| 1 | And Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, |
| 2 | Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind, |
| 3 | Reasoning with unprofitable talk, and with speeches which do no good? |
| 4 | Yea, thou makest piety of none effect, and restrainest meditation before �God. |
| 5 | For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou hast chosen the tongue of the crafty. |
| 6 | Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I; and thy lips testify against thee. |
| 7 | Art thou the first man that was born? and wast thou brought forth before the hills? |
| 8 | Hast thou listened in the secret council of +God? And hast thou absorbed wisdom for thyself? |
| 9 | What knowest thou that we know not? [what] understandest thou which is not in us? |
| 10 | Both the greyheaded and the aged are with us, older than thy father. |
| 11 | Are the consolations of �God too small for thee? and the word gently spoken to thee? |
| 12 | Why doth thy heart carry thee away? and why do thine eyes wink? |
| 13 | That thou turnest thy spirit against �God, and lettest words go out of thy mouth? |
| 14 | What is man, that he should be pure? and he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? |
| 15 | Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight: |
| 16 | How much less the abominable and corrupt,—man, that drinketh unrighteousness like water! |
| 17 | I will shew thee, listen to me; and what I have seen I will declare; |
| 18 | Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hidden; |
| 19 | Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them. |
| 20 | All his days the wicked man is tormented, and numbered years are allotted to the violent. |
| 21 | The sound of terrors is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer cometh upon him. |
| 22 | He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is singled out for the sword. |
| 23 | He wandereth abroad for bread,—where may it be? 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 for the battle. |
| 25 | For he hath stretched out his hand against �God, and strengthened himself against the Almighty: |
| 26 | He runneth against him, with [outstretched] neck, with the thick bosses of his bucklers; |
| 27 | For he hath covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat upon [his] flanks. |
| 28 | And he dwelleth in desolate cities, in houses that no man inhabiteth, which are destined to become heaps. |
| 29 | He shall not become rich, neither shall his substance continue, and their possessions shall not extend upon 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: he is deceived, for vanity shall be his recompense; |
| 32 | It shall be complete before his day, and his branch shall not be green. |
| 33 | He shall shake off his unripe grapes as a vine, and shall cast his flower as an olive. |
| 34 | For the family of the ungodly shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery. |
| 35 | They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, and their belly prepareth deceit. |