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New International Version |   | |
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| | Job 15:1 | Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
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| | Job 15:2 | "Would a wise man answer with empty notions or fill his belly with the hot east wind?
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| | Job 15:3 | Would he argue with useless words, with speeches that have no value?
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| | Job 15:4 | But you even undermine piety and hinder devotion to God.
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| | Job 15:5 | Your sin prompts your mouth; you adopt the tongue of the crafty.
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| | Job 15:6 | Your own mouth condemns you, not mine; your own lips testify against you.
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| | Job 15:7 | "Are you the first man ever born? Were you brought forth before the hills?
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| | Job 15:8 | Do you listen in on God's council? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
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| | Job 15:9 | What do you know that we do not know? What insights do you have that we do not have?
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| | Job 15:10 | The gray-haired and the aged are on our side, men even older than your father.
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| | Job 15:11 | Are God's consolations not enough for you, words spoken gently to you?
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| | Job 15:12 | Why has your heart carried you away, and why do your eyes flash,
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| | Job 15:13 | so that you vent your rage against God and pour out such words from your mouth?
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| | Job 15:14 | "What is man, that he could be pure, or one born of woman, that he could be righteous?
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| | Job 15:15 | If God places no trust in his holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes,
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| | Job 15:16 | how much less man, who is vile and corrupt, who drinks up evil like water!
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| | Job 15:17 | "Listen to me and I will explain to you; let me tell you what I have seen,
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| | Job 15:18 | what wise men have declared, hiding nothing received from their fathers
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| | Job 15:19 | (to whom alone the land was given when no alien passed among them):
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| | Job 15:20 | All his days the wicked man suffers torment, the ruthless through all the years stored up for him.
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| | Job 15:21 | Terrifying sounds fill his ears; when all seems well, marauders attack him.
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| | Job 15:22 | He despairs of escaping the darkness; he is marked for the sword.
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| | Job 15:23 | He wanders about--food for vultures ; he knows the day of darkness is at hand.
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| | Job 15:24 | Distress and anguish fill him with terror; they overwhelm him, like a king poised to attack,
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| | Job 15:25 | because he shakes his fist at God and vaunts himself against the Almighty,
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| | Job 15:26 | defiantly charging against him with a thick, strong shield.
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| | Job 15:27 | "Though his face is covered with fat and his waist bulges with flesh,
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| | Job 15:28 | he will inhabit ruined towns and houses where no one lives, houses crumbling to rubble.
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| | Job 15:29 | He will no longer be rich and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the land.
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| | Job 15:30 | He will not escape the darkness; a flame will wither his shoots, and the breath of God's mouth will carry him away.
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| | Job 15:31 | Let him not deceive himself by trusting what is worthless, for he will get nothing in return.
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| | Job 15:32 | Before his time he will be paid in full, and his branches will not flourish.
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| | Job 15:33 | He will be like a vine stripped of its unripe grapes, like an olive tree shedding its blossoms.
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| | Job 15:34 | For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of those who love bribes.
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| | Job 15:35 | They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; their womb fashions deceit."
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