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.