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[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.
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