Job 4–6

Chapter 4

Eliphaz’s First Response to Job

Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied to Job:

²“Will you be patient and let me say a word?

For who could keep from speaking out?

³“In the past you have encouraged many people;

you have strengthened those who were weak.

⁴Your words have supported those who were falling;

you encouraged those with shaky knees.

⁵But now when trouble strikes, you lose heart.

You are terrified when it touches you.

⁶Doesn’t your reverence for God give you confidence?

Doesn’t your life of integrity give you hope?

⁷“Stop and think! Do the innocent die?

When have the upright been destroyed?

⁸My experience shows that those who plant trouble

and cultivate evil will harvest the same.

⁹A breath from God destroys them.

They vanish in a blast of his anger.

¹⁰The lion roars and the wildcat snarls,

but the teeth of strong lions will be broken.

¹¹The fierce lion will starve for lack of prey,

and the cubs of the lioness will be scattered.

¹²“This truth was given to me in secret,

as though whispered in my ear.

¹³It came to me in a disturbing vision at night,

when people are in a deep sleep.

¹⁴Fear gripped me,

and my bones trembled.

¹⁵A spirit swept past my face,

and my hair stood on end.

¹⁶The spirit stopped, but I couldn’t see its shape.

There was a form before my eyes.

In the silence I heard a voice say,

¹⁷‘Can a mortal be innocent before God?

Can anyone be pure before the Creator?’

¹⁸“If God does not trust his own angels

and has charged his messengers with foolishness,

¹⁹how much less will he trust people made of clay!

They are made of dust, crushed as easily as a moth.

²⁰They are alive in the morning but dead by evening,

gone forever without a trace.

²¹Their tent-cords are pulled and the tent collapses,

and they die in ignorance.

Chapter 5

Eliphaz’s Response Continues

¹“Cry for help, but will anyone answer you?

Which of the angels will help you?

²Surely resentment destroys the fool,

and jealousy kills the simple.

³I have seen that fools may be successful for the moment,

but then comes sudden disaster.

⁴Their children are abandoned far from help;

they are crushed in court with no one to defend them.

⁵The hungry devour their harvest,

even when it is guarded by brambles.

The thirsty pant after their wealth.

⁶But evil does not spring from the soil,

and trouble does not sprout from the earth.

⁷People are born for trouble

as readily as sparks fly up from a fire.

⁸“If I were you, I would go to God

and present my case to him.

⁹He does great things too marvelous to understand.

He performs countless miracles.

¹⁰He gives rain for the earth

and water for the fields.

¹¹He gives prosperity to the poor

and protects those who suffer.

¹²He frustrates the plans of schemers

so the work of their hands will not succeed.

¹³He traps the wise in their own cleverness

so their cunning schemes are thwarted.

¹⁴They find it is dark in the daytime,

and they grope at noon as if it were night.

¹⁵He rescues the poor from the cutting words of the strong,

and rescues them from the clutches of the powerful.

¹⁶And so at last the poor have hope,

and the snapping jaws of the wicked are shut.

¹⁷“But consider the joy of those corrected by God!

Do not despise the discipline of the Almighty when you sin.

¹⁸For though he wounds, he also bandages.

He strikes, but his hands also heal.

¹⁹From six disasters he will rescue you;

even in the seventh, he will keep you from evil.

²⁰He will save you from death in time of famine,

from the power of the sword in time of war.

²¹You will be safe from slander

and have no fear when destruction comes.

²²You will laugh at destruction and famine;

wild animals will not terrify you.

²³You will be at peace with the stones of the field,

and its wild animals will be at peace with you.

²⁴You will know that your home is safe.

When you survey your possessions, nothing will be missing.

²⁵You will have many children;

your descendants will be as plentiful as grass!

²⁶You will go to the grave at a ripe old age,

like a sheaf of grain harvested at the proper time!

²⁷“We have studied life and found all this to be true.

Listen to my counsel, and apply it to yourself.”

Chapter 6

Job’s Second Speech: A Response to Eliphaz

Then Job spoke again:

²“If my misery could be weighed

and my troubles be put on the scales,

³they would outweigh all the sands of the sea.

That is why I spoke impulsively.

⁴For the Almighty has struck me down with his arrows.

Their poison infects my spirit.

God’s terrors are lined up against me.

⁵Don’t I have a right to complain?

Don’t wild donkeys bray when they find no grass,

and oxen bellow when they have no food?

⁶Don’t people complain about unsalted food?

Does anyone want the tasteless white of an egg?

⁷My appetite disappears when I look at it;

I gag at the thought of eating it!

⁸“Oh, that I might have my request,

that God would grant my desire.

⁹I wish he would crush me.

I wish he would reach out his hand and kill me.

¹⁰At least I can take comfort in this:

Despite the pain,

I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

¹¹But I don’t have the strength to endure.

I have nothing to live for.

¹²Do I have the strength of a stone?

Is my body made of bronze?

¹³No, I am utterly helpless,

without any chance of success.

¹⁴“One should be kind to a fainting friend,

but you accuse me without any fear of the Almighty.

¹⁵My brothers, you have proved as unreliable as a seasonal brook

that overflows its banks in the spring

¹⁶when it is swollen with ice and melting snow.

¹⁷But when the hot weather arrives, the water disappears.

The brook vanishes in the heat.

¹⁸The caravans turn aside to be refreshed,

but there is nothing to drink, so they die.

¹⁹The caravans from Tema search for this water;

the travelers from Sheba hope to find it.

²⁰They count on it but are disappointed.

When they arrive, their hopes are dashed.

²¹You, too, have given no help.

You have seen my calamity, and you are afraid.

²²But why? Have I ever asked you for a gift?

Have I begged for anything of yours for myself?

²³Have I asked you to rescue me from my enemies,

or to save me from ruthless people?

²⁴Teach me, and I will keep quiet.

Show me what I have done wrong.

²⁵Honest words can be painful,

but what do your criticisms amount to?

²⁶Do you think your words are convincing

when you disregard my cry of desperation?

²⁷You would even send an orphan into slavery

or sell a friend.

²⁸Look at me!

Would I lie to your face?

²⁹Stop assuming my guilt,

for I have done no wrong.

³⁰Do you think I am lying?

Don’t I know the difference between right and wrong?