New Revised Standard NRS
The Message Bible MSG
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
1
Eliphaz of Teman spoke a second time:
2 "Should the wise answer with windy knowledge, and fill themselves with the east wind?
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"If you were truly wise, would you sound so much like a windbag, belching hot air?
3 Should they argue in unprofitable talk, or in words with which they can do no good?
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Would you talk nonsense in the middle of a serious argument, babbling baloney?
4 But you are doing away with the fear of God, and hindering meditation before God.
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Look at you! You trivialize religion, turn spiritual conversation into empty gossip.
5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
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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, and 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 "Are you the firstborn of the human race? Were you brought forth before the hills?
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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 Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
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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 do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us?
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What do you know that we don't know? What insights do you have that we've missed?
10 The gray-haired and the aged are on our side, those 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 Are the consolations of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you?
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Are God's promises not enough for you, spoken so gently and tenderly?
12 Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash,
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Why do you let your emotions take over, lashing out and spitting fire,
13 so that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?
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Pitting your whole being against God by letting words like this come out of your mouth?
14 What are mortals, that they can be clean? Or those born of woman, that they can be righteous?
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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 God puts no trust even in his holy ones, and the heavens are not clean 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 one who is abominable and corrupt, one who drinks iniquity like water!
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So how much less we humans, smelly and foul, who lap up evil like water?
17 "I will show you; listen to me; what I have seen I will declare—
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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 what sages have told, and their ancestors have not hidden,
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It's what wise men and women have always taught, holding nothing back from what they were taught
19 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them.
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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 all their days, through all the years that are laid 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 Terrifying sounds are in their ears; in prosperity the destroyer will come upon them.
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Every little sound terrifies them. Just when they think they have it made, disaster strikes.
22 They despair of returning from darkness, and they are destined for the sword.
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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 abroad for bread, saying, "Where is it?' They know that a day of darkness is ready at hand;
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They wander here and there, never knowing where the next meal is coming from - every day is doomsday!
24 distress and anguish terrify them; they prevail against them, like a king prepared for battle.
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They live in constant terror, always with their backs up against the wall
25 Because they stretched out their hands against God, and bid defiance to the Almighty,
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Because they insist on shaking their fists at God, defying God Almighty to his face,
26 running stubbornly against him with a thick-bossed shield;
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Always and ever at odds with God, always on the defensive.
27 because they have covered their faces with their fat, and gathered fat upon their loins,
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"Even if they're the picture of health, trim and fit and youthful,
28 they will live in desolate cities, in houses that no one should inhabit, houses destined to become heaps of ruins;
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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 they will not be rich, and their wealth will not endure, nor will they strike root in the earth;
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They'll never get ahead, never amount to a hill of beans.
30 they will not escape from darkness; the flame will dry up their shoots, and their blossom will be swept away by the wind.
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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 not trust in emptiness, deceiving themselves; for emptiness will be their recompense.
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There's a lesson here: Whoever invests in lies, gets lies for interest,
32 It will be paid in full before their time, and their branch will not be green.
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Paid in full before the due date. Some investment!
33 They will shake off their unripe grape, like the vine, and cast off their blossoms, like the olive tree.
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They'll be like fruit frost-killed before it ripens, like buds sheared off before they bloom.
34 For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery.
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The godless are fruitless - a barren crew; a life built on bribes goes up in smoke.
35 They conceive mischief and bring forth evil and their heart prepares deceit."
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They have sex with sin and give birth to evil. Their lives are wombs for breeding deceit."
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. 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.