Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
Should a wise man make answer with {Hebrew: knowledge of wind.}vain knowledge,
And fill himself with the east wind?
Should he reason with unprofitable talk,
Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?
Yea, thou doest away with fear,
And {Hebrew: diminishest.}hinderest {Or, meditation}devotion before God.
For {Or, thy mouth teacheth thine iniquity}thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth,
And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I;
Yea, thine own lips testify against thee.
Art thou the first man that was born?
Or wast thou brought forth before the hills?
{Or, Dost thou harken in the council}Hast thou heard the secret counsel of God?
And dost thou limit wisdom to thyself?
What knowest thou, that we know not?
What understandest thou, which is not in us?
With us are both the grayheaded and the very aged men,
Much elder than thy father.
Are the consolations of God too small for thee,
{Or, Or is there any secret thing with thee?}Even the word that is gentle toward thee?
Why doth thy heart carry thee away?
And why do thine eyes flash,
That against God thou turnest thy spirit,
And lettest words go out of thy mouth?
What is man, that he should be clean?
And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones;
Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight:
How much less {Or, that which is}one that is abominable and corrupt,
A man that drinketh iniquity like water!
I will show thee, hear thou me;
And that which I have seen I will declare
(Which wise men have told
From their fathers, and have not hid it;
Unto whom alone the land was given,
And no stranger passed among them):
The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days,
{Or, And years that are numbered are laid up &c.}Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
A sound of terrors is in his ears;
In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness,
And he is waited for of the sword.
He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it?
He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
Distress and anguish make him afraid;
They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
Because he hath stretched out his hand against God,
And {Or, biddeth defiance to}behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty;
He runneth upon him with a stiff neck,
{Or, Upon}With the thick bosses of his bucklers;
Because he hath covered his face with his fatness,
And gathered fat upon his loins;
And he hath dwelt in {Hebrew: cut off. }desolate cities,
In houses which no man {Or, would inhabit}inhabited,
Which were ready to become heaps;
He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue,
Neither shall {Or, their produce bend to the earth}their possessions be extended on the earth.
He shall not depart out of darkness;
The flame shall dry up his branches,
And by the breath of {Hebrew: his.}God's mouth shall he go away.
Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself;
For vanity shall be his recompense.
It shall be {Or, paid in full.}accomplished before his time,
And his branch shall not be green.
He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine,
And shall cast off his flower as the olive-tree.
For the company of the godless shall be barren,
And fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity,
And their heart prepareth deceit.
Querverweise zu Hiob 15,5 Hiob 15,5
It is all one; therefore I say,He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.
If the scourge slay suddenly,He will mock at the {Or, calamity}trial of the innocent.
The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;He covereth the faces of the judges thereof:If it be not he, who then is it?
Thou givest thy mouth to evil,And thy tongue frameth deceit.
The tents of robbers prosper,And they that provoke God are secure; {Or, That bring their god to their hand}Into whose hand God bringeth abundantly.
Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother;Thou {Or, givest a thrust against}slanderest thine own mother's son.
For from within, out of the heart of men, {Greek: thoughts that are evil.}evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries,
Thy tongue deviseth very wickedness,Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
Thou lovest evil more than good,And lying rather than to speak righteousness. [Selah
Thou lovest all devouring words, {Or, And the deceitful tongue}O thou deceitful tongue.
covetings, wickednesses, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness:
Who have whet their tongue like a sword,And have aimed their arrows, even bitter words,
The good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth that which is evil: for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
Deliver my soul, O Jehovah, from lying lips,And from a deceitful tongue.
If any man {Or, seemeth to be}thinketh himself to be religious, while he bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his heart, this man's religion is vain.
What shall be given unto thee, and what shall be done more unto thee,Thou deceitful tongue?
And they bend their tongue, as it were their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for {Or, faithfulness}truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith Jehovah.
Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders.
And they will {Or, mock}deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity.
Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he layeth wait for him.
So the tongue also is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, {Or, how great a forest}how much wood is kindled by how small a fire!
And the tongue is {Or, a fire, that world of iniquity: the tongue is among our members that which &c.}a fire: the {Or, that world of iniquity: the tongue, is among our members that which &c.}world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the wheel of {Or, birth}nature, and is set on fire by {Greek: Gehenna.}hell.
For every {Greek: nature.}kind of beasts and birds, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed {Or, unto}by {Greek: the human nature.}mankind:
but the tongue can no man tame; it is a restless evil, it is full of deadly poison.