Then answered Elifaz the Temanite, and said,

Then Elifaz the Temanite raised his voice and said:

Should a wise man utter windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?

Will the wise man answer vain thoughts and fill his stomach with the east wind?

Should he reason with unprofitable talk? or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

To debate what is of no benefit and [to spout] words which are of no avail?

Yea, thou castest off fear, and thou dost slight the prayer that is made before God.

How much more so do you [(who are exceedingly wise)] abolish fear [of G d] and increase complaint before G d!

For thy mouth utters thy iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.

For your sin [i.e., your evil inclination] teaches your mouth [to speak in this manner]; you should have chosen the tongue of the subtle [in wisdom].

Thy own mouth condemns thee, and not I: yea, thy own lips testify against thee.

[Answer my question and] let your [own] mouth condemn you, and not I, and let your [own] lips testify against you:

Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills?

Were you born first, [before] Adam? Were you created before the hills?

Dost thou listen in to the council of God, and keep wisdom to thyself?

Have you been privy to the secrets of G d and drawn down [all of] wisdom to yourself?

What knowst thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?

What do you know that we do not? What do you understand that is not with us?

With us are both the greyheaded and very aged men, much older than thy father.

There is also a grey one, also an elder, among us, of more [days] than your father.

Are the consolations of God too small for thee? or the word which he spoke softly with thee?

Are the consolations of G d [i.e., your earlier good] too little for you, and His graciousness to you?

Why does thy heart carry thee away? and why do thy eyes wink?

What does your heart teach you and what do your eyes insinuate

that thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?

that you turn your spirit against the L rd and spout words [against Him]?

What is man, that he should be clean? and one born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

What is [(the power of)] man that he can be pure [(before the L rd)]? Can one born of woman be righteous?

Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones; and the heavens are not clean in his sight:

In His angels He puts no permanence and the [hosts of] heaven are not pure in His eyes.

how much less one who is abominable and filthy? man, who drinks iniquity like water?

How much more so man, who is despised and abhorrent, who drinks wrong as he does water!

I will tell thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare;

I will tell you something; listen to me. This is what I have seen, and I will tell it to you:

which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hidden it:

The wise tell [i.e., they confess their offenses] and do not conceal [their sins] from their fathers.

to whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.

To them alone [(Judah and Reuven, by their respective confessions)] was the earth given and no stranger intruded among them.

The wicked man travails with pain all his days, through the number of years stored up for the tyrant.

[But] all the days of the wicked one [(who does not repent and confess)], he laments, [fearing] the number of years [of punishment] laid up for the tyrant.

A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

The voice of fear is in his ears [(saying: "The time of my recompense has come")], and in the midst of peace robbers will come upon him.

He does not believe that he will return out of darkness, and he is waited for by the sword.

[(In the abundance of his sins)] he will not believe [that] he can return from the darkness [of Gehinnom], and he is consigned to the sword

He wanders abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

and to wander in search of bread. He knows [for a certainty] that the day of darkness is readied for him.

Trouble and anguish make him afraid; they prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

Woe and affliction will confound him. He will be overpowered by it like the king [(Sancherev)] consigned to the fire [of Gehinnom (viz. Isaiah 30:33)].

For he stretches out his hand against God, and behaves proudly against the Almighty.

For he has stretched forth his hand against G d and strengthened himself against the Almighty.

He runs upon him with neck armour, with the thick bosses of his bucklers:

He has run against Him [(to anger Him)] with outstretched neck, [trusting] in the thickness [and] the height of his shields [i.e., trusting in his strength].

because he has covered his face with his fat, and has put collops of fat on his flanks.

For he has covered his face with his fat and has made "mouths" [i.e., folds of fat] upon his ribs.

And he dwells in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabits, which are ready to become heaps.

And [in his pride] he has inhabited waste cities, houses unfit for habitation, which had been relegated to the rubbish heaps.

He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their produce bend to the earth.

[But] he will not remain wealthy and his riches shall not endure, and their reversion will not turn [from heaven] to earth [i.e., their desires will not be gratified].

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.

He will not be removed from darkness. The flame will dry up his young branch, and he will be removed [from the world] by the breath of His mouth.

Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself: for vanity shall be his recompense.

Let him who has wandered in vanity not trust [to good], for vanity will be his exchange.

It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.

Before his time, it [(his "exchange")] will be full [i.e., it will have exhausted itself], and his dome [i.e., his branches] will not be green.

He shall shake off his unripe grape like the vine, and shall cast off his flower like the olive.

He will cast off his unripe grapes [i.e., his children] like the vine, and he will shed his bloom like the olive.

For the company of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

For the company of the flatterer will be solitary and the fire [(G d's wrath)] will consume the tents of graft.

They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepares deceit.

They conceive wrong and beget vanity and their belly spawns deceit.