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