Job 4
1 Then Eliphaz the Thaemanite answered and said,
Then Eliphaz the Themanite answered, and said:
2 Hast you been often spoken to in distress? but who shall endure the force of your words?
If we begin to speak to thee, perhaps thou wilt take it ill, but who can withhold the words he hath conceived?
3 For whereas you have instructed many, and have strengthened the hands of the weak one,
Behold thou hast taught many, and thou hast strengthened the weary hands:
4 and have supported the failing with words, and have imparted courage to feeble knees.
Thy words have confirmed them that were staggering, and thou hast strengthened the trembling knees:
5 Yet now [that] pain has come upon you, and touched you, you are troubled.
But now the scourge is come upon thee, and thou faintest: it hath touched thee, and thou art troubled.
6 Is not your fear [founded] in folly, your hope also, and the mischief of your way?
Where is thy fear, thy fortitude, thy patience, and the perfection of thy ways?
7 Remember then who has perished, being pure? or when were the true-hearted utterly destroyed?
Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent? or when were the just destroyed?
8 Accordingly as I have seen men plowing barren places, and they that sow them will reap sorrows for themselves.
On the contrary I have seen those who work iniquity, and sow sorrows, and reap them,
9 They shall perish by the command of the Lord, and shall be utterly consumed by the breath of his wrath.
Perishing by the blast of God, and consumed by the spirit of his wrath.
10 The strength of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the exulting cry of serpents are quenched.
The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of the whelps of lions are broken:
11 The old lion has perished for lack of food, and the lions' whelps have forsaken one another.
The tiger hath perished for want of prey, and the young lions are scattered abroad.
12 But if there had been any truth in your words, none of these evils would have befallen you. Shall not mine ear receive excellent [revelations] from him?
Now there was a word spoken to me in private, and my ears by stealth as it were received the veins of its whisper.
13 But [as when] terror falls upon men, with dread and a sound in the night,
In the horror of a vision by night, when deep sleep is wont to hold men,
14 horror and trembling seized me, and caused all my bones greatly to shake.
Fear seized upon me, and trembling, and all my bones were affrighted:
15 And a spirit came before my face; and my hair and flesh quivered.
And when a spirit passed before me, the hair of my flesh stood up.
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],
There stood one whose countenance I knew not, an image before my eyes, and I heard the voice as it were of a gentle wind:
17 What, shall a mortal be pure before the Lord? or a man be blameless in regard to his works?
Shall man be justified in comparison of God, or shall a man be more pure than his maker?
18 Whereas he trust not in his servants, and perceives perverseness in his angels.
Behold they that serve him are not steadfast, and in his angels he found wickedness:
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 shall they that dwell in houses of clay, who have an earthly foundation, be consumed as with the moth?
20 And from the morning to evening they no longer exist: they have perished, because they can’t help themselves.
From morning till evening they shall be cut down: and because no one understandeth, they shall perish for ever.
21 For he blows upon them, and they are withered: they have perished for lack of wisdom.
And they that shall be left, shall be taken away from them: they shall die, and not in wisdom.
