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

15:2 Should a wise man make answer with vain knowledge, And fill himself 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 hinderest devotion before God.

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 Hast thou heard the secret counsel of God? And dost thou limit 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 elder than thy father.

15:11 Are the consolations of God too small for thee, Even the word that is gentle toward thee?

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

15:13 That against God thou turnest thy spirit, And lettest 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 corrupt, A man that drinketh iniquity like water!

15:17 I will show 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, [saying], Where is it? 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 to the battle.

15:25 Because he hath stretched out his hand against God, 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 gathered fat upon his loins;

15:28 And he hath dwelt in desolate cities, In houses which no man inhabited, Which were ready to become heaps;

15:29 He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, Neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.

15:30 He shall not depart out of darkness; The flame shall dry up his branches, And by the breath of [God's] 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 green.

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

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