Job 4–5

Eliphaz Speaks: Job Has Sinned

⁴Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

²“If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended?

But who can keep from speaking?^*

³See, you have instructed many;

you have strengthened the weak hands.^*

⁴Your words have supported those who were stumbling,

and you have made firm the feeble knees.^*

⁵But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;

it touches you, and you are dismayed.^*

⁶Is not your fear of God your confidence

and the integrity of your ways your hope?^*

⁷“Think now, who that was innocent ever perished?

Or where were the upright cut off?^*

⁸As I have seen, those who plow iniquity

and sow trouble reap the same.^*

⁹By the breath of God they perish,

and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.^*

¹⁰The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion,

and the teeth of the young lions are broken.^*

¹¹The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,

and the whelps of the lioness are scattered.^*

¹²“Now a word came stealing to me;

my ear received the whisper of it.^*

¹³Amid thoughts from visions of the night,

when deep sleep falls on mortals,

¹⁴dread came upon me and trembling,

which made all my bones shake.^*

¹⁵A spirit glided past my face;

the hair of my flesh bristled.

¹⁶It stood still,

but I could not discern its appearance.

A form was before my eyes;

there was silence; then I heard a voice:

¹⁷‘Can mortals be righteous before^v God?

Can humans be pure before^w their Maker?^*

¹⁸Even in his servants he puts no trust,

and his angels he charges with error;^*

¹⁹how much more those who live in houses of clay,

whose foundation is in the dust,

who are crushed like a moth.^*

²⁰Between morning and evening they are destroyed;

they perish forever without any regarding it.^*

²¹Their tent cord is plucked up within them,

and they die devoid of wisdom.’^*

Job Is Corrected by God

⁵“Call now; is there anyone who will answer you?

To which of the holy ones will you turn?^*

²Surely vexation kills the fool,

and jealousy slays the simple.^*

³I have seen fools taking root,

but suddenly I cursed their dwelling.^*

⁴Their children are far from safety,

they are crushed in the gate,

and there is no one to deliver them.^*

⁵The hungry eat their harvest,

and they take it even out of the thorns,^x

and the thirsty^y pant after their wealth.^*

⁶For misery does not come from the earth,

nor does trouble sprout from the ground,

⁷but humans are born to trouble

just as sparks^z fly upward.^*

⁸“As for me, I would seek God,

and to God I would commit my cause.^*

⁹He does great things and unsearchable,

marvelous things without number.^*

¹⁰He gives rain on the earth

and sends waters on the fields;^*

¹¹he sets on high those who are lowly,

and those who mourn are lifted to safety.^*

¹²He frustrates the devices of the crafty,

so that their hands achieve no success.^*

¹³He takes the wise in their own craftiness,

and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.

¹⁴They meet with darkness in the daytime

and grope at noonday as in the night.^*

¹⁵But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth,

from the hand of the mighty.^*

¹⁶So the poor have hope,

and injustice shuts its mouth.^*

¹⁷“How happy is the one whom God reproves;

therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.^a*

¹⁸For he wounds, but he binds up;

he strikes, but his hands heal.^*

¹⁹He will deliver you from six troubles;

in seven no harm shall touch you.^*

²⁰In famine he will redeem you from death

and in war from the power of the sword.^*

²¹You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue

and shall not fear destruction when it comes.^*

²²At destruction and famine you shall laugh

and shall not fear the wild animals of the earth.^*

²³For you shall be in league with the stones of the field,

and the wild animals shall be at peace with you.^*

²⁴You shall know that your tent is safe;

you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.^*

²⁵You shall know that your descendants will be many

and your offspring like the grass of the earth.^*

²⁶You shall come to your grave in ripe old age,

as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing floor in its season.^*

²⁷See, we have searched this out; it is true.

Hear, and know it for yourself.”