1: Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said, 2: Should a wise man make answer with vain knowledge, And fill himself with the east wind? 3: Should he reason with unprofitable talk, Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good? 4: Yea, thou doest away with fear, And hinderest devotion before God. 5: For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth, And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty. 6: Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I; Yea, thine own lips testify against thee. 7: Art thou the first man that was born? Or wast thou brought forth before the hills? 8: Hast thou heard the secret counsel of God? And dost thou limit wisdom to thyself? 9: What knowest thou, that we know not? What understandest thou, which is not in us? 10: With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, Much elder than thy father. 11: Are the consolations of God too small for thee, Even the word that is gentle toward thee? 12: Why doth thy heart carry thee away? And why do thine eyes flash, 13: That against God thou turnest thy spirit, And lettest words go out of thy mouth? 14: What is man, that he should be clean? And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? 15: Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones; Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight: 16: How much less one that is abominable and corrupt, A man that drinketh iniquity like water! 17: I will show thee, hear thou me; And that which I have seen I will declare: 18: (Which wise men have told From their fathers, and have not hid it; 19: Unto whom alone the land was given, And no stranger passed among them): 20: The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor. 21: A sound of terrors is in his ears; In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him. 22: He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, And he is waited for of the sword. 23: He wandereth abroad for bread, [saying], Where is it? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. 24: Distress and anguish make him afraid; They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle. 25: Because he hath stretched out his hand against God, And behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty; 26: He runneth upon him with a [stiff] neck, With the thick bosses of his bucklers; 27: Because he hath covered his face with his fatness, And gathered fat upon his loins; 28: And he hath dwelt in desolate cities, In houses which no man inhabited, Which were ready to become heaps; 29: He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, Neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth. 30: He shall not depart out of darkness; The flame shall dry up his branches, And by the breath of [God's] mouth shall he go away. 31: Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself; For vanity shall be his recompense. 32: It shall be accomplished before his time, And his branch shall not be green. 33: He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, And shall cast off his flower as the olive-tree. 34: For the company of the godless shall be barren, And fire shall consume the tents of bribery. 35: They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, And their heart prepareth deceit.
