Job 15
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2 “Does a wise man answer with windy knowledge and fill his belly with the east wind?
3 Does he argue with useless words and speeches that do no good?
4 But you undermine reverence and diminish meditation before God.
5 For your guilt teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
6 Your own mouth condemns you, not I; your lips testify against you.
7 Were you the first human being born? Were you brought forth before the hills?
8 Do you listen in God's secret council and keep wisdom to yourself?
9 What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not known among us?
10 Among us are gray-haired people and the aged, older in years than your father.
11 Are God's consolations too little for you, along with a word spoken gently to you?
12 Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash?”
13 “Why do you turn your spirit against God and let these words leave your mouth?
14 What is a human being, that he should be pure? What is one born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15 He does not trust even his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight.
16 How much less a detestable, corrupt person, who drinks injustice like water!
17 I will show you; listen to me. I will tell what I have seen.
18 This is what the wise declare, hiding nothing of what came from their fathers.
19 To them alone the land was given, and no foreigner passed among them.
20 All his days the wicked man writhes in pain; the years kept in store for the tyrant are numbered.
21 Sounds of terror fill his ears; even in peace, a destroyer comes upon him.
22 He does not believe he will return from darkness, and he is destined for the sword.
23 He wanders in search of bread: ‘Where is it?’ He knows that a dark day is ready at hand for him.”
24 “Distress and anguish terrify him; they overpower him like a king ready to attack.
25 For he stretched out his hand against God and defied the Almighty.
26 He rushed at him with a stiff neck, behind the thick bosses of his shields.
27 For he covered his face with his own fat and built up fat on his hips.
28 He lived in ruined cities, in houses no one inhabits, destined to become heaps of rubble.
29 He will not grow rich, his wealth will not endure, and his possessions will not spread across the land.
30 He will not escape the darkness; a flame will dry up his shoot, and the breath of his own mouth will carry him away.
31 Let him not trust in falsehood and deceive himself, for falsehood will be his reward.
32 It will come to pass before his day, and his branch will not grow green.
33 He will shake off his unripe grapes like a vine, and shed his blossom like an olive tree.
34 For the company of the godless is barren, and fire devours the tents of bribery.
35 They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; within themselves they prepare deceit.”
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