¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

• ²“Can a man be profitable to God?
• Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.

• ³Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous?
• Or does it benefit him, that you make your ways perfect?

• ⁴Is it for your piety that he reproves you,
• that he enters with you into judgment?

• ⁵Isn’t your wickedness great?
• Neither is there any end to your iniquities.

• ⁶For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing,
• and stripped the naked of their clothing.

• ⁷You haven’t given water to the weary to drink,
• and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

• ⁸But as for the mighty man, he had the earth.
• The honorable man, he lived in it.

• ⁹You have sent widows away empty,
• and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

• ¹⁰Therefore snares are around you.
• Sudden fear troubles you,

• ¹¹or darkness, so that you can not see,
• and floods of waters cover you.

• ¹²“Isn’t God in the heights of heaven?
• See the height of the stars, how high they are!

• ¹³You say, ‘What does God know?
• Can he judge through the thick darkness?

• ¹⁴Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see.
• He walks on the vault of the sky.’

• ¹⁵Will you keep the old way,
• which wicked men have trodden,

• ¹⁶who were snatched away before their time,
• whose foundation was poured out as a stream,

• ¹⁷who said to God, ‘Depart from us;’
• and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’

• ¹⁸Yet he filled their houses with good things,
• but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

• ¹⁹The righteous see it, and are glad.
• The innocent ridicule them,

• ²⁰saying, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off.
• The fire has consumed their remnant.’

• ²¹“Acquaint yourself with him, now, and be at peace.
• Thereby good shall come to you.

• ²²Please receive instruction from his mouth,
• and lay up his words in your heart.

• ²³If you return to the Almighty, you shall be built up,
• if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.

• ²⁴Lay your treasure in the dust,
• the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.

• ²⁵The Almighty will be your treasure,
• and precious silver to you.

• ²⁶For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty,
• and shall lift up your face to God.

• ²⁷You shall make your prayer to him, and he will hear you.
• You shall pay your vows.

• ²⁸You shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established to you.
• Light shall shine on your ways.

• ²⁹When they cast down, you shall say, ‘be lifted up.’
• He will save the humble person.

• ³⁰He will even deliver him who is not innocent.
• Yes, he shall be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”