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14‘A mortal, born of woman, few of days and full of trouble,
²   comes up like a flower and withers,
   flees like a shadow and does not last.
³ Do you fix your eyes on such a one?
   Do you bring me into judgement with you?
⁴ Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
   No one can.
⁵ Since their days are determined,
   and the number of their months is known to you,
   and you have appointed the bounds that they cannot pass,
⁶ look away from them, and desist,^*
   that they may enjoy, like labourers, their days.

⁷ ‘For there is hope for a tree,
   if it is cut down, that it will sprout again,
   and that its shoots will not cease.
⁸ Though its root grows old in the earth,
   and its stump dies in the ground,
⁹ yet at the scent of water it will bud
   and put forth branches like a young plant.
¹⁰ But mortals die, and are laid low;
   humans expire, and where are they?
¹¹ As waters fail from a lake,
   and a river wastes away and dries up,
¹² so mortals lie down and do not rise again;
   until the heavens are no more, they will not awake
   or be roused out of their sleep.
¹³ O that you would hide me in Sheol,
   that you would conceal me until your wrath is past,
   that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
¹⁴ If mortals die, will they live again?
   All the days of my service I would wait
   until my release should come.
¹⁵ You would call, and I would answer you;
   you would long for the work of your hands.
¹⁶ For then you would not^* number my steps,
   you would not keep watch over my sin;
¹⁷ my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
   and you would cover over my iniquity.

¹⁸ ‘But the mountain falls and crumbles away,
   and the rock is removed from its place;
¹⁹ the waters wear away the stones;
   the torrents wash away the soil of the earth;
   so you destroy the hope of mortals.
²⁰ You prevail for ever against them, and they pass away;
   you change their countenance, and send them away.
²¹ Their children come to honour, and they do not know it;
   they are brought low, and it goes unnoticed.
²² They feel only the pain of their own bodies,
   and mourn only for themselves.’

Eliphaz Speaks: Job Undermines Religion

15Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
² ‘Should the wise answer with windy knowledge,
   and fill themselves with the east wind?
³ Should they argue in unprofitable talk,
   or in words with which they can do no good?
⁴ But you are doing away with the fear of God,
   and hindering meditation before God.
⁵ For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
   and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
⁶ Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;
   your own lips testify against you.

⁷ ‘Are you the firstborn of the human race?
   Were you brought forth before the hills?
⁸ Have you listened in the council of God?
   And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
⁹ What do you know that we do not know?
   What do you understand that is not clear to us?
¹⁰ The grey-haired and the aged are on our side,
   those older than your father.
¹¹ Are the consolations of God too small for you,
   or the word that deals gently with you?
¹² Why does your heart carry you away,
   and why do your eyes flash,^*
13 so that you turn your spirit against God,
   and let such words go out of your mouth?
¹⁴ What are mortals, that they can be clean?
   Or those born of woman, that they can be righteous?
¹⁵ God puts no trust even in his holy ones,
   and the heavens are not clean in his sight;
¹⁶ how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
   one who drinks iniquity like water!

¹⁷ ‘I will show you; listen to me;
   what I have seen I will declare—
¹⁸ what sages have told,
   and their ancestors have not hidden,
¹⁹ to whom alone the land was given,
   and no stranger passed among them.
²⁰ The wicked writhe in pain all their days,
   through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.
²¹ Terrifying sounds are in their ears;
   in prosperity the destroyer will come upon them.
²² They despair of returning from darkness,
   and they are destined for the sword.
²³ They wander abroad for bread, saying, “Where is it?”
   They know that a day of darkness is ready at hand;
²⁴ distress and anguish terrify them;
   they prevail against them, like a king prepared for battle.
²⁵ Because they stretched out their hands against God,
   and bid defiance to the Almighty,^*
26 running stubbornly against him
   with a thick-bossed shield;
²⁷ because they have covered their faces with their fat,
   and gathered fat upon their loins,
²⁸ they will live in desolate cities,
   in houses that no one should inhabit,
   houses destined to become heaps of ruins;
²⁹ they will not be rich, and their wealth will not endure,
   nor will they strike root in the earth;^*
30 they will not escape from darkness;
   the flame will dry up their shoots,
   and their blossom^* will be swept away^* by the wind.
³¹ Let them not trust in emptiness, deceiving themselves;
   for emptiness will be their recompense.
³² It will be paid in full before their time,
   and their branch will not be green.
³³ They will shake off their unripe grape, like the vine,
   and cast off their blossoms, like the olive tree.
³⁴ For the company of the godless is barren,
   and fire consumes the tents of bribery.
³⁵ They conceive mischief and bring forth evil
   and their heart prepares deceit.’