Job 15
v1
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
v2
“Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?
v3
Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?
v4
Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.
v5
For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
v6
Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.
v7
“Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought out before the hills?
v8
Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
v9
What do you know that we don’t know? What do you understand which is not in us?
v10
With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much older than your father.
v11
Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?
v12
Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,
v13
that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?
v14
What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
v15
Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;
v16
how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
v17
“I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare
v18
(which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;
v19
to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):
v20
the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
v21
A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer will come on him.
v22
He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.
v23
He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
v24
Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
v25
Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty,
v26
he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers,
v27
because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.
v28
He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.
v29
He will not be rich, neither will his substance continue, neither will their possessions be extended on the earth.
v30
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.
v31
Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness will be his reward.
v32
It will be accomplished before his time. His branch will not be green.
v33
He will shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and will cast off his flower as the olive tree.
v34
For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.
v35
They conceive mischief and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”