When Calling Is Misread: Windy Words in Job 15

Eliphaz the Temanite said in reply: Does a wise man answer with windy opinions,And fill his belly with the east wind? Should he argue with useless talk,With words that are of no worth? You subvert pietyAnd restrain prayer to God. Your sinfulness dictates your speech,So you choose crafty language. Your own mouth condemns you—not I;Your lips testify against you. Were you the first human born?Were you created before the hills? Have you listened in on the council of God?Have you sole possession of wisdom? What do you know that we do not know,Or understand that we do not? Among us are gray-haired aged men,Older by far than your father. Are God’s consolations not enough for you,And those gentle words to you? How your heart has carried you away,How your eyes have failed you, That you could vent your anger on God,And let such words out of your mouth! What are mortals that they can be cleared of guilt,Those born of woman, that they be in the right? [God] puts no trust in the holy ones;The heavens are not guiltless in God’s sight; What then of those loathsome and foul,The ones who drink wrongdoing like water! I will hold forth; listen to me;What I have seen, I will declare— That which the wise have transmitted from their ancestors,And have not withheld, To whom alone the land was given,No stranger passing among them: The wicked man writhes in torment all his days;Few years are reserved for the ruthless. Frightening sounds fill his ears;When he is at ease a robber falls upon him. He is never sure he will come back from the dark;A sword stares him in the face. He wanders about for bread—where is it?He knows that the day of darkness has been readied for him. Troubles terrify him, anxiety overpowers him,Like a king expecting a siege. For he has raised his arm against GodAnd played the hero against the Almighty. He runs at [God] defiantly With his thickly bossed shield. His face is covered with fatAnd his loins with blubber. He dwells in cities doomed to ruin,In houses that shall not be lived in,That are destined to become heaps of rubble. He will not be rich;His wealth will not endure;His produce shall not bend to the earth. He will never get away from the darkness;Flames will sear his shoots;He will pass away by the breath of God’s mouth. He will not be trusted;He will be misled by falsehood,And falsehood will be his recompense. He will wither before his time,His boughs never having flourished. He will drop his unripe grapes like a vine;He will shed his blossoms like an olive tree. For the company of the impious is desolate;Fire consumes the tents of the briber; For they have conceived mischief, given birth to evil,And their womb has produced deceit.

Job 15:1–20 (ESV). Eliphaz the Temanite's second speech. He accuses Job of speaking wind, of usurping wisdom that belongs only to the aged and the holy, and of daring to 'vent anger on God.' The passage warns that no mortal—however pious his words—can be cleared of guilt before the One who 'puts no trust in the holy ones.'