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Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said:
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Should a wise man make answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
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Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?
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Yea, thou doest away with fear, and impairest devotion before God.
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For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
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Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I;
yea, thine own lips testify against thee.
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Art thou the first man that was born?
Or wast thou brought forth before the hills?
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Dost thou hearken in the council of God?
And dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?
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What knowest thou, that we know not?
What understandest thou, which is not in us?
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With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much older than thy father.
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Are the consolations of God too small for thee, and the word that dealeth gently with thee?
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Why doth thy heart carry thee away?
And why do thine eyes wink?
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That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth.
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What is man, that he should be clean?
And he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
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Behold, He putteth no trust in His holy ones;
yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight.
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How much less one that is abominable and impure, man who drinketh iniquity like water!
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I will tell thee, hear thou me;
and that which I have seen I will declare -
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Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it;
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Unto whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them.
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The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
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A sound of terrors is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
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He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword.
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He wandereth abroad for bread: "Where is it?" He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
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Distress and anguish overwhelm him;
they prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
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Because he hath stretched out his hand against God, and behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty;
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He runneth upon him with a stiff neck, with the thick bosses of his bucklers.
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Because he hath covered his face with his fatness, and made collops of fat on his loins;
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And he hath dwelt in desolate cities, in houses which no man would inhabit, which were ready to become heaps.
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He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their produce bend to the earth.
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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.
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Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself;
for vanity shall be his recompense.
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It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be leafy.
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He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.
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For the company of the godless shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
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They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, and their belly prepareth deceit.