Job 15 Bible in Basic English
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 And Eliphaz the Temanite made answer and said,
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
2 Will a wise man make answer with knowledge of no value, or will he give birth to the east wind?
2 “Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?
3 Will he make arguments with words in which is no profit, and with sayings which have no value?
3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?
4 Truly, you make the fear of God without effect, so that the time of quiet worship before God is made less by your outcry.
4 Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.
5 For your mouth is guided by your sin, and you have taken the tongue of the false for yourself.
5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
6 It is by your mouth, even yours, that you are judged to be in the wrong, and not by me; and your lips give witness against you.
6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.
7 Were you the first man to come into the world? or did you come into being before the hills?
7 “Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought out before the hills?
8 Were you present at the secret meeting of God? and have you taken all wisdom for yourself?
8 Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9 What knowledge have you which we have not? is there anything in your mind which is not in ours?
9 What do you know that we don’t know? What do you understand which is not in us?
10 With us are men who are grey-haired and full of years, much older than your father.
10 With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much older than your father.
11 Are the comforts of God not enough for you, and the gentle word which was said to you?
11 Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?
12 Why is your heart uncontrolled, and why are your eyes lifted up;
12 Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,
13 So that you are turning your spirit against God, and letting such words go out of your mouth?
13 that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?
14 What is man, that he may be clean? and how may the son of woman be upright?
14 What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15 Truly, he puts no faith in his holy ones, and the heavens are not clean in his eyes;
15 Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;
16 How much less one who is disgusting and unclean, a man who takes in evil like water!
16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
17 Take note and give ear to my words; and I will say what I have seen:
17 “I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare
18 (The things which wise men have got from their fathers, and have not kept secret from us;
18 (which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;
19 For only to them was the land given, and no strange people were among them:)
19 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):
20 The evil man is in pain all his days, and the number of the years stored up for the cruel is small.
20 the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
21 A sound of fear is in his ears; in time of peace destruction will come on him:
21 A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer will come on him.
22 He has no hope of coming safe out of the dark, and his fate will be the sword;
22 He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.
23 He is wandering about in search of bread, saying, Where is it? and he is certain that the day of trouble is ready for him:
23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
24 He is greatly in fear of the dark day, trouble and pain overcome him:
24 Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
25 Because his hand is stretched out against God, and his heart is lifted up against the Ruler of all,
25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty,
26 Running against him like a man of war, covered by his thick breastplate; even like a king ready for the fight,
26 he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers,
27 Because his face is covered with fat, and his body has become thick;
27 because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.
28 And he has made his resting-place in the towns which have been pulled down, in houses where no man had a right to be, whose fate was to become masses of broken walls.
28 He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.
29 He does not get wealth for himself, and is unable to keep what he has got; the heads of his grain are not bent down to the earth.
29 He will not be rich, neither will his substance continue, neither will their possessions be extended on the earth.
30 He does not come out of the dark; his branches are burned by the flame, and the wind takes away his bud.
30 He will not depart out of darkness. The flame will dry up his branches. He will go away by the breath of God’s mouth.
31 Let him not put his hope in what is false, falling into error: for he will get deceit as his reward.
31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his reward.
32 His branch is cut off before its time, and his leaf is no longer green.
32 It will be accomplished before his time. His branch will not be green.
33 He is like a vine whose grapes do not come to full growth, or an olive-tree dropping its flowers.
33 He will shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and will cast off his flower as the olive tree.
34 For the band of the evil-doers gives no fruit, and the tents of those who give wrong decisions for reward are burned with fire.
34 For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.
35 Evil has made them with child, and they give birth to trouble; and the fruit of their body is shame for themselves.
35 They conceive mischief and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Eliphaz the Temanite
One of Job's three friends who came to sympathize and comfort him, and whom the LORD rebuked at the end of the book for not speaking rightly of Him.
