Job 15

CLV^{(i) 1} Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: ² Should a wise man answer with knowledge of wind? Or should he fill his belly with the hot east wind? ³ Ought he to plead with speech that is unprofitable, And with declarations that have no benefit in them? ⁴ Yet you, indeed you quash reverent fear, And you deprecate pious meditation before El. ⁵ For your depravity trains your mouth, And you choose the tongue of the crafty. ⁶ Your own mouth condemns you, not I, And your lips answer against you. ⁷ Are you the first human ever born? Were you travailed before the hills? ⁸ Do you hear the deliberation of Eloah, Or do you hold a monopoly for yourself on wisdom? ⁹ What do you know that we do not know, Or understand, and it is not with us? ¹⁰ Moreover, among us are the greyhaired and hoary-headed, More abundant in days than your father. ¹¹ Are the consolations of El a little thing for you, And a word gently shared with you? ¹² Why does your heart take you away, And why do your eyes scowl, ¹³ That you should reverse your spirit against El And send forth these declarations from your mouth? ¹⁴ What is a mortal that he should be purged, Or that one born of a woman should be justified? ¹⁵ If even on His holy ones, He puts no reliance, And the heavens are not purged in His eyes, ¹⁶ How much less man, Who is abhorrent and spoiled, Who is drinking iniquity like water. ¹⁷ I shall disclose it to you; hear me; This which I have perceived, let me recount it, ¹⁸ That which the wise can tell, And they suppressed nothing received from their fathers, ¹⁹ (To them, to them alone was given the countryside, And no alien passed in their midst). ²⁰ All the days of the wicked man, he is travailing, Even throughout the number of years that are set aside for the terrifier. ²¹ The sound of alarming things is in his ears; When at peace, the devastator comes against him. ²² He cannot believe in restoration from darkness, And he must be on watch for the sword. ²³ He is wandering about as bread for the falcon; He knows that the day of darkness is ready at hand. ²⁴ Frightening him are distress and constraint; It shall overpower him like a king equipped for onslaught. ²⁵ For he has stretched his hand out against El, And he makes himself masterful against Him Who Suffices. ²⁶ He runs against Him with neck armor, With his thickly bossed shields. ²⁷ For he has covered his face with his fat, And he makes his hips big with fat blubber pads. ²⁸ Yet he shall tabernacle in suppressed cities, Houses in which no one shall later dwell, That are destined to become mounds. ²⁹ He shall not be rich; His estate shall not rise, And his shadow shall not stretch out over the earth. ³⁰ He shall not be taken away from darkness; The blaze shall dry up his young shoot, And his bud shall be taken away by the wind. ³¹ No one may rely upon such futility; He shall be led astray, For futility shall become his remuneration. ³² When not yet its day, his palm tree shall be snipped off, And its fronds shall not be flourishing. ³³ Like a vine he shall cast down his unripe grape, And he shall fling off his blossom like an olive. ³⁴ For the congregation of the polluted is stark, And fire devours the tents of bribery. ³⁵ They are pregnant with misery and beget lawlessness, And their belly, it prepares deceit.