1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2. “Can a man be of benefit to God? Can even a wise person benefit him?
3. What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you were righteous? What would he gain if your ways were blameless?
4. “Is it for your piety that he rebukes you and brings charges against you?
5. Is not your wickedness great? Are not your sins endless?
6. You demanded security from your relatives for no reason; you stripped people of their clothing, leaving them naked.
7. You gave no water to the weary and you withheld food from the hungry,
8. though you were a powerful man, owning land— an honored man, living on it.
9. And you sent widows away empty-handed and broke the strength of the fatherless.
10. That is why snares are all around you, why sudden peril terrifies you,
11. why it is so dark you cannot see, and why a flood of water covers you.
12. “Is not God in the heights of heaven? And see how lofty are the highest stars!
13. Yet you say, ‘What does God know? Does he judge through such darkness?
14. Thick clouds veil him, so he does not see us as he goes about in the vaulted heavens.’