Job 4:12–5:7

¹²“A word was brought to me in secret,

and my ears heard a whisper of it.

¹³It was during a nightmare

when people are in deep sleep.

¹⁴I was trembling with fear;

all my bones were shaking.

¹⁵A spirit glided past my face,

and the hair on my body stood on end.

¹⁶The spirit stopped,

but I could not see what it was.

A shape stood before my eyes,

and I heard a quiet voice.

¹⁷It said, ‘Can a human be more right than God?

Can a person be pure before his maker?

¹⁸God does not trust his angels;

he blames them for mistakes.

¹⁹So he puts even more blame on people who live in clay houses, ⁿ

whose foundations are made of dust,

who can be crushed like a moth.

²⁰Between dawn and sunset many people are broken to pieces;

without being noticed, they die and are gone forever.

²¹The ropes of their tents are pulled up,

and they die without wisdom.’

5“Call if you want to, Job, but no one will answer you.

You can’t turn to any of the holy ones.

²Anger kills the fool,

and jealousy slays the stupid.

³I have seen a fool succeed,

but I cursed his home immediately.

⁴His children are far from safety

and are crushed in court with no defense.

⁵The hungry eat his harvest,

even taking what grew among the thorns,

and thirsty people want his wealth.

⁶Hard times do not come up from the ground,

and trouble does not grow from the earth.

⁷People produce trouble

as surely as sparks fly upward.