Eliphaz: Job Does Not Fear God

1Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

2Should a wise man make answer with vain knowledge, And fill himself with the east wind?

3Should he reason with unprofitable talk, Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

4Yea, thou doest away with fear, And hinderest devotion before God.

5For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth, And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.

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

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

8Hast thou heard the secret counsel of God? And dost thou limit wisdom to thyself?

9What knowest thou, that we know not? What understandest thou, which is not in us?

10With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, Much elder than thy father.

11Are the consolations of God too small for thee, Even the word that is gentle toward thee?

12Why doth thy heart carry thee away? And why do thine eyes flash,

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

14What is man, that he should be clean? And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

15Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones; Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight:

16How much less one that is abominable and corrupt, A man that drinketh iniquity like water!

17I will show thee, hear thou me; And that which I have seen I will declare:

18(Which wise men have told From their fathers, and have not hid it;

19Unto whom alone the land was given, And no stranger passed among them):

20The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

21A sound of terrors is in his ears; In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

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

23He wandereth abroad for bread,'saying , Where is it? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

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

25Because he hath stretched out his hand against God, And behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty;

26He runneth upon him with a'stiff neck, With the thick bosses of his bucklers;

27Because he hath covered his face with his fatness, And gathered fat upon his loins;

28And he hath dwelt in desolate cities, In houses which no man inhabited, Which were ready to become heaps;

29He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, Neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.

30He shall not depart out of darkness; The flame shall dry up his branches, And by the breath of God's mouth shall he go away.

31Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself; For vanity shall be his recompense.

32It shall be accomplished before his time, And his branch shall not be green.

33He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, And shall cast off his flower as the olive-tree.

34For the company of the godless shall be barren, And fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

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