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15:1 Then Eli'phaz the Te'manite answered: 15:2 'Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind? 15:3 Should he argue in unprofitable talk, or in words with which he 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 first man that was born? Or 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 Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, 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 that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth? 15:14 What is man, that he can be clean? Or he that is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? 15:15 Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and 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! 15:17 'I will show you, hear me;and what I have seen I will declare 15:18 (what wise men have told, and their fathers have not hidden, 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, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless. 15:21 Terrifying sounds are in his ears;in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him. 15:22 He does not believe that he will return out of darkness, and he is destined for the sword. 15:23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, Where is it?' He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand; 15:24 distress and anguish terrify him;they prevail against him, like a king prepared for battle. 15:25 Because he has stretched forth his hand against God, and bids defiance to the Almighty, 15:26 running stubbornly against him with a thick-bossed shield; 15:27 because he has covered his face with his fat, and gathered fat upon his loins, 15:28 and has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no man should inhabit, which were destined to become heaps of ruins; 15:29 he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will he strike root in the earth; 15:30 he will not escape from darkness;the flame will dry up his shoots, and his blossom will be swept away by the wind. 15:31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself;for emptiness will be his recompense. 15:32 It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not be green. 15:33 He will shake off his unripe grape, like the vine, and cast off his blossom, 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.'