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 unprofitable talk? or with speeches which he can do no good?
4 Hast not you moreover cast off fear, and accomplished such words before the Lord?
Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.
5 You are guilty by the words of your mouth, neither have you discerned the words of the mighty.
For thy mouth uttereth thy iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
6 Let your own mouth, and not me, reprove you: and your lips shall testify against you.
Thy own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thy own lips testify against thee.
7 What! are you the first man that was born? or were you established before the hills?
Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou 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?
Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou limit wisdom to thyself?
9 For what know you, that, we know not? or what understand you, which we do not also?
What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, 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 thy 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 thee? is there any secret thing with thee?
12 What has your heart dared? or what have your eyes [aimed at],
Why doth thy heart carry thee away? and what do thy eyes wink at,
13 that you have vented [your] rage before the Lord, and delivered such words from [your] mouth?
That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go 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 clean? and 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 putteth no trust in his holy ones; 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, who drinketh iniquity like water?
17 But I will tell you, listen to me; I will tell you now what I have seen;
I will show thee, 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.
To 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 travaileth 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 believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and 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 wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth 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 stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty.
26 And he has run against him with insolence, on the thickness of the back of his shield.
He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon his thick strong shield:
27 For he has covered his face with his fat, and made layers of fat upon his thighs.
Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh his flanks heavy with fat.
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 dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, 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 of it 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 heart prepareth deceit.
