15:1
Eliphaz of Teman spoke next. He said:
15:2
Does anyone wise respond with windy arguments, or feed on an east wind?
15:3
Or make a defence with ineffectual words and speeches good for nothing?
15:4
You do worse: you suppress reverence, you discredit discussion before God.
15:5
Your very fault incites you to speak like this, hence you adopt this language of cunning.
15:6
Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips bear witness against you.
15:7
Are you the first-born of the human race, brought into the world before the hills?
15:8
Have you been a listener at God's council, or established a monopoly of wisdom?
15:9
What knowledge do you have that we have not, what understanding that is not ours too?
15:10
One of us is an old, grey-headed man loaded with more years than your father!
15:11
Can you ignore these divine consolations and the moderate tone of our words?
15:12
How passion carries you away! And how you roll your eyes,
15:13
when you vent your anger on God and speeches come tripping off your tongue!
15:14
How can anyone be pure, anyone born of woman be upright?
15:15
God cannot rely even on his holy ones, to him, even the heavens seem impure.
15:16
How much more, this hateful, corrupt thing, humanity, which soaks up wickedness like water!
15:17
Listen to me, I have a lesson for you: I am going to impart my own experience
15:18
and the tradition of the sages who have remained faithful to their ancestors,
15:19
to whom alone the land was given -- no foreigner included among them.
15:20
The life of the wicked is unceasing torment, the years allotted to the tyrant are numbered.
15:21
A cry of panic echoes in his ear; when all is peace, his destroyer swoops down on him.
15:22
No more can he count on escaping from the dark, but knows that he is destined for the sword,
15:23
marked down as meat for the vulture. He knows that his ruin is at hand.
15:24
The hour of darkness terrifies him, distress and anguish assail him as when a king is poised for the assault.
15:25
He raised his hand against God, boldly he defied Shaddai!
15:26
Head lowered, he charged him, with his massively bossed shield.
15:27
His face had grown full and fat, and his thighs too heavy with flesh.
15:28
He had occupied the towns he had destroyed, with their uninhabited houses about to fall into ruins;
15:29
but no great profit to him, his luck will not hold, he will cast his shadow over the country no longer,
15:30
(he will not escape the dark). A flame will scorch his young shoots, the wind will carry off his blossom.
15:31
Let him not trust in his great height or delusion will be his.
15:32
His palm trees will wither before their time and his branches never again be green.
15:33
Like the vine, he will shake off his unripe fruit, like the olive tree, shed his blossom.
15:34
Yes, sterile is the spawn of the sinner, and fire consumes the tents of the venal.
15:35
Whoever conceives malice, breeds disaster, bears as offspring only a false hope.
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