Chapter 15

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

²“Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge,

And fill himself with the east wind?

³Should he reason with unprofitable talk,

Or with speeches with which he can do no good?

⁴Yes, you do away with fear,

And hinder devotion before God.

⁵For your iniquity teaches your mouth,

And you choose the language of the crafty.

⁶Your 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 forth before the hills?

⁸Have you heard the secret counsel of God?

Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

⁹What do you know, that we don’t know?

What do you understand, which is not in us?

¹⁰With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men,

Much elder than your father.

¹¹Are the consolations of God too small for you,

Even the word that is gentle toward you?

¹²Why does your heart carry you away?

Why do your eyes flash,

¹³That you turn your spirit against God,

And let such words go out of your mouth?

¹⁴What is man, that he should be clean?

He who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

¹⁵Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones;

Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight:

¹⁶How 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

From their fathers, and have not hidden it;

¹⁹To whom alone the land was given,

And no stranger passed among them):

²⁰The wicked man travails with pain all his days,

Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

²¹A sound of terrors is in his ears;

In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.

²²He doesn’t believe that he shall return out of darkness,

He is waited for by the sword.

²³He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’

He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

²⁴Distress and anguish make him afraid;

They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

²⁵Because he has stretched out his hand against God,

And behaves himself proudly against the Almighty;

²⁶He runs at him with a stiff neck,

With the thick shields of his bucklers;

²⁷Because he has covered his face with his fatness,

And gathered fat on his thighs.

²⁸He has lived in desolate cities,

In houses which no one inhabited,

Which were ready to become heaps.

²⁹He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue,

Neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.

³⁰He shall not depart out of darkness;

The flame shall dry up his branches,

By the breath of God’s mouth shall he go away.

³¹Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself;

For emptiness shall be his reward.

³²It shall be accomplished before his time.

His branch shall not be green.

³³He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine,

And shall cast off his flower as the olive tree.

³⁴For the company of the godless shall be barren,

And fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

³⁵They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.

Their heart prepares deceit.”