Job 15

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	NEW JERUSALEM
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite spoke and said:	1 Eliphaz of Teman spoke next. He said:
2 Should a wise man answer with airy opinions, or puff himself up with wind?	2 Does anyone wise respond with windy arguments, or feed on an east wind?
3 Should he argue in speech which does not avail, and in words which are to no profit?	3 Or make a defence with ineffectual words and speeches good for nothing?
4 You in fact do away with piety, and you lessen devotion toward God,	4 You do worse: you suppress reverence, you discredit discussion before God.
5 Because your wickedness instructs your mouth, and you choose to speak like the crafty.	5 Your very fault incites you to speak like this, hence you adopt this language of cunning.
6 Your own mouth condemns you, not I; you own lips refute you.	6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips bear witness against you.
7 Are you indeed the first-born of mankind, or were you brought forth before the hills?	7 Are you the first-born of the human race, brought into the world before the hills?
8 Are you privy to the counsels of God, and do you restrict wisdom to yourself?	8 Have you been a listener at God's council, or established a monopoly of wisdom?
9 What do you know that we do not know? What intelligence have you which we have not?	9 What knowledge do you have that we have not, what understanding that is not ours too?
10 There are gray-haired old men among us more advanced in years than your father.	10 One of us is an old, grey-headed man loaded with more years than your father!
11 Are the consolations of God not enough for you, and speech that deals gently with you?	11 Can you ignore these divine consolations and the moderate tone of our words?
12 Why do your notions carry you away, and why do your eyes blink,	12 How passion carries you away! And how you rol your eyes,
13 So that you turn your anger against God and let such words escape your mouth!	13 when you vent your anger on God and speeches come tripping off your tongue!
14 What is a man that he should be blameless, one born of woman that he should be righteous?	14 How can anyone be pure, anyone born of woman be upright?
15 If in his holy ones God places no confidence, and if the heavens are not clean in his sight,	15 God cannot rely even on his holy ones, to him, even the heavens seem impure.
16 How much less so is the abominable, the corrupt: man, who drinks in iniquity like water!	16 How much more, this hateful, corrupt thing, humanity, which soaks up wickedness like water!
17 I will show you, if you listen to me; what I have seen I will tell--	17 Listen to me, I have a lesson for you: I am going to impart my own experience
18 What wise men relate and have not contradicted since the days of their fathers,	18 and the tradition of the sages who have remained faithful to their ancestors,
19 To whom alone the land was given, when no foreigner moved among them.	19 to whom alone the land was given -- no foreigner included among them.
20 The wicked man is in torment all his days, and limited years are in store for the tyrant;	20 The life of the wicked is unceasing torment, the years al otted to the tyrant are numbered.
21 The sound of terrors is in his ears; when all is prosperous, the spoiler comes upon him.	21 A cry of panic echoes in his ear; when al is peace, his destroyer swoops down on him.
22 He despairs of escaping the darkness, and looks ever for the sword;	22 No more can he count on escaping from the dark, but knows that he is destined for the sword,
23 A wanderer, food for the vultures, he knows that his destruction is imminent.	23 marked down as meat for the vulture. He knows that his ruin is at hand.
24 By day the darkness fills him with dread; distress and anguish overpower him.	24 The hour of darkness terrifies him, distress and anguish assail him as when a king is poised for theassault.
25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God and bade defiance to the Almighty,	25 He raised his hand against God, boldly he defied Shaddai!
26 One shall rush sternly upon him with the stout bosses of his shield, like a king prepared for the charge.	26 Head lowered, he charged him, with his massively bossed shield.
27 Because he has blinded himself with his crassness, padding his loins with fat,	27 His face had grown ful and fat, and his thighs too heavy with flesh.
28 He shall dwell in ruinous cities, in houses that are deserted, That are crumbling into clay	28 He had occupied the towns he had destroyed, with their uninhabited houses about to fal into ruins;
29 with no shadow to lengthen over the ground. He shall not be rich, and his possessions shall not endure;	29 but no great profit to him, his luck will not hold, he wil cast his shadow over the country no longer,
30 A flame shall wither him up in his early growth, and with the wind his blossoms shall disappear.	30 (he wil not escape the dark). A flame wil scorch his young shoots, the wind will carry off his blossom.
31 for vain shall be his bartering.	31 Let him not trust in his great height or delusion will be his.
32 His stalk shall wither before its time, and his branches shall be green no more.	32 His palm trees wil wither before their time and his branches never again be green.
33 He shall be like a vine that sheds its grapes unripened, and like an olive tree casting off its bloom.	33 Like the vine, he wil shake off his unripe fruit, like the olive tree, shed his blossom.
34 For the breed of the impious shall be sterile, and fire shall consume the tents of extortioners.	34 Yes, sterile is the spawn of the sinner, and fire consumes the tents of the venal.
35 They conceive malice and bring forth emptiness; they give birth to failure.	35 Whoever conceives malice, breeds disaster, bears as offspring only a false hope.