¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered ,

²“Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge ,

and fill himself with the east wind ?

³Should he reason with unprofitable talk ,

or with speeches with which he can do no good ?

⁴Yes, you do away with fear ,

and hinder devotion before God.

⁵For your iniquity teaches your mouth ,

and you choose the language of the crafty .

⁶Your 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 ?

⁸Have you heard the secret counsel of God ?

Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

⁹What do you know that we don’t know ?

What do you understand which is not in us ?

¹⁰With us are both the grey-headed and the very aged men ,

much older than your father.

¹¹Are the consolations of God too small for you ,

even the word that is gentle towards you ?

¹²Why does your heart carry you away ?

Why do your eyes flash ,

¹³that you turn your spirit against God,

and let such words go out of your mouth ?

¹⁴What is man, that he should be clean ?

What is he who is born of a woman , that he should be righteous ?

¹⁵Behold , he puts no trust in his holy ones .

Yes , the heavens are not clean in his sight ;

¹⁶how 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 ;

¹⁹to whom alone the land was given ,

and no stranger passed amongst them ):

²⁰the wicked man writhes in pain all his days ,

even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor .

²¹A sound of terrors is in his ears.

In prosperity the destroyer will come on him .

²²He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness .

He is waited for by the sword .

²³He wanders abroad for bread , saying, ‘Where is it ?’

He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand .

²⁴Distress and anguish make him afraid .

They prevail against him , as a king ready to the battle .

²⁵Because he has stretched out his hand against God ,

and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty ,

²⁶he runs at him with a stiff neck ,

with the thick shields of his bucklers ,

²⁷because he has covered his face with his fatness ,

and gathered fat on his thighs .

²⁸He has lived in desolate cities ,

in houses which no one inhabited ,

which were ready to become heaps .

²⁹He will not be rich , neither will his substance continue ,

neither will their possessions be extended on the earth.

³⁰He will not depart out of darkness .

The flame will dry up his branches .

He will go away by the breath of God ’s mouth .

³¹Let him not trust in emptiness , deceiving himself,

for emptiness will be his reward .

³²It will be accomplished before his time .

His branch will not be green .

³³He will shake off his unripe grape as the vine ,

and will cast off his flower as the olive tree .

³⁴For the company of the godless will be barren ,

and fire will consume the tents of bribery .

³⁵They conceive mischief and produce iniquity .

Their heart prepares deceit .”