Job 15

1 Then answered Eliphaz the Themanite, and said,

2 Should a wise man utter windy knowledge, and fill his inward parts with the east wind?

3 Should he reason with a speech which availeth nothing? and with words in which there is no profit?

4 Yea, thou truly makest void the fear [of God], and diminishest devotion before God.

5 For thy iniquity teacheth thy mouth, so that thou choosest the language of the crafty.

6 Thy own mouth must condemn thee, but not I: yea, thy own lips will testify against thee.

7 Wast thou born as the first man? or wast thou brought forth before the hills?

8 Hast thou listened to the secret counsel of God? and is wisdom therefore of little esteem with thee?

9 What knowest thou, that we do not know? what understandest thou, which is not with us?

10 Both the grayheaded and the very aged are among us, — richer than thy father in days.

11 Are the divine consolations too little for thee? and the word that was so mild with thee?

12 Whither doth thy heart carry thee away? and what do thy eyes gaze at?

13 That thou shouldst turn against God thy spirit, and utter [such] words out of thy mouth?

14 What is man, that he should be pure? and that he who is born of woman should be declared righteous?

15 Behold, in his holy ones he putteth no trust; and the heavens are not pure in his eyes:

16 How much more then the abominable and corrupt, the man who drinketh like water wrong-doing?

17 I will instruct thee, hear me; and what I have seen will I relate;

18 Which wise men have ever told, and have not concealed, as they obtained it from their fathers;

19 Unto whom alone the earth was given, and into whose midst no stranger ever entered.

20 All his days is the wicked plagued with pain, and the number of years which are laid by for the tyrant.

21 A sound of terrors is in his ears: during peace will the waster come over him.

22 He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is looked for by the sword.

23 He wandereth abroad for bread, [saying, ] Where is it? he knoweth that there is ready at his hand the day of darkness.

24 Distress and anguish terrify him: they assail him with might, as a king prepared for the battle.

25 Because he had stretched out against God his hand, and strengthened himself against the Almighty;

26 [And] he had run against him, with an [extended] neck, with the thick roundings of his bucklers;

27 Because he had covered his face with his fat, and had made thick folds of fat on his flanks;

28 And he dwelt in abandoned cities, in houses which none inhabited, which were destined to be ruinous heaps.

29 [Yet] will he not remain rich, neither will his wealth endure, nor will he attain their perfection on earth.

30 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 that goeth astray not trust in vanity; for vanity will be what he obtaineth thereby.

32 Even before his time will it be overfull, and his branches will not be green.

33 He will shake off like the vine his unripe grapes, and cast off like the olive his blossoms.

34 For the assembly of hypocrites will remain desolate, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.

35 They conceive trouble, and bring forth wrong-doing, and their body prepareth deceit.