[1] Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
[2] “Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?
[3] Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good?
[4] Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.
[5] For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
[6] Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you.
[7] “Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought out before the hills?
[8] Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
[9] What do you know that we don’t know? What do you understand which is not in us?
[10] With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much elder than your father.
[11] Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?
[12] Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,
[13] That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?
[14] What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
[15] Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;
[16] how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
[17] “I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare
[18] (which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;
[19] to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):
[20] the wicked man writhes in 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 destroyer will come on him.
[22] He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.
[23] He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows 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 has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty,
[26] he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers,
[27] because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.
[28] He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.
[29] He will not be rich, neither will his substance continue, neither will their possessions be extended on the earth.
[30] He will not depart out of darkness. The flame will dry up his branches. He will go away by the breath of God’s mouth.
[31] Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness will be his reward.
[32] It will be accomplished before his time. His branch will not be green.
[33] He will shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and will cast off his flower as the olive tree.
[34] For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.
[35] They conceive mischief, and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”