The Message Bible MSG
New Living Translation NLT
1 Eliphaz of Teman spoke a second time:
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Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2 "If you were truly wise, would you sound so much like a windbag, belching hot air?
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“A wise man wouldn’t answer with such empty talk! You are nothing but a windbag.
3 Would you talk nonsense in the middle of a serious argument, babbling baloney?
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The wise don’t engage in empty chatter. What good are such words?
4 Look at you! You trivialize religion, turn spiritual conversation into empty gossip.
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Have you no fear of God, no reverence for him?
5 It's your sin that taught you to talk this way. You chose an education in fraud.
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Your sins are telling your mouth what to say. Your words are based on clever deception.
6 Your own words have exposed your guilt. It's nothing I've said - you've incriminated yourself!
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Your own mouth condemns you, not I. Your own lips testify against you.
7 Do you think you're the first person to have to deal with these things? Have you been around as long as the hills?
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“Were you the first person ever born? Were you born before the hills were made?
8 Were you listening in when God planned all this? Do you think you're the only one who knows anything?
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Were you listening at God’s secret council? Do you have a monopoly on wisdom?
9 What do you know that we don't know? What insights do you have that we've missed?
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What do you know that we don’t? What do you understand that we do not?
10 Gray beards and white hair back us up - old folks who've been around a lot longer than you.
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On our side are aged, gray-haired men much older than your father!
11 Are God's promises not enough for you, spoken so gently and tenderly?
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“Is God’s comfort too little for you? Is his gentle word not enough?
12 Why do you let your emotions take over, lashing out and spitting fire,
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What has taken away your reason? What has weakened your vision,
13 Pitting your whole being against God by letting words like this come out of your mouth?
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that you turn against God and say all these evil things?
14 Do you think it's possible for any mere mortal to be sinless in God's sight, for anyone born of a human mother to get it all together?
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Can any mortal be pure? Can anyone born of a woman be just?
15 Why, God can't even trust his holy angels. He sees the flaws in the very heavens themselves,
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Look, God does not even trust the angels. Even the heavens are not absolutely pure in his sight.
16 So how much less we humans, smelly and foul, who lap up evil like water?
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How much less pure is a corrupt and sinful person with a thirst for wickedness!
17 "I've a thing or two to tell you, so listen up! I'm letting you in on my views;
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“If you will listen, I will show you. I will answer you from my own experience.
18 It's what wise men and women have always taught, holding nothing back from what they were taught
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And it is confirmed by the reports of wise men who have heard the same thing from their fathers—
19 By their parents, back in the days when they had this land all to themselves:
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from those to whom the land was given long before any foreigners arrived.
20 Those who live by their own rules, not God's, can expect nothing but trouble, and the longer they live, the worse it gets.
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“The wicked writhe in pain throughout their lives. Years of trouble are stored up for the ruthless.
21 Every little sound terrifies them. Just when they think they have it made, disaster strikes.
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The sound of terror rings in their ears, and even on good days they fear the attack of the destroyer.
22 They despair of things ever getting better - they're on the list of people for whom things always turn out for the worst.
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They dare not go out into the darkness for fear they will be murdered.
23 They wander here and there, never knowing where the next meal is coming from - every day is doomsday!
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They wander around, saying, ‘Where can I find bread?’ They know their day of destruction is near.
24 They live in constant terror, always with their backs up against the wall
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That dark day terrifies them. They live in distress and anguish, like a king preparing for battle.
25 Because they insist on shaking their fists at God, defying God Almighty to his face,
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For they shake their fists at God, defying the Almighty.
26 Always and ever at odds with God, always on the defensive.
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Holding their strong shields, they defiantly charge against him.
27 "Even if they're the picture of health, trim and fit and youthful,
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“These wicked people are heavy and prosperous; their waists bulge with fat.
28 They'll end up living in a ghost town sleeping in a hovel not fit for a dog, a ramshackle shack.
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But their cities will be ruined. They will live in abandoned houses that are ready to tumble down.
29 They'll never get ahead, never amount to a hill of beans.
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Their riches will not last, and their wealth will not endure. Their possessions will no longer spread across the horizon.
30 And then death - don't think they'll escape that! They'll end up shriveled weeds, brought down by a puff of God's breath.
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“They will not escape the darkness. The burning sun will wither their shoots, and the breath of God will destroy them.
31 There's a lesson here: Whoever invests in lies, gets lies for interest,
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Let them no longer fool themselves by trusting in empty riches, for emptiness will be their only reward.
32 Paid in full before the due date. Some investment!
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They will be cut down in the prime of life; their branches will never again be green.
33 They'll be like fruit frost-killed before it ripens, like buds sheared off before they bloom.
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They will be like a vine whose grapes are harvested too early, like an olive tree that loses its blossoms before the fruit can form.
34 The godless are fruitless - a barren crew; a life built on bribes goes up in smoke.
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For the godless are barren. Their homes, enriched through bribery, will burn.
35 They have sex with sin and give birth to evil. Their lives are wombs for breeding deceit."
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They conceive trouble and give birth to evil. Their womb produces deceit.”
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.