- 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
- 2“Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?
- 3Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?
- 4Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.
- 5For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
- 6Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.
- 7“Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought out before the hills?
- 8Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
- 9What do you know, that we don’t know? What do you understand, which is not in us?
- 10With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much elder than your father.
- 11Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?
- 12Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,
- 13That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?
- 14What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
- 15Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;
- 16how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
- 17“I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare:
- 18(Which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;
- 19to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):
- 20the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
- 21A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.
- 22He doesn’t believe that he shall return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.
- 23He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
- 24Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
- 25Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty;
- 26he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers;
- 27because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.
- 28He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.
- 29He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.
- 30He shall not depart out of darkness. The flame shall dry up his branches. By the breath of God’s mouth shall he go away.
- 31Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness shall be his reward.
- 32It shall be accomplished before his time. 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 tree.
- 34For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
- 35They conceive mischief, and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”