Job 15
1 Then Eliphaz the Thaemanite answered and said,
Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
2 Will a wise man give for answer a [mere] breath of wisdom? and does he fill up the pain of his belly,
Should a wise man make answer with vain knowledge, And fill himself with the east wind?
3 reasoning with improper sayings, and with words wherein is no profit?
Should he reason with unprofitable talk, Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?
4 Hast not thou moreover cast off fear, and accomplished such words before the Lord?
Yea, thou doest away with fear, And hinderest devotion before God.
5 Thou art guilty by the words of thy mouth, neither hast thou discerned the words of the mighty.
For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth, And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
6 Let thine own mouth, and not me, reprove thee: and thy lips shall testify against thee.
Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I; Yea, thine own lips testify against thee.
7 What! art thou the first man that was born? or wert thou established before the hills?
Art thou the first man that was born? Or wast thou brought forth before the hills?
8 Or hast thou heard the ordinance of the Lord? or has God used thee as [his] counsellor? and has wisdom come [only] to thee?
Hast thou heard the secret counsel of God? And dost thou limit wisdom to thyself?
9 For what knowest thou, that, we know not? or what understandest thou, which we do not also?
What knowest thou, that we know not? What understandest thou, which is not in us?
10 Truly among us [are] both the old and very aged man, more advanced in days than thy father.
With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, Much elder than thy father.
11 Thou hast been scourged for [but] few of thy sins: thou hast spoken haughtily [and] extravagantly.
Are the consolations of God too small for thee, Even the word that is gentle toward thee?
12 What has thine heart dared? or what have thine eyes [aimed at],
Why doth thy heart carry thee away? And why do thine eyes flash,
13 that thou hast vented [thy] rage before the Lord, and delivered such words from [thy] mouth?
That against God thou turnest thy spirit, And lettest words go out of thy mouth?
14 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?
What is man, that he should be clean? And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15 Forasmuch as he trusts not his saints; and the heaven is not pure before him.
Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones; Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight:
16 Alas then, abominable and unclean is man, drinking unrighteousness as a draught.
How much less one that is abominable and corrupt, A man that drinketh iniquity like water!
17 But I will tell thee, hearken to me; I will tell thee now what I have seen;
I will show thee, hear thou me; And that which I have seen I will declare
18 things wise men say, and their fathers have not hidden.
(Which wise men have told From their fathers, and have not hid it;
19 To them alone the earth was given, and no stranger came upon them.
Unto whom alone the land was given, And no stranger passed among them):
20 All the life of the ungodly [is spent] in care, and the years granted to the oppressor are numbered.
The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
21 And his terror is in his ears: just when he seems to be at peace, his overthrow will come.
A sound of terrors is in his ears; In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
22 Let him not trust that he shall return from darkness, for he has been already made over to the power of the sword.
He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, And he is waited for of the sword.
23 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.
He wandereth abroad for bread, [saying], Where is it? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
24 Distress also and anguish shall come upon him: he shall fall as a captain in the first rank.
Distress and anguish make him afraid; They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
25 For he has lifted his hands against the Lord, and he has hardened his neck against the Almighty Lord.
Because he hath stretched out his hand against God, And behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty;
26 And he has run against him with insolence, on the thickness of the back of his shield.
He runneth upon him with a [stiff] neck, With the thick bosses of his bucklers;
27 For he has covered his face with his fat, and made layers of fat upon his thighs.
Because he hath covered his face with his fatness, And gathered fat upon his loins;
28 And let him lodge in desolate cities, and enter into houses without inhabitant: and what they have prepared, others shall carry away.
And he hath dwelt in desolate cities, In houses which no man inhabited, Which were ready to become heaps;
29 Neither shall he at all grow rich, nor shall his substance remain: he shall not cast a shadow upon the earth.
He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, Neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.
30 Neither shall he in any wise escape the darkness: let the wind blast his blossom, and let his flower fall off.
He shall not depart out of darkness; The flame shall dry up his branches, And by the breath of [God’s] mouth shall he go away.
31 Let him not think that he shall endure; for his end shall be vanity.
Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself; For vanity shall be his recompense.
32 His harvest shall perish before the time, and his branch shall not flourish.
It shall be accomplished before his time, And his branch shall not be green.
33 And let him be gathered as the unripe grape before the time, and let him fall as the blossom of the olive.
He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, And shall cast off his flower as the olive-tree.
34 For death is the witness of an ungodly man, and fire shall burn the houses of them that receive gifts.
For the company of the godless shall be barren, And fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
35 And he shall conceive sorrows, and his end shall be vanity, and his belly shall bear deceit.
They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, And their heart prepareth deceit.
