Job 15-17
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Eliphaz Speaks: Job Undermines Religion
15 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
2 “Should the wise answer with windy knowledge
and fill themselves with the east wind?(A)
3 Should they argue in unprofitable talk
or in words that can do no good?
4 But you are doing away with the fear of God
and hindering meditation before God.
5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
and you choose the tongue of the crafty.(B)
6 Your own mouth condemns you, not I;
your own lips testify against you.(C)
7 “Are you the firstborn of the human race?
Were you brought forth before the hills?(D)
8 Have you listened in the council of God?
And do you limit wisdom to yourself?(E)
9 What do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that is not clear to us?(F)
10 The gray-haired and the aged are on our side,
those older than your father.(G)
11 Are the consolations of God too small for you
or the word that deals gently with you?(H)
12 Why does your heart carry you away,
and why do your eyes flash,[a]
13 so that you turn your spirit against God,
and let such words go out of your mouth?(I)
14 What are mortals, that they can be clean?
Or those born of woman, that they can be righteous?(J)
15 God puts no trust even in his holy ones,
and the heavens are not clean in his sight;(K)
16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
one who drinks iniquity like water!(L)
17 “I will show you; listen to me;
what I have seen I will declare—
18 what sages have told
and their ancestors have not hidden,(M)
19 to whom alone the land was given,
and no stranger passed among them.
20 The wicked writhe in pain all their days,
through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.(N)
21 Terrifying sounds are in their ears;
in prosperity the destroyer will come upon them.(O)
22 They despair of returning from darkness,
and they are destined for the sword.(P)
23 They wander abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
They know that a day of darkness is ready at hand;(Q)
24 distress and anguish terrify them;
they prevail against them like a king prepared for battle.
25 Because they stretched out their hands against God
and bid defiance to the Almighty,[b](R)
26 running stubbornly against him
with a thickly bossed shield;
27 because they have covered their faces with their fat
and gathered fat upon their loins,(S)
28 they will live in desolate cities,
in houses that no one should inhabit,
houses destined to become heaps of ruins;
29 they will not be rich, and their wealth will not endure,
nor will they strike root in the earth;[c](T)
30 they will not escape from darkness;
the flame will dry up their shoots,
and their blossom[d] will be swept away by the wind.(U)
31 Let them not trust in emptiness, deceiving themselves,
for emptiness will be their recompense.(V)
32 It will be paid in full before their time,
and their branch will not be green.(W)
33 They will shake off their unripe grape, like the vine,
and cast off their blossoms, like the olive tree.(X)
34 For the company of the godless is barren,
and fire consumes the tents of bribery.(Y)
35 They conceive mischief and bring forth evil,
and their belly prepares deceit.”(Z)
Job Reaffirms His Innocence
16 Then Job answered:
2 “I have heard many such things;
miserable comforters are you all.
3 Have windy words no limit?
Or what provokes you that you keep on talking?(AA)
4 I also could talk as you do,
if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you
and shake my head at you.(AB)
5 I could encourage you with my mouth,
and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.
6 “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
and if I refrain, how much of it leaves me?
7 Surely now God has worn me out;
he has[e] made desolate all my company.(AC)
8 And he has[f] shriveled me up,
which is a witness against me;
my leanness has risen up against me,
and it testifies to my face.(AD)
9 He has torn me in his wrath and hated me;
he has gnashed his teeth at me;
my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.(AE)
10 They have gaped at me with their mouths;
they have struck me insolently on the cheek;
they mass themselves together against me.(AF)
11 God gives me up to the evil
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.(AG)
12 I was at ease, and he broke me in two;
he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his target;(AH)
13 his archers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys and shows no mercy;
he pours out my gall on the ground.(AI)
14 He bursts upon me again and again;
he rushes at me like a warrior.(AJ)
15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin
and have laid my strength in the dust.(AK)
16 My face is red with weeping,
and deep darkness is on my eyelids,
17 though there is no violence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.(AL)
18 “O earth, do not cover my blood;
let my outcry find no resting place.(AM)
19 Even now my witness is in heaven,
and my advocate is on high.(AN)
20 My friends scorn me;
my eye pours out tears to God,
21 that he would maintain the right of a mortal with God,
as[g] one does for a neighbor.(AO)
22 For when a few years have come,
I shall go the way from which I shall not return.(AP)
Job Prays for Relief
17 “My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;
the grave is ready for me.(AQ)
2 Surely there are mockers around me,
and my eye dwells on their provocation.(AR)
3 “Lay down a pledge for me with yourself;
who is there who will give surety for me?(AS)
4 Since you have closed their minds to understanding,
therefore you will not let them triumph.(AT)
5 Those who denounce friends for reward—
the eyes of their children will fail.(AU)
6 “He has made me a byword of the peoples,
and I am one before whom people spit.(AV)
7 My eye has grown dim from grief,
and all my members are like a shadow.(AW)
8 The upright are appalled at this,
and the innocent stir themselves up against the godless.
9 Yet the righteous hold to their way,
and they who have clean hands grow stronger and stronger.(AX)
10 But you, come back now, all of you,
and I shall not find a sensible person among you.
11 My days are past; my plans are broken off,
the desires of my heart.(AY)
12 They make night into day;
‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’[h]
13 If I look for Sheol as my house,
if I spread my couch in darkness,(AZ)
14 if I say to the Pit, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’(BA)
15 where then is my hope?
Who will see my hope?(BB)
16 Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
Shall we descend together into the dust?”(BC)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.