Job 15
1 Then Eliphaz the Thaemanite answered and said,
Then answered Eliphaz the Themanite, 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 windy knowledge, and fill his inward parts with the east wind?
3 reasoning with improper sayings, and with words wherein is no profit?
Should he reason with a speech which availeth nothing? and with words in which there is no profit?
4 Hast not you moreover cast off fear, and accomplished such words before the Lord?
Yea, thou truly makest void the fear [of God], and diminishest devotion before God.
5 You are guilty by the words of your mouth, neither have you discerned the words of the mighty.
For thy iniquity teacheth thy mouth, so that thou choosest the language of the crafty.
6 Let your own mouth, and not me, reprove you: and your lips shall testify against you.
Thy own mouth must condemn thee, but not I: yea, thy own lips will testify against thee.
7 What! are you the first man that was born? or were you established before the hills?
Wast thou born as the first man? or wast thou brought forth 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?
Hast thou listened to the secret counsel of God? and is wisdom therefore of little esteem with thee?
9 For what know you, that, we know not? or what understand you, which we do not also?
What knowest thou, that we do not know? what understandest thou, which is not with us?
10 Truly among us [are] both the old and very aged man, more advanced in days than your father.
Both the grayheaded and the very aged are among us, — richer than thy father in days.
11 You have been scourged for [but] few of your sins: you have spoken haughtily [and] extravagantly.
Are the divine consolations too little for thee? and the word that was so mild with thee?
12 What has your heart dared? or what have your eyes [aimed at],
Whither doth thy heart carry thee away? and what do thy eyes gaze at?
13 that you have vented [your] rage before the Lord, and delivered such words from [your] mouth?
That thou shouldst turn against God thy spirit, and utter [such] words 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 pure? and that he who is born of woman should be declared righteous?
15 Forasmuch as he trusts not his saints; and the heaven is not pure before him.
Behold, in his holy ones he putteth no trust; and the heavens are not pure in his eyes:
16 Alas then, abominable and unclean is man, drinking unrighteousness as a draught.
How much more then the abominable and corrupt, the man who drinketh like water wrong-doing?
17 But I will tell you, listen to me; I will tell you now what I have seen;
I will instruct thee, hear me; and what I have seen will I relate;
18 things wise men say, and their fathers have not hidden.
Which wise men have ever told, and have not concealed, as they obtained it from their fathers;
19 To them alone the earth was given, and no stranger came upon them.
Unto whom alone the earth was given, and into whose midst no stranger ever entered.
20 All the life of the ungodly [is spent] in care, and the years granted to the oppressor are numbered.
All his days is the wicked plagued with pain, and the number of years which are laid by for the tyrant.
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: during peace will the waster come over 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 looked 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 wandereth abroad for bread, [saying, ] Where is it? he knoweth that there is ready at his hand the day of darkness.
24 Distress also and anguish shall come upon him: he shall fall as a captain in the first rank.
Distress and anguish terrify him: they assail him with might, as a king prepared for the battle.
25 For he has lifted his hands against the Lord, and he has hardened his neck against the Almighty Lord.
Because he had stretched out against God his hand, and strengthened himself against the Almighty;
26 And he has run against him with insolence, on the thickness of the back of his shield.
[And] he had run against him, with an [extended] neck, with the thick roundings of his bucklers;
27 For he has covered his face with his fat, and made layers of fat upon his thighs.
Because he had covered his face with his fat, and had made thick folds of fat 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 dwelt in abandoned cities, in houses which none inhabited, which were destined to be ruinous heaps.
29 Neither shall he at all grow rich, nor shall his substance remain: he shall not cast a shadow upon the earth.
[Yet] will he not remain rich, neither will his wealth endure, nor will he attain their perfection on 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 never depart out of darkness: the flame shall dry up his shoots, and he will depart by the breath of God's mouth.
31 Let him not think that he shall endure; for his end shall be vanity.
Let him that goeth astray not trust in vanity; for vanity will be what he obtaineth thereby.
32 His harvest shall perish before the time, and his branch shall not flourish.
Even before his time will it be overfull, and his branches 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 like the vine his unripe grapes, and cast off like the olive his blossoms.
34 For death is the witness of an ungodly man, and fire shall burn the houses of them that receive gifts.
For the assembly of hypocrites will remain desolate, 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 trouble, and bring forth wrong-doing, and their body prepareth deceit.
