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¹ Then Eli'phaz the Te'manite answered:² "Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind?³ Should he argue in unprofitable talk, or in words with which he can do no good?⁴ But you are doing away with the fear of God, and hindering meditation before God.⁵ For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.⁶ Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips testify against you.⁷ "Are you the first man that was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?⁸ Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself?⁹ What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us?¹⁰ Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, 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 why do your eyes flash,¹³ that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth?¹⁴ What is man, that he can be clean? Or he that is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?¹⁵ Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not clean in his sight;¹⁶ how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!

¹⁷ "I will show you, hear me; and what I have seen I will declare¹⁸ (what wise men have told, and their fathers have not hidden,¹⁹ to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them).²⁰ The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.²¹ Terrifying sounds are in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.²² He does not believe that he will return out of darkness, and he is destined for the sword.²³ He wanders abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;²⁴ distress and anguish terrify him; they prevail against him, like a king prepared for battle.²⁵ Because he has stretched forth his hand against God, and bids defiance to the Almighty,²⁶ running stubbornly against him with a thick-bossed shield;²⁷ because he has covered his face with his fat, and gathered fat upon his loins,²⁸ and has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no man should inhabit, which were destined to become heaps of ruins;²⁹ he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will he strike root in the earth;³⁰ he will not escape from darkness; the flame will dry up his shoots, and his blossom will be swept away by the wind.³¹ Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness will be his recompense.³² It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not be green.³³ He will shake off his unripe grape, like the vine, and cast off his blossom, like the olive tree.³⁴ For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery.³⁵ They conceive mischief and bring forth evil and their heart prepares deceit."