Job 15

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

Then Eliphaz the Thaemanite answered and said,

2 "Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?

Will a wise man give for answer a [mere] breath of wisdom? and does he fill up the pain of his belly,

3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?

reasoning with improper sayings, and with words wherein is no profit?

4 Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.

Hast not thou moreover cast off fear, and accomplished such words before the Lord?

5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.

Thou art guilty by the words of thy mouth, neither hast thou discerned the words of the mighty.

6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.

Let thine own mouth, and not me, reprove thee: and thy lips shall testify against thee.

7 "Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?

What! art thou the first man that was born? or wert thou established before the hills?

8 Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

Or hast thou heard the ordinance of the Lord? or has God used thee as [his] counsellor? and has wisdom come [only] to thee?

9 What do you know, that we do not know? What do you understand, which is not in us?

For what knowest thou, that, we know not? or what understandest thou, which we do not also?

10 With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much elder than your father.

Truly among us [are] both the old and very aged man, more advanced in days than thy father.

11 Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?

Thou hast been scourged for [but] few of thy sins: thou hast spoken haughtily [and] extravagantly.

12 Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,

What has thine heart dared? or what have thine eyes [aimed at],

13 That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?

that thou hast vented [thy] rage before the Lord, and delivered such words from [thy] mouth?

14 What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

For who, being a mortal, [is such] that he shall be blameless? or, [who that is] born of a woman, that he should be just?

15 Look, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;

Forasmuch as he trusts not his saints; and the heaven is not pure before him.

16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water.

Alas then, abominable and unclean is man, drinking unrighteousness as a draught.

17 "I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare:

But I will tell thee, hearken to me; I will tell thee now what I have seen;

18 (Which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;

things wise men say, and their fathers have not hidden.

19 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):

To them alone the earth was given, and no stranger came upon them.

20 the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

All the life of the ungodly [is spent] in care, and the years granted to the oppressor are numbered.

21 A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.

And his terror is in his ears: just when he seems to be at peace, his overthrow will come.

22 He doesn't believe that he shall return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.

Let him not trust that he shall return from darkness, for he has been already made over to the power of the sword.

23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

And he has been appointed to be food for vultures; and he knows within himself that he is doomed to be a carcass: and a dark day shall carry him away as with a whirlwind.

24 Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

Distress also and anguish shall come upon him: he shall fall as a captain in the first rank.

25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against Shaddai;

For he has lifted his hands against the Lord, and he has hardened his neck against the Almighty Lord.

26 he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers;

And he has run against him with insolence, on the thickness of the back of his shield.

27 because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.

For he has covered his face with his fat, and made layers of fat upon his thighs.

28 He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.

And let him lodge in desolate cities, and enter into houses without inhabitant: and what they have prepared, others shall carry away.

29 He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.

Neither shall he at all grow rich, nor shall his substance remain: he shall not cast a shadow upon the earth.

30 He shall not depart out of darkness. The flame shall dry up his branches. By the breath of God's mouth shall he go away.

Neither shall he in any wise escape the darkness: let the wind blast his blossom, and let his flower fall off.

31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness shall be his reward.

Let him not think that he shall endure; for his end shall be vanity.

32 It shall be accomplished before his time. His branch shall not be green.

His harvest shall perish before the time, and his branch shall not flourish.

33 He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive tree.

And let him be gathered as the unripe grape before the time, and let him fall as the blossom of the olive.

34 For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

For death is the witness of an ungodly man, and fire shall burn the houses of them that receive gifts.

35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit."

And he shall conceive sorrows, and his end shall be vanity, and his belly shall bear deceit.