1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
2 "Can a man be of benefit to God? Surely one who is wise benefits himself.
3 Does the Almighty take pleasure in your being righteous, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?
4 Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you and goes to court with you?
5 Is your evil not great, and your iniquities without limit?
6 For you took pledges from your brothers without reason and stripped the clothing off the naked.
7 To the weary you gave no water to drink, and from the hungry you withheld bread.
8 The land belonged to the man of might, and the favored man settled in it.
9 You turned widows away empty, and the arms of the orphans were broken.
10 So snares surround you, and sudden terror throws you into panic,
11 or darkness, so that you cannot see, and a deluge of waters covers you.
12 Is not God high in the heavens? See the topmost stars, how high they are!
13 So you say, 'What does God know? Does he judge through the dark cloud?
14 Thick clouds hide him so that he cannot see, as he walks along the circle of the heavens.'
15 Will you keep to the old road that men of iniquity have walked,
16 who were seized before their time, their foundations poured out like a river?
17 They said to God, 'Keep away from us,' and, 'What can the Almighty do to them?'
18 Yet it was he who filled their houses with good; far from me be the counsel of the wicked!
19 The righteous look on and are glad, and the innocent laugh at them, saying,
20 'Surely our foes are wiped out, and fire has eaten up their remnant.'
21 Make friends with him, I urge you, and be at peace; that way good will come to you.
22 Accept instruction from his mouth, and store up his sayings in your heart.
23 If you come back to the Almighty, you will be restored; if you put wrong far away from your tent,
24 if you throw your gold into the dust and the gold of Ophir among the rocks of the streambeds,
25 then the Almighty will be your gold, your silver in heaps.
26 Then indeed you will take delight in the Almighty and raise your face to God.
27 You will entreat him, and he will listen to you, and you will fulfill your vows.
28 You will make a decision, and it will be established for you, and light will beam upon your paths.
29 When they are brought down, you will say, 'Lift up!' and he will save the lowly of eye.
30 He will rescue one who is not innocent, who will be rescued by the cleanness of your hands."