Eliphaz Accuses: Job Does Not Fear God

Job 15

1 Then q Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

2 "Should r a wise man answer with s windy knowledge,
and fill his t belly with u the east wind?
 3 Should he argue in unprofitable talk,
or in words with which he can do no good?
 4 But you are doing away with the fear of God 1
and hindering meditation before God.
 5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
 6 Your v own mouth condemns you, and not I;
w your own lips testify against you.

7 x "Are you the first man who was born?
Or y were you brought forth z before the hills?
 8 Have you listened in a the council of God?
And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
 9 b What do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that is not clear to us?
 10 c Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us,
older than your father.
 11 Are the comforts of God too small for you,
or the word that deals gently with you?
 12 Why does your heart carry you away,
and why do your eyes flash,
 13 that you turn your d spirit against God
and bring such words out of your mouth?
 14 e What is man, f that he can be pure?
Or he who is g born of a woman, that he can be righteous?
 15 Behold, God 2 h puts no trust in his i holy ones,
and the heavens are not pure in his sight;
 16 j how much less one who is abominable and k corrupt,
a man who l 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 m from their fathers,
 19 to whom alone the land was given,
and no n stranger passed among them).
 20 The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,
through all the o years that are laid up for p the ruthless.
 21 q Dreadful sounds are in his ears;
in r prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.
 22 He does not believe that he will return out of darkness,
and he is marked for the sword.
 23 He s wanders abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it?'
He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;
 24 distress and anguish terrify him;
they t prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.
 25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God
and defies the Almighty,
 26 u running v stubbornly against him
with a thickly bossed shield;
 27 because he has w covered his face with his fat
and gathered fat upon his waist
 28 and has lived in desolate cities,
in houses that none should inhabit,
which were ready to become heaps of ruins;
 29 he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure,
nor will his possessions spread over the earth; 3
30 he will not depart from darkness;
the flame will dry up his shoots,
and by x the breath of his mouth he will depart.
 31 Let him not y trust in emptiness, deceiving himself,
for emptiness will be his payment.
 32 It will be paid in full z before his time,
and his branch will not be green.
 33 He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,
and cast off his blossom like the olive tree.
 34 For a the company of the godless is barren,
and b fire consumes the tents of bribery.
 35 They c conceive trouble and give birth to evil,
and their d womb prepares deceit."

  1. Cross References
    Job 2:11
    Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.
  2. Cross References
    Job 12:3
    But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?
  3. Cross References
    Job 16:3
    Shall windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?
  4. Cross References
    Job 15:35
    They conceive trouble and give birth to evil, and their womb prepares deceit.
  5. Cross References
    Job 6:26
    Do you think that you can reprove words, when the speech of a despairing man is wind?
    Job 8:2
    How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
    Hosea 12:1
    Ephraim feeds on the wind and pursues the east wind all day long; they multiply falsehood and violence; they make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried to Egypt.
  6. Cross References
    Job 9:20
    Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
    Luke 19:22
    He said to him, 'I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant! You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow?
  7. Cross References
    2 Samuel 1:16
    And David said to him, "Your blood be on your head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, 'I have killed the Lord 's anointed.'
  8. Cross References
    Job 38:21
    You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!
  9. Cross References
    Proverbs 8:25
    Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth.
  10. Cross References
    Psalms 90:2
    Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
  11. Cross References
    Job 29:4
    As I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent.
    Jeremiah 23:18
    For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened?
    Genesis 1:26
    Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
    Genesis 3:22
    Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever -
  12. Cross References
    Job 12:3
    But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?
    Job 13:2
    What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.
  13. Cross References
    Job 12:12
    Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days.
    Job 32:6 - 7
    And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said: "I am young in years, and you are aged; therefore I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you.
  14. Cross References
    Job 21:4
    As for me, is my complaint against man? Why should I not be impatient?
  15. Cross References
    Job 15:14 - 16
    What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?
    Job 25:4 - 6
    How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure?
  16. Cross References
    Job 14:4
    Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? ...
    Psalms 14:3
    They have all turned aside; together they have ...
    Proverbs 20:9
    Who can say, "I have made my heart pure; I am c...
    Ecclesiastes 7:20
    Surely there is not a righteous man on earth wh...
    1 John 1:8
    If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,...
    1 John 1:10
    If we say we have not sinned, we make him a lia...
  17. Cross References
    Job 14:1
    Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.
  18. Cross References
    Job 4:18
    Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error.
  19. Cross References
    Job 5:1
    Call now; is there anyone who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?
  20. Cross References
    Job 9:14
    How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him?
  21. Cross References
    Psalms 14:3
    They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
    Psalms 53:1
    The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good.
  22. Cross References
    Job 34:7
    What man is like Job, who drinks up scoffing like water.
    Proverbs 19:28
    A worthless witness mocks at justice, and the mouth of the wicked devours iniquity.
    Proverbs 26:6
    Whoever sends a message by the hand of a fool cuts off his own feet and drinks violence.
  23. Cross References
    Job 8:8
    For inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out.
    Psalms 44:1
    O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old:
  24. Cross References
    Joel 3:17
    So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it.
  25. Cross References
    Job 21:19
    You say, 'God stores up their iniquity for their children.' Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it.
    Job 24:1
    Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty, and why do those who know him never see his days?
  26. Cross References
    Job 6:23
    Or, 'Deliver me from the adversary's hand'? Or, 'Redeem me from the hand of the ruthless'?
    Job 27:13
    This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty:
  27. Cross References
    Job 18:11
    Terrors frighten him on every side, and chase him at his heels.
  28. Cross References
    1 Thessalonians 5:3
    While people are saying, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
  29. Cross References
    Psalms 59:15
    They wander about for food and growl if they do not get their fill.
    Psalms 109:10
    May his children wander about and beg, seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!
  30. Cross References
    Job 14:20
    You prevail forever against him, and he passes; you change his countenance, and send him away.
  31. Cross References
    Job 16:14
    He breaks me with breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior.
    Daniel 8:6
    He came to the ram with the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath.
  32. Cross References
    Psalms 75:5
    Do not lift up your horn on high, or speak with haughty neck.'
  33. Cross References
    Psalms 17:10
    They close their hearts to pity; with their mouths they speak arrogantly.
  34. Cross References
    Job 4:9
    By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.
  35. Cross References
    Isaiah 59:4
    No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
  36. Cross References
    Job 22:16
    They were snatched away before their time; their foundation was washed away.
    Ecclesiastes 7:17
    Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time?
    Psalms 55:23
    But you, O God, will cast them down into the pit of destruction; men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their days. But I will trust in you.
    Psalms 102:24
    "O my God," I say, "take me not away in the midst of my days - you whose years endure throughout all generations!"
  37. Cross References
    Job 16:7
    Surely now God has worn me out; he has made desolate all my company.
  38. Cross References
    Job 20:26
    Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures; a fire not fanned will devour him; what is left in his tent will be consumed.
  39. Cross References
    Psalms 7:14
    Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.
    Isaiah 59:4
    No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
    Hosea 10:13
    You have plowed iniquity; you have reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your warriors.
  40. Cross References
    Job 15:2
    Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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