Cited in the guide: Job 2:11; Job 4:1; Job 15:1
Cross references (35)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Job 2:11; Job 42:7; Job 4:1; Job 42:9; Job 22:1
- 2 Job 6:26; Job 8:2; Hosea 12:1; Job 11:2–3; James 3:13
- 3 Matthew 12:36–37; Colossians 4:6; Malachi 3:13–15; Job 26:1–3; 1 Timothy 6:4–5
- 4 Romans 3:31; Psalm 36:1–3; Job 6:14; 1 Chronicles 10:13–14; Galatians 2:21
- 5 Jeremiah 9:3–5; James 1:26; Luke 6:45; Psalm 52:2–4; Jeremiah 9:8
- 6 Luke 19:22; Matthew 12:37; Job 9:20; Job 40:8; Job 34:5–9
- 7 Psalm 90:2; Job 38:4–41; Job 12:12; Proverbs 8:22–25; Genesis 4:1
- 8 Romans 11:34; Jeremiah 23:18; 1 Corinthians 2:16; Psalm 25:14; Matthew 11:25
- 9 Job 13:2; 2 Corinthians 11:5; 2 Corinthians 10:7; Job 26:3–4; Job 12:3
- 10 Job 32:6–7; Job 12:12; Job 8:8–10; Deuteronomy 32:7; Proverbs 16:31
- 11 2 Corinthians 1:3–5; Job 13:2; Job 5:8–26; 1 Kings 22:24; 2 Corinthians 7:6
- 12 Psalm 35:19; Mark 7:21–22; Job 17:2; Job 11:13; James 1:14–15
- 13 James 3:2–6; Job 15:25–27; Psalm 34:13; Job 12:6; Malachi 3:13
- 14 Ecclesiastes 7:20; Job 14:4; Proverbs 20:9; Romans 7:18; Job 25:4–6
- 15 Job 25:5; Job 4:18; Isaiah 6:2–5; Job 5:1
- 16 Proverbs 19:28; Job 34:7; Romans 3:9–19; Titus 3:3; Psalm 53:3
- 17 Job 33:1; Job 13:5–6; Job 5:27; Job 34:2; Job 36:2
- 18 Job 8:8; Psalm 71:18; Isaiah 38:19; Psalm 78:3–6; Job 15:10
- 19 Joel 3:17; Deuteronomy 32:8; Genesis 10:25; Genesis 10:32
- 20 James 5:1–6; Job 27:13; Job 24:1; Luke 12:19–21; Psalm 90:12
- 21 Job 18:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:3; Leviticus 26:36; 1 Corinthians 10:10; Job 1:13–19
- 22 Job 20:24–25; Job 27:14; Isaiah 8:21–22; Matthew 27:5; Job 19:29
- 23 Job 18:12; Psalm 109:10; Psalm 59:15; Amos 5:20; Ecclesiastes 11:8
- 24 Proverbs 6:11; Proverbs 24:34; Romans 2:9; Job 6:2–4; Psalm 119:143
- 25 Psalm 52:7; Job 9:4; Daniel 5:23; Psalm 73:9; Malachi 3:13
- 26 2 Chronicles 32:13–17; 2 Chronicles 28:22; Genesis 49:8; Psalm 18:40; Job 16:12
- 27 Psalm 17:10; Psalm 73:7; Jeremiah 5:28; Isaiah 6:10; Deuteronomy 32:15
- 28 Job 3:14; Jeremiah 51:37; Micah 7:18; Jeremiah 26:18; Jeremiah 9:11
- 29 Job 27:16–17; James 1:11; Luke 12:19–21; Psalm 49:16–17; Luke 16:19–22
- 30 Job 4:9; Job 15:22; Job 18:5–6; Job 20:26; Matthew 25:41
- 31 Isaiah 59:4; Galatians 6:3; Psalm 62:10; Galatians 6:7–8; Hosea 8:7
- 32 Ecclesiastes 7:17; Psalm 55:23; Job 22:16; Hosea 9:16; Isaiah 27:11
- 33 Deuteronomy 28:39–40; Isaiah 33:9; Revelation 6:13
- 34 Job 8:13; Job 27:8; Micah 7:2; Job 8:22; Matthew 24:51
- 35 Psalm 7:14; Hosea 10:13; Isaiah 59:4–5; James 1:15; Galatians 6:7–8
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
But when I lifted myself proudly against Thee, and "ran against the Lord, even on His neck, with the thick bosses" of my buckler, even these inferior things were placed above me, and pressed upon me, and nowhere was there alleviation or breathing space.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
… the Lord;" for enantion means both "before" and "against." In the Psalm this word is rendered, "Let us weep before the Lord our Maker." The same word occurs in the book of Job, where it is written, "Thou hast broken into fury against the Lord." And so this giant is to be recognized as a "hunter against the Lord." And …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
"He runneth against God, upon the stiff neck of his shield." What is, "upon the stiff neck of his shield"?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)