✧Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: ✧2“Does a wise man answer with empty counsel or fill his belly with the hot east wind? ✧3Should he argue with useless words or speeches that serve no purpose? ✧4But you even undermine the fear of God and hinder meditation before Him. ✧5For your iniquity instructs your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty. ✧6Your own mouth, not mine, condemns you; your own lips testify against you. ✧7Were you the first man ever born? Were you brought forth before the hills? ✧8Do you listen in on the council of God or limit wisdom to yourself? ✧9What do you know that we do not? What do you understand that is not clear to us? ✧10Both the gray-haired and the aged are on our side— men much older than your father. ✧11Are the consolations of God not enough for you, even words spoken gently to you? ✧12Why has your heart carried you away, and why do your eyes flash, ✧13as you turn your spirit against God and pour such words from your mouth? ✧14What is man, that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous? ✧15If God puts no trust in His holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in His eyes, ✧16how much less man, who is vile and corrupt, who drinks injustice like water? ✧17Listen to me and I will inform you. I will describe what I have seen, ✧18what was declared by wise men and was not concealed from their fathers, ✧19to whom alone the land was given when no foreigner passed among them. ✧20A wicked man writhes in pain all his days; only a few years are reserved for the ruthless. ✧21Sounds of terror fill his ears; in his prosperity the destroyer attacks him. ✧22He despairs of his return from darkness; he is marked for the sword. ✧23He wanders about as food for vultures; he knows the day of darkness is at hand. ✧24Distress and anguish terrify him, overwhelming him like a king poised to attack. ✧25For he has stretched out his hand against God and has vaunted himself against the Almighty, ✧26rushing headlong at Him with a thick, studded shield. ✧27Though his face is covered with fat and his waistline bulges with flesh, ✧28he will dwell in ruined cities, in abandoned houses destined to become rubble. ✧29He will no longer be rich; his wealth will not endure. His possessions will not overspread the land. ✧30He will not escape from the darkness; the flame will wither his shoots, and the breath of God’s mouth will carry him away. ✧31Let him not deceive himself with trust in emptiness, for emptiness will be his reward. ✧32It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not flourish. ✧33He will be like a vine stripped of its unripe grapes, like an olive tree that sheds its blossoms. ✧34For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery. ✧35They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; their womb is pregnant with deceit.”