Eliphaz: Job Does Not Fear God

Eliphaz begins by asking whether a wise man would answer with hot wind and useless speech. He says Job's words undermine the fear of God and spring from iniquity, so that Job's own mouth, not any outside accuser, is condemning him.

T¹hen Eliphaz the Temanite replied: ²“Does a wise man answer with empty counsel ³Should he argue with useless words ⁴But you even undermine the fear of God ⁵For your iniquity instructs your mouth, ⁶Your own mouth, not mine, condemns you;

Eliphaz asks whether Job imagines himself to possess some primal or secret wisdom unavailable to others, reminding him that aged men stand with Eliphaz and that God's consolations should have been enough. He then presses the larger point that if even the holy ones and the heavens are not pure before God, how much less a corrupt human being who drinks wrongdoing like water.

⁷Were you the first man ever born? ⁸Do you listen in on the council of God ⁹What do you know that we do not? ¹⁰Both the gray-haired and the aged are on our side — ¹¹Are the consolations of God not enough for you, ¹²Why has your heart carried you away, ¹³so that you turn your spirit against God ¹⁴What is man, that he should be pure, ¹⁵If God puts no trust in His holy ones, ¹⁶how much less man, who is vile and corrupt,

Eliphaz tells Job to listen while he reports what wise men have handed down without concealment, describing a teaching preserved from earlier generations in a land not yet mixed with strangers.

¹⁷Listen to me and I will inform you. ¹⁸what was declared by wise men ¹⁹to whom alone the land was given

Eliphaz describes the wicked as living in constant torment, hearing terror, expecting darkness, and being stalked by distress like a king ready for battle. Because such a person has raised his hand against God, his apparent prosperity fails, his branch withers before its time, and his whole company proves barren, conceiving trouble and bringing forth deceit.

²⁰A wicked man writhes in pain all his days; ²¹Sounds of terror fill his ears; ²²He despairs of his return from darkness; ²³He wanders about as food for vultures; ²⁴Distress and anguish terrify him, ²⁵For he has stretched out his hand against God ²⁶rushing headlong at Him ²⁷Though his face is covered with fat ²⁸he will dwell in ruined cities, ²⁹He will no longer be rich; his wealth will not endure. ³⁰He will not escape from the darkness; ³¹Let him not deceive himself with trust in emptiness, ³²It will be paid in full before his time, ³³He will be like a vine stripped of its unripe grapes, ³⁴For the company of the godless will be barren, ³⁵They conceive trouble and give birth to evil;