| 1 | Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
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| 2 | "Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, And fill himself with the east wind?
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| 3 | Should he reason with unprofitable talk, Or with speeches with which he can do no good?
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| 4 | Yes, you do away with fear, And hinder devotion before God.
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| 5 | For your iniquity teaches your mouth, And you choose the language of the crafty.
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| 6 | Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; Yes, your own lips testify against you.
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| 7 | "Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?
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| 8 | Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
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| 9 | What do you know, that we don't know? What do you understand, which is not in us?
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| 10 | With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, Much elder than your father.
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| 11 | Are the consolations of God too small for you, Even the word that is gentle toward you?
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| 12 | Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,
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| 13 | That you turn your spirit against God, And let such words go out of your mouth?
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| 14 | What is man, that he should be clean? He who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
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| 15 | Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones; Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight:
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| 16 | How much less one who is abominable and corrupt, A man who drinks iniquity like water!
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| 17 | "I will show you, listen to me; That which I have seen I will declare:
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| 18 | (Which wise men have told From their fathers, and have not hidden it;
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| 19 | To whom alone the land was given, And no stranger passed among them):
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| 20 | The wicked man travails with pain all his days, Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
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| 21 | A sound of terrors is in his ears; In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.
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| 22 | He doesn't believe that he shall return out of darkness, He is waited for by the sword.
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| 23 | He wanders abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
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| 24 | Distress and anguish make him afraid; They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
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| 25 | Because he has stretched out his hand against God, And behaves himself proudly against the Almighty;
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| 26 | He runs at him with a stiff neck, With the thick shields of his bucklers;
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| 27 | Because he has covered his face with his fatness, And gathered fat on his loins.
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| 28 | He has lived in desolate cities, In houses which no one inhabited, Which were ready to become heaps.
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| 29 | He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, Neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.
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| 30 | He shall not depart out of darkness; The flame shall dry up his branches, By the breath of God's mouth shall he go away.
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| 31 | Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; For emptiness shall be his reward.
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| 32 | It shall be accomplished before his time. His branch shall not be green.
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| 33 | He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, And shall cast off his flower as the olive-tree.
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| 34 | For the company of the godless shall be barren, And fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
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| 35 | They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit."
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