| 1 | Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered [Job], |
| 2 | Should a wise man utter such windy knowledge [as we have just heard] and fill himself with the east wind [of withering, parching, and violent accusations]? |
| 3 | Should he reason with unprofitable talk? Or with speeches with which he can do no good? |
| 4 | Indeed, you are doing away with [reverential] fear, and you are hindering
and
diminishing meditation
and
devotion 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; yes, your own lips testify against you. |
| 7 | Are you the first man that was born [the original wise man]? Or were you created before the hills? |
| 8 | Were you present to hear the secret counsel of God? And do you limit [the possession of] wisdom to yourself? |
| 9 | What do you know that we know not? What do you understand that is not equally clear to us? |
| 10 | Among us are both the gray-haired and the aged, older than your father by far. |
| 11 | Are God’s consolations [as we have interpreted them to you] too trivial for you? Is there any secret thing (any bosom sin) which you have not given up? [Or] were we too gentle [in our first speech] toward you to be effective? |
| 12 | Why does your heart carry you away [why allow yourself to be controlled by feeling]? And why do your eyes flash [in anger or contempt], |
| 13 | That you turn your spirit against God and let [such] words [as you have spoken] go out of your mouth? |
| 14 | What is man, that he could be pure
and
clean? And he who is born of a woman, that he could be right
and
just? |
| 15 | Behold, [God] puts no trust in His holy ones [the angels]; indeed, the heavens are not clean in His sight— |
| 16 | How much less that which is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water? |
| 17 | I will show you, hear me; and that which I have seen I will relate, |
| 18 | What wise men have not hid but have freely communicated; it was told to them by their fathers, |
| 19 | Unto whom alone the land was given, and no stranger intruded
or
passed among them [corrupting the truth]. |
| 20 | The wicked man suffers with [self-inflicted] torment all his days, through all the years that are numbered
and
laid up for him, the oppressor. |
| 21 | A [dreadful] sound of terrors is in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him [the dwellings of robbers are not at peace]. |
| 22 | He believes that he will not return out of darkness, and [because of his guilt] he is waited for by the sword [of God’s vengeance]. |
| 23 | He wanders abroad for food, saying, Where is it? He knows that the day of darkness
and
destruction is already close upon him. |
| 24 | Distress and anguish terrify him; [he knows] they shall prevail against him, like a king ready for battle. |
| 25 | Because he has stretched out his hand against God and bids defiance
and
behaves himself proudly against the Almighty, |
| 26 | Running stubbornly against Him with a thickly ornamented shield; |
| 27 | Because he has covered his face with his fat, adding layers of fat on his loins [giving himself up to animal pleasures], |
| 28 | And has lived in desolate [God-forsaken] cities and in houses which no man should inhabit, which were destined to become heaps [of ruins]; |
| 29 | He shall not be rich, neither shall his wealth last, neither shall his produce bend to the earth
nor
his possessions be extended on the earth. |
| 30 | He shall not depart out of darkness [and escape from calamity; the wrath of God] shall consume him as flame consumes a dry tree, and by the blast of His mouth he shall be swept away. |
| 31 | Let him not deceive himself and trust in vanity (emptiness, falseness, and futility), for these shall be his recompense [for such living]. |
| 32 | It shall be accomplished
and
paid in full while he still lives, and his branch shall not be green [but shall wither away]. |
| 33 | He shall fail to bring his grapes to maturity [leaving them to wither unnourished] on the vine and shall cast off blossoms [and fail to bring forth fruit] like the olive tree. |
| 34 | For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery (wrong and injustice). |
| 35 | They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity, and their inmost soul hatches deceit. |