Job 15

15Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

²Should a wise man make answer with vain knowledge,

And fill himself with the east wind?

³Should he reason with unprofitable talk,

Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

⁴Yea, thou doest away with fear,

And hinderest devotion before God.

⁵For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth,

And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.

⁶Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I;

Yea, thine own lips testify against thee.

⁷Art thou the first man that was born?

Or wast thou brought forth before the hills?

⁸Hast thou heard the secret counsel of God?

And dost thou limit wisdom to thyself?

⁹What knowest thou, that we know not?

What understandest thou, which is not in us?

¹⁰With us are both the grayheaded and the very aged men,

Much elder than thy father.

¹¹Are the consolations of God too small for thee,

Even the word that is gentle toward thee?

¹²Why doth thy heart carry thee away?

And why do thine eyes flash,

¹³That against God thou turnest thy spirit,

And lettest words go out of thy mouth?

¹⁴What is man, that he should be clean?

And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

¹⁵Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones;

Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight:

¹⁶How much less one that is abominable and corrupt,

A man that drinketh iniquity like water!

¹⁷I will show thee, hear thou me;

And that which I have seen I will declare

¹⁸(Which wise men have told

From their fathers, and have not hid it;

¹⁹Unto whom alone the land was given,

And no stranger passed among them):

²⁰The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days,

Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

²¹A sound of terrors is in his ears;

In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

²²He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness,

And he is waited for of the sword.

²³He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it?

He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

²⁴Distress and anguish make him afraid;

They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

²⁵Because he hath stretched out his hand against God,

And behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty;

²⁶He runneth upon him with a stiff neck,

With the thick bosses of his bucklers;

²⁷Because he hath covered his face with his fatness,

And gathered fat upon his loins;

²⁸And he hath dwelt in desolate cities,

In houses which no man inhabited,

Which were ready to become heaps;

²⁹He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue,

Neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.

³⁰He shall not depart out of darkness;

The flame shall dry up his branches,

And by the breath of God’s mouth shall he go away.

³¹Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself;

For vanity shall be his recompense.

³²It shall be accomplished before his time,

And his branch shall not be green.

³³He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine,

And shall cast off his flower as the olive-tree.

³⁴For the company of the godless shall be barren,

And fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

³⁵They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity,

And their heart prepareth deceit.