JPS - Job - 15

15:1  Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said:

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

15:3  Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

15:4  Yea, thou doest away with fear, and impairest devotion before G-d.

15:5  For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.

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

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

15:8  Dost thou hearken in the council of G-d? And dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?

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

15:10  With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much older than thy father.

15:11  Are the consolations of G-d too small for thee, and the word that dealeth gently with thee?

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

15:13  That thou turnest thy spirit against G-d, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth.

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

15:15  Behold, He putteth no trust in His holy ones; yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight.

15:16  How much less one that is abominable and impure, man who drinketh iniquity like water!

15:17  I will tell thee, hear thou me; and that which I have seen I will declare--

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

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

15:20  The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

15:21  A sound of terrors is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

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

15:23  He wandereth abroad for bread: 'Where is it?' He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

15:24  Distress and anguish overwhelm him; they prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

15:25  Because he hath stretched out his hand against G-d, and behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty;

15:26  He runneth upon him with a stiff neck, with the thick bosses of his bucklers.

15:27  Because he hath covered his face with his fatness, and made collops of fat on his loins;

15:28  And he hath dwelt in desolate cities, in houses which no man would inhabit, which were ready to become heaps.

15:29  He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their produce bend to 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, deceiving himself; for vanity shall be his recompense.

15:32  It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be leafy.

15:33  He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.

15:34  For the company of the godless shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

15:35  They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, and their belly prepareth deceit.