1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
2"Should a wise man answer with empty knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?"
3"Should he argue with useless talk, or with speeches that do no good?"
4"Indeed, you throw off the fear of God, and you hold back prayer before him."
5"For your mouth speaks your sin, and you choose the tongue of the crafty."
6"Your own mouth condemns you, not I. Yes, your own lips speak against you."
7"Are you the first man who was ever born? Were you made before the hills?"
8"Have you listened in on the secret of God? Do you keep wisdom to yourself alone?"
9"What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not in us?"
10"Among us are gray-haired men and very old men, much older than your father."
11"Are the comforts of God too small for you? Is there some secret thing with you?"
12"Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,"
13"so that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words come out of your mouth?"
14"What is man, that he should be clean? What is one born of a woman, that he should be righteous?"
15"Look, God puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight."
16"How much less is man, who is hateful and filthy, who drinks sin like water."
17"I will show you; listen to me. What I have seen I will tell:"
18"things which wise men have told, passed on from their fathers, and have not hidden;"
19"to them alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them."
20"The wicked man is in pain all his days. The number of years is hidden from the cruel man."
21"A terrifying sound is in his ears. In time of peace the destroyer comes upon him."
22"He does not believe he will come back out of the darkness, and the sword is waiting for him."
23"He wanders about for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that the day of darkness is close at hand."
24"Trouble and anguish make him afraid. They overpower him, like a king ready for battle."
25"For he stretches out his hand against God, and makes himself strong against the Almighty."
26"He runs at him, straight at his neck, with the thick bosses of his shields."
27"He has covered his face with his fat, and made rolls of fat on his sides."
28"He lives in ruined cities, in houses where no one lives, which are ready to become heaps of stones."
29"He will not be rich; his wealth will not last; his possessions will not spread over the earth."
30"He will not get away from darkness. The flame will dry up his branches, and by the breath of God's mouth he will go away."
31"Let the one who is deceived not trust in what is empty, for emptiness will be his pay."
32"It will be finished before his time, and his branch will not be green."
33"He will shake off his unripe grapes like a vine, and drop his blossom like an olive tree."
34"For the company of hypocrites will be barren, and fire will burn up the tents of bribery."
35"They conceive trouble and give birth to emptiness, and their belly prepares deceit."