1   Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

2   Would a man of sense give vent to such foolish notions
and answer with a bellyful of wind?
3   Would he bandy useless words

Second cycle of speeches
and arguments so unprofitable?
4   Why! you even banish the fear of God from your mind,
usurping the sole right to speak in his presence;
5   your iniquity dictates what you say,
and deceit is the language of your choice.
6   You are condemned out of your own mouth, not by me;
your own lips give evidence against you.


7   Were you born first of mankind?
were you brought forth before the hills?
8   Do you listen in God's secret council
or usurp all wisdom for yourself alone?
9   What do you know that we do not know?
What insight have you that we do not share?
10   We have age and white hairs in our company,
men older than your father.
11   Does not the consolation of God suffice you,
a word whispered quietly in your ear?
12   What makes you so bold at heart,
and why do your eyes flash,
13   that you vent your anger on God
and pour out such a torrent of words?
14   What is frail man that he should be innocent,
or any child of woman that he should be justified?
15   If God puts no trust in his holy ones,
and the heavens are not innocent in his sight,
16   how much less so is man, who is loathsome and rotten
and laps up evil like water!


17   I will tell you, if only you will listen,
and I will describe what I have seen
18   [what has been handed down by wise men
and was not concealed from them by their fathers;
19   to them alone the land was given,
and no foreigner settled among them]:
20   the wicked are racked with anxiety all their days,
the ruthless man for all the years in store for him.
21   The noise of the hunter's scare rings in his ears,
and in time of peace the raider falls on him;
22   he cannot hope to escape from dark death;
he is marked down for the sword;
23   he is flung out as food for vultures;
such a man knows that his destruction is certain.
24   Suddenly a black day comes upon him,

Second cycle of speeches
distress and anxiety overwhelm him
[like a king ready for battle];
25   for he has lifted his hand against God
and is pitting himself against the Almighty,
26   charging him head down,
with the full weight of his bossed shield.


27   Heavy though his jowl is and gross,
and though his sides bulge with fat,
28   the city where he lives will lie in ruins,
his house will be deserted;
it will soon become a heap of rubble.
29   He will no longer be rich, his wealth will not last,
and he will strike no root ^note in the earth; ^note
30   scorching heat will shrivel his shoots,
and his blossom ^note will be shaken off by the wind.
31   He deceives himself, trusting in his high rank,
for all his dealings will come to nothing.
32   His palm-trees ^note will wither ^note unseasonably,
and his branches will not spread;
33   he will be like a vine that sheds its unripe grapes,
like an olive-tree that drops its blossom.
34   For the godless, one and all, are barren,
and their homes, enriched by bribery, are destroyed by fire;
35   they conceive mischief and give birth to trouble,
and the child of their womb is deceit.

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