Job 15

1 And Eliphaz the Temanite made answer and said,

Then Eliphaz the Thaemanite answered and said,

2 Will a wise man make answer with knowledge of no value, or will he give birth to 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 Will he make arguments with words in which is no profit, and with sayings which have no value?

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

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.

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

5 For your mouth is guided by your sin, and you have taken the tongue of the false for yourself.

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

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.

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

7 Were you the first man to come into the world? or did you come into being before the hills?

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

8 Were you present at the secret meeting of God? and have you taken all wisdom for 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 knowledge have you which we have not? is there anything in your mind which is not in ours?

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

10 With us are men who are grey-haired and full of years, much older than your father.

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

11 Are the comforts of God not enough for you, and the gentle word which was said to you?

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

12 Why is your heart uncontrolled, and why are your eyes lifted up;

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

13 So that you are turning your spirit against God, and letting 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 may be clean? and how may the son of woman be upright?

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 Truly, he puts no faith in his holy ones, and the heavens are not clean in his eyes;

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

16 How much less one who is disgusting and unclean, a man who takes in evil like water!

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

17 Take note and give ear to my words; and I will say what I have seen:

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

18 (The things which wise men have got from their fathers, and have not kept secret from us;

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

19 For only to them was the land given, and no strange people were among them: )

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

20 The evil man is in pain all his days, and the number of the years stored up for the cruel is small.

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

21 A sound of fear is in his ears; in time of peace destruction will come on him:

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

22 He has no hope of coming safe out of the dark, and his fate will be 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 is wandering about in search of bread, saying, Where is it? and he is certain that the day of trouble is ready for him:

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 He is greatly in fear of the dark day, trouble and pain overcome him:

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

25 Because his hand is stretched out against God, and his heart is lifted up against the Ruler of all,

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

26 Running against him like a man of war, covered by his thick breastplate; even like a king ready for the fight,

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

27 Because his face is covered with fat, and his body has become thick;

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

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

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.

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

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 put his hope in what is false, falling into error: for he will get deceit as his reward.

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

32 His branch is cut off before its time, and his leaf is no longer green.

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

33 He is like a vine whose grapes do not come to full growth, or an olive-tree dropping its flowers.

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 band of the evil-doers gives no fruit, and the tents of those who give wrong decisions for reward are burned with fire.

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

35 Evil has made them with child, and they give birth to trouble; and the fruit of their body is shame for themselves.

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