New Living Translation

King James Bible

1Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

1Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

2“A wise man wouldn’t answer with such empty talk! You are nothing but a windbag.

2Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?

3The wise don’t engage in empty chatter. What good are such words?

3Should he reason with unprofitable talk? or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

4Have you no fear of God, no reverence for him?

4Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.

5Your sins are telling your mouth what to say. Your words are based on clever deception.

5For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.

6Your own mouth condemns you, not I. Your own lips testify against you.

6Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee.

7“Were you the first person ever born? Were you born before the hills were made?

7Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills?

8Were you listening at God’s secret council? Do you have a monopoly on wisdom?

8Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?

9What do you know that we don’t? What do you understand that we do not?

9What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?

10On our side are aged, gray-haired men much older than your father!

10With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.

11“Is God’s comfort too little for you? Is his gentle word not enough?

11Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any secret thing with thee?

12What has taken away your reason? What has weakened your vision,

12Why doth thine heart carry thee away? and what do thy eyes wink at,

13that you turn against God and say all these evil things?

13That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?

14Can any mortal be pure? Can anyone born of a woman be just?

14What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

15Look, God does not even trust the angels. Even the heavens are not absolutely pure in his sight.

15Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

16How much less pure is a corrupt and sinful person with a thirst for wickedness!

16How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?

17“If you will listen, I will show you. I will answer you from my own experience.

17I will shew thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare;

18And it is confirmed by the reports of wise men who have heard the same thing from their fathers—

18Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it:

19from those to whom the land was given long before any foreigners arrived.

19Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.

20“The wicked writhe in pain throughout their lives. Years of trouble are stored up for the ruthless.

20The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.

21The sound of terror rings in their ears, and even on good days they fear the attack of the destroyer.

21A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

22They dare not go out into the darkness for fear they will be murdered.

22He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword.

23They wander around, saying, ‘Where can I find bread?’ They know their day of destruction is near.

23He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

24That dark day terrifies them. They live in distress and anguish, like a king preparing for battle.

24Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

25For they shake their fists at God, defying the Almighty.

25For he stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty.

26Holding their strong shields, they defiantly charge against him.

26He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers:

27“These wicked people are heavy and prosperous; their waists bulge with fat.

27Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks.

28But their cities will be ruined. They will live in abandoned houses that are ready to tumble down.

28And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps.

29Their riches will not last, and their wealth will not endure. Their possessions will no longer spread across the horizon.

29He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth.

30“They will not escape the darkness. The burning sun will wither their shoots, and the breath of God will destroy them.

30He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.

31Let them no longer fool themselves by trusting in empty riches, for emptiness will be their only reward.

31Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence.

32They will be cut down in the prime of life; their branches will never again be green.

32It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.

33They will be like a vine whose grapes are harvested too early, like an olive tree that loses its blossoms before the fruit can form.

33He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.

34For the godless are barren. Their homes, enriched through bribery, will burn.

34For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.

35They conceive trouble and give birth to evil. Their womb produces deceit.”

35They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

King James Bible, text courtesy of BibleProtector.com.