Chapter 15

  And Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,  

  Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind,  

  Reasoning with unprofitable talk, and with speeches which do no good?  

  Yea, thou makest piety of none effect, and restrainest meditation before ùGod.  

  For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou hast chosen the tongue of the crafty.  

  Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I; and thy lips testify against thee.  

  Art thou the first man that was born? and wast thou brought forth before the hills?  

  Hast thou listened in the secret council of +God? And hast thou absorbed wisdom for thyself?  

  What knowest thou that we know not? [what] understandest thou which is not in us?  

  Both the greyheaded and the aged are with us, older than thy father.  

  Are the consolations of ùGod too small for thee? and the word gently spoken to thee?  

  Why doth thy heart carry thee away? and why do thine eyes wink?  

  That thou turnest thy spirit against ùGod, and lettest words go out of thy mouth?  

  What is man, that he should be pure? and he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?  

  Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight:  

  How much less the abominable and corrupt, -- man, that drinketh unrighteousness like water!  

  I will shew thee, listen to me; and what I have seen I will declare;  

  Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hidden;  

  Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.  

  All his days the wicked man is tormented, and numbered years are allotted to the violent.  

  The sound of terrors is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer cometh upon him.  

  He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is singled out for the sword.  

  He wandereth abroad for bread, -- where may it be? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.  

  Distress and anguish make him afraid; they prevail against him, as a king ready for the battle.  

  For he hath stretched out his hand against ùGod, and strengthened himself against the Almighty:  

  He runneth against him, with [outstretched] neck, with the thick bosses of his bucklers;  

  For he hath covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat upon [his] flanks.  

  And he dwelleth in desolate cities, in houses that no man inhabiteth, which are destined to become heaps.  

  He shall not become rich, neither shall his substance continue, and their possessions shall not extend upon the earth.  

  He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches; and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.  

  Let him not trust in vanity: he is deceived, for vanity shall be his recompense;  

  It shall be complete before his day, and his branch shall not be green.  

  He shall shake off his unripe grapes as a vine, and shall cast his flower as an olive.  

  For the family of the ungodly shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.  

  They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, and their belly prepareth deceit.