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¹ And Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

² Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind,

³ Reasoning with unprofitable talk, and with speeches which do no good?

⁴ Yea, thou makest piety of none effect, and restrainest meditation before God.

⁵ For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou hast chosen the tongue of the crafty.

⁶ Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I; and thy lips testify against thee.

⁷ Art thou the first man that was born? and wast thou brought forth before the hills?

⁸ Hast thou listened in the secret council of +God? And hast thou absorbed wisdom for thyself?

⁹ What knowest thou that we know not? [what] understandest thou which is not in us?

¹⁰ Both the greyheaded and the aged are with us, older than thy father.

¹¹ Are the consolations of God too small for thee? and the word gently spoken to thee?

¹² Why doth thy heart carry thee away? and why do thine eyes wink?

¹³ That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest words go out of thy mouth?

¹⁴ What is man, that he should be pure? and he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

¹⁵ Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight:

¹⁶ How much less the abominable and corrupt,—man, that drinketh unrighteousness like water!

¹⁷ I will shew thee, listen to me; and what I have seen I will declare;

¹⁸ Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hidden;

¹⁹ Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.

²⁰ All his days the wicked man is tormented, and numbered years are allotted to the violent.

²¹ The sound of terrors is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer cometh upon him.

²² He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is singled out for the sword.

²³ He wandereth abroad for bread,—where may it be? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

²⁴ Distress and anguish make him afraid; they prevail against him, as a king ready for the battle.

²⁵ For he hath stretched out his hand against God, and strengthened himself against the Almighty:

²⁶ He runneth against him, with [outstretched] neck, with the thick bosses of his bucklers;

²⁷ For he hath covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat upon [his] flanks.

²⁸ And he dwelleth in desolate cities, in houses that no man inhabiteth, which are destined to become heaps.

²⁹ He shall not become rich, neither shall his substance continue, and their possessions shall not extend upon the earth.

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 him not trust in vanity: he is deceived, for vanity shall be his recompense;

³² It shall be complete before his day, and his branch shall not be green.

³³ He shall shake off his unripe grapes as a vine, and shall cast his flower as an olive.

³⁴ For the family of the ungodly shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

³⁵ They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, and their belly prepareth deceit.