1And Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

2Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind,

3Reasoning with unprofitable talk, and with speeches which do no good?

4Yea, thou makest piety of none effect, and restrainest meditation before ³⁷God.

5For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou hast chosen the tongue of the crafty.

6Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I; and thy lips testify against thee.

7Art thou the first man that was born? and wast thou brought forth before the hills?

8Hast thou listened in the secret council of ³⁸God? And hast thou absorbed wisdom for thyself?

9What knowest thou that we know not? [what] understandest thou which is not in us?

10Both the greyheaded and the aged are with us, older than thy father.

11Are the consolations of ³⁹God too small for thee? and the word gently spoken to thee?

12Why doth thy heart carry thee away? and why do thine eyes wink?

13That thou turnest thy spirit against ⁴⁰God, and lettest words go out of thy mouth?

14What is man, that he should be pure? and he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

15Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight:

16How much less the abominable and corrupt, — man, that drinketh unrighteousness like water!

17I will shew thee, listen to me; and what I have seen I will declare;

18Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hidden;

19Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.

20All his days the wicked man is tormented, and numbered years are allotted to the violent.

21The sound of terrors is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer cometh upon him.

22He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is singled out for the sword.

23He wandereth abroad for bread, — where may it be? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

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

25For he hath stretched out his hand against ⁴¹God, and strengthened himself against the Almighty:

26He runneth against him, with [outstretched] neck, with the thick bosses of his bucklers;

27For he hath covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat upon [his] flanks.

28And he dwelleth in desolate cities, in houses that no man inhabiteth, which are destined to become heaps.

29He shall not become rich, neither shall his substance continue, and their possessions shall not extend upon the earth.

30He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches; and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.

31Let him not trust in vanity: he is deceived, for vanity shall be his recompense;

32It shall be complete before his day, and his branch shall not be green.

33He shall shake off his unripe grapes as a vine, and shall cast his flower as an olive.

34For the family of the ungodly shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

35They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, and their belly prepareth deceit.