Job 4
1 Then Eliphaz, from Teman, replied to Job. He said,
Then Eliphaz the Themanite answered, and said:
2 “Will you please let me say something to you? I am not [RHQ] able to remain silent [any longer].
If we begin to speak to thee, perhaps thou wilt take it ill, but who can withhold the words he hath conceived?
3 In the past, you have instructed/taught many people, and you have encouraged those who were weak.
Behold thou hast taught many, and thou hast strengthened the weary hands:
4 By what you said, you have helped those who (needed spiritual help/almost quit trusting in God) [MET], and you have enabled them to become spiritually strong again [MET].
Thy words have confirmed them that were staggering, and thou hast strengthened the trembling knees:
5 But now, when you experience disasters, you become discouraged. The disasters hit you, and you are stunned.
But now the scourge is come upon thee, and thou faintest: it hath touched thee, and thou art troubled.
6 You revere God; (does that not cause you to trust [in him]?/that should cause you to trust [in him].) [RHQ] If you were guiltless, you would [RHQ] be confident that [God] would not [have allowed] these disasters [to] happen to you!
Where is thy fear, thy fortitude, thy patience, and the perfection of thy ways?
7 Think about this: Do innocent people die [while they are still young] [RHQ]? Does God get rid of godly people [RHQ]? [No!]
Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent? or when were the just destroyed?
8 What I have experienced is this: [Just as] [MET] farmers who plant bad [seeds] do not harvest good [crops], [just as those who start] trouble for others, later bring trouble on themselves.
On the contrary I have seen those who work iniquity, and sow sorrows, and reap them,
9 They die when God angrily blows his breath on them, when he is very angry with them.
Perishing by the blast of God, and consumed by the spirit of his wrath.
10 [Even though wicked people may be very powerful like] young lions, [God] will get rid of them [MET].
The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of the whelps of lions are broken:
11 [They will die like] fierce lions [that] starve to death when there are no animals that they can kill and eat, and [their children will be separated from each other like] young lions separate from each other [to find food].”
The tiger hath perished for want of prey, and the young lions are scattered abroad.
12 “I heard a message that someone came and whispered to me.
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 He spoke to me at night when I was having a bad dream that disturbed/frightened me while I was fast asleep.
In the horror of a vision by night, when deep sleep is wont to hold men,
14 It caused me to be afraid and tremble; it caused all my bones to shake.
Fear seized upon me, and trembling, and all my bones were affrighted:
15 A ghost glided past my face and caused the hair on [on the back of] my neck to stand straight up.
And when a spirit passed before me, the hair of my flesh stood up.
16 It stopped, but I could not see what form it had. But [I could sense that] there was some being in front of me, and it said in a quiet voice,
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 ‘(Does God consider anyone to be righteous?/No human beings can be righteous in God’s sight!) [RHQ] (Their creator cannot consider them to be pure./Can their creator consider them to be pure?) [RHQ]
Shall man be justified in comparison of God, or shall a man be more pure than his maker?
18 God cannot be sure that his own angels [will always do what is right]; he declares that some of them have done what is wrong.
Behold they that serve him are not steadfast, and in his angels he found wickedness:
19 So he certainly cannot trust human beings who were made from dust and clay, who are crushed as easily as moths are crushed!
How much more shall they that dwell in houses of clay, who have an earthly foundation, be consumed as with the moth?
20 People are sometimes well in the morning, but in the evening they are dead. They are gone forever and do not even know it (OR, and no one pays any attention to it).
From morning till evening they shall be cut down: and because no one understandeth, they shall perish for ever.
21 They are like [MET] tents that collapse [suddenly]: They die [suddenly] before they become wise.’”
And they that shall be left, shall be taken away from them: they shall die, and not in wisdom.
