【Job】Chapter 15 << Last Chapter Next Chapter >>

15:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite spoke and said:

15:2 Should a wise man answer with airy opinions, or puff himself up with wind?

15:3 Should he argue in speech which does not avail, and in words which are to no profit?

15:4 You in fact do away with piety, and you lessen devotion toward God,

15:5 Because your wickedness instructs your mouth, and you choose to speak like the crafty.

15:6 Your own mouth condemns you, not I; you own lips refute you.

15:7 Are you indeed the first-born of mankind, or were you brought forth before the hills?

15:8 Are you privy to the counsels of God, and do you restrict wisdom to yourself?

15:9 What do you know that we do not know? What intelligence have you which we have not?

15:10 There are gray-haired old men among us more advanced in years than your father.

15:11 Are the consolations of God not enough for you, and speech that deals gently with you?

15:12 Why do your notions carry you away, and why do your eyes blink,

15:13 So that you turn your anger against God and let such words escape your mouth!

15:14 What is a man that he should be blameless, one born of woman that he should be righteous?

15:15 If in his holy ones God places no confidence, and if the heavens are not clean in his sight,

15:16 How much less so is the abominable, the corrupt: man, who drinks in iniquity like water!

15:17 I will show you, if you listen to me; what I have seen I will tell ?

15:18 What wise men relate and have not contradicted since the days of their fathers,

15:19 To whom alone the land was given, when no foreigner moved among them.

15:20 The wicked man is in torment all his days, and limited years are in store for the tyrant;

15:21 The sound of terrors is in his ears; when all is prosperous, the spoiler comes upon him.

15:22 He despairs of escaping the darkness, and looks ever for the sword;

15:23 A wanderer, food for the vultures, he knows that his destruction is imminent.

15:24 By day the darkness fills him with dread; distress and anguish overpower him.

15:25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God and bade defiance to the Almighty,

15:26 One shall rush sternly upon him with the stout bosses of his shield, like a king prepared for the charge.

15:27 Because he has blinded himself with his crassness, padding his loins with fat,

15:28 He shall dwell in ruinous cities, in houses that are deserted, That are crumbling into clay

15:29 with no shadow to lengthen over the ground. He shall not be rich, and his possessions shall not endure;

15:30 A flame shall wither him up in his early growth, and with the wind his blossoms shall disappear.

15:31 for vain shall be his bartering.

15:32 His stalk shall wither before its time, and his branches shall be green no more.

15:33 He shall be like a vine that sheds its grapes unripened, and like an olive tree casting off its bloom.

15:34 For the breed of the impious shall be sterile, and fire shall consume the tents of extortioners.

15:35 They conceive malice and bring forth emptiness; they give birth to failure.

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