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- ¶ THEN answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
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- Should a spiritually minded man answer with knowledge and then become enraged?
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- Should he admonish with unprofitable talk, or with words that are worthless?
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- Yea, you also are discarding reverence, and talk too much in the presence of God.
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- For your mouth is accustomed to utter sinful things, and you choose the deceitful tongue of the crafty.
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- Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;
yea, your own lips testify against you in my presence.
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- Are you the first man that was born?
Or were you conceived before the hills?
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- Have you heard of the secrets of God?
Has his wisdom been revealed to you?
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- Or what do you know that we do not know?
Or what do you under, stand that we do not understand?
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- Behold, there are among us the gray-headed and the very aged men, much older in days than your father.
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- Now talk less of God’s threats, and speak comfortingly to yourself.
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- Why does your heart boast?
And what do your eyes wink at,
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- That you boast in the presence of God, and let such words go out of your mouth?
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- What is man, that he should be innocent?
Or he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
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- Behold, he puts no trust in his saints;
yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.
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- Even though man should be rejected and afflicted, yet he shall drink iniquity like water.
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- ¶ Hear me, I will show you;
and that which I have seen I will repeat;
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- That which wise men have declared, and did not hide from their fathers;
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- To whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them.
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- The wicked man magnifies himself all his days, and the number of the years of the violent man is hidden.
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- A dreadful sound is in his ears;
in prosperity the spoiler shall come upon him.
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- He does not believe that he shall be overthrown because of the darkness, and that he shall see the sword.
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- He flees because of the threat of judgment;
he does not know that the day of darkness is already at his hand,
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- Trouble and anguish shall overtake him, like a king ready for the battle,
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- Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and strengthened himself against the Almighty.
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- He runs against him proudly, and strangles him, with the multitudes of his shields;
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- Because he has deceived himself with his wealth, and he places Pleiades above Aldebaran.
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- And he dwells in desolate cities, which no man has inhabited;
then he prepares for war.
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- He shall not continue, neither shall his strength endure, nor shall his words be established upon 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 be rejected.
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- Let him not trust in deceptive vanity, for his growth is in vain.
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- He shall dry up before his time, and the work of his hands shall not be found.
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- He shall shake off his unripe grapes, as the vine, and shall cast off his flowers as the olive tree.
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- For the congregation of the godless shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacle of the wicked.
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- They conceive mischief and bring forth deceit, and their belly is full of guile.
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