Chapter 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 grey-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 towards 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 amongst 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 ."