Eliphaz: Job Does Not Fear God
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
2 “Should a wise man answer with counsel that is full of wind
and fill himself with hot air?
3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk,
or with speeches with which he can do no good?
4 Yes, you are discarding reverent fear,
and hindering devotion before God.
5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
and you choose the language of the crafty.
6 Your own mouth condemns you and not I.
Yes, your own lips testify against you.
7 Are you the first man who was born?
Or were you brought out before the hills?
8 Have you heard the secret counsel of God?
Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9 What do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand which is not in us?
10 With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men,
much older than your father.
11 Are the consolations of God too small for you,
the word that is gentle toward you?
12 Why does your heart carry you away?
Why do your eyes flash,
13 that you turn your spirit against God and let such words go from your mouth?
14 What is man, that he should be pure?
What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15 He puts no trust in his holy ones.
Yes, the heavens are not pure 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. Listen to me.
That which I have seen I will declare
18 (which wise men have told by their fathers
and have not hidden it,
19 to whom alone the land was given,
and no stranger passed among them).
20 The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,
the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
21 A sound of terrors is in his ears.
In prosperity the destroyer will come on him.
22 He does not believe that he will return from darkness.
He is waited for by the sword.
23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
24 Distress and anguish make him afraid.
They prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.
25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God
and defies the Almighty.
26 He runs at him with a stiff neck,
with the thick shields of his bucklers.
27 Although he has covered his face with fat
and gathered fat on his thighs,
28 he will live in desolate cities,
in houses which no one inhabited,
which are practically ruins.
29 He will not be rich, nor will his wealth continue,
nor will their possessions be extended on the earth.
30 He will not depart from darkness.
The flame will dry up his branches,
and by the breath of God’s mouth he will be swept away.
31 Let him not trust in that which is worthless, deceiving himself,
for futility will be his reward.
32 It will be accomplished before his time.
His branch will not be green.
33 He will shake off his unripe grape like a vine
and will cast off his flower like the olive tree.
34 For the company of the godless will be barren
and fire will consume the tents of bribery.
35 They conceive mischief and produce iniquity.
Their heart prepares deceit.”