1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
2 Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
3 Should he reason with speech that is not useful, or with words which do not profit?
4 Yea, you cast off fear, and restrain meditation before the Mighty God.
5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; yea, 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? Do you limit 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 grayheaded and the aged are among us, much older than your father.
11 Are the consolations of the Mighty God of little worth to you? Do you have secret words?
12 Why does your heart carry you away, and what do your eyes wink at,
13 that you turn your spirit against the Mighty 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 If God puts no trust in His saints, and the heavens are not pure in His sight;
16 how much more abhorrent and corrupt is man, who drinks injustice 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 earth was given, and no stranger passed among them:
20 The wicked man writhes with pain all his days, and the number of years is stored up for the ruthless.
21 Dreadful sounds are in his ears; during peace, devastation comes upon him.
22 He does not believe that he will return from darkness, for a sword watches for him.
23 He wanders about for bread, saying, where is it? He knows that the day of darkness is ready at hand.
24 Adversity and distress terrify him; they overpower him, like a king ready for the attack.
25 For he stretches out his hand against the Mighty God, and acts defiantly against the Almighty,
26 running with stiff neck against Him with his thick, embossed shield.
27 He has covered his face with his fatness, and made his waist heavy with fat.
28 He dwells in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabits, which are ready to become heaps.
29 He will not be rich, nor will his wealth endure, nor shall his possessions overspread the earth.
30 He shall not depart from darkness; the flame shall dry out his branches, and by the breath of His mouth he shall be removed.
31 Let not him who wanders about trust in vanity, for vanity shall be his recompense.
32 It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.
33 He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine, and cast off his blossom like the olive.
34 For the company of hypocrites shall be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.
35 They conceive trouble and bring forth iniquity; their womb prepares deceit.