Job

Chapter 15

1 THEN answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

2 Should a spiritually minded man answer with knowledge and then become enraged?

3 Should he admonish with unprofitable talk, or with words that are worthless?

4 Yea, you also are discarding reverence, and talk too much in the presence of God.

5 For your mouth is accustomed to utter sinful things, and you choose the deceitful tongue of the crafty.

6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; yea, your own lips testify against you in my presence.

7 Are you the first man that was born? Or were you conceived before the hills?

8 Have you heard of the secrets of God? Has his wisdom been revealed to you?

9 Or what do you know that we do not know? Or what do you under, stand that we do not understand?

10 Behold, there are among us the gray-headed and the very aged men, much older in days than your father.

11 Now talk less of God's threats, and speak comfortingly to yourself.

12 Why does your heart boast? And what do your eyes wink at,

13 That you boast in the presence of God, and let such words go out of your mouth?

14 What is man, that he should be innocent? Or he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

15 Behold, he puts no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

16 Even though man should be rejected and afflicted, yet he shall drink iniquity like water.

17 Hear me, I will show you; and that which I have seen I will repeat;

18 That which wise men have declared, and did not hide from their fathers;

19 To whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them.

20 The wicked man magnifies himself all his days, and the number of the years of the violent man is hidden.

21 A dreadful sound is in his ears; in prosperity the spoiler shall come upon him.

22 He does not believe that he shall be overthrown because of the darkness, and that he shall see the sword.

23 He flees because of the threat of judgment; he does not know that the day of darkness is already at his hand,

24 Trouble and anguish shall overtake him, like a king ready for the battle,

25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and strengthened himself against the Almighty.

26 He runs against him proudly, and strangles him, with the multitudes of his shields;

27 Because he has deceived himself with his wealth, and he places Pleiades above Aldebaran.

28 And he dwells in desolate cities, which no man has inhabited; then he prepares for war.

29 He shall not continue, neither shall his strength endure, nor shall his words be established upon the earth.

30 He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth shall he be rejected.

31 Let him not trust in deceptive vanity, for his growth is in vain.

32 He shall dry up before his time, and the work of his hands shall not be found.

33 He shall shake off his unripe grapes, as the vine, and shall cast off his flowers as the olive tree.

34 For the congregation of the godless shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacle of the wicked.

35 They conceive mischief and bring forth deceit, and their belly is full of guile.