| 15:1 |
And Eliphaz the Temanite made answer and said, |
| 15:2 |
Will a wise man make answer with knowledge of no value, or will he give birth to the east wind? |
| 15:3 |
Will he make arguments with words in which is no profit, and with sayings which have no value? |
| 15:4 |
Truly, you make the fear of God without effect, so that the time of quiet worship before God is made less by your outcry. |
| 15:5 |
For your mouth is guided by your sin, and you have taken the tongue of the false for yourself. |
| 15:6 |
It is by your mouth, even yours, that you are judged to be in the wrong, and not by me; and your lips give witness against you. |
| 15:7 |
Were you the first man to come into the world? or did you come into being before the hills? |
| 15:8 |
Were you present at the secret meeting of God? and have you taken all wisdom for yourself? |
| 15:9 |
What knowledge have you which we have not? is there anything in your mind which is not in ours? |
| 15:10 |
With us are men who are grey-haired and full of years, much older than your father. |
| 15:11 |
Are the comforts of God not enough for you, and the gentle word which was said to you? |
| 15:12 |
Why is your heart uncontrolled, and why are your eyes lifted up; |
| 15:13 |
So that you are turning your spirit against God, and letting such words go out of your mouth? |
| 15:14 |
What is man, that he may be clean? and how may the son of woman be upright? |
| 15:15 |
Truly, he puts no faith in his holy ones, and the heavens are not clean in his eyes; |
| 15:16 |
How much less one who is disgusting and unclean, a man who takes in evil like water! |
| 15:17 |
Take note and give ear to my words; and I will say what I have seen: |
| 15:18 |
(The things which wise men have got from their fathers, and have not kept secret from us; |
| 15:19 |
For only to them was the land given, and no strange people were among them:) |
| 15:20 |
The evil man is in pain all his days, and the number of the years stored up for the cruel is small. |
| 15:21 |
A sound of fear is in his ears; in time of peace destruction will come on him: |
| 15:22 |
He has no hope of coming safe out of the dark, and his fate will be the sword; |
| 15:23 |
He is wandering about in search of bread, saying, Where is it? and he is certain that the day of trouble is ready for him: |
| 15:24 |
He is greatly in fear of the dark day, trouble and pain overcome him: |
| 15:25 |
Because his hand is stretched out against God, and his heart is lifted up against the Ruler of all, |
| 15:26 |
Running against him like a man of war, covered by his thick breastplate; even like a king ready for the fight, |
| 15:27 |
Because his face is covered with fat, and his body has become thick; |
| 15:28 |
And he has made his resting-place in the towns which have been pulled down, in houses where no man had a right to be, whose fate was to become masses of broken walls. |
| 15:29 |
He does not get wealth for himself, and is unable to keep what he has got; the heads of his grain are not bent down to the earth. |
| 15:30 |
He does not come out of the dark; his branches are burned by the flame, and the wind takes away his bud. |
| 15:31 |
Let him not put his hope in what is false, falling into error: for he will get deceit as his reward. |
| 15:32 |
His branch is cut off before its time, and his leaf is no longer green. |
| 15:33 |
He is like a vine whose grapes do not come to full growth, or an olive-tree dropping its flowers. |
| 15:34 |
For the band of the evil-doers gives no fruit, and the tents of those who give wrong decisions for reward are burned with fire. |
| 15:35 |
Evil has made them with child, and they give birth to trouble; and the fruit of their body is shame for themselves. |
