Job 13:15-15:15

15Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely Or He will surely slay me; I have no hope— / yet I will defend my ways to his face.

16Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance, for no godless person would dare come before him!

17Listen carefully to what I say; let my words ring in your ears.

18Now that I have prepared my case, I know I will be vindicated.

19Can anyone bring charges against me? If so, I will be silent and die.

20“Only grant me these two things, God, and then I will not hide from you:

21Withdraw your hand far from me, and stop frightening me with your terrors.

22Then summon me and I will answer, or let me speak, and you reply to me.

23How many wrongs and sins have I committed? Show me my offense and my sin.

24Why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy?

25Will you torment a windblown leaf? Will you chase after dry chaff?

26For you write down bitter things against me and make me reap the sins of my youth.

27You fasten my feet in shackles; you keep close watch on all my paths by putting marks on the soles of my feet. 28“So man wastes away like something rotten, like a garment eaten by moths.

1“Mortals, born of woman, are of few days and full of trouble.

2They spring up like flowers and wither away; like fleeting shadows, they do not endure.

3Do you fix your eye on them? Will you bring them Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac; Hebrew me before you for judgment?

4Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one!

5A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.

6So look away from him and let him alone, till he has put in his time like a hired laborer.

7“At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.

8Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil,

9yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant.

10But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last and is no more.

11As the water of a lake dries up or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,

12so he lies down and does not rise; till the heavens are no more, people will not awake or be roused from their sleep.

13“If only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me till your anger has passed! If only you would set me a time and then remember me!

14If someone dies, will they live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal Or release to come.

15You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made.

16Surely then you will count my steps but not keep track of my sin.

17My offenses will be sealed up in a bag; you will cover over my sin.

18“But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and as a rock is moved from its place,

19as water wears away stones and torrents wash away the soil, so you destroy a person’s hope.

20You overpower them once for all, and they are gone; you change their countenance and send them away.

21If their children are honored, they do not know it; if their offspring are brought low, they do not see it. 22They feel but the pain of their own bodies and mourn only for themselves.”

Eliphaz 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

2“Would a wise person answer with empty notions or fill their belly with the hot east wind?

3Would they argue with useless words, with speeches that have no value?

4But you even undermine piety and hinder devotion to God.

5Your sin prompts your mouth; you adopt the tongue of the crafty.

6Your own mouth condemns you, not mine; your own lips testify against you.

7“Are you the first man ever born? Were you brought forth before the hills?

8Do you listen in on God’s council? Do you have a monopoly on wisdom?

9What do you know that we do not know? What insights do you have that we do not have?

10The gray-haired and the aged are on our side, men even older than your father.

11Are God’s consolations not enough for you, words spoken gently to you?

12Why has your heart carried you away, and why do your eyes flash,

13so that you vent your rage against God and pour out such words from your mouth?

14“What are mortals, that they could be pure, or those born of woman, that they could be righteous?

15If God places no trust in his holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes,