15:2 "Should a wise person respond with knowledge based on wind? Should he fill his stomach with a wind storm from the east?
15:3 Should he engage in unprofitable argument, or give a speech that benefits no one?
15:4 Yet you dispense with fear of God and hinder meditations before God.
15:5 Because your sin dictates your speech, you have chosen the language of the crafty.
15:6 Your own mouth is condemning you, not I; your own lips will testify against you."
15:7 "Were you the first person to be born? Were you brought forth before the hills were made?
15:8 Have you listened in on God's secret council? Have you limited wisdom only to yourself?
15:9 What do you know that we don't know, or that you understand and that isn't clear to us?
15:10 "We have both the gray-haired and the aged with us, and they are far older than your father.
15:11 Are God's encouragements inconsequential to you, even a word that has been spoken gently to you?
15:12 Why have your emotions carried you away? And why do your eyes flash
15:13 that you turn your anger against God and speak words like this?
15:14 "What is mankind, that he can be blameless? Or does being born of a woman mean he'll be in the right?
15:15 Look, if God doesn't trust his holy ones, if even the heavens aren't pure as he looks at them,
15:16 then how much less is one who is abhorred and corrupted, such as a man who drinks injustice like water?"
15:17 "I'll tell you what, listen to me! Let me relate what I've seen,
15:18 which is what wise men have explained, who didn't withhold anything from their ancestors.
15:19 To them alone was the land given, when no invader passed through their midst.
15:20 "The wicked person writhes in pain throughout his life, a number of years has been reserved for the ruthless.
15:21 Terrifying sounds ring in his ears; when times are prosperous, the Destroyer will attack him.
15:22 He does not believe he will escape darkness; he is destined for the sword.
15:23 He wanders around for food—where is it? He knows that a time of darkness is near.
15:24 Distress and pressure terrify him; they overwhelm him, like a king poised for attack.
15:25 "For he has raised his fist against God, defying the Almighty.
15:26 He defiantly ran against him carrying his thick, reinforced shield.
15:27 Though he covered his face with fat, and is grossly overweight at the waist,
15:28 He will live in devastated towns, in abandoned houses that are about to become heaps of rubble.
15:29 "He won't become rich and his wealth won't last; he won't expand his holdings to cover the land.
15:30 He won't escape darkness; a flame will wither his shoots; and he'll depart by the breath of God's mouth.
15:31 Let him not trust in a worthless speech. He leads only himself astray, for emptiness will be his reward.
15:32 This will be accomplished before his time; his branches won't grow luxuriant.
15:33 "He is like a vine that drops its unripe grapes; like an olive tree that loses its blossoms.
15:34 For the company of the godless is desolation, and fire consumes the tents of those who bribe.
15:35 For they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity; their womb is pregnant with deception."
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