| Chapter 15 |
1 | And Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
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2 | Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind,
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3 | Reasoning with unprofitable talk, and with speeches which do no good?
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4 | Yea, thou makest piety of none effect, and restrainest meditation before łGod.
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5 | For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou hast chosen the tongue of the crafty.
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6 | Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I; and thy lips testify against thee.
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7 | Art thou the first man that was born? and wast thou brought forth before the hills?
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8 | Hast thou listened in the secret council of +God? And hast thou absorbed wisdom for thyself?
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9 | What knowest thou that we know not? [what] understandest thou which is not in us?
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10 | Both the greyheaded and the aged are with us, older than thy father.
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11 | Are the consolations of łGod too small for thee? and the word gently spoken to thee?
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12 | Why doth thy heart carry thee away? and why do thine eyes wink?
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13 | That thou turnest thy spirit against łGod, and lettest words go out of thy mouth?
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14 | What is man, that he should be pure? and he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
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15 | Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight:
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16 | How much less the abominable and corrupt, -- man, that drinketh unrighteousness like water!
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17 | I will shew thee, listen to me; and what I have seen I will declare;
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18 | Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hidden;
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19 | Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.
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20 | All his days the wicked man is tormented, and numbered years are allotted to the violent.
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21 | The sound of terrors is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer cometh upon him.
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22 | He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is singled out for the sword.
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23 | He wandereth abroad for bread, -- where may it be? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
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24 | Distress and anguish make him afraid; they prevail against him, as a king ready for the battle.
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25 | For he hath stretched out his hand against łGod, and strengthened himself against the Almighty:
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26 | He runneth against him, with [outstretched] neck, with the thick bosses of his bucklers;
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27 | For he hath covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat upon [his] flanks.
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28 | And he dwelleth in desolate cities, in houses that no man inhabiteth, which are destined to become heaps.
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29 | He shall not become rich, neither shall his substance continue, and their possessions shall not extend upon the earth.
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30 | He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches; and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.
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31 | Let him not trust in vanity: he is deceived, for vanity shall be his recompense;
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32 | It shall be complete before his day, and his branch shall not be green.
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33 | He shall shake off his unripe grapes as a vine, and shall cast his flower as an olive.
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34 | For the family of the ungodly shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
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35 | They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, and their belly prepareth deceit.
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