Eliphaz Accuses: Job Does Not Fear God

¹Then qEliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

²“Should ra wise man answer with swindy knowledge,

and fill his tbelly with uthe east wind?

³Should he argue in unprofitable talk,

or in words with which he can do no good?

⁴But you are doing away with the fear of God1

and hindering meditation before God.

⁵For your iniquity teaches your mouth,

and you choose the tongue of the crafty.

⁶Your vown mouth condemns you, and not I;

wyour own lips testify against you.

⁷x“Are you the first man who was born?

Or ywere you brought forth zbefore the hills?

⁸Have you listened in athe council of God?

And do you limit wisdom to yourself?

⁹bWhat do you know that we do not know?

What do you understand that is not clear to us?

¹⁰cBoth the gray-haired and the aged are among us,

older than your father.

¹¹Are the comforts of God too small for you,

or the word that deals gently with you?

¹²Why does your heart carry you away,

and why do your eyes flash,

¹³that you turn your dspirit against God

and bring such words out of your mouth?

¹⁴eWhat is man, fthat he can be pure?

Or he who is gborn of a woman, that he can be righteous?

¹⁵Behold, God2 hputs no trust in his iholy ones,

and the heavens are not pure in his sight;

¹⁶jhow much less one who is abominable and kcorrupt,

a man who ldrinks injustice like water!

¹⁷“I will show you; hear me,

and what I have seen I will declare

¹⁸(what wise men have told,

without hiding it mfrom their fathers,

¹⁹to whom alone the land was given,

and no nstranger passed among them).

²⁰The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,

through all the oyears that are laid up for pthe ruthless.

²¹qDreadful sounds are in his ears;

in rprosperity the destroyer will come upon him.

²²He does not believe that he will return out of darkness,

and he is marked for the sword.

²³He swanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’

He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;

²⁴distress and anguish terrify him;

they tprevail against him, like a king ready for battle.

²⁵Because he has stretched out his hand against God

and defies the Almighty,

²⁶urunning vstubbornly against him

with a thickly bossed shield;

²⁷because he has wcovered his face with his fat

and gathered fat upon his waist

²⁸and has lived in desolate cities,

in houses that none should inhabit,

which were ready to become heaps of ruins;

²⁹he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure,

nor will his possessions spread over the earth;3

³⁰he will not depart from darkness;

the flame will dry up his shoots,

and by xthe breath of his mouth he will depart.

³¹Let him not ytrust in emptiness, deceiving himself,

for emptiness will be his payment.

³²It will be paid in full zbefore his time,

and his branch will not be green.

³³He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,

and cast off his blossom like the olive tree.

³⁴For athe company of the godless is barren,

and bfire consumes the tents of bribery.

³⁵They cconceive trouble and give birth to evil,

and their dwomb prepares deceit.”