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15:1  Then Eliphaz the Temanite responded and said:
15:2  “Does a wise man answer with empty knowledge, or fill his belly with the east wind?
15:3  Does he argue with useless talk and words that have no value in them?
15:4  You even do away with reverence and hinder devotion before God.
15:5  For your iniquity prompts your mouth and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
15:6  Your own mouth condemns you—not I; your own lips testify against you.
15:7  “Are you the first man to be born? Were you brought forth before the hills?
15:8  Do you listen in on God’s counsel? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
15:9  What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that we do not understand?
15:10  Both gray-haired and aged are with us, men even older than your father.
15:11  Are the comforts of God too small for you, or a gentle word toward you?
15:12  Why has your heart carried you away and why do your eyes flash,
15:13  so that you turn your spirit against God and bring such words out of your mouth?
15:14  “What is man, that he could be pure, or one born of woman, that he could be righteous?
15:15  If He puts no trust in His holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in His eyes,
15:16  how much less man, who is vile and corrupt, who drinks evil like water!
15:17  I will tell you; listen to me, and what I have seen I will declare,
15:18  what wise men have declared and did not hide from their ancestors,
15:19  to whom alone the land was given, when no foreigner passed among them:
15:20  All his days the wicked suffers torment, and numbered are the years stored up for the tyrant.
15:21  Terrifying sounds are in his ears; in a time of peace, marauders attack him.
15:22  He does not expect to escape from darkness; he is destined for the sword.
15:23  He wanders about for bread—‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is at hand.
15:24  Distress and anguish terrify him; they overpower him like a king poised to attack,
15:25  for he raises his hand against God and flaunts himself against Shaddai,
15:26  defiantly rushing at Him with a thick, strong shield.
15:27  Because He covered his face with his fat and made his hips bulge with blubber,
15:28  he lived in ruined cities, in houses which no one inhabits, which are ready to crumble into heaps.
15:29  He will not become rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the land.
15:30  He will not escape from the darkness; a flame will wither his shoots, and he will depart by the breath of His mouth.
15:31  “Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness will be his reward.
15:32  Before his day it will be paid in full and his branch will not be green.
15:33  He will shake off his unripe grapes like a vine, and cast off his blossoms like an olive tree.
15:34  For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery.
15:35  They conceive mischief and bring forth evil and their belly prepares deception.”