Job 4

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

Then responded Eliphaz the Temanite, and said: —

2 “If one ventures a word with you, will you be wearied? Yet who can keep from speaking?

If one attempt a word unto thee, wilt thou be impatient? But, to restrain speech, who, can endure?

3 Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands.

Lo! thou hast admonished many, and, slack hands, hast thou been wont to uphold:

4 Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling.

Him that was stumbling, have thy words raised up, and, sinking knees, hast thou strengthened.

5 But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed.

But, now, it cometh upon thee, and thou despairest, It smiteth even thee, and thou art dismayed.

6 Is your reverence not your confidence, and the uprightness of your ways your hope?

Is not, thy reverence, thy confidence? And is not, thy hope, the very 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, being innocent, hath perished, or when, the upright, have been cut off.

8 As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.

So far as I have seen, They who plow for iniquity and sow misery, reap the same:

9 By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.

By the blast of GOD, they perish, And, by the breath of his nostrils, are they consumed:

10 The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken.

[Notwithstanding] the roaring of the lion, and the noise of the howling lion, yet, the teeth of the fierce lions, are broken:

11 The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

The strong lion perishing for lack of prey, Even the whelps of the lioness, are scattered.

12 Now a word came to me secretly; my ears caught a whisper of it.

But, unto me, something was brought by stealth, —and mine ear caught a whispering of the same:

13 In disquieting visions in the night, when deep sleep falls on men,

When there were thoughts, from visions of the night, —When deep sleep falleth upon men,

14 fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shudder.

Dread, came upon me, and trembling, The multitude of my bones, it put in dread:

15 Then a spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body bristled.

Then, a spirit, over my face, floated along, The hair of my flesh bristled-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 distinguish its appearance, I looked, but there was no form before mine eyes, —A whispering voice, I heard: —

17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?

Shall, mortal man, be more just than GOD? Or a man be more pure than, his Maker?

18 If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error,

Lo! in his own servants, he trusteth not, and, his own messengers, he chargeth with error:

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 the dwellers in houses of clay, which, in the dust, have their foundation, which are crushed sooner than a moth:

20 They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; unnoticed, they perish forever.

Betwixt morning and evening, are they broken in pieces, With none to save, they utterly perish:

21 Are not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’

Is not their tent-rope within them, torn away? They die, disrobed of wisdom!