Job 4
1 Then Eliphaz the Thaemanite answered and said,
Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2 Hast thou been often spoken to in distress? but who shall endure the force of thy words?
“If one ventures a word with you, will you be wearied? Yet who can keep from speaking?
3 For whereas thou hast instructed many, and hast strengthened the hands of the weak one,
Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands.
4 and hast supported the failing with words, and hast imparted courage to feeble knees.
Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling.
5 Yet now [that] pain has come upon thee, and touched thee, thou art troubled.
But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed.
6 Is not thy fear [founded] in folly, thy hope also, and the mischief of thy way?
Is your reverence not your confidence, and the uprightness of your ways your hope?
7 Remember then who has perished, being pure? or when were the true-hearted utterly destroyed?
Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed?
8 Accordingly as I have seen men ploughing barren places, and they that sow them will reap sorrows for themselves.
As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.
9 They shall perish by the command of the Lord, and shall be utterly consumed by the breath of his wrath.
By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.
10 The strength of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the exulting cry of serpents are quenched.
The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken.
11 The old lion has perished for want of food, and the lions' whelps have forsaken one another.
The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
12 But if there had been any truth in thy words, none of these evils would have befallen thee. Shall not mine ear receive excellent [revelations] from him?
Now a word came to me secretly; my ears caught a whisper of it.
13 But [as when] terror falls upon men, with dread and a sound in the night,
In disquieting visions in the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
14 horror and trembling seized me, and caused all my bones greatly to shake.
fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shudder.
15 And a spirit came before my face; and my hair and flesh quivered.
Then a spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body bristled.
16 I arose and perceived it not: I looked, and there, was no form before my eyes: but I only heard a breath and a voice, [saying],
It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes, and I heard a whispering voice:
17 What, shall a mortal be pure before the Lord? or a man be blameless in regard to his works?
‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?
18 Whereas he trust not in his servants, and perceives perverseness in his angels.
If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error,
19 But [as for] them that dwell in houses of clay, of whom we also are formed of the same clay, he smites them like a moth.
how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!
20 And from the morning to evening they no longer exist: they have perished, because they cannot help themselves.
They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; unnoticed, they perish forever.
21 For he blows upon them, and they are withered: they have perished for lack of wisdom.
Are not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’
