Job 15

Eliphaz Answers Job

1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

2“A wise man would not answer with empty words.

He would not fill his stomach with hot, east wind.

3He would not argue with useless words.

He would not make speeches that have no value.

4But you even break down the worship of God.

You stand in the way of those who pray to him.

5Your sin teaches your mouth what to say.

You use the same words as people who trick others.

6It is your own mouth, not mine, that shows you are wicked.

Your own lips speak as a witness against you.

7“You are not the first man ever born.

You were not born before the hills were made.

8You cannot listen in on God’s secret advice.

You cannot limit wisdom to yourself.

9You don’t know any more than we know.

You don’t understand any more than we understand.

10Old people with gray hair are on our side.

They are men even older than your father.

11The comfort God gives you is not enough for you,

even when words are spoken gently to you.

12Your heart has carried you away from God.

Your eyes flash with anger.

13You speak out your anger against God.

And these words pour out of your mouth.

14“How can man be pure?

How can a person born to a woman be good?

15God places no trust in his holy ones.

Even the heavens are not pure in his eyes.

16And man is even less than they are. He is terrible and rotten.

He drinks up evil as if it were water!

17“Job, listen to me, and I will tell you about it.

I will tell you what I have seen.

18These are things wise men have told.

Their ancestors told them these things, and they have hidden nothing.

19(The land was given to their fathers only.

No foreigner lived among them.)

20The evil man suffers pain all his life.

The cruel man suffers during all the years saved up for him.

21Terrible sounds fill his ears.

When things seem to be going well, robbers attack him.

22The evil person gives up trying to escape from the darkness.

It has been decided that he will die by the sword.

23He wanders around. He will become food for vultures.

He knows death will soon come.

24Worry and suffering terrify him.

They overwhelm him. They seem like a king ready to attack.

25This is because he shakes his fist at God.

He tries to get his own way against God All-Powerful.

26He stubbornly charges at God

with a thick, strong shield.

27“The evil person’s face is covered with fat.

His waist is fat with flesh.

28He will live in towns that are ruined.

He will live in houses where no one lives.

They are houses that are crumbling into ruins.

29The evil person will no longer get rich.

And the riches he has will not last.

The things he owns will no longer spread over the land.

30He will not escape the darkness.

A flame will dry up his branches.

God’s breath will carry that evil person away.

31The evil person should not fool himself by trusting what is useless.

If he does, he will get nothing in return.

32His branch will dry up before it finishes growing.

It will not even become green.

33He will be like a vine whose grapes are pulled off before they are ripe.

He will be like an olive tree that loses its blossoms.

34People without God can produce nothing.

Fire will destroy the tents of people who take money to do evil.

35They plan trouble and give birth to evil.

Their hearts plan ways to trick people.”

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Job 15

Eliphaz Speaks

1Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

2Should a wise man utter vain knowledge,

And fill his belly with the east wind?

3Should he reason with unprofitable talk?

Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

4Yea, thou castest off fear,

And restrainest prayer before God.

5For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity,

And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.

6Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I:

Yea, thine own lips testify against thee.

7 Art thou the first man that was born?

Or wast thou made before the hills?

8Hast thou heard the secret of God?

And dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?

9What knowest thou, that we know not?

What understandest thou, which is not in us?

10With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men,

Much elder than thy father.

11 Are the consolations of God small with thee?

Is there any secret thing with thee?

12Why doth thine heart carry thee away?

And what do thy eyes wink at,

13That thou turnest thy spirit against God,

And lettest such words go out of thy mouth?

14What is man, that he should be clean?

And he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

15Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints;

Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

16How much more abominable and filthy is man,

Which drinketh iniquity like water?

17I will shew thee, hear me;

And that which I have seen I will declare;

18Which wise men have told

From their fathers, and have not hid it:

19Unto whom alone the earth was given,

And no stranger passed among them.

20The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days,

And the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.

21A dreadful sound is in his ears:

In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

22He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness,

And he is waited for of the sword.

23He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it?

He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

24Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid;

They shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

25For he stretcheth out his hand against God,

And strengtheneth himself against the Almighty.

26He runneth upon him, even on his neck,

Upon the thick bosses of his bucklers:

27Because he covereth his face with his fatness,

And maketh collops of fat on his flanks.

28And he dwelleth in desolate cities,

And in houses which no man inhabiteth,

Which are ready to become heaps.

29He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue,

Neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth.

30He shall not depart out of darkness;

The flame shall dry up his branches,

And by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.

31Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity:

For vanity shall be his recompence.

32It shall be accomplished before his time,

And his branch shall not be green.

33He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine,

And shall cast off his flower as the olive.

34For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate,

And fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.

35They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity,

And their belly prepareth deceit.

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Rights in the Authorized (King James) Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Published by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.

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