15:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: 15:2 "Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind 15:3 Should he argue in unprofitable talk, or in words with which he can do no good 15:4 But you are doing away with the fear of God and hindering meditation before God. 15:5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty. 15:6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips testify against you. 15:7 "Are you the first man who was born Or were you brought forth before the hills 15:8 Have you listened in the council of God And do you limit wisdom to yourself 15:9 What do you know that we do not know What do you understand that is not clear to us 15:10 Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, older than your father. 15:11 Are the comforts of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you 15:12 Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash, 15:13 that you turn your spirit against God and bring such words out of your mouth 15:14 What is man, that he can be pure Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous 15:15 Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight; 15:16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water! 15:17 "I will show you; hear me, and what I have seen I will declare 15:18 (what wise men have told, without hiding it from their fathers, 15:19 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them). 15:20 The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless. 15:21 Dreadful sounds are in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him. 15:22 He does not believe that he will return out of darkness, and he is marked for the sword. 15:23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it' He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand; 15:24 distress and anguish terrify him; they prevail against him, like a king ready for battle. 15:25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God and defies the Almighty, 15:26 running stubbornly against him with a thickly bossed shield; 15:27 because he has covered his face with his fat and gathered fat upon his waist 15:28 and has lived in desolate cities, in houses that none should inhabit, which were ready to become heaps of ruins; 15:29 he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the earth; 15:30 he will not depart from darkness; the flame will dry up his shoots, and by the breath of his mouth he will depart. 15:31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his payment. 15:32 It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not be green. 15:33 He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine, and cast off his blossom like the olive tree. 15:34 For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery. 15:35 They conceive trouble and give birth to evil, and their womb prepares deceit."