Job 15

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, and said,

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

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

4 Yea, thou do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.

5 For thine iniquity teaches thy mouth. And thou choose the tongue of the crafty.

6 Thine own mouth condemns thee, and not I. Yes, thine own lips testify against thee.

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

8 Have thou heard the secret counsel of God? And do thou limit wisdom to thyself?

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

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

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

12 Why does thy heart carry thee away? And why do thine eyes flash,

13 that against God thou turn thy spirit, and let words go out of thy mouth?

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

15 Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

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

17 I will show thee. Hear thou me, and that which I have seen I will declare,

18 which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it,

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

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

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

22 He does not believe that he shall return out of darkness. And he is awaited by the sword.

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

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

25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty.

26 He runs upon him with a stiff neck, with the thick studs of his bucklers,

27 because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat upon his loins.

28 And he has dwelt in desolate cities, in houses which no man inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.

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

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

31 Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself. For vanity shall be his recompense.

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

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

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

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