1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
2. “Should a wise man reply with empty knowledgeand fill his lungs with the east wind?
3. Should he reason with unprofitable talkor with speeches with which he can do no good?
4. Yes, you cast off reverenceand hinder prayer before God.
5. For your mouth utters your iniquity,and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
6. Your own mouth condemns you, and notI;yes, your own lips testify against you.
7. “Are you the first man who was born?Or were you made before the hills?
8. Have you heard the counsel of God?And do you restrict wisdom to yourself?
9. What do you know that we do not know?What do you understand that is not in us?
10. Both the gray-haired and very aged are among us—much older than your father.
11. Are the consolations of God too small for you?Or the word spoken gently to you?
12. Why does your heart carry you away?And what do your eyes wink at,
13. that you turn your spirit against God,and let such words go out of your mouth?
14. “What is man that he should be pure?And he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15. Behold, He puts no trust in His holy ones,and the heavens are not pure in His sight.
16. How much more abhorred and corrupt is man,who drinks iniquity like water!
17. “I will tell you; hear me,and what I have seen I will declare,
18. what wise men have told,not hiding anything received from their fathers,
19. to whom alone the land was given,and no foreigner passed among them:
20. The wicked man travails with pain all his days,and numbered are the years stored up for the oppressor.
21. A dreadful sound is in his ears;in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.
22. He does not believe that he will return from darkness,and a sword awaits him.
23. He wanders about for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
24. Trouble and anguish will make him afraid;they will prevail against him as a king ready to the battle.
25. For he stretches out his hand against God,and strengthens himself against the Almighty.
26. He rushes upon Him, even on His neck,with his thick embossed shield.
27. “He has covered his face with his fatnessand gathered fat upon his waist.
28. He dwells in desolate citiesand in houses which no man inhabits,which are ready to become heaps.
29. He will not be rich, nor will his wealth continue,nor will his possessions spread over the earth.
30. He will not depart out of darkness;the flame will dry out his branches,and by the breath of His mouth he will go away.
31. Let him who is deceived not trust in futility,for futility will be his reward.
32. It will be accomplished before his time,and his branch will not be green.
33. He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,and will cast off his blossom like the olive.
34. For the company of hypocrites will be desolate,and fire will consume the tents of bribery.
35. They conceive mischief, and give birth to futility;their womb prepares deceit.”