NETfree - Job - 15

15:1  Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

15:2  "Does a wise man answer with blustery knowledge, or fill his belly with the east wind?

15:3  Does he argue with useless talk, with words that have no value in them?

15:4  But you even break off piety, and hinder meditation before God.

15:5  Your sin inspires your mouth; you choose the language of the crafty.

15:6  Your own mouth condemns you, not I; your own lips testify against you.

15:7  "Were you the first man ever born? Were you brought forth before the hills?

15:8  Do you listen in on God's secret council? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

15:9  What do you know that we don't know? What do you understand that we don't understand?

15:10  The gray-haired and the aged are on our side, men far older than your father.

15:11  Are God's consolations too trivial for you; or a word spoken in gentleness to you?

15:12  Why has your heart carried you away, and why do your eyes flash,

15:13  when you turn your rage against God and allow such words to escape from your mouth?

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

15:15  If God places no trust in his holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes,

15:16  how much less man, who is abominable and corrupt, who drinks in evil like water!

15:17  "I will explain to you; listen to me, and what I have seen, I will declare,

15:18  what wise men declare, hiding nothing, from the tradition of their ancestors,

15:19  to whom alone the land was given when no foreigner passed among them.

15:20  All his days the wicked man suffers torment, throughout the number of the years that are stored up for the tyrant.

15:21  Terrifying sounds fill his ears; in a time of peace marauders attack him.

15:22  He does not expect to escape from darkness; he is marked for the sword;

15:23  he wanders about - food for vultures; he knows that the day of darkness is at hand.

15:24  Distress and anguish terrify him; they prevail against him like a king ready to launch an attack,

15:25  for he stretches out his hand against God, and vaunts himself against the Almighty,

15:26  defiantly charging against him with a thick, strong shield!

15:27  Because he covered his face with fat, and made his hips bulge with fat,

15:28  he lived in ruined towns and in houses where no one lives, where they are ready to crumble into heaps.

15:29  He will not grow rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the land.

15:30  He will not escape the darkness; a flame will wither his shoots and he will depart by the breath of God's mouth.

15:31  Let him not trust in what is worthless, deceiving himself; for worthlessness will be his reward.

15:32  Before his time he will be paid in full, and his branches will not flourish.

15:33  Like a vine he will let his sour grapes fall, and like an olive tree he will shed his blossoms.

15:34  For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of those who accept bribes.

15:35  They conceive trouble and bring forth evil; their belly prepares deception."