15:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
15:2 “Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?
15:3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?
15:4 Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.
15:5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
15:6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.
15:7 “Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?
15:8 Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
15:9 What do you know, that we don’t know? What do you understand, which is not in us?
15:10 With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much elder than your father.
15:11 Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?
15:12 Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,
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? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15:15 Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;
15:16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
15:17 “I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare:
15:18 (Which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;
15:19 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):
15:20 the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
15:21 A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.
15:22 He doesn’t believe that he shall return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.
15:23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
15:24 Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
15:25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty;
15:26 he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers;
15:27 because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.
15:28 He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.
15:29 He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.
15:30 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.
15:31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness shall be his reward.
15:32 It shall be accomplished before his time. His branch shall not be green.
15:33 He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive tree.
15:34 For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
15:35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”