Job 15
1 Then Eliphaz the Thaemanite answered and said,
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
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 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 with which he can do no good?
4 Hast not you moreover cast off fear, and accomplished such words before the Lord?
Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.
5 You are guilty by the words of your mouth, neither have you discerned the words of the mighty.
For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
6 Let your own mouth, and not me, reprove you: and your lips shall testify against you.
Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.
7 What! are you the first man that was born? or were you established before the hills?
“Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought out 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?
Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9 For what know you, that, we know not? or what understand you, which we do not also?
What do you know that we don’t know? What do you understand which is not in us?
10 Truly amongst us [are] both the old and very aged man, more advanced in days than your father.
With us are both the grey-headed and the very aged men, much older than your father.
11 You have been scourged for [but] few of your sins: you have spoken haughtily [and] extravagantly.
Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle towards you?
12 What has your heart dared? or what have your eyes [aimed at],
Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,
13 that you have vented [your] rage before the Lord, and delivered such words from [your] mouth?
that you turn your spirit against God, and let 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 should be clean? What is he who 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 puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, 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 who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
17 But I will tell you, listen to me; I will tell you now what I have seen;
“I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare
18 things wise men say, and their fathers have not hidden.
(which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;
19 To them alone the earth was given, and no stranger came upon them.
to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed amongst them):
20 All the life of the ungodly [is spent] in care, and the years granted to the oppressor are numbered.
the wicked man writhes in 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 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 doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness. He is waited for by 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 wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows 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 has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty,
26 And he has run against him with insolence, on the thickness of the back of his shield.
he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers,
27 For he has covered his face with his fat, and made layers of fat upon his thighs.
because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.
28 And let him lodge in desolate cities, and enter into houses without inhabitant: and what they have prepared, others shall carry away.
He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one 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 will not be rich, neither will his substance continue, neither will 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 will not depart out of darkness. The flame will dry up his branches. He will go away by the breath of God’s mouth.
31 Let him not think that he shall endure; for his end shall be vanity.
Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his reward.
32 His harvest shall perish before the time, and his branch shall not flourish.
It will be accomplished before his time. His branch will 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 will shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and will 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 will be barren, and fire will 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 produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”
