Chapter 15

  Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,  

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

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

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  Yes, you do away with fear, And hinder devotion before God.  

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  For your iniquity teaches your mouth, And you choose the language of the crafty.  

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

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  'Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?  

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  Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?  

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  What do you know, that we don't know? What do you understand, which is not in us?  

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

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

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

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  That you turn your spirit against God, And let such words go out of your mouth?  

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

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

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  How much less one who is abominable and corrupt, A man who drinks iniquity like water!  

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  'I will show you, listen to me; That which I have seen I will declare:  

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

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

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  The wicked man travails 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 on him.  

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  He doesn't believe that he shall return out of darkness, He is waited for by the sword.  

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  He wanders abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows 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 has stretched out his hand against God, And behaves himself proudly against the Almighty;  

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  He runs at him with a stiff neck, With the thick shields of his bucklers;  

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  Because he has covered his face with his fatness, And gathered fat on his loins.  

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  He has lived in desolate cities, In houses which no one 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, By the breath of God's mouth shall he go away.  

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  Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; For emptiness shall be his reward.  

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  It shall be accomplished before his time. 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. Their heart prepares deceit.'  

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