ESV - Job Chapter 14 to 16

14 Job Continues: Death Comes Soon to All

14:1 “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. ²He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not. ³And do you open your eyes on such a one and bring me into judgment with you? ⁴Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one. ⁵Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass, ⁶look away from him and leave him alone,[1] that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.

⁷“For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. ⁸Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the soil, ⁹yet at the scent of water it will bud and put out branches like a young plant. ¹⁰But a man dies and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he? ¹¹As waters fail from a lake and a river wastes away and dries up, ¹²so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep. ¹³Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me! ¹⁴If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal[2] should come. ¹⁵You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands. ¹⁶For then you would number my steps; you would not keep watch over my sin; ¹⁷my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.

¹⁸“But the mountain falls and crumbles away, and the rock is removed from its place; ¹⁹the waters wear away the stones; the torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of man. ²⁰You prevail forever against him, and he passes; you change his countenance, and send him away. ²¹His sons come to honor, and he does not know it; they are brought low, and he perceives it not. ²²He feels only the pain of his own body, and he mourns only for himself.”

[1] Probable reading; Hebrew that he may cease [2] Or relief

15 Eliphaz Accuses: Job Does Not Fear God

15:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

²“Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind? ³Should he argue in unprofitable talk, or in words with which he can do no good? ⁴But you are doing away with the fear of God[3] and hindering meditation before God. ⁵For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty. ⁶Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips testify against you.

⁷“Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills? ⁸Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself? ⁹What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us? ¹⁰Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, older than your father. ¹¹Are the comforts of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you? ¹²Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash, ¹³that you turn your spirit against God and bring such words out of your mouth? ¹⁴What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? ¹⁵Behold, God[4] puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight; ¹⁶how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water!

¹⁷“I will show you; hear me, and what I have seen I will declare ¹⁸(what wise men have told, without hiding it from their fathers, ¹⁹to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them). ²⁰The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless. ²¹Dreadful sounds are in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him. ²²He does not believe that he will return out of darkness, and he is marked for the sword. ²³He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand; ²⁴distress and anguish terrify him; they prevail against him, like a king ready for battle. ²⁵Because he has stretched out his hand against God and defies the Almighty, ²⁶running stubbornly against him with a thickly bossed shield; ²⁷because he has covered his face with his fat and gathered fat upon his waist ²⁸and has lived in desolate cities, in houses that none should inhabit, which were ready to become heaps of ruins; ²⁹he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the earth;^[5]³⁰he will not depart from darkness; the flame will dry up his shoots, and by the breath of his mouth he will depart. ³¹Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his payment. ³²It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not be green. ³³He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine, and cast off his blossom like the olive tree. ³⁴For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery. ³⁵They conceive trouble and give birth to evil, and their womb prepares deceit.”

[3] Hebrew lacks of God [4] Hebrew he [5] Or nor will his produce bend down to the earth

16 Job Replies: Miserable Comforters Are You

16:1 Then Job answered and said:

²“I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all. ³Shall windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? ⁴I also could speak as you do, if you were in my place; I could join words together against you and shake my head at you. ⁵I could strengthen 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 forbear, how much of it leaves me? ⁷Surely now God has worn me out; he has[6] made desolate all my company. ⁸And he has[7] shriveled me up, which is a witness against me, and my leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face. ⁹He has torn me in his wrath and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me. ¹⁰Men have gaped at me with their mouth; they have struck me insolently on the cheek; they mass themselves together against me. ¹¹God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked. ¹²I was at ease, and he broke me apart; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target; ¹³ his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground. ¹⁴He breaks me with breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior. ¹⁵I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin and have laid my strength in the dust. ¹⁶My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness, ¹⁷although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸“O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place. ¹⁹Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high. ²⁰My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, ²¹that he would argue the case of a man with God, as^[8]a son of man does with his neighbor. ²²For when a few years have come I shall go the way from which I shall not return.

[6] Hebrew you have [7] Hebrew you have [8] Hebrew and