Job 4
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
Then answered Eliphaz the Themanite, and said,
2 “If one ventures a word with you, will you be wearied? Yet who can keep from speaking?
If we essay to address a word to thee, wilt thou be wearied? yet who is able to refrain from speaking?
3 Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands.
Behold, thou hast [ere this] corrected many, and weak hands thou wast wont to strengthen.
4 Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling.
Him that stumbled thy words used to uphold, and to sinking knees thou gavest vigor.
5 But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed.
Yet now, when it cometh to thee, thou art wearied: it toucheth even thee, and thou art terrified.
6 Is your reverence not your confidence, and the uprightness of your ways your hope?
Is not then thy fear of God still thy confidence, thy hope equal to the integrity of thy ways?
7 Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed?
Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous destroyed?
8 As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.
Even as I have seen, that those who plough wrong-doing, and sow trouble, have to reap the same.
9 By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.
Before the breathing of God they perish, and before the breath of his nostrils they come to their end.
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 fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
11 The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness have to scatter themselves abroad.
12 Now a word came to me secretly; my ears caught a whisper of it.
But to me a word came by stealth, and my ear took in a scarcely perceptible whisper thereof.
13 In disquieting visions in the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
In intense thoughts out of visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men:
14 fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shudder.
Dread came over me, with trembling, and it caused all my bones to shudder.
15 Then a spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body bristled.
Then flitted a spirit past before my face; the hair of 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:
It stood still, but I could not recognize its form; a figure was before my eyes, a slight whisper, then a [louder] voice I heard, saying,
17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?
Can a mortal be more righteous than God? or can 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, in his servants he putteth no trust, and his angels he chargeth with folly:
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 less in those that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed till they come to be eaten by the moth?
20 They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; unnoticed, they perish forever.
From morning to evening are they broken to pieces: without laying it [to heart] they perish for ever.
21 Are not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’
Behold, their excellency which is in them is torn away: they die, and this without wisdom.
