Job 15

1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

2“Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge and fill his belly with the east wind?

3Should he argue with useless talk, with words that do no good?

4But you are doing away with the fear of God and hindering devotion before God.

5For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.

6Your own mouth condemns you, not I; your own lips testify against you.

7Were you the first human being ever born? Were you brought forth before the hills?

8Do you listen in on the council of God? Do you keep wisdom to yourself?

9What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that we do not?

10Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, men older than your father.

11Are the comforts of God too small for you, or a word spoken gently to you?

12Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,

13so that you turn your spirit against God and let such words come out of your mouth?

14What is a mortal, that he could be pure, or one born of a woman, that he could be righteous?

15Look, he puts no trust in his holy ones, and even the heavens are not pure in his sight.

16How much less a man who is detestable and corrupt, who drinks injustice like water!

17I will explain it to you; listen to me, and I will tell you what I have seen,

18what the wise have declared, not hiding what they received from their ancestors,

19to whom alone the land was given, when no foreigner passed among them.

20The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, through all the years stored up for the ruthless.

21Terrifying sounds fill his ears; in a time of peace the destroyer comes on him.

22He does not believe he will return from darkness, and he is marked out for the sword.

23He wanders about for food, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at hand.

24Distress and anguish terrify him; they overpower him like a king prepared for battle.

25For he has stretched out his hand against God and defied the Almighty,

26charging at him headlong with the thick bosses of his shields,

27because he has covered his face with his fat and put layers of fat on his waist.

28He lives in ruined cities, in houses where no one lives, which are destined to become heaps of rubble.

29He will not become rich, and his wealth will not last; his possessions will not spread over the land.

30He will not escape the darkness; a flame will dry up his shoots, and by the breath of his mouth he will pass away.

31Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his reward.

32It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not be green.

33He will shake off his unripe grapes like a vine and cast off his blossoms like an olive tree.

34For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery.

35They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; their womb prepares deceit.”