1 Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
2 Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk? or with speeches with which he can do no good?
4 Yea, you cast off fear, and restrain prayer before God.
5 For your mouth utters your iniquity, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I: yea, your own lips testify against you.
7 Are you the first man that was born? or were you made before the hills?
8 Have you heard the council of God? and do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9 What know you, that we know not? what understand you, which is not in us?
10 With us are both the gray headed and very aged men, much older than your father.
11 Are the consolations of God too small for you? or the word that deals gently with you?
12 Why does your heart carry you away? and what do your eyes wink at,
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? 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 more abominable and filthy is man, who drinks iniquity like water?
17 I will show you, hear 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 Unto whom alone the land 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 for the oppressor.
21 A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
22 He believes not that he shall return out of darkness, and 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 Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready for battle.
25 For he stretches out his hand against God, and strengthens himself against the Almighty.
26 He runs stubbornly against him, with his heavily embossed shield.
27 Because he covers his face with his fatness, and makes heavy fat on his waist.
28 And he dwells in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabits, which are ready to become heaps.
29 He shall not be rich, neither shall his wealth continue, neither shall he overspread the earth with it.
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 not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for futility shall be his reward.
32 It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.
33 He shall shake off his unripe grapes like the vine, and shall cast off his blossom like the olive.
34 For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their heart prepares deceit.