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
wherewith he can do no good?
4 Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.
5 For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the
tongue of the crafty.
6 Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own
lips testify against thee.
7 Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before
the hills?
8 Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain
wisdom to thyself?
9 What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou,
which is not in us?
10 With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder
than thy father.
11 Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any
secret thing with thee?
12 Why doth thine heart carry thee away? and what do thy eyes
wink at,
13 That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such
words go out of thy mouth?
14 What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of
a woman, that he should be righteous?
15 Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens
are not clean in his sight.
16 How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh
iniquity like water?
17 I will shew thee, 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 earth was given, and no stranger passed
among them.
20 The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the
number of years is hidden to the oppressor.
21 A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer
shall come upon him.
22 He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he
is waited for of the sword.
23 He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth
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 to the battle.
25 For he stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth
himself against the Almighty.
26 He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses
of his bucklers:
27 Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh
collops of fat on his flanks.
28 And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man
inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps.
29 He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue,
neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof 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 not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall
be his recompence.
32 It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall
not be green.
33 He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall
cast off his flower as the olive.
34 For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire
shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.
35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their
belly prepareth deceit.
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