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Sabato, 27 aprile 2024 - Santa Zita ( Letture di oggi)

Job 15


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NEW JERUSALEMKING JAMES BIBLE
1 Eliphaz of Teman spoke next. He said:1 Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
2 Does anyone wise respond with windy arguments, or feed on an east wind?2 Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
3 Or make a defence with ineffectual words and speeches good for nothing?3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk? or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?
4 You do worse: you suppress reverence, you discredit discussion before God.4 Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.
5 Your very fault incites you to speak like this, hence you adopt this language of cunning.5 For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips bear witness against you.6 Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee.
7 Are you the first-born of the human race, brought into the world before the hills?7 Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills?
8 Have you been a listener at God's council, or established a monopoly of wisdom?8 Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?
9 What knowledge do you have that we have not, what understanding that is not ours too?9 What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?
10 One of us is an old, grey-headed man loaded with more years than your father!10 With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.
11 Can you ignore these divine consolations and the moderate tone of our words?11 Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any secret thing with thee?
12 How passion carries you away! And how you rol your eyes,12 Why doth thine heart carry thee away? and what do thy eyes wink at,
13 when you vent your anger on God and speeches come tripping off your tongue!13 That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?
14 How can anyone be pure, anyone born of woman be upright?14 What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15 God cannot rely even on his holy ones, to him, even the heavens seem impure.15 Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.
16 How much more, this hateful, corrupt thing, humanity, which soaks up wickedness like water!16 How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?
17 Listen to me, I have a lesson for you: I am going to impart my own experience17 I will shew thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare;
18 and the tradition of the sages who have remained faithful to their ancestors,18 Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it:
19 to whom alone the land was given -- no foreigner included among them.19 Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.
20 The life of the wicked is unceasing torment, the years al otted to the tyrant are numbered.20 The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.
21 A cry of panic echoes in his ear; when al is peace, his destroyer swoops down on him.21 A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
22 No more can he count on escaping from the dark, but knows that he is destined for the sword,22 He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword.
23 marked down as meat for the vulture. He knows that his ruin is at hand.23 He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
24 The hour of darkness terrifies him, distress and anguish assail him as when a king is poised for theassault.24 Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
25 He raised his hand against God, boldly he defied Shaddai!25 For he stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty.
26 Head lowered, he charged him, with his massively bossed shield.26 He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers:
27 His face had grown ful and fat, and his thighs too heavy with flesh.27 Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks.
28 He had occupied the towns he had destroyed, with their uninhabited houses about to fal into ruins;28 And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps.
29 but no great profit to him, his luck will not hold, he wil cast his shadow over the country no longer,29 He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth.
30 (he wil not escape the dark). A flame wil scorch his young shoots, the wind will carry off his blossom.30 He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.
31 Let him not trust in his great height or delusion will be his.31 Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence.
32 His palm trees wil wither before their time and his branches never again be green.32 It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.
33 Like the vine, he wil shake off his unripe fruit, like the olive tree, shed his blossom.33 He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.
34 Yes, sterile is the spawn of the sinner, and fire consumes the tents of the venal.34 For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.
35 Whoever conceives malice, breeds disaster, bears as offspring only a false hope.35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.