And Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

Should a wise man answer with the knowledge of wind, And should he fill his belly with the east wind?

Should he argue with useless talk And with words by which he cannot avail?

Indeed you do away with the fear of God And restrain meditation before God.

For your iniquity instructs your mouth, And you choose the tongue of the crafty.

Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; And your own lips testify against you.

Are you the first man born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?

Did you listen in on the secret council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself?

What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not with us?

Both the grayheaded and the aged are among us, Older than your father.

Are the consolations of God too small for you, Or the word spoken gently to you?

Why does your heart take you away? And why do your eyes flash,

That you turn your spirit against God And let words go forth from your mouth?

What is man, that he can be clean, Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?

Indeed, He puts no trust in His holy ones; Even the heavens are not clean in His eyes.

How much less one who is abominable and corrupt! How much less a man who drinks wrong like water!

I will tell you; hear me; And what I have seen, that will I recount,

What wise men have declared, And have not hidden, from their fathers;

To whom alone the land was given, And no stranger passed in their midst:

For all his days the wicked man travails in pain, And numbered years are stored up for the ruthless man.

The sound of terrors is in his ears; While he is at peace, the destroyer will come upon him.

He does not believe that he will return from the darkness, And he is spied out for the sword.

He wanders for bread-where is it? He knows that the day of darkness is ready at hand.

Distress and straits terrify him; They prevail against him, like a king prepared for the attack;

Because he stretched out his hand against God, And against the Almighty he acted mightily,

Running against Him with a stiff neck, With the thick bosses of his shield;

Because he covered his face with his fatness And gathered fat upon his loins;

And he dwelt in desolated cities, In houses which should not have been inhabited, Which were appointed to become heaps.

He will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure; Nor will his produce bend down to the earth.

He will not go away from darkness; The flame will dry up his shoots, And by the breath of His mouth he will go away.

Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself; For vanity will be his recompense.

It will be fully paid before his day, And his branch will not be flourishing.

He will shake off his unripe grapes like a vine, And he will cast off his blossom like an olive tree.

For the company of the profane will be barren, And fire will devour the tents of bribery.

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