1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

2“Should a wise man answer with useless knowledge
and fill himself with the east wind?

3Should he reason with unprofitable talk
or with speeches with which he can do no good?

4Indeed, you diminish respect for God;
you obstruct devotion to him,

5for your iniquity teaches your mouth;
you choose to have the tongue of a crafty man.

6Your own mouth condemns you, not mine;
indeed, your own lips testify against you.

7Are you the first man that was born?
Were you brought into existence before the hills?

8Have you heard the secret knowledge of God?
Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

9What do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that is not also in us?

10With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men
who are much older than your father.

11Are the consolations of God too small for you,
the words that are gentle toward you?

12Why does your heart carry you away?
Why do your eyes flash,

13so that you turn your spirit against God
and bring out such words from your mouth?

14What is man that he should be clean?
What is he who is born of a woman that he should be righteous?

15See, God puts no trust even in his holy ones;
indeed, the heavens are not clean in his sight;

16how much less clean is one who is abominable and corrupt,
a man who drinks iniquity like water!

17I will show you; listen to me;
I will announce to you the things I have seen,

18the things that wise men have passed down from their fathers,
the things that their ancestors did not hide.

19These were their ancestors, to whom alone the land was given,
and among whom no stranger ever passed.

20The wicked man twists in pain all his days,
the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor to suffer.

21A sound of terrors is in his ears;
while he is in prosperity, the destroyer will come upon him.

22He does not think that he will return out of darkness;
the sword waits for him.

23He goes to various places for bread, saying, 'Where is it?'
He knows that the day of darkness is at hand.

24Distress and anguish make him afraid;
they prevail against him, as a king ready for battle.

25Because he has reached out with his hand against God
and has behaved proudly against the Almighty,

26this wicked man runs at God with a stiff neck,
with a thick shield.

27This is true, even though he has covered his face with his fat
and gathered fat on his loins,

28and has lived in desolate cities;
in houses which no man inhabits now
and which were ready to become heaps.

29He will not be rich; his wealth will not last
and his possessions will not spread over the land.

30He will not depart out of darkness; ⁰
a flame will dry up his stalks;
at the breath of God's mouth he will go away. ¹

31Let him not trust in useless things, deceiving himself;
for uselessness will be his reward.

32It will happen before his time should come to die;
his branch will not be green.

33He will drop his unripe grapes like a grapevine;
he will cast off his flowers like the olive tree.

34For the company of godless people will be barren;
fire will consume their tents of bribery.

35They conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity;
their womb conceives deceit.”