FIRST SERIES OF SPEECHES

ELIPHAZ SPEAKS

4 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

2 Should anyone try to speak with you

when you are exhausted?

Yet who can keep from speaking?

3 Indeed, you have instructed many

and have strengthenedg weak hands.

4 Your words have steadied the one who was stumbling

and braced the knees that were buckling.h

5 But now that this has happened to you,

you have become exhausted.

It strikesi you, and you are dismayed.

6 Isn’t your piety your confidence,

and the integrity of your lifeB your hope?j

7 Consider: Who has perished when he was innocent?

Where have the honestC been destroyed?k

8 In my experience, those who plow injustice

and those who sow troublel reap the same.m

9 They perish at a single blastn from God

and come to an end by the breath of his nostrils.o

10 The lion may roar and the fierce lionp growl,

but the teeth of young lions are broken.q

11 The strong lion dies if it catches no prey,

and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.r

12 A word was brought to me in secret;

my ears caught a whisper of it.s

13 Among unsettling thoughts from visions in the night,t

when deep sleepu comes over men,

14 fear and trembling came over mev

and made all my bones shake.

15 I felt a draftD on my face,

and the hair on my body stood up.

16 A figure stood there,

but I could not recognize its appearance;

a form loomed before my eyes.

I heard a whispering voice:

17 “Can a mortal be righteous before God?

Can a man be more pure than his Maker?”w

18 If God puts no trust in his servants

and he charges his angels with foolishness,E,x

19 how much more those who dwell in clay houses,y

whose foundation is in the dust,

who are crushed like a moth!

20 They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk;

they perish forever while no one notices.z

21 Are their tent cords not pulled up?

They die without wisdom.aa

5 Call out! Will anyone answer you?

Which of the holy onesab will you turn to?

2 For anger kills a fool,

and jealousy slays the gullible.ac

3 I have seen a fool taking root,

but I immediately pronounced a curse on his home.

4 His children are far from safety.

They are crushed at the city gate,ad

with no one to rescue them.

5 The hungry consume his harvest,

even taking it out of the thorns.F

The thirstyG pant for his children’s wealth.

6 For distress does not grow out of the soil,

and trouble does not sprout from the ground.

7 But humans are born for troublea

as surely as sparks fly upward.

8 However, if I were you, I would appeal to God

and would present my case to him.b