Job 15

¹ Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

² Should a wise man make answer with vain knowledge, And fill himself with the east wind?

³ Should he reason with unprofitable talk, Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

⁴ Yea, thou doest away with fear, And hinderest devotion before God.

⁵ For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth, And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.

⁶ Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I; Yea, thine own lips testify against thee.

⁷ Art thou the first man that was born? Or wast thou brought forth before the hills?

⁸ Hast thou heard the secret counsel of God? And dost thou limit wisdom to thyself?

⁹ What knowest thou, that we know not? What understandest thou, which is not in us?

¹⁰ With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, Much elder than thy father.

¹¹ Are the consolations of God too small for thee, Even the word that is gentle toward thee?

¹² Why doth thy heart carry thee away? And why do thine eyes flash,

¹³ That against God thou turnest thy spirit, And lettest words go out of thy mouth?

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

¹⁵ Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones; Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight:

¹⁶ How much less one that is abominable and corrupt, A man that drinketh iniquity like water!

¹⁷ I 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;

¹⁹ Unto whom alone the land was given, And no stranger passed among them):

²⁰ The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

²¹ A sound of terrors is in his ears; In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

²² He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, And he is waited for of the sword.

²³ He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

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

²⁵ Because he hath stretched out his hand against God, And behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty;

²⁶ He runneth upon him with a stiff neck, With the thick bosses of his bucklers;

²⁷ Because he hath covered his face with his fatness, And gathered fat upon his loins;

²⁸ And he hath dwelt in desolate cities, In houses which no man inhabited, Which were ready to become heaps;

²⁹ He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, Neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.

³⁰ He 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.

³¹ Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself; For vanity shall be his recompense.

³² It shall be accomplished before his time, And his branch shall not be green.

³³ He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, And shall cast off his flower as the olive-tree.

³⁴ For the company of the godless shall be barren, And fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

³⁵ They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, And their heart prepareth deceit.