The Message Bible MSG
World English Bible WEB
1 Eliphaz of Teman spoke a second time:
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Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
2 "If you were truly wise, would you sound so much like a windbag, belching hot air?
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"Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, And fill himself with the east wind?
3 Would you talk nonsense in the middle of a serious argument, babbling baloney?
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Should he reason with unprofitable talk, Or with speeches with which he can do no good?
4 Look at you! You trivialize religion, turn spiritual conversation into empty gossip.
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Yes, you do away with fear, And hinder devotion before God.
5 It's your sin that taught you to talk this way. You chose an education in fraud.
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For your iniquity teaches your mouth, And you choose the language of the crafty.
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, and not I; Yes, 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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"Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?
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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Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
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 know? What do you understand, which is not in us?
10 Gray beards and white hair back us up - old folks who've been around a lot longer than you.
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With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, Much elder than your father.
11 Are God's promises not enough for you, spoken so gently and tenderly?
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Are the consolations of God too small for you, Even the word that is gentle toward you?
12 Why do you let your emotions take over, lashing out and spitting fire,
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Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,
13 Pitting your whole being against God by letting words like this come out of your mouth?
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That you turn your spirit against God, And let such words go out of your mouth?
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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What is man, that he should be clean? He who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15 Why, God can't even trust his holy angels. He sees the flaws in the very heavens themselves,
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Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones; Yes, the heavens are not clean 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 one who is abominable and corrupt, A man who drinks iniquity like water!
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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"I will show you, listen to me; That which I have seen I will declare:
18 It's what wise men and women have always taught, holding nothing back from what they were taught
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(Which wise men have told From their fathers, and have not hidden it;
19 By their parents, back in the days when they had this land all to themselves:
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To whom alone the land was given, And no stranger passed among them):
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 man travails with pain all his days, Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
21 Every little sound terrifies them. Just when they think they have it made, disaster strikes.
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A sound of terrors is in his ears; In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.
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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He doesn't believe that he shall return out of darkness, He is waited for by the sword.
23 They wander here and there, never knowing where the next meal is coming from - every day is doomsday!
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He wanders abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
24 They live in constant terror, always with their backs up against the wall
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Distress and anguish make him afraid; They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
25 Because they insist on shaking their fists at God, defying God Almighty to his face,
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Because he has stretched out his hand against God, And behaves himself proudly against the Almighty;
26 Always and ever at odds with God, always on the defensive.
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He runs at him with a stiff neck, With the thick shields of his bucklers;
27 "Even if they're the picture of health, trim and fit and youthful,
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Because he has covered his face with his fatness, And gathered fat on his loins.
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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He has lived in desolate cities, In houses which no one inhabited, Which were ready to become heaps.
29 They'll never get ahead, never amount to a hill of beans.
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He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, Neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.
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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He shall not depart out of darkness; The flame shall dry up his branches, By the breath of God's mouth shall he go away.
31 There's a lesson here: Whoever invests in lies, gets lies for interest,
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Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; For emptiness shall be his reward.
32 Paid in full before the due date. Some investment!
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It shall be accomplished before his time. His branch shall not be green.
33 They'll be like fruit frost-killed before it ripens, like buds sheared off before they bloom.
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He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, And shall cast off his flower as the olive tree.
34 The godless are fruitless - a barren crew; a life built on bribes goes up in smoke.
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For the company of the godless shall be barren, And fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
35 They have sex with sin and give birth to evil. Their lives are wombs for breeding deceit."
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They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. Their heart prepares 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.
The World English Bible is in the public domain.