1: Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said, |
|
2: Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly
with the east wind? |
|
3:
Should he reason with unprofitable talk? or with speeches
wherewith he can do no good? |
|
4: Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.
|
|
5: For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the
tongue of the crafty. |
|
6: Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own
lips testify against thee. |
|
7: Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before
the hills? |
|
8: Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain
wisdom to thyself? |
|
9: What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou,
which is not in us? |
|
10: With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder
than thy father. |
|
11: Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any
secret thing with thee? |
|
12: Why doth thine heart carry thee away? and what do thy eyes
wink at, |
|
13: That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such
words go out of thy mouth? |
|
14: What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of
a woman, that he should be righteous? |
|
15: Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens
are not clean in his sight. |
|
16: How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh
iniquity like water? |
|
17: I will shew thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will
declare; |
|
18: Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid
it: |
|
19: Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed
among them. |
|
20: The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the
number of years is hidden to the oppressor. |
|
21: A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer
shall come upon him. |
|
22: He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he
is waited for of the sword. |
|
23: He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he
knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. |
|
24: Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail
against him, as a king ready to the battle. |
|
25: For he stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth
himself against the Almighty. |
|
26: He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses
of his bucklers: |
|
27: Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh
collops of fat on his flanks. |
|
28: And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no
man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps. |
|
29: He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue,
neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth. |
|
30: He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up
his branches, and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away. |
|
31: Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity
shall be his recompence. |
|
32: It shall be accomplished before his time, and his
branch shall not be green. |
|
33: He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall
cast off his flower as the olive. |
|
34: For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and
fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery. |
|
35: They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their
belly prepareth deceit. |