Job 15 — The Holy Bible

Eliphaz Renders Job Guilty

Job 15, verse 1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

“Will a wise man give as an answer a breath of understanding,

And does he satisfy the pain in his belly,

Arguing with sayings which are not necessary

And with words wherein is no profit?

Have you not moreover cast off fear

And accomplished such words before the Lord?

You are guilty because of the words of your mouth,

Nor have you discerned the words of the mighty.

May your mouth convict you, and not I;

For your lips will testify against you.

“What? Are you the first man who was born?

Or were you made before the beaches?

Have you heard the doctrine of the Lord,

And has wisdom come only to you?

What do you know that we do not?

What do you understand that we do not also?

Both the aged and the very old are among us,

Much older than your father.

You have been punished for only a few of your sins;

You have spoken haughtily and exceedingly.

Why has your heart dared,

Or what are your eyes set on,

That you have vented your anger before the Lord

And brought forth such words from your mouth?

“For who is the mortal that shall be blameless,

Or who is born of a woman that shall be righteous,

Since He does not trust His saints

And heaven is not pure in His sight?

Alas then, detestable and unclean is a man

Who drinks wrongdoings like water!

“But I will tell you, listen to me;

I will tell you what I have now seen,

What wise men say.

They did not hide anything received from their fathers.

To them alone the earth was given,

And no stranger came among them.

All the life of an ungodly man is spent in anxiety,

And the years granted an oppressor are numbered.

Fear is in his ears,

And when he at last seems to be at peace,

His destruction comes.

Let him not believe he will return from darkness,

For he has already been given over to the power of the sword.

He has been appointed to be food for vultures,

And he knows in himself that he lives in a dead body;

And a dark day will carry him away like a whirlwind.

Trouble and anguish will come upon him,

And like a general he will fall in the first rank.

For he lifted his hands against the Lord

And acted defiantly against the Almighty Lord.

He ran in His sight with insolence,

With the thickness of his wide shield.

“For he covered his face with his fat

And put a collar upon his thighs.

May he lodge in deserted cities

And enter uninhabited houses;

And what they prepared, others will carry away.

Let him not grow rich, nor let his possessions remain;

Let him not cast a shadow upon the earth,

Neither let him escape the darkness.

Let the wind wither his blossom, and let his flower fall off.

Let him not believe he will endure,

For futility will be his reward.

His harvest will perish before its gathering,

And his branch will not flourish.

May he be gathered prematurely like unripe grapes,

And may he fall off like the blossom of an olive tree.

For death is the witness of the ungodly man,

And fire will burn the houses of those who take bribes.

So he will conceive sorrows, his end will be vain,

And his belly shall bear deceit.”