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 utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?

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

Should he reason with useless talk? or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

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

Yea, you cast off fear, and restrain prayer before God.

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

For your mouth utters your iniquity, and you choose the tongue 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: yea, 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 that was born? or were you made 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 of God? and do you restrain wisdom to yourself?

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

What know you, that we know not? what understand you, which is not in us?

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

With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder 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 small with you? is there any secret thing with you?

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

Why does your heart carry you away? and what do your eyes overlook,

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? and he which 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 saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

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

How much more abominable and filthy is man, which 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, hear 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 earth 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 labors with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.

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

A dreadful sound 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 believes 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 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.

Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall 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.

For he stretches out his hand against God, and strengthens himself against the Almighty.

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

He runs upon him, even on his neck, upon 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 covers his face with his fatness, and makes fatness on his flanks.

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 dwells in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabits, which are 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 he prolong the perfection thereof upon 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 his mouth shall he go away.

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

Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence.

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.

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

For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles 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 vanity, and their belly prepares deceit.