Eliphaz reproves Job for impiety in justifying himself.

15:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

15:2 “Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge,
and fill himself with the east wind?

15:3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk,
or with speeches with which he can do no good?

15:4 Yes, you do away with fear,
and hinder devotion before God.

15:5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
and you choose the language of the crafty.

15:6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I.
Yes, 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 heard the secret counsel of God?
Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

15:9 What do you know, that we don’t know?
What do you understand, which is not in us?

15:10 With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men,
much elder than your father.

15:11 Are the consolations of God too small for you,
even the word that is gentle toward you?

Job 21:2

15:12 Why does your heart carry you away?
Why do your eyes flash,

15:13 That you turn your spirit against God,
and let such words go out of your mouth?

15:14 What is man, that he should be clean?
What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

15:15 Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones.
Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;

15:16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
a man who drinks iniquity like water!

He proves by tradition the unquietness of wicked men.

15:17 “I will show you, listen to me;
that which I have seen I will declare:

15:18 (Which wise men have told by their fathers,
and have not hidden it;

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,
even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

15:21 A sound of terrors is in his ears.
In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.

15:22 He doesn’t believe that he shall return out of darkness.
He is waited for by the sword.

15:23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying,

‘Where is it?’

He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

15:24 Distress and anguish make him afraid.
They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

15:25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God,
and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty;

15:26 he runs at him with a stiff neck,
with the thick shields of his bucklers;

15:27 because he has covered his face with his fatness,
and gathered fat on his thighs.

15:28 He has lived in desolate cities,
in houses which no one inhabited,
which were ready to become heaps.

15:29 He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue,
neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.

15:30 He shall not depart out of darkness.
The flame shall dry up his branches.
By the breath of God’s mouth shall he go away.

15:31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself;
for emptiness shall be his reward.

15:32 It shall be accomplished before his time.
His branch shall not be green.

15:33 He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine,
and shall cast off his flower as the olive tree.

15:34 For the company of the godless shall be barren,
and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

15:35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
Their heart prepares deceit.”