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15:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: 15:2 "Should the wise answer with windy knowledge, and fill themselves with the east wind? 15:3 Should they argue in unprofitable talk, or in words with which they can do no good? 15:4 But you are doing away with the fear of God, and hindering meditation before God. 15:5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty. 15:6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips testify against you. 15:7 "Are you the firstborn of the human race? Were you brought forth before the hills? 15:8 Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself? 15:9 What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us? 15:10 The gray-haired and the aged are on our side, those older than your father. 15:11 Are the consolations of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you? 15:12 Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash, 15:13 so that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth? 15:14 What are mortals, that they can be clean? Or those born of woman, that they can be righteous? 15:15 God puts no trust even in his holy ones, and the heavens are not clean in his sight; 15:16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, one who drinks iniquity like water! 15:17 "I will show you; listen to me; what I have seen I will declare-- 15:18 what sages have told, and their ancestors have not hidden, 15:19 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them. 15:20 The wicked writhe in pain all their days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless. 15:21 Terrifying sounds are in their ears; in prosperity the destroyer will come upon them. 15:22 They despair of returning from darkness, and they are destined for the sword. 15:23 They wander abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' They know that a day of darkness is ready at hand; 15:24 distress and anguish terrify them; they prevail against them, like a king prepared for battle. 15:25 Because they stretched out their hands against God, and bid defiance to the Almighty, 15:26 running stubbornly against him with a thick-bossed shield; 15:27 because they have covered their faces with their fat, and gathered fat upon their loins, 15:28 they will live in desolate cities, in houses that no one should inhabit, houses destined to become heaps of ruins; 15:29 they will not be rich, and their wealth will not endure, nor will they strike root in the earth; 15:30 they will not escape from darkness; the flame will dry up their shoots, and their blossom will be swept away by the wind. 15:31 Let them not trust in emptiness, deceiving themselves; for emptiness will be their recompense. 15:32 It will be paid in full before their time, and their branch will not be green. 15:33 They will shake off their unripe grape, like the vine, and cast off their blossoms, like the 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 heart prepares deceit."