Job 4
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
But Eliphaz the Themanite, answering, said:
2 “If one ventures a word with you, will you be wearied? Yet who can keep from speaking?
If we start to speak to you, perhaps you will take it badly, but who can hold back the words he has conceived?
3 Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands.
Behold, you have taught many, and you have strengthened weary hands.
4 Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling.
Your words have reassured the wavering, and you have fortified the trembling knees.
5 But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed.
But now the scourge has overcome you, and you falter. It has touched you, and you are disturbed.
6 Is your reverence not your confidence, and the uprightness of your ways your hope?
Where is your reverence, your fortitude, your patience, and the perfection of your ways?
7 Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed?
Consider this, I beg you: who ever perished being innocent? Or when have the righteous been destroyed?
8 As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.
In fact, I have instead seen those who work iniquity and who sow resentments, reap them,
9 By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.
perishing by the breath of God, and being consumed by the wrath of his spirit.
10 The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken.
The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of young lions have been worn away.
11 The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
The tiger has perished because it does not have prey, and the young lions have been scattered.
12 Now a word came to me secretly; my ears caught a whisper of it.
Furthermore, a word was spoken to me in secret, and, as if by theft, my ears received the pulse of its whisper.
13 In disquieting visions in the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
In the horror of a vision by night, when men are accustomed to be overtaken by a deep sleep,
14 fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shudder.
fear and trembling seized me and all my bones were terrified.
15 Then a spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body bristled.
And when a spirit passed before me, the hair on my body stood up.
16 It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes, and I heard a whispering voice:
There appeared an image before my eyes, someone whose face I did not recognize, and I heard a voice like a gentle breeze.
17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?
Should man be justified in relation to God, or will a man be more pure than his Maker?
18 If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error,
Behold, those who serve him are not steadfast, and in his angels he finds imperfection.
19 how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!
How much more will those who live in houses of clay, which have an earthly foundation, be consumed like the moth?
20 They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; unnoticed, they perish forever.
From morning all the way to evening, they will be cut down, and because no one understands, they will be destroyed without ceasing.
21 Are not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’
But those who are left behind will be taken away from them; they will die, and not in wisdom.
