Online Bible

Eliphaz Says Job Presumes Much

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered Job and said,

2 “Should a wise man such as you utter such windy and vain knowledge as we have just heard^aAnd fill himself with the east wind of withering, parching, and violent accusations?3 “Should he rebuke and argue with useless talk?Or with words in which there is no benefit?4 “Indeed, you are doing away with fear,And you are diminishing meditation before God.5 “For ^ayour guilt teaches your mouth,And you choose to speak the language of ^bthe crafty and cunning.6 “Your ^aown mouth condemns you, and not I;Yes, your own lips testify against you.

7 “Were you the first man to be born the original wise man,Or ^awere you created before the hills?8 “Do you hear the ^asecret counsel of God,And do you limit the possession of wisdom to yourself?9 “^aWhat do you know that we do not know?What do you understand that is not equally clear to us?10 “Among us are both the ^agray-haired and the aged,Older than your father.11 “Are ^athe consolations of God as we have interpreted them to you too trivial for you,Or ^bwere we too gentle toward you in our first speech to be effective?12 “Why does your ^aheart carry you away allowing you to be controlled by emotion?And why do your eyes flash in anger or contempt,13 That you should turn your spirit against GodAnd let such words as you have spoken go out of your mouth?14 “What is man, that ^ahe should be pure and clean,Or ^bhe who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous and just?15 “Behold, God puts no trust in His ^aholy ones (angels) ;Indeed, the ^bheavens are not pure in His sight—16 How much less pure and clean is the one who is ^arepulsive and corrupt,Man, who ^bdrinks unrighteousness and injustice like water!

What Eliphaz Has Seen of Life

17 “I will tell you, listen to me;And what I have seen I will also declare;18 What wise men have freely told,And have not hidden anything passed on to them from ^atheir fathers,19 To whom alone the land was given,And no stranger passed among them corrupting the truth.20 “The wicked man writhes ^awith pain all his days,And numbered are the years ^bstored up for him, the ruthless one.21 “A dreadful sound of ^aterrors is in his ears;^bWhile at peace and in a time of prosperity the destroyer comes upon him the tent of the robber is not at peace.22 “He does not believe that he will ^areturn out of the darkness for fear of being murdered,And he is destined for ^bthe sword of God’s vengeance.23 “He wanders about for food, saying, ‘Where is it?’He knows that the day of ^adarkness and destruction is already at hand.24 “Distress and anxiety terrify him,They overpower him like a king ready for battle.25 “Because he has stretched out his hand against GodAnd behaves ^aarrogantly against ¹the Almighty,26 Running and charging headlong against HimWith his ornamented and massive shield;27 For he has ^acovered his face with his fat,Adding layers of fat to his thighs giving himself up to pleasures,28 And he has ^alived in desolate God-forsaken cities,In houses which no one should inhabit,Which were destined to become heaps of ruins;29 He ^awill not become rich, nor will his wealth endure;And his grain will not bend to the earth nor his possessions be extended on the earth.30 “He will ^anot escape from darkness fleeing disaster;The ^bflame of God’s wrath will wither his branch,And by ^cthe blast of His mouth he will go away.31 “Let him not trust in vanity (emptiness, futility) and ^abe led astray;For emptiness will be his ¹reward for such living.32 “It will be fulfilled ^awhile he still lives,And his ^bbranch will not be green but shall wither away.33 “He will fail to bring his grapes to maturity leaving them to wither unnourished on the vine,And will ^acast off blossoms and fail to bring forth fruit like the olive tree.34 “For the company of ^athe godless is barren,And fire consumes ^bthe tents of bribery (wrong and injustice) .35 “They ^aconceive mischief and bring forth wickedness,And their inmost soul prepares deceit and fraud.”