Job 4

The First Speech of Eliphaz

4Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied,

²“Job, suppose someone tries to talk to you.

Will that make you uneasy?

I can’t keep from speaking up.

³Look, you taught many people.

You made weak hands strong.

⁴Your words helped those who had fallen down.

You made shaky knees strong.

⁵Now trouble comes to you. And you are unhappy about it.

It strikes you down. And you are afraid.

⁶Shouldn’t you worship God and trust in him?

Shouldn’t your honest life give you hope?

⁷“Here’s something to think about.

Have blameless people ever been wiped out?

Have honest people ever been completely destroyed?

⁸Here’s what I’ve observed.

People gather a crop from what they plant.

If they plant evil and trouble, that’s what they will harvest.

⁹The breath of God destroys them.

The blast of his anger wipes them out.

¹⁰Powerful lions might roar and growl.

But their teeth are broken.

¹¹Lions die because they don’t have any food.

Then their cubs are scattered.

¹²“A message came to me in secret.

It was as quiet as a whisper.

¹³I had a scary dream one night.

I was sound asleep.

¹⁴Fear and trembling grabbed hold of me.

That made every bone in my body shake.

¹⁵A spirit glided past my face.

The hair on my body stood on end.

¹⁶Then the spirit stopped.

But I couldn’t tell what it was.

Something stood there in front of me.

I heard a soft voice.

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

Can a mere man be more pure than the One who made him?

¹⁸God doesn’t trust those who serve him.

He even brings charges against his angels.

¹⁹So he’ll certainly find fault with human beings.

After all, they are made out of dust.

They can be crushed more easily than a moth.

²⁰Between sunrise and sunset they are broken to pieces.

Nobody even notices. They disappear forever.

²¹Like a tent that falls down, they get weak.

They die because they didn’t follow God’s wisdom.’ ”