Job 15

1 Then Eliphaz the Thaemanite answered and said,

And Eliphaz the Temanite made answer 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,

Will a wise man make answer with knowledge of no value, or will he give birth to the east wind?

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

Will he make arguments with words in which is no profit, and with sayings which have no value?

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

Truly, you make the fear of God without effect, so that the time of quiet worship before God is made less by your outcry.

5 You are guilty by the words of your mouth, neither have you discerned the words of the mighty.

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

6 Let your own mouth, and not me, reprove you: and your lips shall testify against you.

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.

7 What! are you the first man that was born? or were you established before the hills?

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

8 Or have you heard the ordinance of the Lord? or has God used you as [his] counsellor? and has wisdom come [only] to you?

Were you present at the secret meeting of God? and have you taken all wisdom for yourself?

9 For what know you, that, we know not? or what understand you, which we do not also?

What knowledge have you which we have not? is there anything in your mind which is not in ours?

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

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

11 You have been scourged for [but] few of your sins: you have spoken haughtily [and] extravagantly.

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

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

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

13 that you have vented [your] rage before the Lord, and delivered such words from [your] mouth?

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

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

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

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

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

17 But I will tell you, listen to me; I will tell you now what I have seen;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A sound of fear is in his ears; in time of peace destruction will come on 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 has no hope of coming safe out of the dark, and his fate will be 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 is wandering about in search of bread, saying, Where is it? and he is certain that the day of trouble is ready for him:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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.

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

He does not come out of the dark; his branches are burned by the flame, and the wind takes away his bud.

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

Let him not put his hope in what is false, falling into error: for he will get deceit as his reward.

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

His branch is cut off before its time, and his leaf is no longer 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 is like a vine whose grapes do not come to full growth, or an olive-tree dropping its flowers.

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

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.

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

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