Job Chapter 15 Back Next{15:1} Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
{15:2} "Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the
east wind?
{15:3} Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?
{15:4} Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.
{15:5} For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
{15:6} Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.
{15:7} "Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the
hills?
{15:8} Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
{15:9} What do you know, that we don't know? What do you understand, which is not in us?
{15:10} With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much
elder than your
father.
{15:11} Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?
{15:12} Why does your
heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,
{15:13} That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?
{15:14} What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
{15:15} Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the
heavens are not clean in his sight;
{15:16} how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who
drinks iniquity like water!
{15:17} "I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare:
{15:18} (Which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;
{15:19} to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):
{15:20} the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
{15:21} A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the
destroyer shall come on him.
{15:22} He doesn't believe that he shall return out of
darkness. He is waited for by the sword.
{15:23} He wanders abroad for
bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
{15:24} Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
{15:25} Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty;
{15:26} he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his
bucklers;
{15:27} because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.
{15:28} He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.
{15:29} He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their possessions be extended on the
earth.
{15:30} He shall not depart out of darkness. The flame shall dry up his branches. By the breath of God's mouth shall he go away.
{15:31} Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness shall be his reward.
{15:32} It shall be accomplished before his time. His branch shall not be green.
{15:33} He shall shake off his unripe
grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive tree.
{15:34} For the company of the godless shall be barren, and
fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
{15:35} They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit."
Job Chapter 15 Back Next