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15Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
²Should a wise man utter 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 castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.
⁵For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, 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 made before the hills?
⁸Hast thou heard the secret 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 very aged men, much elder than thy father.
¹¹Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any secret thing with thee?
¹²Why doth thine heart carry thee away? and what do thy eyes wink at,
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 saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.
¹⁶How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?
¹⁷I will shew thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare;
¹⁸Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it:
¹⁹Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.
²⁰The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.
²¹A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer 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.
²⁴Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
²⁵For he stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty.
²⁶He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers:
²⁷Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks.
²⁸And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps.
²⁹He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon 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 not him that is deceived trust in vanity: 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 congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.
³⁵They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.

16Then Job answered and said,
²I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.
³Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?
⁴I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.
⁵But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.
⁶Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: 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 filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.
⁹He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
¹⁰They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.
¹¹God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
¹²I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and 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 defiled my horn in the dust.
¹⁶My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
¹⁷Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.
¹⁸O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.
¹⁹Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.
²⁰My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.
²¹O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!
²²When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

17My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
²Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
³Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?
⁴For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
⁵He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
⁶He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
⁷Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
⁸Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
⁹The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
¹⁰But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.
¹¹My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
¹²They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
¹³If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
¹⁴I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
¹⁵And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
¹⁶They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.