Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said:
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Should a wise man make answer with windy knowledge, And fill his belly with the east wind?
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Should he reason with unprofitable talk, Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?
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Yea, thou doest away with fear, And impairest devotion before God.
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For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth, And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
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Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I; Yea, thine own lips testify against thee.
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Art thou the first man that was born? Or wast thou brought forth before the hills?
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Dost thou hearken in the council of God? And dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?
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What knowest thou, that we know not? What understandest thou, which is not in us?
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With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, Much older than thy father.
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Are the consolations of God too small for thee, And the word that dealeth gently with thee?
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Why doth thy heart carry thee away? And why do thine eyes wink?
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That thou turnest thy spirit against God, And lettest such words go out of thy mouth.
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What is man, that he should be clean? And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
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Behold, He putteth no trust in His holy ones; Yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight.
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How much less one that is abominable and impure, Man who drinketh iniquity like water! .
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I will tell thee, hear thou me; And that which I have seen I will declare—
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Which wise men have told From their fathers, and have not hid it;
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Unto whom alone the land was given, And no stranger passed among them.
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The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
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A sound of terrors is in his ears: In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
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He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, And he is waited for of the sword.
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He wandereth abroad for bread: ‘Where is it?’ He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
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Distress and anguish overwhelm him; They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
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Because he hath stretched out his hand against God, And behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty;
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He runneth upon him with a stiff neck, With the thick bosses of his bucklers.
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Because he hath covered his face with his fatness, And made collops of fat on his loins;
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And he hath dwelt in desolate cities, In houses which no man would inhabit, Which were ready to become heaps.
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He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, Neither shall their produce bend to the earth.
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He shall not depart out of darkness; The flame shall dry up his branches, And by the breath of His mouth shall he go away.
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Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself; For vanity shall be his recompense.
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It shall be accomplished before his time, And his branch shall not be leafy.
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He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, And shall cast off his flower as the olive.
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For the company of the godless shall be desolate, And fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
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They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, And their belly prepareth deceit.
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