15:1 And Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

15:2 Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind,

15:3 Reasoning with unprofitable talk, and with speeches which do no good?

15:4 Yea, thou makest piety of none effect, and restrainest meditation before ∙God.

15:5 For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou hast chosen the tongue of the crafty.

15:6 Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I; and thy lips testify against thee.

15:7 Art thou the first man that was born? and wast thou brought forth before the hills?

15:8 Hast thou listened in the secret council of +God? And hast thou absorbed wisdom for thyself?

15:9 What knowest thou that we know not? [what] understandest thou which is not in us?

15:10 Both the greyheaded and the aged are with us, older than thy father.

15:11 Are the consolations of ∙God too small for thee? and the word gently spoken to thee?

15:12 Why doth thy heart carry thee away? and why do thine eyes wink?

15:13 That thou turnest thy spirit against ∙God, and lettest words go out of thy mouth?

15:14 What is man, that he should be pure? and he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

15:15 Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight:

15:16 How much less the abominable and corrupt, -- man, that drinketh unrighteousness like water!

15:17 I will shew thee, listen to me; and what I have seen I will declare;

15:18 Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hidden;

15:19 Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.

15:20 All his days the wicked man is tormented, and numbered years are allotted to the violent.

15:21 The sound of terrors is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer cometh upon him.

15:22 He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is singled out for the sword.

15:23 He wandereth abroad for bread, -- where may it be? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

15:24 Distress and anguish make him afraid; they prevail against him, as a king ready for the battle.

15:25 For he hath stretched out his hand against ∙God, and strengthened himself against the Almighty:

15:26 He runneth against him, with [outstretched] neck, with the thick bosses of his bucklers;

15:27 For he hath covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat upon [his] flanks.

15:28 And he dwelleth in desolate cities, in houses that no man inhabiteth, which are destined to become heaps.

15:29 He shall not become rich, neither shall his substance continue, and their possessions shall not extend upon the earth.

15:30 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.

15:31 Let him not trust in vanity: he is deceived, for vanity shall be his recompense;

15:32 It shall be complete before his day, and his branch shall not be green.

15:33 He shall shake off his unripe grapes as a vine, and shall cast his flower as an olive.

15:34 For the family of the ungodly shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.