Parallel
Job 15
World English Bible British Edition · Berean Standard Bible
“Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge,
“Does a wise man answer with empty counsel or fill his belly with the hot east wind?
Should he reason with unprofitable talk,
Should he argue with useless words or speeches that serve no purpose?
Yes, you do away with fear,
But you even undermine the fear of God and hinder meditation before Him.
For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
For your iniquity instructs your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
Your own mouth condemns you, and not I.
Your own mouth, not mine, condemns you; your own lips testify against you.
“Are you the first man who was born?
Were you the first man ever born? Were you brought forth before the hills?
Have you heard the secret counsel of God?
Do you listen in on the council of God or limit wisdom to yourself?
What do you know that we don’t know?
What do you know that we do not? What do you understand that is not clear to us?
With us are both the grey-headed and the very aged men,
Both the gray-haired and the aged are on our side—men much older than your father.
Are the consolations of God too small for you,
Are the consolations of God not enough for you, even words spoken gently to you?
Why does your heart carry you away?
Why has your heart carried you away, and why do your eyes flash (note: Or blink),
that you turn your spirit against God,
so that you turn your spirit against God and pour such words from your mouth?
What is man, that he should be clean?
What is man, that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?
Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones.
If God puts no trust in His holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in His eyes,
how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
how much less man, who is vile and corrupt, who drinks injustice like water?
“I will show you, listen to me;
Listen to me and I will inform you. I will describe what I have seen,
(which wise men have told by their fathers,
what was declared by wise men and was not concealed from their fathers,
to whom alone the land was given,
to whom alone the land was given when no foreigner passed among them.
the wicked man writhes in pain all his days,
A wicked man writhes in pain all his days; only a few years are reserved for the ruthless.
A sound of terrors is in his ears.
Sounds of terror fill his ears; in his prosperity the destroyer attacks him.
He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness.
He despairs of his return from darkness; he is marked for the sword.
He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
He wanders about as food for vultures; he knows the day of darkness is at hand.
Distress and anguish make him afraid.
Distress and anguish terrify him, overwhelming him like a king poised to attack.
Because he has stretched out his hand against God,
For he has stretched out his hand against God and has vaunted himself against the Almighty,
because he has covered his face with his fatness,
Though his face is covered with fat and his waistline bulges with flesh,
He has lived in desolate cities,
he will dwell in ruined cities, in abandoned houses destined to become rubble.
He will not be rich, neither will his substance continue,
He will no longer be rich; his wealth will not endure. His possessions will not overspread the land.
He will not depart out of darkness.
He will not escape from the darkness; the flame will wither his shoots, and the breath of God’s mouth will carry him away.
Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself,
Let him not deceive himself with trust in emptiness, for emptiness will be his reward.
It will be accomplished before his time.
It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not flourish.
He will shake off his unripe grape as the vine,
He will be like a vine stripped of its unripe grapes, like an olive tree that sheds its blossoms.
For the company of the godless will be barren,
For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.
They conceive mischief and produce iniquity.
They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; their womb is pregnant with deceit.”