Chapter 15

  Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,  

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  Should a wise man make answer with vain knowledge, And fill himself with the east wind?  

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  Should he reason with unprofitable talk, Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?  

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  Yea, thou doest away with fear, And hinderest devotion before God.  

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  For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth, And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.  

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  Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I; Yea, thine own lips testify against thee.  

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  Art thou the first man that was born? Or wast thou brought forth before the hills?  

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  Hast thou heard the secret counsel of God? And dost thou limit wisdom to thyself?  

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  What knowest thou, that we know not? What understandest thou, which is not in us?  

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  With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, Much elder than thy father.  

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  Are the consolations of God too small for thee, Even the word that is gentle toward thee?  

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  Why doth thy heart carry thee away? And why do thine eyes flash,  

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  That against God thou turnest thy spirit, And lettest words go out of thy mouth?  

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  What is man, that he should be clean? And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?  

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  Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones; Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight:  

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  How much less one that is abominable and corrupt, A man that drinketh iniquity like water!  

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  I will show thee, hear thou me; And that which I have seen I will declare:  

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  (Which wise men have told From their fathers, and have not hid it;  

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  Unto whom alone the land was given, And no stranger passed among them):  

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  The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.  

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  A sound of terrors is in his ears; In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.  

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  He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, And he is waited for of the sword.  

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  He wandereth abroad for bread, [saying], Where is it? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.  

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  Distress and anguish make him afraid; They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.  

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  Because he hath stretched out his hand against God, And behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty;  

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  He runneth upon him with a [stiff] neck, With the thick bosses of his bucklers;  

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  Because he hath covered his face with his fatness, And gathered fat upon his loins;  

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  And he hath dwelt in desolate cities, In houses which no man inhabited, Which were ready to become heaps;  

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  He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, Neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.  

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  He shall not depart out of darkness; The flame shall dry up his branches, And by the breath of [God's] mouth shall he go away.  

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  Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself; For vanity shall be his recompense.  

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  It shall be accomplished before his time, And his branch shall not be green.  

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  He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, And shall cast off his flower as the olive-tree.  

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  For the company of the godless shall be barren, And fire shall consume the tents of bribery.  

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  They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, And their heart prepareth deceit.  

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