Job 15

Eliphaz Speaks: Job Undermines Religion

¹⁵Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

²“Should the wise answer with windy knowledge

and fill themselves with the east wind?^*

³Should they argue in unprofitable talk

or in words that can do no good?

⁴But you are doing away with the fear of God

and hindering meditation before God.

⁵For your iniquity teaches your mouth,

and you choose the tongue of the crafty.^*

⁶Your own mouth condemns you, not I;

your own lips testify against you.^*

⁷“Are you the firstborn of the human race?

Were you brought forth before the hills?^*

⁸Have you listened in the council of God?

And do you limit wisdom to yourself?^*

⁹What do you know that we do not know?

What do you understand that is not clear to us?^*

¹⁰The gray-haired and the aged are on our side,

those older than your father.^*

¹¹Are the consolations of God too small for you

or the word that deals gently with you?^*

¹²Why does your heart carry you away,

and why do your eyes flash,^q

¹³so that you turn your spirit against God,

and let such words go out of your mouth?^*

¹⁴What are mortals, that they can be clean?

Or those born of woman, that they can be righteous?^*

¹⁵God puts no trust even in his holy ones,

and the heavens are not clean in his sight;^*

¹⁶how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,

one who drinks iniquity like water!^*

¹⁷“I will show you; listen to me;

what I have seen I will declare—

¹⁸what sages have told

and their ancestors have not hidden,^*

¹⁹to whom alone the land was given,

and no stranger passed among them.

²⁰The wicked writhe in pain all their days,

through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.^*

²¹Terrifying sounds are in their ears;

in prosperity the destroyer will come upon them.^*

²²They despair of returning from darkness,

and they are destined for the sword.^*

²³They wander abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’

They know that a day of darkness is ready at hand;^*

²⁴distress and anguish terrify them;

they prevail against them like a king prepared for battle.

²⁵Because they stretched out their hands against God

and bid defiance to the Almighty,^r*

²⁶running stubbornly against him

with a thickly bossed shield;

²⁷because they have covered their faces with their fat

and gathered fat upon their loins,^*

²⁸they will live in desolate cities,

in houses that no one should inhabit,

houses destined to become heaps of ruins;

²⁹they will not be rich, and their wealth will not endure,

nor will they strike root in the earth;^s*

³⁰they will not escape from darkness;

the flame will dry up their shoots,

and their blossom^t will be swept away by the wind.^*

³¹Let them not trust in emptiness, deceiving themselves,

for emptiness will be their recompense.^*

³²It will be paid in full before their time,

and their branch will not be green.^*

³³They will shake off their unripe grape, like the vine,

and cast off their blossoms, like the olive tree.^*

³⁴For the company of the godless is barren,

and fire consumes the tents of bribery.^*

³⁵They conceive mischief and bring forth evil,

and their belly prepares deceit.”^*