Job 4

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.’^*