1Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied,
2“Should a wise person answer with worthless knowledge and fill themselves with empty words?
3Should they argue with useless talk or with words that achieve nothing good?
4Indeed, you do away with reverence and hinder devotion before God.
5For your wickedness teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of deceptive people.
6Your own words condemn you, not mine. Your own lips testify against you.
7Were you the first person ever born? Or did you exist before the hills?
8Have you overheard God's secret plans? Do you think you have all the wisdom?
9What do you know that we don't? What do you understand that isn't clear to us too?
10We have older, gray-haired men among us, much older than your father.
11Are God's comforts too small for you, even the gentle words he speaks to you?
12Why does your heart lead you astray? Why do your eyes flash with anger?
13That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words come out of your mouth?
14What is a person, that they should be pure? What is someone born of a woman, that they should be righteous?
15Look, he doesn't trust his holy ones. Yes, even the heavens are not pure in his eyes;
16how much less is someone who is disgusting and corrupt, a person who drinks up wrongdoing like water!
17I will show you, listen to me; I will tell you what I have seen,
18(what wise men have been told by their fathers and have not kept secret;
19to whom alone the land was given, and no foreigner lived among them):
20The wicked person suffers in pain all their life, for all the years set aside for someone who oppresses others.
21Sounds of terror are in their ears. Destruction attacks them when they are prosperous.
22They don't believe they will escape the darkness. They are destined for the sword.
23They wander around looking for food, asking, 'Where is it?' They know that a dark day is coming soon for them.
24Trouble and anguish frighten them. They overpower them, like a king prepared for battle.
25Because they rebelled against God, and acted proudly against the Almighty;
26He runs at him stubbornly, with the thick, strong shields of his bucklers.
27Because he has covered his face with fat, and gathered fat on his thighs.
28He has lived in deserted cities, in houses no one lived in, which were ready to become ruins.
29He will not be rich, nor will his possessions last, nor will his wealth spread across the land.
30He will not escape from darkness. A flame will dry up his branches. He will be carried away by the breath of God’s mouth.
31Let him not trust in worthless things, deceiving himself; because worthlessness will be his reward.
32This will happen before his time. His branch will not stay green.
33He will shake off his unripe grapes like a vine, and drop his blossoms like an olive tree.
34For the group of godless people will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of those who take bribes.
35They plan trouble and produce wickedness. Their heart prepares deceit.