt: man, who drinks in iniquity like water!17I will show you, if you listen to me; what I have seen I will tell--18What wise men relate and have not contradicted since the days of their fathers,19To whom alone the land was given, when no foreigner moved among them.20The wicked man is in torment all his days, and limited years are in store for the tyrant;21The sound of terrors is in his ears; when all is prosperous, the spoiler comes upon him.22He despairs of escaping the darkness, and looks ever for the sword;23A wanderer, food for the vultures, he knows that his destruction is imminent.24By day the darkness fills him with dread; distress and anguish overpower him.25Because he has stretched out his hand against God and bade defiance to the Almighty,26One shall rush sternly upon him with the stout bosses of his shield, like a king prepared for the charge.27Because he has blinded himself with his crassness, padding his loins with fat,28He shall dwell in ruinous cities, in houses that are deserted, That are crumbling into clay29with no shadow to lengthen over the ground. He shall not be rich, and his possessions shall not endure;30A flame shall wither him up in his early growth, and with the wind his blossoms shall disappear.31for vain shall be his bartering.32His stalk shall wither before its time, and his branches shall be green no more.33He shall be like a vine that sheds its grapes unripened, and like an olive tree casting off its bloom.34For the breed of the impious shall be sterile, and fire shall consume the tents of extortioners.35They conceive malice and bring forth emptiness; they give birth to failure.