Job 4

Eliphaz

Then Eliphaz the Temanite^a replied:

“If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?

But who can keep from speaking?^b

Think how you have instructed many,^c

how you have strengthened feeble hands.^d

Your words have supported those who stumbled;^e

you have strengthened faltering knees.^f

But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;^g

it strikes^h you, and you are dismayed.ⁱ

Should not your piety be your confidence^j

and your blameless^k ways your hope?

“Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished?^l

Where were the upright ever destroyed?^m

As I have observed,ⁿ those who plow evil^o

and those who sow trouble reap it.^p

At the breath of God^q they perish;

at the blast of his anger they are no more.^r

The lions may roar^s and growl,

yet the teeth of the great lions^t are broken.^u

The lion perishes for lack of prey,^v

and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.^w

“A word^x was secretly brought to me,

my ears caught a whisper^y of it.^z

Amid disquieting dreams in the night,

when deep sleep falls on people,^a

fear and trembling^b seized me

and made all my bones shake.^c

A spirit glided past my face,

and the hair on my body stood on end.^d

It stopped,

but I could not tell what it was.

A form stood before my eyes,

and I heard a hushed voice:^e

‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God?^f

Can human beings be more pure than their Maker?^g

If God places no trust in his servants,^h

if he charges his angels with error,ⁱ

how much more those who live in houses of clay,^j

whose foundations^k are in the dust,^l

who are crushed^m more readily than a moth!ⁿ

Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces;

unnoticed, they perish forever.^o

Are not the cords of their tent pulled up,^p

so that they die^q without wisdom?’^r