Job 4

First Series of Speeches

Eliphaz Speaks

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

2 Should anyone try to speak with you
when you are exhausted?
Yet who can keep from speaking?
3 Indeed, you have instructed many
and have strengthened ^a weak hands.
4 Your words have steadied the one who was stumbling
and braced the knees that were buckling. ^b
5 But now that this has happened to you,
you have become exhausted.
It strikes ^c you, and you are dismayed.
6 Isn’t your piety your confidence,
and the integrity of your life ^{▼▼Lit ways} your hope? ^e
7 Consider: who has perished when he was innocent?
Where have the honest been destroyed? ^f
8 In my experience, those who plow injustice
and those who sow trouble ^g reap the same. ^h
9 They perish at a single blast ⁱ from God
and come to an end by the breath of His nostrils. ^j
10 The lion may roar and the fierce lion ^k growl,
but the fangs of young lions are broken. ^l
11 The strong lion dies if it catches no prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. ^m

12 A word was brought to me in secret;
my ears caught a whisper of it. ⁿ
13 Among unsettling thoughts from visions in the night, ^o
when deep sleep ^p descends on men,
14 fear and trembling came over me ^q
and made all my bones shake.
15 A wind ^{▼▼Or A spirit} passed by me,
and I shuddered with fear. ^{▼▼Or and the hair on my body stood up}
16 A figure stood there,
but I could not recognize its appearance;
a form loomed before my eyes.
I heard a quiet voice:
17 “Can a person be more righteous than God,
or a man more pure than his Maker?” ^t
18 If God puts no trust in His servants
and He charges His angels with foolishness, ^{▼▼Or error; Hb obscure
,} ^v
19 how much more those who dwell in clay houses, ^w
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed like a moth!
20 They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk;
they perish forever while no one notices. ^x
21 Are their tent cords not pulled up?
They die without wisdom. ^y