¹ Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, and said,

² Should a wise man make 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 Yea, thou do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God.

⁵ For thine iniquity teaches thy mouth. And thou choose the tongue of the crafty.

⁶ Thine own mouth condemns thee, and not I. Yes, thine own lips testify against thee.

⁷ Are thou the first man who was born? Or were thou brought forth before the hills?

⁸ Have thou heard the secret counsel of God? And do thou limit wisdom to thyself?

⁹ What do thou know, that we do not know? What do thou understand, which is not in us?

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

¹¹ Are the consolations of God too small for thee, even the word that is gentle toward thee?

¹² Why does thy heart carry thee away? And why do thine eyes flash,

¹³ that against God thou turn thy spirit, and let words go out of thy mouth?

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

¹⁵ Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yea, 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 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 to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them:

²⁰ The wicked man travails 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 destroyer shall come upon him.

²² He does not believe that he shall return out of darkness. And he is awaited 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 upon him with a stiff neck, with the thick studs of his bucklers,

²⁷ because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat upon his loins.

²⁸ And he has 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 possessions be extended on the earth.

³⁰ He shall not depart out of darkness. The flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of God's mouth he shall go away.

³¹ Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself. For vanity shall be his recompense.

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 tree.

³⁴ For the company of the hypocrites shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

³⁵ They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, and their heart prepares deceit.