Job 15

₂“Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge,

and fill his belly with the east wind?

₃Should he argue in unprofitable talk,

or in words with which he can do no good?

₄But you are doing away with the fear of God

and hindering meditation before God.

₅For your iniquity teaches your mouth,

and you choose the tongue of the crafty.

₆Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;

your own lips testify against you.

₇“Are you the first man who was born?

Or were you brought forth before the hills?

₈Have you listened in the council of God?

And do you limit wisdom to yourself?

₉What do you know that we do not know?

What do you understand that is not clear to us?

₁₀Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us,

older than your father.

₁₁Are the comforts of God too small for you,

or the word that deals gently with you?

₁₂Why does your heart carry you away,

and why do your eyes flash,

₁₃that you turn your spirit against God

and bring such words out of your mouth?

₁₄What is man, that he can be pure?

Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?

₁₅Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones,

and the heavens are not pure in his sight;

₁₆how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,

a man who drinks injustice like water!

₁₇“I will show you; hear me,

and what I have seen I will declare

₁₈(what wise men have told,

without hiding it from their fathers,

₁₉to whom alone the land was given,

and no stranger passed among them).

₂₀The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,

through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.

₂₁Dreadful sounds are in his ears;

in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.

₂₂He does not believe that he will return out of darkness,

and he is marked for the sword.

₂₃He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’

He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;

₂₄distress and anguish terrify him;

they prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.

₂₅Because he has stretched out his hand against God

and defies the Almighty,

₂₆running stubbornly against him

with a thickly bossed shield;

₂₇because he has covered his face with his fat

and gathered fat upon his waist

₂₈and has lived in desolate cities,

in houses that none should inhabit,

which were ready to become heaps of ruins;

₂₉he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure,

nor will his possessions spread over the earth;

₃₀he will not depart from darkness;

the flame will dry up his shoots,

and by the breath of his mouth he will depart.

₃₁Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself,

for emptiness will be his payment.

₃₂It will be paid in full before his time,

and his branch will not be green.

₃₃He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,

and cast off his blossom like the olive tree.

₃₄For the company of the godless is barren,

and fire consumes the tents of bribery.

₃₅They conceive trouble and give birth to evil,

and their womb prepares deceit.”