Job 15:23-33

23 Il court çà et là, cherchant son pain; il sait que le jour des ténèbres lui est préparé.
24 La détresse et l'angoisse l'épouvantent; elles l'assaillent comme un roi prêt au combat;
25 Parce qu'il a levé la main contre Dieu, et a bravé le Tout-Puissant:
26 Il a couru vers lui, avec audace, sous le dos épais de ses boucliers.
27 L'embonpoint avait couvert son visage, et la graisse s'était accumulée sur ses flancs;
28 C'est pourquoi il habite des villes détruites, des maisons désertes, tout près de n'être plus que des monceaux de pierres.
29 Il ne s'enrichira pas, et sa fortune ne subsistera pas, et ses propriétés ne s'étendront pas sur la terre.
30 Il ne pourra pas sortir des ténèbres; la flamme desséchera ses rejetons, et il s'en ira par le souffle de la bouche de Dieu.
31 Qu'il ne compte pas sur la vanité qui le séduit; car la vanité sera sa récompense.
32 Avant le temps, il prendra fin, et ses branches ne reverdiront point.
33 On arrachera ses fruits non mûrs, comme à une vigne; on jettera sa fleur, comme celle d'un olivier.

Job 15:23-33 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 15

Job's three friends having in their turns attacked him, and he having given answer respectively to them, Eliphaz, who began the attack, first enters the debate with him again, and proceeds upon the same plan as before, and endeavours to defend his former sentiments, falling upon Job with greater vehemence and severity; he charges him with vanity, imprudence, and unprofitableness in his talk, and acting a part unbecoming his character as a wise man; yea, with impiety and a neglect of religion, or at least as a discourager of it by his words and doctrines, of which his mouth and lips were witnesses against him, Job 15:1-6; he charges him with arrogance and a high conceit of himself, as if he was the first man that was made, nay, as if he was the eternal wisdom of God, and had been in his council; and, to check his vanity, retorts his own words upon him, or however the sense of them, Job 15:7-10; and also with slighting the consolations of God; upon which he warmly expostulates with him, Job 15:11-13; and in order to convince him of his self-righteousness, which he thought he was full of, he argues from the angels, the heavens, and the general case of man, Job 15:14-16; and then he declares from his own knowledge, and from the relation of wise and ancient men in former times, who made it their observation, that wicked men are afflicted all their days, attended with terror and despair, and liable to various calamities, Job 15:17-24; the reasons of which are their insolence to God, and hostilities committed against him, which they are encouraged in by their prosperous circumstances, Job 15:25-27; notwithstanding all, their estates, riches, and wealth, will come to nothing, Job 15:28-30; and the chapter is closed with an exhortation to such, not to feed themselves up with vain hopes, or trust in uncertain riches, since their destruction would be sure, sudden, and terrible, Job 15:31-35.

The Ostervald translation is in the public domain.