1   Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

2   Can man be any benefit to God?
Can even a wise man benefit him?
3   Is it an asset to the Almighty if you are righteous?
Does he gain if your conduct is perfect?
4   Do not think that he reproves you because you are pious,
that on this count he brings you to trial.
5   No: it is because you are a very wicked man,
and your depravity passes all bounds.
6   Without due cause you take a brother in pledge,
you strip men of their clothes and leave them naked.
7   When a man is weary, you give him no water to drink
and you refuse bread to the hungry.
8   Is the earth, then, the preserve of the strong

Third cycle of speeches
and a domain for the favoured few?
9   Widows you have sent away empty-handed,
orphans you have struck defenceless.
10   No wonder that there are pitfalls in your path,
that scares are set to fill you with sudden fear.
11   The light ^note is turned into darkness, and you cannot see;
the flood-waters cover you.
12   Surely God is at the zenith of the heavens
and looks down on all the stars, high as they are.
13   But you say, ‘What does God know?
Can he see through thick darkness to judge?
14   His eyes cannot pierce the curtain of the clouds
as he walks to and fro on the vault of heaven.’
15   Consider the course of the wicked man,
the path the miscreant treads;
16   see how they are carried off before their time,
their very foundation flowing away like a river;
17   these men said to God, ‘Leave us alone;
what can the Almighty do to us ^note?’
18   Yet it was he that filled their houses with good things,
although their purposes and his ^note were very different.
19   The righteous see their fate and exult,
the innocent make game of them;
20   for their riches ^note are swept away,
and the profusion of their wealth is destroyed by fire.


21   Come to terms with God and you will prosper;
that is the way to mend your fortune.
22   Take instruction from his mouth
and store his words in your heart.
23   If you come back to the Almighty in true sincerity,
if you banish wrongdoing from your home,
24   if you treat your precious metal as dust ^note
and the gold of Ophir as stones from the river-bed,
25   then the Almighty himself will be your precious metal;
he will be your silver in double measure.
26   Then, with sure trust in ^note the Almighty,
you will raise your face to God;
27   you will pray to him, and he will hear you,
and you will have cause to fulfil your vows.
28   In all your designs you will succeed,

Third cycle of speeches
and light will shine on your path;
29   but God brings down the pride of the haughty ^note
and keeps safe the man of modest looks.
30   He will deliver the innocent, ^note
and you will be delivered, because your hands are clean.

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