The Book of Job

And Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

[Should] a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?

Should he reason with speech [that is] not useful, or with words having no profit in them?

Yea, you do away with fear, and take away devotion before God.

For your iniquity teaches your mouth; and you choose the tongue of the crafty.

Your mouth condemns you, and not I; yea, your own lips testify against you.

[Were] you the first man born? Or were you made before the hills?

Have you heard the secret counsel of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself?

What do you know that we do not know? Or understand, that is not with us?

With us [are] both the grayheaded and very aged [men], mightier than your father [as to] days.

Are the comforts of God small with you, and a word [that deals] gently with you?

Why does your heart carry you away? And why do your eyes flash,

that you turn your spirit against God, and let [such] words go out of your mouth?

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

Behold, He puts no trust in His holy ones; yea, the heavens are not clean in His eyes.

How much more is filthy man loathed, who drinks iniquity like water!

I will tell you; hear me, and I will declare this that I have seen;

that which wise men have told, and have not hidden from their fathers;

to them alone the land was given; and no alien passed among them.

All the days of the wicked he [is] laboring in pain; a number of years are stored up for the ruthless.

A dreadful sound of things [is] in his ears; the destroyer shall come on him in peace.

He does not believe in a return from darkness, but he [is] awaited by the sword.

He [is] wandering, for he [seeks] for bread. Where [is it]? He knows that the day of darkness is at his hand.

Distress and pain terrify him; they shall overpower him, as a king ready for the attack;

because he stretched out his hand against God, and acts mighty against the Almighty.

He runs at him with a [stiff] neck, with the thick layers of his shields,

because he has covered his face with fat; yea, he has put fat on [his] loins.

And he dwells [in] cut off cities; [in] houses where no one [are] lives in them, which are ready [to become] heaps.

He shall not be rich, nor shall his wealth hold out; nor shall he stretch out their gain on the earth.

He shall not escape from darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches; and he shall turn at the breath of His mouth.

Let not [he] being deceived trust in vanity; for his reward shall be vanity.

Before his day it shall be fulfilled, and his branch shall not be green;

he shall shake off its unripe grape as the vine; and he shall cast its flower like the olive.

For the company of the ungodly [shall be] bleak; and fire shall devour the tents of bribery;

they conceive mischief and generate evil; and their belly prepares deceit.