Job 15 — ULB

15Verse 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,^{Verse 2}“Should a wise man answer with useless knowledge
and fill himself with the east wind?
^{Verse 3}Should he reason with unprofitable talk
or with speeches with which he can do no good?
^{Verse 4}Indeed, you diminish respect for God;
you obstruct devotion to him,
^{Verse 5}for your iniquity teaches your mouth;
you choose to have the tongue of a crafty man.
^{Verse 6}Your own mouth condemns you, not mine;
indeed, your own lips testify against you.
^{Verse 7}Are you the first man that was born?
Were you brought into existence before the hills?
^{Verse 8}Have you heard the secret knowledge of God?
Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
^{Verse 9}What do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that is not also in us?
^{Verse 10}With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men
who are much older than your father.
^{Verse 11}Are the consolations of God too small for you,
the words that are gentle toward you?
^{Verse 12}Why does your heart carry you away?
Why do your eyes flash,
^{Verse 13}so that you turn your spirit against God
and bring out such words from your mouth?
^{Verse 14}What is man that he should be clean?
What is he who is born of a woman that he should be righteous?
^{Verse 15}See, God puts no trust even in his holy ones;
indeed, the heavens are not clean in his sight;
^{Verse 16}how much less clean is one who is abominable and corrupt,
a man who drinks iniquity like water!
^{Verse 17}I will show you; listen to me;
I will announce to you the things I have seen,
^{Verse 18}the things that wise men have passed down from their fathers,
the things that their ancestors did not hide.
^{Verse 19}These were their ancestors, to whom alone the land was given,
and among whom no stranger ever passed.
^{Verse 20}The wicked man twists in pain all his days,
the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor to suffer.
^{Verse 21}A sound of terrors is in his ears;
while he is in prosperity, the destroyer will come upon him.
^{Verse 22}He does not think that he will return out of darkness;
the sword waits for him.
^{Verse 23}He goes to various places for bread, saying, 'Where is it?'
He knows that the day of darkness is at hand.
^{Verse 24}Distress and anguish make him afraid;
they prevail against him, as a king ready for battle.
^{Verse 25}Because he has reached out with his hand against God
and has behaved proudly against the Almighty,
^{Verse 26}this wicked man runs at God with a stiff neck,
with a thick shield.
^{Verse 27}This is true, even though he has covered his face with his fat
and gathered fat on his loins,
^{Verse 28}and has lived in desolate cities;
in houses which no man inhabits now
and which were ready to become heaps.
^{Verse 29}He will not be rich; his wealth will not last
and his possessions will not spread over the land.
^{Verse 30}He will not depart out of darkness;⁺
a flame will dry up his stalks;
at the breath of God's mouth he will go away.^{+
Verse 31}Let him not trust in useless things, deceiving himself;
for uselessness will be his reward.
^{Verse 32}It will happen before his time should come to die;
his branch will not be green.
^{Verse 33}He will drop his unripe grapes like a grapevine;
he will cast off his flowers like the olive tree.
^{Verse 34}For the company of godless people will be barren;
fire will consume their tents of bribery.
^{Verse 35}They conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity;
their womb conceives deceit.”