Job 15 ⓘ

15:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

15:2 “Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?

15:3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?

15:4 Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.

15:5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.

15:6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.

15:7 “Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought out before the hills?

15:8 Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

15:9 What do you know that we don’t know? What do you understand which is not in us?

15:10 With us are both the grey-headed and the very aged men, much older than your father.

15:11 Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle towards you?

15:12 Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,

15:13 that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?

15:14 What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

15:15 Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;

15:16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!

15:17 “I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare

15:18 (which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;

15:19 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed amongst them):

15:20 the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

15:21 A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer will come on him.

15:22 He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.

15:23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

15:24 Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

15:25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty,

15:26 he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers,

15:27 because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.

15:28 He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.

15:29 He will not be rich, neither will his substance continue, neither will their possessions be extended on the earth.

15:30 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.

15:31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his reward.

15:32 It will be accomplished before his time. His branch will not be green.

15:33 He will shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and will cast off his flower as the olive tree.

15:34 For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.

15:35 They conceive mischief and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”