| 章 |
| 15:1 |
Then Eli'phaz the Te'manite answered:
|
| 15:2 |
'Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?
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| 15:3 |
Should he argue in unprofitable talk, or in words with which he can do no good?
|
| 15:4 |
But you are doing away with the fear of God, and hindering meditation before God.
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| 15:5 |
For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
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| 15:6 |
Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;your own lips testify against you.
|
| 15:7 |
'Are you the first man that was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?
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| 15:8 |
Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
|
| 15:9 |
What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us?
|
| 15:10 |
Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, older than your father.
|
| 15:11 |
Are the consolations of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you?
|
| 15:12 |
Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash,
|
| 15:13 |
that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?
|
| 15:14 |
What is man, that he can be clean? Or he that is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?
|
| 15:15 |
Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not clean in his sight;
|
| 15:16 |
how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
|
| 15:17 |
'I will show you, hear me;and what I have seen I will declare
|
| 15:18 |
(what wise men have told, and their fathers have not hidden,
|
| 15:19 |
to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them).
|
| 15:20 |
The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.
|
| 15:21 |
Terrifying sounds are in his ears;in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.
|
| 15:22 |
He does not believe that he will return out of darkness, and he is destined for the sword.
|
| 15:23 |
He wanders abroad for bread, saying, Where is it?' He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;
|
| 15:24 |
distress and anguish terrify him;they prevail against him, like a king prepared for battle.
|
| 15:25 |
Because he has stretched forth his hand against God, and bids defiance to the Almighty,
|
| 15:26 |
running stubbornly against him with a thick-bossed shield;
|
| 15:27 |
because he has covered his face with his fat, and gathered fat upon his loins,
|
| 15:28 |
and has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no man should inhabit, which were destined to become heaps of ruins;
|
| 15:29 |
he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will he strike root in the earth;
|
| 15:30 |
he will not escape from darkness;the flame will dry up his shoots, and his blossom will be swept away by the wind.
|
| 15:31 |
Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself;for emptiness will be his recompense.
|
| 15:32 |
It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not be green.
|
| 15:33 |
He will shake off his unripe grape, like the vine, and cast off his blossom, like the olive tree.
|
| 15:34 |
For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery.
|
| 15:35 |
They conceive mischief and bring forth evil and their heart prepares deceit.'
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