[1] Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
[2] Should a wise man make answer with vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
[3] Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?
[4] Yea, thou doest away with fear, and restrainest devotion before God.
[5] For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
[6] Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I; yea, thine own lips testify against thee.
[7] Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou brought forth before the hills?
[8] Hast thou heard the secret counsel of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?
[9] What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?
[10] With us are both the grayheaded and the very aged men, much elder than thy father.
[11] Are the consolations of God too small for thee, and the word that dealeth gently with thee?
[12] Why doth thine heart carry thee away? and why do thine eyes wink?
[13] That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth.
[14] What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
[15] Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.
[16] How much less one that is abominable and corrupt, a man that drinketh iniquity like water!
[17] I will shew thee, hear thou me; and that which I have seen I will declare:
[18] (Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it;
[19] Unto whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them:)
[20] The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
[21] A sound of terrors is in his ears; in prosperity the spoiler shall come upon him:
[22] He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword:
[23] He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand:
[24] Distress and anguish make him afraid; they prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle:
[25] Because he hath stretched out his hand against God, and behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty;
[26] He runneth upon him with a stiff neck, with the thick bosses of his bucklers:
[27] Because he hath covered his face with his fatness, and made collops of fat on his flanks;
[28] And he hath dwelt in desolate cities, in houses which no man inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.
[29] He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their produce bend to the earth.
[30] 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.
[31] Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself: for vanity shall be his recompence.
[32] It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.
[33] He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.
[34] For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
[35] They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, and their belly prepareth deceit.