Chapter 15

  And Eliphaz the Temanite made answer and said,  

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  Will a wise man make answer with knowledge of no value, or will he give birth to the east wind?  

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  Will he make arguments with words in which is no profit, and with sayings which have no value?  

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  Truly, you make the fear of God without effect, so that the time of quiet worship before God is made less by your outcry.  

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  For your mouth is guided by your sin, and you have taken the tongue of the false for yourself.  

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  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.  

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  Were you the first man to come into the world? or did you come into being before the hills?  

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  Were you present at the secret meeting of God? and have you taken all wisdom for yourself?  

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  What knowledge have you which we have not? is there anything in your mind which is not in ours?  

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  With us are men who are grey-haired and full of years, much older than your father.  

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  Are the comforts of God not enough for you, and the gentle word which was said to you?  

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  Why is your heart uncontrolled, and why are your eyes lifted up;  

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  So that you are turning your spirit against God, and letting such words go out of your mouth?  

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  What is man, that he may be clean? and how may the son of woman be upright?  

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  Truly, he puts no faith in his holy ones, and the heavens are not clean in his eyes;  

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  How much less one who is disgusting and unclean, a man who takes in evil like water!  

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  Take note and give ear to my words; and I will say what I have seen:  

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  (The things which wise men have got from their fathers, and have not kept secret from us;  

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  For only to them was the land given, and no strange people were among them:)  

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  The evil man is in pain all his days, and the number of the years stored up for the cruel is small.  

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  A sound of fear is in his ears; in time of peace destruction will come on him:  

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  He has no hope of coming safe out of the dark, and his fate will be the sword;  

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  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:  

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  He is greatly in fear of the dark day, trouble and pain overcome him:  

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  Because his hand is stretched out against God, and his heart is lifted up against the Ruler of all,  

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  Running against him like a man of war, covered by his thick breastplate; even like a king ready for the fight,  

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  Because his face is covered with fat, and his body has become thick;  

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  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.  

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  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.  

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  He does not come out of the dark; his branches are burned by the flame, and the wind takes away his bud.  

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  Let him not put his hope in what is false, falling into error: for he will get deceit as his reward.  

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  His branch is cut off before its time, and his leaf is no longer green.  

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  He is like a vine whose grapes do not come to full growth, or an olive-tree dropping its flowers.  

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  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.  

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  Evil has made them with child, and they give birth to trouble; and the fruit of their body is shame for themselves.  

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