Job 15 - ESV Bible - Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:...

1 Then ¹Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

2 "Should ²a wise man answer with ³windy knowledge, and fill his ⁴belly with ⁵the east wind?

3 Should he argue in unprofitable talk, or in words with which he can do no good?

4 But you are doing away with the fear of God^a and hindering meditation before God.

5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.

6 Your ⁶own mouth condemns you, and not I; ⁷your own lips testify against you.

7 ⁸"Are you the first man who was born? Or ⁹were you brought forth ¹⁰before the hills?

8 Have you listened in ¹¹the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself?

9 ¹²What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us?

10 ¹³Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, older than your father.

11 Are the comforts of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you?

12 Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash,

13 that you turn your ¹⁴spirit against God and bring such words out of your mouth?

14 ¹⁵What is man, ¹⁶that he can be pure? Or he who is ¹⁷born of a woman, that he can be righteous?

15 Behold, God^b¹⁸puts no trust in his ¹⁹holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight;

16 ²⁰how much less one who is abominable and ²¹corrupt, a man who ²²drinks injustice like water!

17 "I will show you; hear me, and what I have seen I will declare

18 (what wise men have told, without hiding it ²³from their fathers,

19 to whom alone the land was given, and no ²⁴stranger passed among them).

20 The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, through all the ²⁵years that are laid up for ²⁶the ruthless.

21 ²⁷Dreadful sounds are in his ears; in ²⁸prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.

22 He does not believe that he will return out of darkness, and he is marked for the sword.

23 He ²⁹wanders abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;

24 distress and anguish terrify him; they ³⁰prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.

25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God and defies the Almighty,

26 ³¹running ³²stubbornly against him with a thickly bossed shield;

27 because he has ³³covered his face with his fat and gathered fat upon his waist

28 and has lived in desolate cities, in houses that none should inhabit, which were ready to become heaps of ruins;

29 he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the earth;^c

30 he will not depart from darkness; the flame will dry up his shoots, and by ³⁴the breath of his mouth he will depart.

31 Let him not ³⁵trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his payment.

32 It will be paid in full ³⁶before his time, and his branch will not be green.

33 He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine, and cast off his blossom like the olive tree.

34 For ³⁷the company of the godless is barren, and ³⁸fire consumes the tents of bribery.

35 They ³⁹conceive trouble and give birth to evil, and their ⁴⁰womb prepares deceit."

Job 15 ESV