15:1 And Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, |
15:2 "Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind? |
15:3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches which can do no good? |
15:4 Yea, you do away with fear, and hinder prayer before God. |
15:5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty. |
15:6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; yea, your own lips testify against you. |
15:7 Were you the first man born? Or were you made before the hills? |
15:8 Have you heard the secret counsel of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself? |
15:9 What do you know that we do not know, or what do you understand that we do not? |
15:10 With us are both the gray-headed and the aged, mightier than your father as to days. |
15:11 Are the consolations of God too small with you, even a word dealing gently with you? |
15:12 Why does your heart carry you away? And what do your eyes wink at, |
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? And what is he born of a woman that he should be righteous? |
15:15 Behold, He puts no trust in His saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight. |
15:16 How much more abominable and filthy is man, who drinks iniquity like water? |
15:17 I will show you; hear me; and what I have seen I will declare, |
15:18 That which wise men have told, and have not hidden from their fathers; |
15:19 To them alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them. |
15:20 The wicked man labors in pain all his days, and numbered are the years stored up for the ruthless. |
15:21 A dreadful sound of things is in his ears; while at peace the destroyer shall come upon him. |
15:22 He does not believe that he shall return out of darkness, but he is destined for the sword. |
15:23 He wanders for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that the day of darkness is ready at hand. |
15:24 Trouble and anguish shall terrify him; they shall overpower him, as a king ready for the battle; |
15:25 Because he stretches out his hand against God, and sets himself against the Almighty. |
15:26 He runs at Him, with a stiff neck, with the thick layers of his shields, |
15:27 Because he has covered his face with fatness; he has put fat on his loins. |
15:28 And he lives in desolate cities, in houses where none are living, which are ready to become heaps. |
15:29 He shall not be rich, nor shall his possessions continue, nor shall he spread out his possessions over the earth. |
15:30 He shall not escape from darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of His mouth he shall turn away. |
15:31 Let not him who is deceived trust in vanity; for vanity shall be his reward. |
15:32 It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green. |
15:33 He shall shake off its unripe grape as the vine; and shall cast off his flower like the olive. |
15:34 For the company of the ungodly shall be barren, and fire shall devour the tents of bribery. |
15:35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, and their belly prepares deceit." |