Job 15 - American Standard Version 2015

¹ Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

² Should a wise man make answer with vain knowledge,\par\tab And fill himself with the east wind?

³ Should he reason with unprofitable talk,\par\tab Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

⁴ Yea, thou doest away with fear,\par\tab And hinderest devotion before God.

⁵ For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth,\par\tab And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.

⁶ Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I;\par\tab Yea, thine own lips testify against thee.\par

⁷ Art thou the first man that was born?\par\tab Or wast thou brought forth before the hills?

⁸ Hast thou heard the secret counsel of God?\par\tab And dost thou limit wisdom to thyself?

⁹ What knowest thou, that we know not?\par\tab What understandest thou, which is not in us?

¹⁰ With us are both the grayheaded and the very aged men,\par\tab Much elder than thy father.

¹¹ Are the consolations of God too small for thee,\par\tab Even the word that is gentle toward thee?

¹² Why doth thy heart carry thee away?\par\tab And why do thine eyes flash,

¹³ That against God thou turnest thy spirit,\par\tab And lettest words go out of thy mouth?

¹⁴ What is man, that he should be clean?\par\tab And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

¹⁵ Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones;\par\tab Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight:

¹⁶ How much less one that is abominable and corrupt,\par\tab A man that drinketh iniquity like water!\par

¹⁷ I will show thee, hear thou me;\par\tab And that which I have seen I will declare

¹⁸ (Which wise men have told\par\tab From their fathers, and have not hid it;

¹⁹ Unto whom alone the land was given,\par\tab And no stranger passed among them):

²⁰ The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days,\par\tab Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

²¹ A sound of terrors is in his ears;\par\tab In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

²² He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness,\par\tab And he is waited for of the sword.

²³ He wandereth abroad for bread, {\i saying}, Where is it?\par\tab He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

²⁴ Distress and anguish make him afraid;\par\tab They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

²⁵ Because he hath stretched out his hand against God,\par\tab And behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty;

²⁶ He runneth upon him with a {\i stiff} neck,\par\tab With the thick bosses of his bucklers;

²⁷ Because he hath covered his face with his fatness,\par\tab And gathered fat upon his loins;

²⁸ And he hath dwelt in desolate cities,\par\tab In houses which no man inhabited,\par\tab Which were ready to become heaps;

²⁹ He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue,\par\tab Neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.

³⁰ He shall not depart out of darkness;\par\tab The flame shall dry up his branches,\par\tab And by the breath of {\i God's} mouth shall he go away.

³¹ Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself;\par\tab For vanity shall be his recompense.

³² It shall be accomplished before his time,\par\tab And his branch shall not be green.

³³ He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine,\par\tab And shall cast off his flower as the olive-tree.

³⁴ For the company of the godless shall be barren,\par\tab And fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

³⁵ They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity,\par\tab And their heart prepareth deceit.\par