15
1 Then Eliphaz the
Temanite answered,
2 “Should
a wise man
answer with vain
knowledge,
and fill himself
with the east
wind?
3 Should he
reason with
unprofitable talk,
or with speeches
with which he
can do no
good?
4 Yes, you
do away with
fear,
and hinder devotion
before God.
5 For
your iniquity teaches
your mouth,
and you choose
the language of
the crafty.
6 Your own
mouth condemns you,
and not I.
Yes, your own lips
testify against you.
7 “Are
you the first
man who was
born?
Or were you
brought out before
the hills?
8 Have
you heard the
secret counsel of
God?
Do you limit
wisdom to yourself?
9 What
do you know
that we don’t know?
What do you
understand which
is not in
us?
10 With
us are both
the gray-headed and
the very aged
men,
much older than
your father.
11 Are
the consolations
of God too small
for you,
even the word
that is gentle
toward you?
12 Why
does your heart
carry you away?
Why do your
eyes flash,
13 that
you turn your
spirit against God,
and let such
words go out
of your mouth?
14 What
is man, that he
should be clean?
What is he
who is born
of a woman,
that he should
be righteous?
15 Behold,
he puts no trust
in his holy
ones.
Yes, the heavens
are not clean
in his sight;
16 how much
less one who
is abominable
and corrupt,
a man who drinks
iniquity like
water!
17 “I
will show you,
listen to me;
that which I
have seen I
will declare
18 (which wise
men have told
by their fathers,
and have not
hidden it;
19 to whom
alone the land was
given,
and no stranger
passed among them):
20 the
wicked man writhes
in 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 will come
on him.
22 He doesn’t
believe that he
will return out
of darkness.
He is waited
for by the
sword.
23 He
wanders abroad for
bread, saying, ‘Where
is it?’
He knows 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 has stretched
out his hand
against God,
and behaves himself proudly
against the
Almighty,
26 he runs at
him with a stiff
neck,
with the thick
shields of his
bucklers,
27 because
he has covered
his face with
his fatness,
and gathered fat
on his thighs.
28 He
has lived in
desolate cities,
in houses which
no one inhabited,
which were ready
to become heaps.
29 He
will not be
rich, neither will
his substance
continue,
neither will
their possessions be
extended on
the earth.
30 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.
31 Let
him not trust in
emptiness, deceiving himself,
for emptiness
will be his
reward.
32 It
will be
accomplished before
his time.
His branch will
not be green.
33 He
will shake off
his unripe grape as
the vine,
and will cast
off his flower as
the olive tree.
34 For
the company of
the godless will
be barren,
and fire will consume
the tents of
bribery.
35 They
conceive mischief
and produce iniquity.
Their heart prepares
deceit.”