1 Then Eliphaz, the Temanite, answered, and said,
2 Should a wise man utter vain knowledge and fill his belly with the east wind?
3 Should he dispute with useless words and with reasons that are not profitable?
4 Thou dost also cast off fear and undermine prayer before God.
5 For thy mouth has declared thine iniquity, and thou hast chosen the tongue of the crafty.
6 Thine own mouth shall condemn thee, and not I; thine own lips shall testify against thee.
7 Wast thou born before Adam? Or wast thou formed before the hills?
8 Hast thou heard the secret of God, that thou dost detain wisdom in thee alone?
9 What dost thou know that we do not? What dost thou understand, which is not in us?
10 Among us are also gray hairs; there are also aged men, much elder than thy father.
11 Are the consolations of God in such small esteem with thee? Is there by chance any secret thing concerning thee?
12 Why does thine heart carry thee away, and why do thine eyes blink,
13 that thou dost reply unto God with thy spirit and bring forth such words out of thy mouth?
14 What is man that he should be clean and that he that is born of a woman should be justified?
15 Behold, he puts no trust in his saints, and not even the heavens are clean in his sight.
16 How much less the man who is abominable and filthy, who drinks iniquity like water?
17 Listen to me and I will show thee and declare unto thee that which I have seen,
18 that which the wise men have told us of their fathers and have not hid it,
19 unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.
20 The wicked man travails with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden from the violent.
21 Fearful sounds are in his ears; in peace the destroyer shall come upon him.
22 He will not believe that he shall return out of darkness, and he is always watching the sword.
23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? He knows that the day of darkness is prepared for him.
24 Tribulation and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
25 Because he extended his hand against God and strengthens himself against the Almighty,
26 he shall run him through in the neck, upon the thick shoulder pieces of his shields;
27 for he covered his face with his fatness and made collops of fat on his flanks;
28 and he dwelt in desolate cities and in houses which no one inhabited, which were in heaps.
29 He shall not become rich, nor shall his strength be established, neither shall he extend his beauty upon the earth.
30 He shall not escape from the darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth he shall perish.
31 He shall not be established; in vanity he shall err; therefore, he shall be changed into vanity.
32 He shall be cut off before his time, and his branch shall not be green.
33 He shall shake off his sour grapes as the vine and shall cast off his flower as the olive.
34 For the congregation of the hypocrites shall be made desolate, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
35 They conceive pain and bring forth iniquity, and their belly meditates deceit.