Job 4
1 Then Eliphaz, from Teman, replied to Job. He said,
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
2 “Will you please let me say something to you? I am not [RHQ] able to remain silent [any longer].
If anyone tries to speak with you, will you be impatient? But who can stop himself from speaking?
3 In the past, you have instructed/taught many people, and you have encouraged those who were weak.
See, you have instructed many; you have strengthened weak 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].
Your words have supported him who was falling; you have made feeble knees firm.
5 But now, when you experience disasters, you become discouraged. The disasters hit you, and you are stunned.
But now trouble has come to you, and you are weary; it touches you, and you are 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!
Is not your fear your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?
7 Think about this: Do innocent people die [while they are still young] [RHQ]? Does God get rid of godly people [RHQ]? [No!]
Think about this, please: Who has ever perished when innocent? Or when were the upright people ever cut off?
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.
According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap it.
9 They die when God angrily blows his breath on them, when he is very angry with them.
By the breath of God they perish; by the blast of his anger they are consumed.
10 [Even though wicked people may be very powerful like] young lions, [God] will get rid of them [MET].
The roaring of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions—they 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 old lion perishes for lack of victims; the cubs of the lioness are scattered everywhere.
12 “I heard a message that someone came and whispered to me.
Now a certain matter was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper about it.
13 He spoke to me at night when I was having a bad dream that disturbed/frightened me while I was fast asleep.
Then came thoughts from visions in the night, when deep sleep falls on people.
14 It caused me to be afraid and tremble; it caused all my bones to shake.
It was at night when fear and trembling came upon me, and all my bones shook.
15 A ghost glided past my face and caused the hair on [on the back of] my neck to stand straight up.
Then a spirit passed before my face, and 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,
The spirit stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, and I heard a voice that said,
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]
“Can a mortal man be more righteous than God? Can 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.
See, if God puts no trust in his servants; if he accuses his angels of folly,
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 is this true of those who live in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed sooner than a 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).
Between morning and evening they are destroyed; they perish forever without anyone noticing them.
21 They are like [MET] tents that collapse [suddenly]: They die [suddenly] before they become wise.’”
Are not their tent cords plucked up among them? They die; they die without wisdom.
