1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
2. “Does a wise man answer with blustery knowledge,or fill his belly with the east wind?
3. Does he argue with useless talk,with words that have no value in them?
4. But you even break off piety,and hinder meditation before God.
5. Your sin inspires your mouth;you choose the language of the crafty.
6. Your own mouth condemns you, not I;your own lips testify against you.
7. “Were you the first man ever born?Were you brought forth before the hills?
8. Do you listen in on God’s secret council?Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
9. What do you know that we don’t know?What do you understand that we don’t understand?
10. The gray-haired and the aged are on our side,men far older than your father.
11. Are God’s consolations too trivial for you;or a word spoken in gentleness to you?
12. Why has your heart carried you away,and why do your eyes flash,
13. when you turn your rage against Godand allow such words to escape from your mouth?
14. What is man that he should be pure,or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?
15. If God places no trust in his holy ones,if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes,
16. how much less man, who is abominable and corrupt,who drinks in evil like water!
17. “I will explain to you; listen to me,and what I have seen, I will declare,