Job 15-16

Job 15

¹Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

²Should a wise man make answer with vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?

³Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

⁴Yea, thou doest away with fear, and restrainest devotion before God.

⁵For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.

⁶Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I; yea, thine own lips testify against thee.

⁷Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou brought forth before the hills?

⁸Hast thou heard the secret counsel of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?

⁹What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?

¹⁰With us are both the grayheaded and the very aged men, much elder than thy father.

¹¹Are the consolations of God too small for thee, and the word that dealeth gently with thee?

¹²Why doth thine heart carry thee away? and why do thine eyes wink?

¹³That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth.

¹⁴What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

¹⁵Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

¹⁶How much less one that is abominable and corrupt, a man that drinketh iniquity like water!

¹⁷I will shew thee, hear thou me; and that which I have seen I will declare:

¹⁸(Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it;

¹⁹Unto whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them:)

²⁰The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

²¹A sound of terrors is in his ears; in prosperity the spoiler shall come upon him:

²²He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword:

²³He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand:

²⁴Distress and anguish make him afraid; they prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle:

²⁵Because he hath stretched out his hand against God, and behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty;

²⁶He runneth upon him with a stiff neck, with the thick bosses of his bucklers:

²⁷Because he hath covered his face with his fatness, and made collops of fat on his flanks;

²⁸And he hath dwelt in desolate cities, in houses which no man inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.

²⁹He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their produce bend to the earth.

³⁰He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.

³¹Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself: for vanity shall be his recompence.

³²It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.

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

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

³⁵They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, and their belly prepareth deceit.

Job 16

¹Then Job answered and said,

²I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.

³Shall vain words have an end? or what provoketh thee that thou answerest?

⁴I also could speak as ye do; if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I could join words together against you, and shake mine head at you.

⁵But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips should assuage your grief.

⁶Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?

⁷But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.

⁸And thou hast laid fast hold on me, which is a witness against me: and my leanness riseth up against me, it testifieth to my face.

⁹He hath torn me in his wrath, and persecuted me; he hath gnashed upon me with his teeth: mine adversary sharpeneth his eyes upon me.

¹⁰They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully: they gather themselves together against me.

¹¹God delivereth me to the ungodly, and casteth me into the hands of the wicked.

¹²I was at ease, and he brake me asunder; yea, he hath taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces: he hath also set me up for his mark.

¹³His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.

¹⁴He breaketh me with breach upon breach; he runneth upon me like a giant.

¹⁵I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and have laid my horn in the dust.

¹⁶My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

¹⁷Although there is no violence in mine hands, and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no resting place.

¹⁹Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he that coucheth for me is on high.

²⁰My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God;

²¹That he would maintain the right of a man with God, and of a son of man with his neighbour!

²²For when a few years are come, I shall go the way whence I shall not return.