Book of Job, Chapter 15
Job 15 NWT - New World TranslationChapter 15 of Job—New World Translation (NWT)
- ¶ And Elʹi·phaz the Teʹman·ite proceeded to answer and say:
- ¶ “Will a wise person himself answer with windy knowledge,[a]1
Or will he fill his belly with the east wind?2 - ¶ Merely reproving with a word will be of no use,
And mere utterances will be of no benefit by themselves. - ¶ However, you yourself make fear [before God] to have no force,
And you diminish the having of any concern before God.[b] - ¶ For your error trains your mouth,[c]
And you choose the tongue of shrewd people. - ¶ Your mouth pronounces you wicked, and not I;
And your own lips answer against you.3 - ¶ Were you the very first man[d] to be born,4
Or before the hills5 were you brought forth with labor pains? - ¶ To the confidential talk of God[e] do you listen,6
And do you limit wisdom to yourself? - ¶ What do you actually know that we do not know?7
What do you understand that is not also with us? - ¶ Both the gray-headed and the aged one are with us,8
The one greater than your father in days. - ¶ Are the consolations of God[f] not enough for you,
Or a word [spoken] gently with you? - ¶ Why does your heart carry you away,
And why do your eyes flash? - ¶ For you turn your spirit against God himself,
And you have caused words to go forth from your own mouth. - ¶ What is mortal man[g] that he should be clean,9
Or that anyone born of a woman should be in the right? - ¶ Look! In his holy ones he has no faith,10
And the heavens themselves are actually not clean in his eyes.11 - ¶ How much less so when one is detestable and corrupt,12
A man who is drinking in unrighteousness just like water! - ¶ I shall declare it to you. Listen to me!13
Even this I have beheld, so let me relate [it], - ¶ That which wise ones14 themselves tell
And which they did not hide, [it being] from their fathers. - ¶ To them alone the land was given,
And no stranger passed through the midst of them. - ¶ All his days a wicked one is suffering torture,
Even the very number of years that have been reserved for the tyrant. - ¶ The sound of dreadful things is in his ears;
During peace a despoiler himself comes upon him.15 - ¶ He does not believe that he will come back out of darkness,16
And he is reserved for a sword. - ¶ He is straying about in search of bread[h]—where is it?17
He well knows that the day of darkness18 is ready at his hand. - ¶ Distress and anguish keep terrifying him;19
They overpower him like a king in readiness for the assault. - ¶ Because he stretches out his hand against God[i] himself,
And over the Almighty he tries to show himself superior;20 - ¶ [Because] he runs against him stiff-neckedly,
With the thick bosses of his shields; - ¶ Because he actually covers his face with his fattiness
And he puts on fat upon his loins,21 - ¶ He merely resides in cities that are to be effaced;
In houses in which people will not keep dwelling,
Which certainly prove destined for heaps of stones. - ¶ He will not grow rich and his wealth will not mount up,
Nor will he spread out the acquisition[j] of them over the earth.22 - ¶ He will not turn away from darkness;
His twig a flame will dry up,
And he will turn aside by a blast[k] of His mouth.23 - ¶ Let him put no faith in worthlessness, being led astray,
For mere worthlessness will prove to be what he gets in exchange; - ¶ Before his day[l] will it be fulfilled.
And his shoot itself will certainly not grow luxuriantly.24 - ¶ He will thrust away his unripe grapes just like a vine,
And cast off his blossoms just like an olive tree. - ¶ For the assembly of apostates is sterile,25
And fire itself must eat up the tents of bribery.26 - ¶ There is a conceiving of trouble and a giving birth to what is hurtful,27
And their belly itself prepares deceit.”
FOOTNOTES
- ^ Lit., “knowledge of wind.” Heb., dha·ʽath-ruʹach.
- ^ “God.” Heb., ʼEl.
- ^ Or, “your mouth teaches your error.” LXX, “you are guilty by the words of your mouth”; Sy, “your mouth teaches sin.”
- ^ “Man.” Heb., ʼa·dhamʹ.
- ^ “God.” Heb., ʼElohʹah.
- ^ “God.” Heb., ʼEl.
- ^ “Mortal man.” Heb., ʼenohshʹ.
- ^ Or, “food.”
- ^ “God.” Heb., ʼEl.
- ^ “Acquisition.” The meaning in M is uncertain; LXX, “shadow”; Vg, “root.”
- ^ “By a blast of.” Heb., beruʹach.
- ^ Lit., “in not his day.”
REFERENCES
- ^ Jb 42:7
- ^ Ho 12:1
- ^ Jb 42:8
- ^ Ge 4:1
- ^ Ps 90:2; Pr 8:25
- ^ Ro 11:34; 1Co 2:11
- ^ Jb 13:2; 16:2
- ^ Jb 32:6
- ^ 2Ch 6:36; Ps 51:5
- ^ 1Ki 22:20; Pr 8:30; Am 3:7
- ^ Jb 25:5; 42:7
- ^ Jb 4:19
- ^ Jb 5:27
- ^ Jb 8:8
- ^ 1Th 5:3
- ^ Jb 18:12; Is 8:22; Jd 13
- ^ Ps 59:15; 109:10
- ^ Jb 18:12
- ^ Ro 2:9
- ^ Jb 16:2; 42:7
- ^ Jb 17:10
- ^ Jb 20:28
- ^ Jb 4:9
- ^ Jb 22:16
- ^ Jb 8:13; 16:2; 42:7
- ^ Jb 16:3; 42:8
- ^ Ps 7:14; Is 59:4; Jm 1:15
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