15 Then Elifaz the Teimani spoke:

² “Should a wise man answer with hot-air arguments?
Should he fill up his belly with the hot east wind?
³ Should he reason with useless talk
or make speeches that do him no good?

⁴ “Why, you are abolishing fear of God
and hindering prayer to him!
⁵ Your iniquity is teaching you how to speak,
and deceit is your language of choice.
⁶ Your own mouth condemns you, not I;
your own lips testify against you.

⁷ “Were you the firstborn of the human race,
brought forth before the hills?
⁸ Do you listen in on God’s secrets?
Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
⁹ What do you know that we don’t know?
What discernment do you have that we don’t?
¹⁰ With us are gray-haired men, old men,
men much older than your father.
¹¹ Are the comfortings of God not enough for you,
or a word that deals gently with you?
¹² Why does your heart carry you away,
and why do your eyes flash angrily,
¹³ so that you turn your spirit against God
and let such words escape your mouth?

¹⁴ “What is a human being, that he could be innocent,
someone born from a woman, that he could be righteous?
¹⁵ God doesn’t trust even his holy ones;
no, even the heavens are not innocent in his view.
¹⁶ How much less one loathesome and corrupt,
a human being, who drinks iniquity like water.

¹⁷ “I will tell you — hear me out!
I will recount what I have seen;
¹⁸ wise men have told it,
and it wasn’t hidden from their fathers either,
¹⁹ to whom alone the land was given —
no foreigner passed among them.

²⁰ “The wicked is in torment all his life,
for all the years allotted to the tyrant.
²¹ Terrifying sounds are in his ears;
in prosperity, robbers swoop down on him.
²² He despairs of returning from darkness —
he is destined to meet the sword.
²³ He wanders and looks for food, which isn’t there.
He knows the day of darkness is ready, at hand.
²⁴ Distress and anguish overwhelm him,
assaulting him like a king about to enter battle.

²⁵ “He raises his hand against God
and boldly defies Shaddai,
²⁶ running against him with head held high
and thickly ornamented shield.

²⁷ “He lets his face grow gross and fat,
and the rest of him bulges with blubber;
²⁸ he lives in abandoned cities,
in houses no one would inhabit,
houses about to become ruins;
²⁹ therefore he will not remain rich,
his wealth will not endure,
his produce will not bend
[the grain stalks] to the earth.

³⁰ “He will not escape from darkness.
The flame will dry up his branches.
By a breath from the mouth of [God],
he will go away.
³¹ Let him not rely on futile methods,
thereby deceiving himself;
for what he will receive in exchange
will be only futility.
³² This will be accomplished in advance of its day.
His palm frond will not be fresh and green;
³³ he will be like a vine that sheds its unripe grapes,
like an olive tree that drops its flowers.

³⁴ “For the community of the ungodly is sterile;
fire consumes the tents of bribery.
³⁵ They conceive trouble and give birth to evil;
their womb prepares deceit.”