| English Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: | 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: |
| 2“Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind? | 2"Does a wise man answer with blustery knowledge, or fill his belly with the east wind? |
| 3Should he argue in unprofitable talk, or in words with which he can do no good? | 3Does he argue with useless talk, with words that have no value in them? |
| 4But you are doing away with the fear of God and hindering meditation before God. | 4But you even break off piety, and hinder meditation before God. |
| 5For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty. | 5Your sin inspires your mouth; you choose the language of the crafty. |
| 6Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips testify against you. | 6Your own mouth condemns you, not I; your own lips testify against you. |
| 7“Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills? | 7"Were you the first man ever born? Were you brought forth before the hills? |
| 8Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself? | 8Do you listen in on God's secret council? Do you limit wisdom to yourself? |
| 9What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us? | 9What do you know that we don't know? What do you understand that we don't understand? |
| 10Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, older than your father. | 10The gray-haired and the aged are on our side, men far older than your father. |
| 11Are the comforts of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you? | 11Are God's consolations too trivial for you; or a word spoken in gentleness to you? |
| 12Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash, | 12Why has your heart carried you away, and why do your eyes flash, |
| 13that you turn your spirit against God and bring such words out of your mouth? | 13when you turn your rage against God and allow such words to escape from your mouth? |
| 14What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? | 14What is man that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous? |
| 15Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight; | 15If God places no trust in his holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes, |
| 16how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water! | 16how much less man, who is abominable and corrupt, who drinks in evil like water! |
| 17“I will show you; hear me, and what I have seen I will declare | 17"I will explain to you; listen to me, and what I have seen, I will declare, |
| 18(what wise men have told, without hiding it from their fathers, | 18what wise men declare, hiding nothing, from the tradition of their ancestors, |
| 19to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them). | 19to whom alone the land was given when no foreigner passed among them. |
| 20The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless. | 20All his days the wicked man suffers torment, throughout the number of the years that are stored up for the tyrant. |
| 21Dreadful sounds are in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him. | 21Terrifying sounds fill his ears; in a time of peace marauders attack him. |
| 22He does not believe that he will return out of darkness, and he is marked for the sword. | 22He does not expect to escape from darkness; he is marked for the sword; |
| 23He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand; | 23he wanders about--food for vultures; he knows that the day of darkness is at hand. |
| 24distress and anguish terrify him; they prevail against him, like a king ready for battle. | 24Distress and anguish terrify him; they prevail against him like a king ready to launch an attack, |
| 25Because he has stretched out his hand against God and defies the Almighty, | 25for he stretches out his hand against God, and vaunts himself against the Almighty, |
| 26running stubbornly against him with a thickly bossed shield; | 26defiantly charging against him with a thick, strong shield! |
| 27because he has covered his face with his fat and gathered fat upon his waist | 27Because he covered his face with fat, and made his hips bulge with fat, |
| 28and has lived in desolate cities, in houses that none should inhabit, which were ready to become heaps of ruins; | 28he lived in ruined towns and in houses where no one lives, where they are ready to crumble into heaps. |
| 29he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the earth; | 29He will not grow rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the land. |
| 30he will not depart from darkness; the flame will dry up his shoots, and by the breath of his mouth he will depart. | 30He will not escape the darkness; a flame will wither his shoots and he will depart by the breath of God's mouth. |
| 31Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his payment. | 31Let him not trust in what is worthless, deceiving himself; for worthlessness will be his reward. |
| 32It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not be green. | 32Before his time he will be paid in full, and his branches will not flourish. |
| 33He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine, and cast off his blossom like the olive tree. | 33Like a vine he will let his sour grapes fall, and like an olive tree he will shed his blossoms. |
| 34For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery. | 34For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of those who accept bribes. |
| 35They conceive trouble and give birth to evil, and their womb prepares deceit.” | 35They conceive trouble and bring forth evil; their belly prepares deception." |
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